I'm small time so please feel free to ignore (10 years in a bin like yours - 30-50 gallons of castings a year). I like to do the opposite with my bedding / food feeding order. I dig a shallow hole on one side of the bin, dump food scraps, then cover with the brown material (I use kiln dried untreated wood shavings or just sifted arborist chips). I understand your 'tip' of putting the brown material underneath to absorb the liquids from the feeding (I used to do this), but the worms actually like that small deluge of liquids. Putting the brown on top keeps the moisture and SMELLS in the worm colony where the worms like it. The worms will go to the surface for the bedding when they need it and it will literally disappear letting you know its time for more bedding (and most likely a new feeding). Then I feed on the opposite side of where I fed the time before. Another risk of putting the dry browns under wet greens is you can get composting / heating action; you are basically creating a perfect micro compost pile with your method.
I mix everything together, shredded cardboard, coffee grounds, blended vegie scraps, and whatever else. I make a pocket for it at one end and cover with old bedding/castings to keep the flies out. Moisture always finds the bottom anyway. It might warm up a tiny bit, but I don't think there's enough material there to actually get hot. I mixed up about 25 gallons for pre-composted bedding a while back, and it got hot enough that the worms would have left if they were in it, but nowhere near the temps my compost piles hit. Just fed about 1 1/2 gallons of fresh stuff, right before this video. Think I'll borrow a thermometer from a compost bin and keep tabs on it just for fun.
Nothing wrong with what you're doing Paul! I'd add that in the small volume of a worm farm, you've very unlikely to get hot composting going in those layers. There's just not enough volume to trap the heat required to "light up" the material.
It is amazing what a healthy worm bin can handle when it comes to a "nasty" feeding. However I would not encourage it for beginner worm farmers. If a bin is already too moist you could get a stinking anaerobic mess, and if fruit flies can get to it, oh boy. I have gone to feeding my worms over 90% of foods that come from my garden or have been grown locally. My thinking is one reason worm castings are so good for your garden soil is because of the biology they add. By using mostly local foods I am also introducing mostly local biology. Totally switched to leaves, resting hot compost and mostly finished leaf mold for bedding, again, adding the local biology. I am not saying there is anything wrong with using paper bedding, coffee grounds and banana peels in worm bins, I just choose to do things differently. Enjoy your videos! Stay Well!!!!
I agree, Brian. If the food's not gone in a week, I always think I'm overfeeding for the number of worms or perhaps the bin conditions (temperature, moisture). Leaves are in abundant supply where I live, so my worms are spoiled. We just chipped up some maple branches, so the worms are going to get some wood chips and sawdust to keep them happy through the winter! ~ Sandra
I would guess I put 70% shredded to 30% unshredded, but it's just because of what I have on hand, not any calculation! Leaves contain something called lignin that affects how quickly they will break down. You don't have to worry about it, but just know that some leaves, like oak, will take longer to break down than apple or maple. Having said that, just imagine what's going on inside a leaf that takes a long time to break down - the microbe action and diversity must be incredible. ~ Sandra
Hi Kim, The worms will regulate their own reproduction if the densities in the bin get too high. There's no concern about overpopulation in a worm farm.
No, I can't say that I have even thought of that. Egg shells are almost 100% calcium carbonate so unless there's an interaction between that and organically-bound phosphorus, I can't imagine there would be any effect at all.
I have a rolly polly infestation. Like, a serious one. When I opened my bin today, you could hear them moving around. Any suggestions on getting rid of them? I've tried DE, but it didn't seem to work. And I can't use fire like I have other spots. And my ducks didn't think it was funny when I tried to set them on there to snack on them. Up until now, the bin has been doing great!
