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Vermicomposting – A Mini2 Indoor Tower Vermicomposter
Friday, December 31, 2010
The old salad spinner has too many holes.
The lid covers the lot.
The tub catches excess water.
OR CASTINGS!
The spinner liner has holes that permit aeration.
I fill the liner with shredded paper and cardboard.
Soak it in the tub, in the bath tub for a couple of hours.
Then drain the wet paper.
I am using the tub to grab a couple of liters of material from my winter tub .
I harvested about four dozen worms, with attached soil matter, and hence bacteria.
I’ll let them settle in for a couple of days, then I’ll add small amounts of food scraps as they come to hand.
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Half an apple, starting to go rotten already; I needed this excuse …
Being curious, I lift the slotted bowl from the tub and am delighted to find that some castings have been pushed or dropped through to the collector! This bodes well.
A close-up of part of the tub. Yes, that’s a worm just above center of the photo and another one in the lower-right.
A closer look at the TWO worms in the lower-right.
I spear the apple with one of the plastic swords I brought home from The Montreal Deli one night. A Second Use For Everything .
I peeled back some of the shredded paper and planted the apple cut-side down.
After rolling back the damp paper I covered the lot with a thin layer of extra paper, and sprinkled a couple of spoons of matter over the apple, and a few drops of water.
I reason that the bacteria from the matter will wash over the apple and hasten the initial generation of bacteria.
What a difference this will make.
A neat container tucked in the corner of my kitchen counter. Soon I’ll be able to dispose of the current open-tray method of harvesting kitchen scraps.
Monday, January 03, 2011
This morning I scraped some burnt soup onto the top of the composter.
Let’s see how long it takes before a worm or two finds it.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Just over a week later, how are we doing?
In the kitchen sink (just in case!) I remove the cover. There is a smell of rotting food, which is to be expected right now because even this little load of food is more than my dozen or so worms can handle.
That is, I have knowingly overloaded the vermicomposter.
A bed of mold has developed on the top of the material.
This too is a sign of unbalance in the device, and something(s) like this is to expected.
I remove the salad basket and see three large healthy worms wriggling to get away from the light.
I pull back the surface of the bin and spot a dozen or so fat worms! By the time I picked up the camera most had escaped the light, but I snagged four or five of them.
I replaced the cover and will wait a few weeks now and recheck for pregnant worms and/or eggs.
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Toronto and Mississauga, Wednesday, January 12, 2011 7:29 PM
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