It has been a busy week! I haven't found time until now to add the pictures I've been taking over the last week and a half, so I decided to just include them all in one post so you can see for yourself the ability of these worms to consume waste.
We decided to add this zucchini squash that had been sitting in the fridge for a few months. It was very large as you can see from the picture and I simply cut it in half, to expose the insides, and then added it to the bin. Next I added rabbit manure all around it (to increase microbial production) and then sprayed the top layer with water, as water is required to make the poo attractive to the worms.
The next day we had an old bag of sugar laying in my wife's "coupon pile" (lol). It only had a few grains of sugar inside, but to my surprise, the bag itself is nothing more than a brown paper bag with another thin layer of paper glued to it (which means the worms will eat it!). I just tore it into some pieces and added it to the top, with a few eggshells we had laying around, and sprayed the top with some water.
I also snapped a picture of a lonely worm who had found his way to the top of the bin and was enjoying the fresh air. You can barely see him right above the green zucchini squash (sorry about the grainy photo/ipad camera)
Five or so days later I added another half bucket of food that my neighbors donated to my cause!
There was a lot of citrus this time, but I made sure to add a bunch of torn up paper and cardboard to the bottom of this bucket to soak up any liquid that might pool and to "even out" the unstable elements of the system. I was happy to see white and green mold on the citrus peels, as that will definitely help in the breakdown of matter and decay.
I was also happy to see that leachate was once again collecting in the bucket under the worm inn. I'll show you in another post what happens with this stuff, but it's not waste, I'll tell you that!
The inn sat in darkness for 3-4 days (like it always does lol) and this morning I checked on it again to see how the microbes and worms were breaking down all the waste I've added last week.
Everything looks pretty good.
I decided to move things around a bit to see if I could capture any worms and I was able to find some easily.
Since I was sure there were going to be really fat worms (from all of the corn meal I added a few weeks ago) I decided to look for some.
And a few seconds later, I spotted one moving quickly away from the light. I also added a picture of the bucket I keep out in our back storage room for food scraps, to give others an idea of the process.
Throughout the week we continuously add to this bucket with any scraps from meals or the gardens. As you can see we've got some bread, as well as flour and some grapes. For those of you who don't know where this is going, that is starch and sugar, which when combined creates a lovely thing we like to call, alcohol (hehe). I doubt it will be detrimental to the worms at all to be honest, but what you cant see is that the bottom is full of dry cardboard, waiting to soak up any juices.
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