Winter Composting

[paulgem123]

Hello, Do you know if you can use woods chips in your worm bin. I'm trying to winterize and was wondering if they would work to insulate?

[2DAREPUBLICAMEXICANA]

what about fiber glass can it be use for a container for the worms. I live in a warm weather.

[TheCompostGuy]

I was surprised to see that a bunch of them survived in my uninsulated backyard composter as well! Pretty hardy worms.

I have a much larger bed this winter, using straw bale walls for insulation, and it has been nice and toasty warm during some very cold periods in Jan and Feb.

[mukwah1111]

My red wigglers have survived several Ontario winters in my regular black plastic town issue composter. They burrowed deep and are still there every spring. Not a ton of worms but they do survive and thrive again when the weather warms.

[TnWormsCastings]

i am in Memphis Tn gets to low of about 10 to 30 but not much under i am just starting off i have a big wood shed i wonder of i put my bens inside there in the winder and use straw bails if they would be ok

[d2music]

Looks VERY interesting. Hope it works! My only concern (or question) would be........how do they get oxygen?

[TheCompostGuy]

There is plenty of O2 exchange from the top - plus it was fairly cool in the bin, so much less oxygen needed.

[TheCompostGuy]

Oh, and by the way - I'm building a much larger system this winter with straw bales etc. Hope to make a video about it before too long.

[rewenzel]

Thanks for the info! What kind of insulation was that?

[TheCompostGuy]

Sorry - must have missed this one. It was old Roxul rock wool insulation that had been sitting in my father's basement. I've decided to switch to a more natural material (straw) this year.

[TheCompostGuy]

Thanks! Given my location in Southern Ontario, -30 would definitely be extreme (but we have seen a number of days nearly that cold with wind chill factor this year). And yeah, you could call me determined (or crazy - haha).

This year was going very well, but I haven't even checked up on the bin in awhile - it is currently buried deep in snow, so hopefully it hasn't frozen solid inside. Of course it just happens to be VERY cold at the moment, so I need to wait for some slightly warmer weather!

[sustainableadmin]

kudos to you! you must be serious to take on a canadian winter at -30!!!

now that's what i call determined :)

how's this year's attempt shaping up?