Worms Up! Day 7

Day 7, I hear it.

The WormFarm 360 is coming up to speed. In my little feeble brain, the best worm composting bin money can buy. After the first couple nights on the back patio where the overnight low temperature was around 45 degrees, the temperatures rose nicely over the weekend into the mid 70's and the evenings came and went in the mid 50's. I would also guess with the afternoon sunset hitting the dark green worm farm it warms the bin up some between 4 and 6, and then holds that temp trapped well into the evening. I last left you on Day 3, just after their first feeding. Here's what's been going on since.

Along with the temperatures moderating a bit over the weekend, the worms had just spent their 4th night on the deck and seem to be relaxing in their new habitat. I was pretty shocked to see many frenzied worms crawling all over this food. After 3 days of them being pretty lethargic to wow.... these worms got they grove on now. Late Sunday I added along with some junk mail, a banana, three muskmelon rinds, 4 crushed egg shells (and the carton) some strawberry tops, cut yellow pepper pieces and two or three cups of spent coffee grounds. I'm told the coffee grounds are treats to them and the grounds texture makes for some tortuous grinding in the gizzards of these crushing composting machines. That was some color.

I remember reading in the owners manual, one of the disadvantages to the WormFarm 360 if you don't operate it right, is excessive moisture content that can lead to fruit flies. What a drag. It was reported if any one of these conditions became a issue, to monitor your moisture content regularly and moisturize bedding with soggy paper scraps or a cup of water. If you're too wet, drain existing and subsidize bedding with dry shredded paper. For the fruit flies I tried their recommendation and loaded an empty tray above the food with dead leaves and/or shredded newspaper- kind of creating a 8-10 inch buffer zone for them to labor through to get to their fruit. Apparently these flies aren't very driven and loose interest quickly.

Happy to report after one week it's humming along just like the book says. No fruit flies, no bugs, no smell, no fuss. I have completely filled tray 1 and will begin filling tray 2 with more food on Day 9 or 10. I think I'm probably on the edge of feeding them too much at once so I'm going to pull back a little bit and give them some time. I have to remember that we're doing real breakdown and rotting of food and that's doesn't happen as quick as everything in our lives we are used to. It's not like warming a bagel in the microwave, it's more like watching paint dry but it's fun with a Guinness. It looks easy, so far... Next week I'm planning an incoherent ramble about bio degradable composting bags (which are very cool) and a plastic-free alternative to trash and compost bags. Down the road, some eco-friendly compost tips and some funky urban grow solutions.

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