Our last vermi bins worked ok but they were plastic totes with air holes drilled it them. They didn't drain perfectly and what they did drain was annoying to siphon out. Fruit flies were always an issue. The plastic eventually got brittle and deteriorated. So we have taken a couple year break from this operation, but the kid is fascinated with bugs and crawlies and I've managed to keep a couple carnivorous plants alive indoors, so it might be time to get back into it.
I've just finished a library copy of The Earth Moved and before that, Worms Eat My Garbage. The former was much more practical. I have a copy of Secrets to Great Soil for Expert level but haven't cracked it open yet.
Appelhof's first tip was to weigh your kitchen scraps to get a sense of how much worm food you generate. I'm posting 3 weeks of home compost weighing. This covered Thanksgiving and the run up into Christmas with a big banana rack coming ripe in this interval so this maybe slightly more bountiful than truly average. That said, we generate 11.2 pounds of compost/week. So we'd need a system that is about 11 square feet with 11 pounds of worms in it to process all of that. I have my eye on a Worm Factory but am waiting until the Christmas and through hike settle us back down to a routine. I'm not sure one system would fully cover the load so we may continue to slow compost in the yard.
No comments:
Post a Comment