I keep the 'wild' Canadian Nighcrawlers since April. They live in a slightly modified 3 trays bin: the bottom stand mesh is replaced by pieces of wood, the separating mesh is removed from each tray and the bin is filled with earth.
I tried to feed them with different kind of materials, I usually use for composting worms: food scrap, dead leaves, cardboard, pre-composted grass clippings, etc... But it looks like they mostly prefer dead leaves. Approximately 100 overage size nightcrawlers finish 1 lb of wet dead leaves (mostly maple) in 2 weeks.
I am not sure they will survive indoors, so I will probably release them before winter.
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I was surprised that paper coffee cups do not fully decompost in the bin.
They leave after them thin sheets of a plastic-like material (signed with red marks).
Those cups were not signed as fully compostable, but were advertised as
nature friendly.
Worms seem to enjoy to live inside those pieces of plastic as they usually like to lie under plastic bags left on the ground.
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All my bins moved for the summer under the deck.
Worms seem to enjoy this place.
They multiply in a faster rate and better process the compost.
Having so many worms I started to fill some luck of a compostable food scrap. So I decided to use precomposted grass clippings from the last year and discovered that it is a luxury food for worms. European Nightcrawlers like it more then others and virtually prosper on it.
It also looks like it's possible to use a regular earth worms - Lombricus Terrestis (Canadian Nightcrawlers) - to compost dead leaves and old grass clippings.
I use a slightly modified version of a 5 tray bin for their home.
Since the end of April they look healthy and eat well.
I'll post more about this experiment later.
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This is a prototype of a new medium-sized bin.
This bin will target the backyard composting and organizations with larger composting needs, like schools, cafe's etc.
It will be designed as two boxes separated by a mesh. The minimal total volume of the both boxes together should be 40 x 48 x 40 in height.
It planned to be easy to move and disassembly.
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From 9:30AM to 5PM, we were busy explaining, demonstrating, advising and answering questions and inquiries from enthusiastic visitors at the Botanical Garden of Montreal.
The weather was great and therefore allowed a good number of visitors to feel in no hurry, and to stop by our table.
Some new questions had to be answered, which was great both for us and the inquirer.
Other kiosks displayed various interesting things as well, such as natural colored salt, young bonsais, different indoor and outdoor plants, soaps of many smells and textures and various natural tea flavors.
Such a weekend is held at the Botanical Garden once a year and is definitely worth attending!
What's important for us right now is to get people's interest and understanding of vermicomposting. Everything else will follow, once they know what this fascinating idea consists of and how it works.
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