Hydrangea Pot Vermicomposting

As I mentioned in a prior post, my mophead hydrangea plants are situated in front of my house.  When I sweep the floor (filled with dust, hair, skin cells, dead insects), I promptly pour the contents as hydrangea mulch.  I would partially the dirty mulch credit for the hydrangea's continued health.  However, since I also throw some food scraps there (lemon, onion, other fruit peels), I've been seeing roaches much too frequently in the area, not to mention gnats.  So I changed strategies.  I covered the dirty mulch with lots of coffee grounds and paper scraps and put in a couple of African Nightcrawlers.   Well this isn't my first try at pot vermicomposting, so I know this could work.   I've also vermicomposted using what I call a reverse mulch technique with live plants on top (mango, cat's whiskers, habanero, etc).  Anyway, I continued caring for the plant, not really paying too much attention to the mulch.  I've thrown at least 20 roaches into that pot over the months so you'd understand why I don't want to touch it much.  That was until today.

For the past couple of days (after over a month since the mulch), I've been noticing that the soil on the pot (yes, I can see soil already) seemed grainy.  That's a good sign if you're used to seeing vermicompost.  So today, I got my trusty trowel and snooped around.  There were lots of worms and at least two inches of vermicompost on top.  Not bad huh?  The more you ignore them, the more they thrive.  I'm pretty sure most of them were African Nightcrawlers and not earthworms.  I can almost distinguish them physically now.  And besides, they were lolling around organic matter.  Earthworms tend to stay in soil, correct?   Since I was running low on ANC inventory anyway, I gathered an ice cream container full of worms and vermicompost so I can easily fill an order for a worm bin.  I also replaced the lost mass with about two handfulls of shredded paper along with a few scoops of used coffee grounds.

With my recent successes in pot vermicomposting, my thoughts have been wandering towrads my mom's absolutely large pots at the back.  I am thinking about the possibilities.    

Until next month! 

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Overfeeding Your Bin Tip: Vermicomposting Adventures in Quezon City

One of the most common tips you'll see when vermicomposting is to avoid overfeeding your worms.  Sounds familiar?  It's bad for your bin because too much materials decompose at the same time, causing your bin to smell bad.  At the same time, the decomposition will eat up the bin's oxygen, thereby depriving your worms.  I've experienced that first hand. 

Now, I never seem to have enough worms because people buy worm bins from me.  However, I have managed to vermicompost every organic waste in the house.  Here's one technique that has worked for me recently.

I put a week's worth of organic waste (with shredded paper of course) in my bin.  That's a lot!  I usually have to spread that out into several bins.  Instead of doing that though, I just put the contents inside a paper bag (thank you Starbucks) or a small cardboard box (Nesvita, light bulbs, etc), I close or seal it and then I put that inside the bin.  I don't bother to moisten the bag or box.  After all, when the organic matter decomposes, it will release moisture.  The worms eat from under the bag when the time is right.   It's great because the bin doesn't smell or attract insects. 

At one point, I had about 100 grams of worms left in a semi big bin (3x1x1.5 feet) because I scraped to provide a customer with his requirements.  About two weeks later, I put in an entire melon (rinds only of course) inside a starbucks bag.  They finished it and there was no smell at all.  Cool huh?  Just the other day, I also had a rotten melon (what a waste, right?).  This time around, I placed the entire melon (not just the rinds) in a big paper bag, wrapped the bag around a little to close the hole and dumped it into the bin.  I'm betting the worms will finish that in about two weeks.  Once again, no smell. 

Try it both ways.  Get identical small bins with minimal worms.  Put lots of food in both, but bag it in one.  See if the technique works for you too.  ;-)

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Ideal Temperatures for African Nightcrawlers: Vermicomposting Adventures in Quezon City

I've observed something over the past couple of months.  In April and May, I had to scoop back worms from the floor at least twice a day and I had to keep the night light on to discourage escape.    Furthermore, I had to leave the lid off my bins even at night apart from not adding any sort of moisture at all.  And yet, I still lost a lot of brave worms in those months.  I salute them.

The past couple of weeks have been marvelous though.  I've been adding food whenever I want.  I pour glasses of water in my bins.  Some are even flooded.  I keep the lids on and I don't have to leave the lights on at night.  The best part is that my worms stay put!  And then there's the lack of fruit flies and gnats. 

What's the basic difference?  A couple of degrees in the temperature.  Summer was brutal.  We had days of 33-34 degrees.  These days though, we get as low as 27-28. 

What's the conclusion?  African Nightcrawlers like low temps in the Philippines.  They can tolerate higher, but the other conditions must be just right (excellent airflow and optimum moisture).  It would seem that worms are more forgiving about air and moisture when temperatures are lower. 

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Vermicomposting in the Philippines: Multiple Tray Flow Through Worm Bin

My really small back porch has been getting really crowded and messy because of all my little worm bins.  And then I had an inspiration.  I decided to have a multi-level flow through bin made out of office trays.  Of course I've tried this before, but I only stacked two or three.  This time around, I stacked five fully filled trays.  That's lots of paper and stuff and very few worms (about 250 grams I would guess).  Will it work?  Perhaps.

Here are some "features" of this stacked contraption: I put four chopsticks through the holes of each tray.   This prevents the trays from being too compressed.  This way maximizes the air flow.  Also to that end, I removed all the packing tape on the sides of the trays since I'm not afraid that the worms will try to escape.  I'm also not afraid of the vermicompost spilling from the sides.  That's because I also have a slightly wider bin at the bottom that will hopefully catch vermicompost falling from the sides.  On top, I just cover the tray with a breathable eco-bag.  And that's it. 

It's just like an expensive worm factory, only much cheaper.   The downside though is that the contraption is accessible.  I've seen a cockroach and two lizards already.  Really?  Are those house lizards feasting on my worms?  Tsk.

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Worm Bin With Mushrooms

Tell me this is not an amazing sight.  I just need Sigourney Weaver to complete the cast of Aliens.  So I've had mushrooms in my worm bin in the past, but I waa blown away by a picture sent by one of my past customers.  This sees like a full blown infestation.  And so he's wondering if the worms are still alive.  I am betting they are.  Mushrooms and worms like the same environment so if the mushrooms are growing like crazy, so too should the worms.  It also shows that there's plenty of nourishment for everybody.  Once the carbon supply declines (thank you for helping with the decomposition dear mushrooms), the mushrooms should disappear.  So there shouldn't be any competition for food with the worms.  If those are alien mushrooms, all bets are off. 

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Growing Melons in my Flow Through Worm Bin - Terminated Experiment

I've been eating a lot of melons the past few months and I've been feeding my African Nightcrawlers a lot of melon rinds.  I've also been throwing lots of melon seeds in my various worm bins.  Because of this, a lot of seedlings have been growing in my worm bins.  So I figured maybe I'll try growing these melons to term in one of my flow through worm bins.
It's been going great too.  I was wondering what to do if the roots grow through the bottom of the tray so I decided to put the tray on an aquarium with lots of paper, food and of course, worms. 

Today, I've decided to terminate the experiment.  Why?  I looked at the aquarium earlier.  It was disgusting.  I even saw a cockroach!  Eek.  There was too much water flowing through the bin and into the aquarium...murky water. I decided to just move the seedlings into a 5-gallon container instead.  I'll just add more material every few days.  There are still worms in there anyway.  I just hope they don't bake since the container is out under the sun.

As for the aquarium, I did what other vermicomposter would do.  I added dry shredded paper all the way to the top of the aquarium.  I'll stop adding material for a few months.   I'll check back in a few months (hopefully it dries up before the rainy season. 

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Why You Need A Worm Bin...

I recently replenished my supply of African Nightcrawlers because a lot of my bins were bought the past couple of weeks.   That said, I didn't have a lot of bins lying around so I just put my worms in a pail.  They were pretty dense inside that pail.  And so the past two days have been quite challenging.  They've been crawling out like crazy, even with the lights on.  For the past two nights, it's been like an episode of Fear Factor.  But the ones I placed in a few bins didn't attempt to crawl out.  What's in the new bins?  I stole some old bedding from my established worm bins and voila, I had worm friendly bins.   I guess this experience underscores the advantage of getting an established worm bin as against buying worms and waiting for them to get comfortable inside the new bin. 

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Outdoor "Container" Vermicomposting Adventures

You would often read that composting worms thrive best in a contained environment, away from the elements.  Since my back porch is really small, I am limited in terms of the number of containers I can use.  So today, I'll show you a couple of outdoor experiments (outside my mom's house without her knowledge...hehe).  Well more accurately, I'll show you the containers I've been using.  I checked each one earlier so I'm sure worms are alive and working in all of those "containers".

A couple of months ago, I was repotting a plant and I inadvertently cracked the pot.  To keep using the pot, I buried it under the soil and tried growing a couple of herbs there.  Unfortunately, I think the spot was too shaded and whatever I planted kept dying.  So I just used it as a vermicomposting pot.   If you look at the picture, you can even see the crack.  The pot has no real cover.  I just use some pieces of plastic and a smaller pot as paperweight.  I've put most of my nastier waste there (from a vermicomposting standpoint), including onions and garlic.    As of last check, the 6-8 worms I put in have survived.  A few new ones have even hatched although I must say population has not exploded.

Herb Garden Updates

Summer is a great time for plants!  Most of my herbs are doing a lot better than they did 6 months ago.   Of course I have to be more dutiful in terms of watering (sometimes twice a day) but it's worth it.  Let me show you a couple of my favorite plants. 

Look at the before and after photos of my chocolate mint.  There's a two month difference between these photos but look how lush the plant has become.  I added vermicompost into this pot and moved it to the sunniest location in the garden.  What did the trick?  I'm honestly not sure.  All I know is that I've been nursing this plant since November and I'm glad it looks like the day I bought it (lush and vibrant).  Oh dear I have to greet my mint happy birthday.  It's over a year old now.    And for those would be gardeners, don't believe everything that you read.  My mints have shown no inclination in taking over the garden counter to what I frequently read back then.   I tried planting the mints on the ground several times, but they never thrived. 

Vermicompost Flow Through Tray Update: Vermicomposting in the Philippines

Today I want to provide an update on my vermicomposting flow through trays.   The tray is pretty full and the contents I would guess are about 80% processed.  In my case, that's good enough to use.   So what did I do?  Well, I wanted to remove the worms from the tray but I don't want to sort through the contents since there's a lot of material there.  What I did instead was to put another tray on top of it with a good number of wet cardboard and paper.  At the bottom of the upper tray, I also put in a watermelon rind and a couple of banana peels just to entice the worms. 

Two days later, I found worms already hanging at the bottom of the upper tray.  Migration has begun.  Earlier when I was looking, I also found lots of worms on the upper part of the lower tray.  Yey!  At least I know vertical migration works.

A couple of entries ago, I also talked about seeds germinating in my worm bin.  I took this picture earlier.  It's just getting silly.  There must be dozens of seedlings in my tray.  They're probably mostly melons.   I'm not sure what to do with the tray.  Should I harvest the vermicompost or should I just let the worms migrate for another day or two and then use the tray as a seedling bed?  Never mind that I'll leave a couple of worms there.  That should be good for the seedlings

right?

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Moisture Level in Your Worm Bin: Vermicomposting in the Philippines

Today I'll talk a little more about worm bin moisture.  What is the proper level of moisture?  How can you tell?  What happens if the moisture level is off? 

I've been vermicomposting for about seven months now.  It doesn't seem like a long time, but I have seen a good number of bin conditions.  I've had content worms and restless worms.   Let me share a couple of things I've observed over the months. 

I had a small bin before that was really wet.  The contents were minimal but water puddled at the lower end (the floor was slightly tilted I guess).  Guess where the worms stayed?  They stayed in the wettest part of the bin.  That tells me that worms are not averse to moisture per se.   I also have a big aquarium that has some leftover water.  It's flooded but I do have paper sticking out about 5-6 inches above water.  The worms are thriving in that aquarium.  In both bins, worms didn't try to escape.  

So is excess moisture always good?  Let me answer it this way.  I also have a couple of bins with excess moisture where worms escape on a daily basis.   The difference I believe is the amount of content.   In the bins where worms tried to escape, I had hundreds of worms inside aside from being packed to the brim with lots of paper.  My best guess is that in these bins, the packed paper combined with the excess moisture limited airflow within the bin. 

So how should you manage the moisture content in your worm bin?  The fuller the worm bin, the less moisture you're allowed, especially if the contents pack together.   You need a few holes for bins with limited content;  you need a few dozen more for bins with more content.   Check the sides and the lid for moisture.  If there's condensation, you can either add some dry bedding or leave the lid off (but keep the lights on).  In my case, I add dry bedding, leave the lid off in the daytime and I turn the contents to keep the contents from packing together. 

These days, I hardly even add water.  The food I put in is usually enough to keep the contents wet.  Sure the top dries out and I get worried.  But when I check the bottom, the vermicompost is usually not fluffy.  That means it's still wet.  I just turn the contents.   Since I have small bins too, I sometimes turn the bins upside down so the moisture goes down to the dry contents.   I wonder if my worms get dizzy when I do that. 

A cool thing I've also discovered is that I add dry whole paper just below the lid so there's a paper filter between the bin and the lid.  It discourages the worms from crawling out because they'd have to crawl through dry paper.  It also helps absorb excess moisture.  How do I know?  Even if the piece of paper doesn't touch the contents, it'll be soft due to moisture by morning. 

That's it for now. I've already said a mouthful.   Happy worming!

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Everything Germinates in the Worm Bin Experiment Results: Worm Bin Adventures in the Philippines

Guess what?  The Indian Mango Seed did not germinate within the required period.  At least the worms did not run away from the tray.  As for the various seeds, mostly melons and watermelons, a lot germinated but a lot didn't as well.  I still got about a dozen sprouts, which isn't a bad deal.   I don't know what a chico seedling looks like so I'm not sure if the seed germinated.  It is worth noting though that while a lot of seedlings sprouted, most of them died after 2-3 days, including the carrot top that sprouted.  Could it be the lack of sunshine?  Perhaps.  

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Kitchen Scraps Mulch - Update 3

It's been almost two months since I put African Nightcrawlers inside a pot while I was trying  below-the-soil-mulch.  The experiment was conducted with my habanero as participant.  Here's my two-month worth of experience conclusion:  African Nightcrawlers can thrive inside a pot (about 14 inches) for at least two months.  In my last post, I indicated that I saw vermicompost on the ground below the pot.  That means the worms were pooping at the bottom.  Not yet convinced? 

Earlier, temperatures reached a punishing 33 degrees.  Summer is here!  Since the habanero likes full sunlight, the pot is out in a sunny spot in the garden.  My initial worry was that worms will not survive the heat.  Earlier though I saw them.  When I lifted the pot earlier (about 3 PM), the worms were all below the pot.  There must have been at least a dozen of them there (adults and babies).  If I remember correctly, I must have put in about half of those.  The rest must be due to reproduction.  

But why below the pot?  It's the first time I've seen that.  First of all, there was cardboard below the pot.  They must think it's a good place to hang out while the scorching sun was creating a burning environment within the pot.  Even for African Nightcrawlers 33 degrees is much too hot I would guess. 

As for the habanero, well it's doing fine.  The chili peppers are big but still unripe.  However, the whole vermicompost thing has not really resulted in plentiful, green leaves.  In fact, in at least three plants, I've had some yellowing of leaves while using pure vermicompost.  I am thinking that my worms' general diet has been too low on nitrogen, therefore resulting in fairly low nitrogen vermicompost. So I just top dressed the habanero's leaf mulch with coffee grounds to give the plant that green pep. 

That's it for now.  Until next time.

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Everything Germinates in the Worm Bin Experiment Update: Worm Bin Adventures in the Philippines

It's been just over a week since I started testing the germinating potential of vermicompost.  It's simple.  I just put a couple of seeds in my worm tray.   This afternoon, I found these little babies. 

I think those are all watermelon seedlings.  I'm pretty sure a dozen or more should sprout.  My chico seed hasn't showed up yet;  neither have my indian mango seeds.  I'll give the rest of the seeds about a week more.    As for these seedlings, I'll probably plant them in some small pots within the week. 

Oh by the way, if you look at the bottom left part of the picture, you'll find the carrot top that started growing stalks.

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Everything Germinates in the Worm Bin Experiment: Worm Bin Adventures in the Philippines

This isn't exactly the part 2 of my worm bin seed germination experiment.  I was trying to see how long it would take watermelon, chico and mango seeds to germinate in my worm tray.   These days, I only put food in my worm bins when most of the food has been consumed by the worms.  In one particular bin though, it was taking a few days for the worms to even touch a carrot top.  I figured it was a tough vegetable and was taking its sweet time to decompose.  Tonight though, I found out why.  The carrot top sprouted some stalks!   Oh well, I might as well continue growing it.  I'll move it to a pot with filled with vermicast in a few days.   Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for mangoes and company to sprout!

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Are Worms Escaping Your Worm Bin?

I had a eureka moment this morning.  Most of my worm bins have been doing okay: the worms are eating and staying put.  In the past days though, I've noticed an increase in the crawl outs, even in established bins.  And so I've been wondering why.  I think I have the answer.

In a couple of plastic bins, I found the sides and lid covered with moisture.  I'm not sure if conditions became anaerobic because of the moisture, but I think the moisture does enable the worms.  They can easily navigate around the sides because there's so much moisture. 

I'll find out tomorrow if that indeed was the problem.  For most part of the day, I left the lids off in these bins so excess moisture can evaporate.  When I checked earlier, the top part seems somewhat drier.  I hope that solves the problem.

If it works, I now know that when I see moisture condensation on the lid, that's a sign that there's excess moisture in the worm bin.

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Everything Germinates in the Worm Bin Experiment: Worm Bin Adventures in the Philippines

I keep reading that a lot of seeds "volunteer" inside worm bins supposedly because of all the beneficial bacteria inside the bin.  Supposedly, bad microbes won't infect seeds inoculated with worm castings.   Here in the Philippines, a lot of people are interested in germinating mango seeds. 

Since germinating mango seeds is what got me into gardening again, I have a series of blog posts on how to germinate mango seeds.  But that was before my fascination with worm composting.

A few minutes ago, I pushed aside some material from my worm tray (at this time, the tray has probably about 75% worm castings).  The I put in two Indian mango seeds, a chico seed and a few dozen watermelon seeds.  However, the mango seeds interest me the most.  Oh by the way, I didn't bother to remove the fibrous shell.  Finally, I covered the seeds with the material I pushed aside earlier.

Supposedly, for mango seeds to germinate, they need to be placed in the sunniest / hottest location in the yard.  The seeds should also be kept in a ziplocked bag to ensure high humidity.   The environment in a worm bin is a lot different.  While also moist, worm bins are generally located in cool, dark areas.  Will it work?  I wonder if anyone else in the Philippines has done this test. We'll see in a couple of weeks. 

For me there are three measures of success:  1) the mango seeds germinate at all; 2) the mango seeds germinate within two weeks (it takes longer in the prior method I talked about); 3) my worms don't crawl away follow the introduction of a citrus element inside the small tray.

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Vermicomposting Meat and Bones: Vermiculture Adventures in the Philippines

I now have about 6 small to medium sized worm bins, none of them really with a substantial amount of worms.  But after months and months of trying, I'm glad to note that I now vermicompost (or use as mulch) all of my fruits and vegetables, paper, used toilet paper, cardboard (including pizza boxes), coffee grounds and tea bags, and all those other goodies you find that are usually fed to worms.   It's like my African Nightcrawlers have a buffet 24x7 and they're not complaining. 

Since that episode a couple of weeks ago when I put garlic and onion in a small enclosed bin and all the worms there went crazy trying to escape, I'm happy that I haven't had an escape attempt in any of my bins since then. 

Today I'll push the envelope again.  About a week or so I tried pushing all my scraps into one bin and that resulted in  an epic fail moment.   I put a stop to that experiment right away, pulled out the large amount of food and used those for mulch.  Today, I tried vermicomposting meat.  I didn't do it in one of my favorite bins.  Instead, I used a big flower pot situated in the garden.  This way, even if there's some slight odor, I won't be affected.  So this big clay pot already has some contents, alternating layers of moist cut up newspaper and food waste.  I cover it using a sack that's weighed down by a big upside down broken pot?  I placed all the chicken bones and skin and covered it up again with some newspaper (not even a thick layer).   I put back the sack the and pot, added some moisture and that's it.  Let's see if cats can move that big ass pot. 

There are very few worms in that pot so I added three more (cheapskate huh?).  I also made sure the pot drainage holes touch the ground.  In fact I partially covered the sides of the pot with soil?  Why?  I'm not sure if it will work, but I'm hoping it will attact garden earthworms as well.  Perhaps they can help my African Nightcrawlers break stuff down. 

Will it work?  My nose will be the guide, but only time will tell.    Let's see in a few weeks.

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Fruit Flies, Fungus Gnats, Mosquitoes, Spiders and Lizards: Vermicomposting in the Philippines

I've read that worm bins are not just bedding, food and worms, but that bins represent an entire ecosystem.  Apparently, that's true not just inside the bin, but outside as well.  Let me tell you my story.

In the past one and half months, I've seen so many fruit flies and fungus gnats around my bins that I've had to kill them with my electric fly swatter every morning.  I'd get at least 6-7 hits per day.  The swatter is a cool tool, but the experience gets old quickly.

The past week though, I think it has lessened to about 1-2 hits only.  Why?

I think the bugs peaked when I ate a lot of bananas and did not bury the peels sufficiently deep in bedding.  About two weeks ago, I really wanted to lessen the paper I had because my paper and cardboard bin was already full.  So without shredding, I just dumped a lot of paper into my 5-gallon water container / worm bin.  Since that time, I saw minimal gnats flying around from that bin.  So I guess that technique works.  Dry bedding prevents insects from laying eggs. 

I've also eliminated most water sources.  I had an aquarium there which I used for an experimental hydroponic set-up.  Epic fail.  But I didn't drain the water at once because I was using the water to moisten my worm bins on a daily basis.  The tradeoff is that it bred dozens of mosquitoes!  I just gave up and used the water for my plants.  Then I dumped a whole newspaper inside the aquarium to absorb the excess moisture.  Worked like a charm.

So while I did my part in minimizing the insects, it seemed like I attracted a host of predators as well.  See, there's an ecosystem outside my bins!  I've been seeing lots of spiders and I think they're eating the other insects.  Good luck to them.  I've also been seeing more house lizards, which were also probably attracted by the free food flying around.

The clincher though is that I saw a big lizard hanging out right beside one of my bins.  I don't think it's after my worms, but if it did, it could eat a worm.  This one wasn't like a normal house lizard that's grey and plain.  He had a course back and was bigger.  And he was staring at me! Eek!  Too much food in the area.  Oh well.  Anyway, since I've done my part in lessening the insects, I'm hoping to see a decline in the predators as well. 

To make this post meaningful, there should be a lesson.  Don't underestimate the impact of dry bedding on top of your worm bin.  Otherwise you might find yourself staring into the eyes of a big lizard with a course back.

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Easy Worm Castings Harvesting: Vermicomposting in the Philippines

About two weeks ago, I noticed that the contents of one of my small plastic worm bins are almost fully processed.  I figured I would try horizontal migration as a harvesting technique.  I brushed the contents to one side and then I placed a folded cardboard pizza box in the middle to act as a divider.  Then I added fresh bedding to the other side and food for a couple of days.  Since it was a small bin, it was easy to fill up.  Afterwards, I only moistened the "new" side because I wanted to dry up the the vermicompost side somewhat.  In fact, I even left the cover off during daylight to hasten the drying process.  I wanted to encourage the worms (African Nightcrawlers) to migrate to the side with "fresh" food and more optimal moisture.

I did help the process somewhat.  While fiddling with the vermicompost side, I moved one or two worms manually, but for most part I let the worms move on their own. True enough, within a week or so,  I couldn't find any more worms on the vermicompost side.  They all migrated.  Cool huh?  No more sifting.  So apparently, that approach works.

Nonetheless, I didn't use the vermicompost at once.  I placed them all on my flow through worm tray.  Why?  There might be cocoons and I didn't want to waste those.  Meanwhile, only pure vermicast (well 90% at least) falls through from the tray. I know because I see the worms hanging from the bottom to poop (check out my toilet trained African Nightcrawlers video).   It slows down the process a bit.  Still, I get almost pure vermicast while saving worm babies with this method. 

Tip: if you want worms to migrate, feed them their favorite foods!  Try melons and watermelons.

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