Worm Inn Vermicomposting - Part III

http://www.RedWormComposting.com Presents - The third installment in my Worm Inn overfeeding follow-along. Six days have passed since I added 15 lb of food waste to my Worm Inn worm composting system, and I am now going to add some more (10 lb). It almost didn't fit, but I managed to make it work! I also add some shredded cardboard and some coarse compost material to help with breakdown and to filter some bad odors as well.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• worm inn
• worm composting
• vermicomposting
• composting
• compost
• worm compost
• worm castings
• vermiculture
• worms
• red worms

[zomgwtfbbqbagel]

Looks really good. I started out with Canadian Night crawlers because they survive cold conditions a lot better. But when summer hits I guess there will be a problem. No matter, red wigglers decompose a lot faster and a pound of them will completely eradicate my system every week or two. How many times a month do red wigglers reproduce?

[TheCompostGuy]

@zomgwtfbbqbagel - Canadian Nightcrawlers aren't great for composting for a number of reasons. As for Red Worms, once they are adults they reproduce a lot and release cocoons on a very regular basis . If you keep them happy you will be amazed how quickly the population grows in size.

[worldhop71]

How is everything now that you have added 25 pounds of waste? Have the worms survived?

[TheCompostGuy]

All is well - will be adding an update video this week. Haven't added any more waste, but will add a bunch in the next day or two.

[jonhulka]

You need more bins for all that food.

[sly2kusa]

Bentley my friend - we need to get you a Tripod! :-)

[knarfnavillus]

I live in an apartment in zone 7. Probably too cold to do this out on the balcony, right? If I compost a normal amount (i.e., not 15 lbs. at a time), will the smell be detectable if I do this in my apartment? (I have 2'x2' space next to my clothes dryer that I can use)

[TheCompostGuy]

In my experience, it all comes down to air flow and moisture. I have a big wooden outdoor bin that can handle a LOT of waste (even relative to it's large size). There are spaces between the boards so it gets a lot of aeration as well. Plastic tub bins tend to be a lot more challenging in this regard, but I am experimenting with bins that have big plastic air vents in them to see how much of a difference that makes.

[jihadacadien]

@TheCompostGuy That's nice....is it so with other types of worm bins?

[TheCompostGuy]

What I honestly expected was to walk into the room where the system is sitting and end up blown away by the stench of rotting food (we may still get there if I keep being a lunatic - haha), but what has shocked me is that there is no smell other than the odd funky odor wafting up when I really dig around with my fork (ie there are some stinky anaerobic pockets, but over all it is getting really good aeration).