Kitchen Scraps Mulch - Update 4

It's been a few months since I put kitchen scraps as reverse mulch (bottom of the pot) under my habanero.  Then I put a couple of African Nightcrawlers along with the scraps.  I wanted to see if the ANCs would survive in the pot and turn the organic content inside the pot into vermicompost.    A couple of days ago, I decided to dig up the pot to see.    Compare it for yourself. 

If you look at pictures 1 and 2, that's show's a month's difference.  In particular, examine the amount of additional mulch on the top side of the plant.  While picture 1 shows the pot filled to the brim with mulch picture 2 shows about an inch and a half decline.  Considering that I throw in additional material several times a week, you'll appreciate how fast the organic material degrades.  Was it due to the worms?  Perhaps. 

If you compare pictures 3 and 4, you'll see a big difference as well.  Whereas picture 3 has a whole newspaper on the underside covered by a week's worth of kitchen scraps, picture 4 shows mostly humus and some worms.  Now the inside of the pot wasn't exactly crawling with worms as I had hoped, but there were still some there.  However, I've also seen that the worms migrated to some of the other pots beside my habanero as well.  That's why I have cardboard and newspaper under the pots so that the worms can easily move from a bad spot to a good spot and always have something to eat.   I think this also goes to show that if you plan it right, composting worms can survive and thrive in the sunny side of the garden.

 

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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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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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