Day 12 dawns on a new era. The
worms having pretty much pulverized the contents of the initial level 1
processing tray, are ready for more! We have moved on and up, setting up a new,
clean working tray. After setting it up with the recommended bedding, I've
placed it on top of the initial processing tray. They stack pretty nicely, they
appear to be level and so far, we haven't had any escaped worms from the
system. I expected some.
How this change-up occurs is
pretty interesting. The initial tray was composed of a layer of coconut coir,
(found on many green products websites) shredded moistened newspapers, dead
leaves, some humas and some tiny little sticks for good measure. We dropped our
1000 wrigglers in on top of the moistened bedding and they not so quickly, disappeared
down into the bedding apparently heading away from the sunlight and to the dark, quiet and dark. The first bait awaits, a lettuce scrap, shaved potato scraps and a pile of coffee
grounds. Next I added 8-10 sheets of soggy newspaper over the whole thing to
keep moisture in for the worms. Throughout the first week, I continued to add
food scraps, paper products, junk mail and whatever into it, to see what they
like. Answer is, everything so far.
More about setting up the new tray.
I was instructed to create the new bin very similar to how I set up the first.
We start with a couple handfuls of moistened coir, an excellent drainage
medium, and add a couple moistened handfuls of shredded newspaper as we did as
with the first tray. Now that the moisture content and texture of the bedding is
right for them, I just need to add some handfuls of brown leaves from my
yard- mix it all together and just add food. When you're ready to add the new
tray, you open up the initial tray and remove the big, thick moistened cap and
replace it over the contents of the new, working tray. Now there is nothing that
separates the first two trays (the working tray and processing tray) except
thousands of little holes making it easy for the worms to travel between the
layers. Up for new food, down for old. Up for warm and down for cool, soggy and
dark. The worms quickly migrate up and latch on to the new food supply as it
smells wonderful and is new and fresh. They flood into the new bin in huge
numbers in about an hour.
What was on the menu? Moldy bread
pieces, coffee grounds, carrots, celery, onion waste, a whole bunch of
strawberry tops, yellow peppers, green bean tips, some stale pretzels, old
popcorn and a real mushy banana. With all the fruit I just added, I add another
tray of just dry, shredded paper and dead leaves...the third to my two existing
food layers. This 8 inch barrier of dead leaves deter the fruit flies. I've
been storing the food scraps in a plastic container in the refrigerator in
between feedings, I want to try out these bio degradable kitchen bags next- that
way i can throw the entire contents right into the heap! I try and feed my
worms about every 8-10 hours with some new food and fiber. The book says you
should pay attention to a good, healthy balance of the two and avoid feeding
them any fatty, greasy meats of any kind. Now I add the top to the third layer
and we're a composting machine again.
Being an eco-friendly worm farmer
appeals to me. Gives me sense of purpose, something more to do. It's the
ultimate in curiosity, fresh thought and learning something new. It's like
watching grass grow, like waiting for the robins eggs to fall out of their nest. That happened at our place the end of last week too.
The biggest challenge I'm facing so far is keeping my guys in a more consistent
temperature environment. When they arrived a couple weeks ago we were battling
40-45 degree overnights. Even though my wife actually suggested bringing the
worm farm into the kitchen/dining room to escape the cold, I saw it as a trap
and took them a sleeping bag instead. This past weekend the daytime highs were
85-90 degrees and pretty sticky... worms don't like over 80. I 've been adding
about a cup of water to the newpaper cap every morning to keep it moist.
Sunday the temperature hit 93 !!*@!!
*#$!!%!!
The wife character was not to be found when I made the quick
decision to bring them into the air conditioned dining room to a cooler, safer
temperature for their overall peace of mind. When she did arrive home, riding a
gardening store high, she never said a word about it - I knew she saw it
because i paced in front of it like a lawyer in front of a jury. We enjoyed a
wonderful Sunday evening meal at the table with our quiet little work horses
grinding away in the corner. You know what?
My wife is alright.
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