Vermicompost Experiment: Overfeeding!

I have a 5-gallon vermicomposting pail.  It has about 1/4 pound of worms.  I really don't know.  I've been getting worms there to seed about half a dozen bins so I'm guessing the population has dwindled somewhat.  But then again, it's been over a month since I took any worms from the pail.  I'm guessing some reproduction has happened. 

About 3/4 of the pail is filled with bedding.  I'm not talking about shredded paper here.  I put in an entire paper bag filled with lots of whole paper.  How's that for lazy?  But I'm also guessing that will provide lots of bulking.  And that's the background.

Now I have about 1-2 pounds of food (or at least I think they weigh that much).  These are melon rinds (worm favorites), banana peels, banana leaves (from suman), pear peels, some teabags, and some pomelo peels.  There's also a newspaper page to help absorb moisture.  I poured all of that into the pail.  Can my worms handle that amount of waste?  Let's see next week.

What are my measures of success?  1) No worm crawl offs as evidenced by dead worms surrounding the bin and; 2) Finished food.

Let's see.   Meanwhile, check the video counterpart of this post too for additional entertainment.

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How to Propagate Lavender by Stem Cutting

The lavender I find is one of my most difficult plants to tend.  We used to have a big lavender plant but every stem died eventually.  All except one.  Last year, I was able divide the lavender via root division.   However, even this new plant had a hard time surviving.  It saw some browning of the bottom leaves.  Finally, I removed it from its big pot and placed it in a very small soft plastic pot (the one used for seedlings).  And the soil level was very low (less than half the pot).  It was the plant out in the sunlight that managed to thrive even as the mother plant died.  The soil I used was very loose and never compacted.  So several times over the week, I would find the plant half wilted.  Only then will I water it.  And apparently, that was the secret.

That plant has grown several inches.  Since the dry season has begun, I figured it was now a good time to try and propagate this lavender via stem cutting.  Towards the end of January, I cut two stems from that lavender, about 4-5 inches high.  I removed the bottom four leaves and then I submerged the bottom part in a liter bottle of water.   Every couple of days, I would change some of the water, but I made sure to remove the stems first because I didn't want the leaves to get wet.  Sure enough, now a month later, the stem cuttings have roots! 

Finally, I've successfully rooted a lavender via stem cutting in water.   I hope these new plants survive the transplant!

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Yellow Ginger Harvest

I had a recent post wherein I said that I had a very small ginger to harvest from my mature yellow ginger plant.   Apparently I was wrong.  The ginger "fruits" are apparently intertwined with the roots.  Now I'm not sure what that small bulb was that I saw before.   And now I have pictures.  There are like 10 pieces from my ginger.  The great thing is that from that single plant, I now have about 6 new plants or so.  it self propagates.  How cool is that?  I'm not sure how to eat this though.  I'm sure this needs some dying and curing period.  I'll have to read up on that.  

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Summer Is Malvarosa Time!

Last summer, I bought a Malvarosa.  It was a wonderful herb.  It was very fragrant and grew steadily without me noticing and with minimal care.  So I figured the Malvarosa was a low maintenance plant.  And it's true...in summer.  When the rains came, my repotted Malvarosa (now a big plant) went through all sorts of struggles.   I bought a couple of new ones a few months later, but none of them thrived like my first one.  In fact, the Malvarosa mortailty rate went up to about 75%. 

A few weeks ago, I bought new little Malvarosa plants.  And now they seem to be thriving again.  My guess is that having the leaves wet kills the plant one fragrant leaf at a time.  So these days, whenever I water the plant, I try to make sure that I water from the base and I do so in the morning so that the leaves have a chance to dry up before nightfall.

In a few weeks, I'll make my second attempt to propagate my new Malvarosa plants.  Hopefully, they'll be notably bigger in an a couple of weeks.   I want the make the best of this while summer is still on its way. Wish me luck!

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Kitchen Scraps Mulch - Update

Well it's been over two weeks since I used all sorts of kitchen wastes (even some meat and fat) to artificially raise the soil level of my Habanero.    So was this a successful experiment?  Well based on my criteria, it is.  The Habanero is still alive and thriving and it hasn't wilted once since the time I transferred it.  That's pretty good considering how dry the weather has been as of late.  In hindsight though, it wasn't such a hairbrained plot after all.  I've read some articles that make use of kitchen scraps mulch.  I think the way I did it was better though because putting the rotting food under the soil at least prevents fruit flies and other bugs from thriving and not to mention the lack of smell.    On top of the soil though, I still put a couple of layers of cut grass to help preserve moisture. 

Since the start of this experiment, I've also repotted (or resoiled) about 4 other plants.  It's a good thing I was very thrifty with purchased soil use in the past.  I have a lot of hiding places for the kitchen scraps I've been generating.    When all my pots have had soil upgrades, I am hoping I would have a lot more worms that can take in my kitchen waste.    Or perhaps I can do a second round for the various pots.  In fact for the Habanero, the soil level has gone down a bit already.  Must be due to the decomposing material underneath.  Maybe in a month or two, I'll dig it up again.  While I'm at it, I'll see if the African Nightcrawlers I dumped along with the organic material have survived and thrived in the pot.  It would be even cooler if I see lots of vermicast there. 

On another topic, if you look at my habanero before, it had a lot more leaves.  It was attacked a couple of months ago by white flying things.  I think they're powdery mildew.  The plant lost so many leaves!  They're gone now though.  I read that varying humidity discourages them.  So I make sure to wet the leaves so that the leaves will be wet and dry at different parts of the day.

Does Mulching or Composting Exist in the Philippines?

I feel alone.  I generally give my best effort so that I can process my kitchen scraps and other biodegradable materials like paper.  From the various garden blogs, I've learned to mulch with plastic, paper and leaf litter.   In fact, I enjoy the topic so much that my Google Reader is filled to the brim with subscriptions about these topics.  But you know what's strange?   About 90% of the stuff I read are from the US and Canada.  How strange is that?  I know for a fact that there are tons of Filipino blogs.  Mostly though, I encounter these blogs when I look for recipes, vacations and complaints about telco providers.   What about worms? 

On the other hand, there are those nice people that buy my little starter worm bins.  I know they're making an effort to make use of stuff that unnecessarily swell our landfills.  I read occasional articles on the broadsheets about some farmer success stories.  I just wish there was more.  Now I'm a fairly timid person so I just give a pained look whenever I see leaf litter being hauled to garbage cans or being burned.  Sigh.  Maybe they're out there.  You know, I really dislike social occasions;  I think big dinners are boring.  Part of it I guess is that people never talk about recycling, composting or energy conservation.  It's always work, politics and travel.  Snooze-fest.

Oh well.  Maybe it's not my time yet.   Until then, I'll keep avoiding social events to the best of my abilities.

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Vermicomposting Adventures in Quezon City

Is it a lame title?  hahaha...I'll live.  I just don't have a major theme.  I do have bits and pieces of worm stories. 

The other day, I made a video.  It's about how worms like melons.  What's your experience?  For me here's what happened.  I put in two melon rinds in my pail-type worm bin about two days before the video.  On video day, I checked out the melon rinds.  There were like a dozen worms or so swarming the food.  I suppose you see that all the time in worm videos in Youtube, but this was my first time.  My African Nightcrawlers never swarmed with herb leaves, macopa fruits, coffee grounds or even banana peels.  But the melon was finished in two days, well except for the hard paper-like shell.

It's funny though.  I'm not such a big melon fan, but I find myself craving for it now because the worms loved it so much.  Hahahaha...worms dictate my diet now.  I love mangoes and pomelos but I've been eating them in moderation because worms aren't into the citrus types.  One of these days, I may have to cut down on meat too.

How to Register a Vehicle That's Not In Your Name And Was Shipped From The Province with the Land Transportation Office (LTO) - Part 3

Well, it's been a year since I last registered my Suzuki Multicab (the one I bought from Don Soriano & Kevin Yao -- buyer beware!) Last year I had all sorts of problems because the vehicle was supposedly from Cebu and therefore kinda complicated.  Read about it in my related posts.  Anyway, a year later, I looked for Mang Jimmy again, who was the fixer that got the vehicle finally registered in LTO La Loma (Biak na Bato).  Hello PNOY!  Your LTO officials are corrupt.

Well today he was late.  I was there at 8 AM and waited until 8:30 AM.  If you know me, that's a long wait already.  So I figured I'd just take my chances and do this the legitimate way.  I asked an official there, a certain Kuya Ruben about the process.  He asked me to drive the vehicle over for an emissions test and then asked me to park the vehicle again.  In that process, several fixers jumped on the chance since Mang Jimmy was still nowhere in sight.  One of them even called him up and asked me to talk to him.  Well apparently, he was still in Nepa Q Mart.  He wanted me to wait for him.  Really now?  You're asking me to wait. 

I continued with the process and went inside because I heard some basketball commentary.  Yes, it was an old NBA all stars game.  Kuya Ruben then went over after a few minutes and told me to stop talking to fixers because they will all expect a P250 tip.  He then asked me for money for the insurance and he paid for it himself and then asked me to pay the registration fee in the counter.  If you haven't noticed yet, there are two remarkable things about that.  The LTO there had both an in-house insurance company and emissions testing.  Normally, you'd be asked to drive around to look for one (try LTO East Avenue).   Two thumbs up for convenience. 

After about half an hour, I was done.  I didn't have to bribe anyone.  How remarkable is that?   Two thumbs up for Kuya Ruben, although he didn't return my P10 change for the insurance.  If you're ever in the area and you want to look for Kuya Ruben, think about Jennifer Garner's father in Alias.  Ruben kinda looks like him.

As a footnote though, the name of the vehicle is still under Kevin Yao.  He was supposed to change that to mine last year!  Two thumbs down for Kevin Yao.  Don't deal with him if I were you.  One of these days I'll get around to changing the vehicle registration name.  Anyone know how that's done?

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Welcome Purple Basil!

I finally got it!  After months and months of searching for a purple basil, I finally found one!  Yey!  But I must say it's not as exciting as I figured it would be.  Why?  Well, the leaves aren't exactly purple.  The undersides of mature leaves are purple, but on top it's all green.  Supposedly, those leaves should turn purple over time as well.  Only time will tell.  In the meantime, I'll have to keep taking pictures of the undersides only.  I can't wait to propagate this plant!  I'll give away half my cinnamons so I have space. And imagine how cool that would be if I cooked purple pesto.   Here are a couple of pictures as proof. 

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Will Herbs Grow In Pure Vermicompost?

A lot has been said on using vermicompost or vermicast as an organic fertilizer and how it won't burn plants no matter how much you use.  Have you seen it for yourself?  I have.  Here's what happened to my recently rooted sweet basil cutting.  If I remember correctly, I cut it about 3 weeks ago and planted it in this makeshift pot about 1 1/2 weeks ago.  I used pure vermicompost as soil.  I only filled the cup about 1/5 of the way.  I didn't have a lot of finished vermicast at the time.  I'll increase the "soil" level in the coming weeks.   But as you can see, the sweet basil is done with its wilting stage and has now fully recovered.  It showed me that herbs can thrive in pure vermicast.   In fact I looked at the vermicompost closer and found that the basil roots grown through a lot.

As an aside, when seeding cuttings, you would often read that you need to remove all but the top four leaves in the cutting to minimize transpiration.  Perhaps that's true, but as the picture would show, a cutting with about a dozen or so leaves will root just as well. But that's summer for you.  Everything thrives in summer!

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Year Old Mango Tree

Has it really just been a year?  It seems so long when I started gardening again.  It all started with the mango seeds I wanted to germinate.  Now, I have three of them left and this is the biggest one. I'm not sure why, but it's about a foot bigger than the others.  This one is about two feet tall and is starting to bend because of the weight.  The main stem or trunk hasn't become woody yet.   As you can see, it's also still in a pot.  I added kitchen scraps mulch to bring the soil level higher and in case you're wondering, the root system isn't all that developed.   A year old basil has a lot more roots than this mango.  I'm not sure the current roots support such a big plant, but that's what I saw when I dug up the plant.   I wonder if this will bear fruit in a pot?  How cool would that be?

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Comparing Vermicomposting Bins, Humanure Vermicomposting Experiments

I'm running a bit low on worms due to positive sales of my indoor worm bin.   So today, I decided to fiddle with all my worm bins just to see if my small business can survive with just organic growth of my worms or if I have to buy more African Nightcrawlers. 

First, I checked on my vermicomposting sack.  It's a basic rice sack that I left out in the garden, but under the shade.  It's my lowest maintenance "bin" since the material is porous.  Air is never a problem.  I put whole bags of wet paper  (think of a paper bag filled to the brim with wet paper) there so I don't have to think about moisture a lot.  I pour in about half a cup of water every couple of days when I pass by.  Since it's in the garden, it also has a lot of leaf litter and branches and stuff.  When I checked earlier, I poured all the contents on the ground.  I found that the worm population has not really taken off in the sack.  I think it's because the sack is in the garden and allows all sorts of predators to come in.  I did find a couple of centipedes after all.  Since rice sacks are also woven, I suspect worms can come in and out easily.   Nonetheless, I still had a fair amount of vermicompost which I applied to a couple of my plants.  I ended this experiment and placed the contents in other bins.  Rating: Two and a Half Crawlers

Then I checked on my original worm bin: the big pail, located in a shaded area in the backyard.  It has about three tiny holes in the bottom, making for negligible drainage. It is also sitting on three small bottles with water to prevent ants from invading the bin.   A month ago or so, I transferred about 3/4 of the contents of this bin to other plastic bins, which I have since sold.  I replaced the contents with a lot of cardboard and paper (not even shredded) since I just have so much paper in the house.  In fact, I hardly even feed this bin anymore, save for weeds that I pull out nearby.  The worms will eat the bedding anyway.   Well, it's good to know that the worm population has regenerated somewhat.  I can use the contents of this bin to seed a couple of new bins.  I think this bin works because it's big relative to content thereby allowing air to circulate.  I also cover the bin with dry whole newspaper which prevents worms from crawling out but would still be porous to let some air in.   I added some of the wet whole newspapers from the sack into the bottom of this pail.  Hopefully, it will help retain some moisture since the last few summer days have been absolutely scorching!  Rating: Five Crawlers

Going Against Vermicomposting Norms

If you read the 1,720,209 blog entries on creating worm bins, you'll probably discover that a lot of them are copied word for word.  It's crazy how much info we rip from each other in the Internet.  Nonetheless, I followed a lot of the rules.  In my short experience with African Nightcrawler vermicomposting, here are some personal opinions:

• Bedding Materials - I'm all for cardboard, newspaper, office paper, junk mail, toilet paper and even to a lesser degree glossy paper.  As long as the paper is not plastic coated, it's usually good enough for me. I don't even fuss about the color of the ink.
• Bedding Level - A lot of sites use 2/3 of the container as a guideline.  For me, since I just put a limited number of worms in a bin, my bedding's usually just an inch thick and I haven't had any problems with that.
• Drainage Holes - I don't like my bins leaking on the floor and so about 90% of my bins have no drainage.  I just control the moisture coming in.  I've had no problems whatsoever.  If I find the bin a little too wet, I just leave the lid off during the day to let some water evaporate.
• Citrus, Garlic, Overfeeding - Both are typically in the Don't Feed list, but until recently I didn't have an opinion.  My worms have been behaving differently lately (sticking to the sides of the bin) and some have even died in the bin (very unusual).   The only thing I did recently was to stuff my bin with a week's worth of peelings (unusual since I don't have a lot of worms).  I just wanted to give it a try.  So it's either the type or quantity of my last feeding that brought about this death and fear.
• Dairy - I shower in a couple of drops of old milk from my glass before washing it.  Perhaps it's the minimal volume, but I haven't seen any negative effects.
• Mixing Food and Bedding - I like it that my worms have air so I mix things up in my bin very regularly.  I haven't seen any bad effects.
• Humanure - The worms finished two separate samples in under a week each.  I guess they like it.
• Coffee Grounds - I don't think my worms enjoy these
• Feeding in Sections - I just put the food anywhere I want.  I do try to cover the food with processed material or bedding to prevent it from smelling. 

That's all I can remember for now.  My tip is to experiment on your own too.  You might find that a lot of tips (including mine) don't work for you.  As long as your worms are increasing and looking fat, then you're probably doing the right things.

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Cuban Oregano vs Italian Oregano vs Oregano Thyme

Remember my Oregano Thyme?  It was that plant that just never thrived for me (well one of the many plants).   There wasn't much material on the Internet about it, but I eventually found out that it was really a variety of Thyme and not some cross breed between Oregano.  In hindsight, I understand now why it's called such.

I have current pictures of a Cuban Oregano, an Italian Oregano and a file photo of my Oregano Thyme.  See the similarities and differences:

As you would see, Italian Oregano and Oregano Thyme have a very similar look: thin curling branches and small rounded leaves.  They also both grow exceedingly slow!  However, (and you'll have to take my word on this), the Cuban Oregano and the Italian Oregano, despite their great differences in appearance have an identical scent (and I bet taste).   Too bad I can't recall if Oregano Thyme has any scent or I could have compared that too. 

In any case, I'm glad my Cuban Oregano is finally growing.  It's such a commonplace plant here that I've been neglecting it.  Ironically, I ended up killing this hardy plant several times.  Well this time around, I treated it like all my herbs: in good soil and with lots of sun. 

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CAT'S WHISKERS IN FULL BLOOM!

This is the view in my backyard these days.  All my Cat's Whiskers are in full bloom!  Look at all the beautiful white flowers.  If  I'm not mistaken, the picture shows about 4-5 potted Cat's Whiskers but it looks a lot more, right? That's because I've been pruning mercilessly in the past months.  As a result, they've all branched out and have bloomed profusely.  This has got to be one of the best herbs in terms of ease of care.    To propagate Cat's Whiskers, just root a stem cutting in water.  I admit, in my experience the rooting percentage is a bit low (around 40% or so).  However,  they grow very fast and it's very easy to get new stem cuttings.  If you make it root though, it's arguably the easiest herb to take care of.  Just make sure you give it lots of water and that's it.   If anyone wants Cat's Whiskers, I'm selling these too (I have too much of them). 

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How Long Before You Can Harvest Yellow Ginger? Self Propagation

It's been a couple of months since I found a small Yellow Ginger on my front door.   It seems Jean fancied the plant and wanted me to take care of it.  And so I did.  I read up on it too.  Supposedly it should just take a couple of months before this root crop bears fruit.  And so I waited.  In the 5 months or so that I've had it, my two small original plants are now 6 or so.  These things self propagate!  How?  Now growths appear at the roots and all you have to do is to split the plant and make sure some roots are included.  And that's it.  Almost no adjustment.   Cool huh?  I've also repotted the biggest one several times making sure to plant it a little higher in the pot each time so that the roots have enough space to grow.   

From what I read, once the plant starts to wilt, it's probably time to harvest your Yellow Ginger.   As you can see, the big one has started turning brown.  So I decided to dig up the plant and check.  Lo and behold, there's a tiny, tiny ginger hanging by the roots.  It's so small my camera can't even focus on it properly.  Just look in the middle of picture 2.   If you look hard enough, you'll see it. 

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Vermicompost Experiment: Will Vermicompost Help Cure a Sick Mint? - Results

Three months ago, I wondered if vermicompost will help cure one my sick Chocolate Mints.  As a background, my mints (all of them!) got hit by some sort of disease that caused them to become leggy at best and dead at worst.  So I thought maybe the good microbes in vermicompost will stem the tide.  Well it's been three months since I shoveled in some vermicompost into the pot (about a shovel-ful and only once during the three-month period).  I wouldn't jump up and down in excitement, but I am glad the Chocolate Mint looks better.  So at the end of this experiment, I would call this inconclusive.  Next time, I'll  be more aggressive in adding vermicast. 

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Kitchen Scraps Mulch

I wasn't sure what to call this post.  It's a mix of a lot of things and I'm not sure what the main theme is.  Consider this.  I have tons of paper waste and all my vermicomposting bins are absolutely loaded with them.  I also have a lot of kitchen scraps accumulated throughout the week, but as I said my worm bins are loaded.  I have nowhere to put the green scraps.  I have limited soil and / or vermicompost.  I just used my vermicompost to pot one of my sweet basil cuttings.  I just buy vermicast with rice hull and I didn't want to use up that supply when I can use something else for free.    My Habanero keeps drying up and complaining because it's such a water hog so I'll need to transfer it to a bigger pot that can hold more water.

Still following?  Have you figured out how this all ties in?  I'll give you a few seconds (humming the theme from Jeopardy).

Well here's my hairbrained scheme.  I nearly emptied a big pot where I plan to transplant my Habanero.  Then I placed a whole newspaper to cover the little soil.  It'll be used as bedding and moisture preservation.  Then I dumped my kitchen waste over the newspaper.  Then I put in a few African Nightcrawlers (about 4) to help decompose that waste.  I covered that whole thing with a newspaper page again.  At this point, the big pot is already 3/4 full.  Finally I transplanted the Habanero from the small pot to the big pot and watered thoroughly.

I figured that the worms should hasten the decomposition of the kitchen scraps and turn them into vermicompost which will be good for the Habanero. But since the kitchen scraps are not sufficiently aged yet, I added some existing substrate too so the worms have something to eat in the meantime.  The newspapers are there, as I mentioned for bedding.  Besides, from what I've read composting worms don't really live in soil.  So it's like a put in a mini worm bin inside the pot.  I hope that works.  They're also sandwiched so that even though the Habanero will be placed under direct sunlight, the worms don't get baked.  They can just hide in the middle of the pot where it's always moist.  When the Habanero roots outgrow the present soil, the newspaper and kitchen scraps should be half decomposed already and should start to benefit the plant.

Will it work?  I don't know.  But my measures of success are these: 1) the Habanero lives for at least the next two weeks and; 2) the Habanero stops wilting on almost a daily basis.  I will accept once-a-week wilting.  If this works, you might find that I'm transplanting plants to bigger pots more frequently.

I hope it works!  Now I'll share the pictures.  I numbered them for convenience. 

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Much Ado About Feces

Since starting my gardening and worm composting adventures over a year ago, there are persistent terms that keep coming up from seasoned gardeners.  So I decided to finally check them all out.

• Worm Castings - Worm Poop!  Excellent fertilizer and infinitely gentler than other fertilizers.  Will not cause root burn
• Cow / Horse Manure - Cow & Horse poop!  Well this one's a no-brainer and I'm sure even non-gardeners will understand it
• Humanure - Human Poop!  Apparently, you call it humanure if you're into composting.  You call it $hit if you're not
• Bat Guano - Bat & Cave Dwellers Poop! - This one, I just discovered today after a quick Google search.  Apparently, all the good stuff are poop.  Why the terminologies are different, I do not know.
• Dog / Cat Feces - Still poop!  Somehow, most gardeners look will avoid these for composting purposes because they supposedly carry dangerous pathogens. 
• Bone, Blood, Worm, Corm Meal - Apparently, when it's called Meal, it's a powdered version.  Bone ground into powder is bone meal, blood dried and powdered is blood meal, worms dried and powdered are worm meal, and corn dried and powdered is corn meal.   Each one supposedly has its own special nutrient (I didn't keep track of that). 

Interesting huh?  I think I will have to be familiar with the terms before a I get into a discussion with a serious gardener.  

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POT VERMICOMPOSTING

Have you ever tried vermicomposting in a simple clay pot?  I have. If you ever read DIY articles on making worm bins, you'll never see any suggestions for using clay pots.  It's always a plastic or wooden bin and never something as small as a clay pot (10 inches diameter I think). A couple of months ago, I tried it just to see if it will work.

I inadvertently broke a clay pot in two a few months ago.  So I figured I would put the pot in the ground (well half of it) and plant from there.  Unfortunately, I think I placed too many pebbles.  Whatever it is that I planted (I forget what) died.   So why not worms?  It has the makings of a good worm environment.  It's under a tree so it's protected from the elements.  The pot is broken so there's drainage and it doesn't have a cover so there's air.

I did the usual stuff and put leaf litter (greens and browns) in the pot, added some water and some African Nightcrawlers.  Initially I was disappointed because the worms disappeared!  I placed more worms a few days later and they disappeared!  Argh.  It must have been too easy for them to crawl out into the soil underneath the pot.

Oh by the way, I cover the pot with some plastic bags to prevent too much moisture loss and a I put a small put on top to prevent the bags from flying away.

I continued to put my pruned leaves into the pot for the next couple of weeks.  Then one day, I dug in again and I found my worms!  Awwww...they came back.   Every time I checked back since, the worms were there.  I'm not sure where they went the first time, but it looks like they're here to stay now.

Now one thing I noticed about the things I put in is that they decompose rather fast compared to my other bins.  Considering there are just a handful of worms, I'm not sure why.  My best guess is that the pot is half buried on the ground, giving garden nightcrawlers easy access.  They're probably crawling in from their burrows underground, thereby helping my African Nightcrawlers a helping mouth.  Other critters like centipedes have access too and are probably helping with the decomposition process.  I kill those though since I've read that they're worm predators.

In fact just two days ago, I put in a couple of fresh weeds.  Today I was forking around the pot and found very minimal green stuff.  Interesting huh?

Has anyone else tried vermicomposting in a basic clay flower pot?  Maybe I should try humanure composting in that pot.   Hmmmm....

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