tearful update

it's been a while since i've updated and a lot has happened.
the worm bin wasn't able to reside in the nutrtion building storage as we'd hoped - it was moved to the campus greenhouse which is cooled by a giant swamp cooler. i was skeptical at first but it seemed cool enough at 72 degrees and nice and damp. i checked the bin regularly maintaining moisture levels and things were going nicely - no fruit fly issues, the worms were thriving - they were plump and slimy and active. we had the occasional mushroom or sprout but no stinky bin and no mold. plans were to harvest the compost on the last day of class at the childcare with the kids and let them fertilize their garden before summer break.

that was last thursday. i went to pick up the bin and was devastated to find not a trace of a worm! i couldn't believe it. as i was feverishly searching through the scraps i noticed how hot it was in the greenhouse. apparently the water supply to the swamp cooler had been broken since monday - possibly over the weekend. the temperature was 92 degrees at 10:00 am. the outside temperature had been hovering around 110 degrees all week. our worms had baked and and been completely reabsorbed back into the soil in just a few days.

it's taken me this long to be able to write about it and i'm still sick to my stomach.
there was another student in the greenhouse who had taken over tending an instructor's vermicompost and her worms were gone without a trace as well. i don't think she was quite as attached as i was. :,(

the kids and i still harvested the compost and had fun feeding it to their garden.
such a sad, sad end to a really worthwhile and successful project. boo.

fruit flies be gone. . .

our challenge this past week was the capture of a rather large number of fruit flies competing with our worms for their dinner of strawberries and watermelon scraps. the kids and i constructed 8 traps using apple cider vinegar and strawberry tops for bait. the kids were enthralled with the growing number of fruit flies in our funnelled plastic cups.
on thursday we moved the bin to a storage area on campus to fully rid the child care center of the flying pests over the weekend. in mid transport i took the lid off the bin and released as many flies as i could. i also set a jar trap on the bin over the weekend and held off feeding the worms until today - monday.
when i went to feed them mango scraps today - i know, i know, but they love fruit! - the jar trap was full of fruit flies. i buried the scraps a little deeper per rick from salano farms' suggestion. the child care center is clean so i'm going to leave the worms in the air conditioned storage area this week, with traps.
next week i'm going to let the kids harvest some compost. while flipping the newspaper shreds, again per rick's suggestion, i noticed that we have a substantial amount of compost already! serious black gold. quite exciting. worm poop. castings. woo hoo! :)
and i did get the internship at ken singh farms, another yay. i'm very grateful - the gardens are just amazing. i dropped by their farmer's market this past saturday and came home with beets, basil, heirloom tomatoes, a gorgeous cucumber, and an equally lovely melon.
i'll post fotos of singh gardens as well as the harvest in my next blog.

update

let's catch up. the post holiday inspection on tuesday, july 6th revealed a tremendous increase in bin moisture levels - it was soaked! i added a top layer of shredded newspaper and dried off the dripping lid. this was also a feeding day so strawberry and watermelon scraps were added. i've written to rick at salado farms to see if my suspicions are correct that the breakdown of organic matter releases moisture. this additional humidity coupled with the primarily fruit diet has led to an onslaught of fruit flies. tomorrow i'll plant a homemade trap of apple cider vinegar & a small piece of rotting fruit in the bottom of a glass jar with a one way paper cone / funnel taped inside about an inch above the liquid, we'll see how that works. today's visit showed our big fat worms actively feeding on last week's fruit salad, as well as a sprout of some kind where our mushroom once lived. humidity is still high, but controlled and no stinky bin. they still have plenty to eat so i haven't restocked their food supply as yet. tomorrow's post - i'm a volunteer intern, somewhere!

babies, mushrooms, & poop - oh my!

thank you kris, for both reading my blog and being enthused - it really is a fun project.

and we do have babies! how exciting. we also have a mushroom popping up on the side.
this growth confirms that the bin climate is maintaining nice moisture levels.
still no stinky bin after 2 feedings. that makes me so happy.
our worms are active - obviously : ) - and we're beginning to see castings, aka poop!
and that, my friends, is the point. yeehaw!

i'll be checking in today and picking up the week's composting scraps.
i look forward to beginning the composting of cafeteria scraps, hopefully next week.
i'll keep you posted. look for photos of the babies and our mushroom on my next post.

wiggling right along . . . .

it's thursday and bin inspection reveals perfection! so far so good - scraps are greatly diminished, worm movement all around, bin smells like damp earth, moisture level has maintained beautifully.

i took fotos today that i am going to attempt to post (with the help of my 13 year old).

i could not be more pleased with how this project is going. our wormies have been quite obviously dining and we have no moldy food scraps. we seem to have hit amazingly close to the perfect amount for our population and bin size.

thank you so much to rick of salado farms and robert from canyonland worms for their input and guidance. i think we've done them proud!

the plan is to leave the same amount of scraps (from saturday thus allowing 2 days of decomposition) on monday at either end of the bin and let our wiggly friends dine at their leisure all week again.

bravo.

update! wigglers + food

wiggler city had a nice 3 day weekend to get situated. the plan was to use the partially decomposed, week old scraps on monday for their first feeding. i found this mixture of scraps and manure to be dried out and full of maggots. ew-ew-ew!
plan b. i had some scraps from sunday that i picked through for melon, tomatoes, lettuce, and some egg shells & coffee grounds. our bin is 3 feet long, so i placed a palm size pile at each end of the bin just under a layer of bedding to allow the worms to move away from the pile should it start to heat up. i was relieved to find the moisture level of the bin still perfect and wigglers wiggling.
tuesday morning's bin visit also made me smile. no stinky bin, a few worms feeding and around the scrap piles, though not as many as i had anticipated.
this morning i'm taking the camera along for some fotos that i'll post tomorrow.
say cheese! :)

worm bin update - no news is good news!

worms are comfy cozy in their new habitat of dampened newspaer strips and manure. i checked on them yesterday (added top bedding) and today. all is well - damp, dark, and no stinky bin. the plan was to add partially decomposed scraps tomorrow, but rick thinks that may be a little too soon so i may wait til monday, which allows sunday's scraps to decompose for a full week before feeding our wormies.
i'm waiting for an email response from rick to confirm that i understand his suggestion correctly. robert from canyonland worms is also following our progress now - the more the merrier!
next week i'll start looking into setting an appointment with chartwell's to get composting underway for the campus cafeteria and coffee shop.
more when i have it.
side note - my home, outdoor composting is doing fabulous.