This Wiggle Wednesday we get into the details of industrial-scale vermicomposting. Learn about the various management systems that large scale producers use to make vermicompost in bulk.
Awesome ‘The Dynamic Duo’ deliver once again. I use totes at home nothing large scale(also have a ‘Tower of Wormpocalypse Power’ which is where I started . Regards Vermicomposting, fungi, Jonhson Su bioreactors… and regenerative farming.. if a farm has been using commercial fertilizers and herbicides… how long would it take for the soil on these farms take to recover BEFORE adding Vermicompost or funji rich compost or is it a case of stopping one season and beginning afresh the next with regenerative methods/fungi rich compost and vermicast? I understand that ‘forever chemicals’ last… (forever) but can fungi rich compost reverse/eliminate those chemicals?
Using a quality vermicompost or compost immediately is best. The microorganisms will work to break down chemical residues. It is not a good idea to go "cold turkey" when transitioning. Soils need to wean off chemicals over a period of time as biologics are steadily incorporated. Fungi has the ability to remediate soils, however when it comes to PFAS, fungi won't break those chemicals down.
If I'm just beginning in either a worm bin or a CFT, would harvested microgreen trays be enough for browns and greens? It'll be just coco coir and roots mixed. Also, i add a USDA certified organic nutrient once per grow. Just curious if extra grit or worm chow would be necessary. I could use chicken feed as a chow, though. I'm looking at, gleefully, building 4x2x3 CFT and starting with ANC's. May have to resort to bins, though.
I've always wondered if you just used vegetables and fruit scraps all the time would that be good enough or would the castings have any deficiencies compared to compost containing some sort of manure?
Well you couldn't use veggies and food scraps *all* the time as you would need a carbon source for the precomposting period. Both food scraps and manure would tend to make a more bacterial vermicompost but both are fine to use as the sole nitrogen-rich input. Manure can often be pre-composted without another carbon source, but food scraps would require a carbon source for pre-composting. I hope this helps!
I wonder how long can nitrogen source only food can be feed because I forgot about the carbon/nitrogen balance for almost 4 months and I never once added any carbon source. I didn’t see any changes of concern. Also in Kna the concept is opposite of modern farming as I practice this. I find it odd they say anaerobic is bad but 100% of my knf fertilizer is made this way and I haven’t seen the dangers that come about that corporation has been instilling in us.. after all in the soil is mainly anerobic microbes so why not focus on feeding these “so called danger microbes”
I stumbled upon your stream. Great info. What can I do with "compacted" vermicompost? would you just try to break it in smaller parts? I build a CF box that is sort of locked. So all that falls through gets soaked with the liquids that keep coming from above. I will drill holes into the bottom next I disamble all. For now I have lots of that compacted vermicompost which is probably also anaerob by now. Any ideas ?
You can crumble it up into small-sized bits and let it get some air for a few days to a week. If there are funky smells, make sure to allow the material to get air until the material smells earthy.
