Wood Worm Farms

Holidays period generates more... let's say food for worms.
Tray 1 received it's 1lb today. And probably will get more very soon since we celebrate all the possible holidays.
The tray isn't full yet. The leaves will compact in several days and this tray will receive more 2 - 3 pounds mixed with bedding.

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After reading about a continuous flow system from Bentley's site,
I decided to make a test on some natural material. I've tried the cotton bags before and discovered that worms devour them in a month.
The burlap, from other side, should be more durable. Last summer I found remnants of a burlap cloth beneath the roots of a dead maple tree. This tree was planted by municipality at least 20 years ago!
If the bag will last at least one year this could bring more interesting and light bin design.

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I decided to start a small diary to follow the path of a tray from top to bottom of a 5 - tray bin.
Yesterday I just emptied one tray and putted it on the top.
First I marked it with '1'.
For those two days the tray received 1.5 pounds of food scrap mixed with approximately the same amount of dead leaves and soaked cardboard plus one spoon of sand and one cup of a local clay soil.
The cardboard and leaves are fully soaked with water. There is no problem with excess water in those bins (rather opposite).
The soil comes from beneath an outdoor 'comforter' compost heap - this soil contains many microorganisms which help to speed up food scrap decomposition and worms like it.
It's interesting how fast the tray will fill up.

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Fruit flies is a usual problem for vermicomposting.
The best way against them is prevention, but if you got them it's very hard to get rid of.
Fly traps could bring some remedy. They alone would not eliminate the fruit flies, but could greatly reduce their number.
The flies on the picture were trapped in two hours. (You can imagine the total number of still uncaught flies!)
The trap is a very simple homemade one. It consists of three pieces:
1. Glass jar
2. Paper cone
3. Jar's lid with its central part cut out
The paper cone is slightly wider then the jar's mouth. It's wrapped around the jar and tightened with the lid.
The cone has only one opening on it's summit - 2mm in diameter.
The bait is an apple core.
I find this trap amazingly effective. It virtually "sucks in" the flies wondering around in several hours.

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Here a local samurai crushes poor pumpkins freeing their spirits for a
reincarnation through the compost in the next generation of pumpkins - next year.

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