http://www.woodwormfarms.com/blog/index.php http://www.woodwormfarms.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry120122-192054 Located on the 13th floor of the Concordia Hall building, the greenhouse
feels like a garden of Eden in the heart of the busy city and in the midst
of a snowy winter.

It stretches out across the roof, covering an area of about 5 medium-sized
classrooms.
You can find an atrium, where many herbs are grown to be dried up and used
in tea.
There is a room dedicated for an urban agriculture class (GEOG 398).
Another room contains the aquaponic system, about which I will write in more
detail.
And one more room with the vermicomposting bins.

The greenhouse used to be a high-tech laboratory for the biology department.
Eventually, the department moved to the Loyola campus and a group of
students decided to use the space. This was back in the 70s. A number of
things have changed, as new projects replaced older ones. Right now, the
greenhouse is made of solid glass, has automated air vents, windows that can
be manually opened during the summer for additional ventilation and heating
that is provided by the school. In fact, it gets pretty hot in the summer
and the worms have to be moved to a back room.

The aquaponic system was based on Murray Hallam's
system.
It started with water and micro organisms (i.e. compost tea), to
which was added ammonium, followed by plants (to experiment with the
filtration capacity) and then the fish. The system is consists of a big
metal container in which are placed 6 green recycling boxes. The system is
purposely made in this way in order to enable access to the sludge that
forms in the water. The container is on somewhat of a slant to enhance
draining. A year and a half later, they replaced the rock with clay pellets,
to facilitate access to the plants. The depth of the water in the system has
to be of about 2 inches beneath the surface of the clay pellets. It is made
of 3 components: the crates with the plants, a tall cylindrical container
and a tank for the fish. The water circulates from the plants, passing
through the cylindrical container where micro organisms (and sludge)
accumulates and sinks, to the fish.

There are 2 pumps. A timer regulates water circulation from the plants to
the cylindrical container, turning the water off for a certain hours.
However, the water keeps circulating between the container and the fish for
oxygenation purposes 24/7.

The system is enhanced with iron citrate: a spoonful is added to the system
every 6 months. The water is from the tap, and is often placed on the side
for the chlorine to sink before being added to the system.

The fish are normally fed duckweed. Currently, there is a research
development in the fish's food program. They're trying to feed the fish with
home-made recipes. This is done to reduce cost and enhance food quality

[photo, a corn shoot]. They sometimes feed worms to the fish, but not
so much anymore.]]> http://www.woodwormfarms.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry120122-190159
Winter came just before Christmas. It right away started to compensate for all the ski loses.
The temperature in my poorly insulated greenhouse fast fell under freezing point. The top layers of worm bins got frozen to a depth of 12" - 15". But when I dug under the frozen zone, it was wet and I found many live worms.
Unfortunately exactly for this time my compost supplier stopped its operation for holiday break.
So no warm compost came for 3 weeks in a row.
Now I put the fresh compost on top of the frozen one. I hope then when Spring will come the cold layer will delay, for a short time, compost self heating. This should let worms time to process the fresh compost gradually.]]> http://www.woodwormfarms.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry111218-160253
Instead of ski season we have an extended Autumn in Montreal this year. And it seems like a green Christmas is coming. It's hard to say whether these are consequences of global climate change or an unusual fluctuation. I think in a couple of hundreds years this will become more clear.
In any case all of my worms, fish and plants may take advantage of an extended rain water collection season. The rain barrel was empty and packed for winter. I reinstalled it back and temporary redirected rain pipe. It's much easier to collect rain water this way then to melt snow!
Whatever a climate change will bring us, we always may take an advantage of it. Especially when we have our friendly earth worms with us!]]> http://www.woodwormfarms.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry111210-180922
Here are some steps to eliminate fruit flies problem in a worm bin.
1. Stop feeding worms with fresh fruits or vegetables for 4 weeks. Boiled veggies, pre-composted food, manure - shortly all that doesn't get sour is OK.
2. Always cover the worm food with ready compost.
3. Keep the bin wet enough, but not too wet.
4. Bait fly traps with a mix of fresh fruit and vegetable scrap - better the same type as your flies hatched on.
5. Add some water into each fly trap to delay bait drying.
6. Put traps on lighted places, usually near a bright window.
7. Empty and recharge the traps each 4 - 5 days. ]]> http://www.woodwormfarms.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry111210-174900
For efficiency reasons Evolution kept a number of mating animals as 2. All the creatures that have sexual reproductions and can mate are made so. Though some try to overcome this hard limit. It seems that worms don't have to limit themselves to 2, they can be 3, 4, and so on. The only problem for them is to find enough others...]]> http://www.woodwormfarms.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry111202-213322
For this winter my worms moved into another greenhouse. Actually it was the greenhouse who moved upon them.
This is a small, easy to disassembly temporary greenhouse - tempo tent. It suppose to be as good as a high tunnel greenhouse, but should overcome its disadvantages.
The main role of the greenhouse is to protect worms from wind and keep some sun heat in for winter.
This greenhouse has better ventilation windows and can be easily removed if needed.
]]> http://www.woodwormfarms.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry111127-175944

This year I decided to try on-site composting for my vegetable garden. From November to May it should be enough time to decompose properly, with some help from worms.
The fresh compost mix is laid directly on the planting beds. Since it's worm compost it is not to be turned. Depending on the coming winter severity worms may or may not survive till Spring. In any case, I will add more of them in April - May.
By my previous experience, many plants like fresh compost. Among them are tomatoes, squashes, corn, etc. So this bed will make an ideal space for "Three Sisters Garden" next year.
]]> http://www.woodwormfarms.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry111125-162900

It's generally accepted that oranges are bad or even lethal for red worms.
But I have an opposite experience. In my bins, worms are fed on mostly coffee grounds with cardboard and grass clippings. It seem that in such environment they find something that they need in oranges. I often find 5 - 10 worms in a single, yet not rotten, orange or lemon rind and all worms there look fine and happy.]]> http://www.woodwormfarms.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry111124-203352
-------------------------------------
-Do you see something strange on this picture, Dr. Watson?
-No Mr. Holmes. Just some rotten green tomatoes and other garbage.
-It looks like a local masked gangster visited us tonight.
-How do you know it was him?
-The middle finger imprint of his back right leg clearly shows blueberry juice...
------------------------------------

To prevent raccoons, I try to mulch and mix the materials for compost. This does the job, but sometimes I forget something or delay the mixing. They are always on watch. At last, it's their land and here was their forest. We are foreigner intruders here.
]]> http://www.woodwormfarms.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry111028-214433
I didn't care for those tomatoes at all. I didn't trim, support, trellised, water or fertilize them. I even didn't plant them. They grew on their own from lower layers of my new pallet worm bin straight out of pure worm compost. They sprouted on the beginning of August, so they had no chance to get ripe in our Montreal's climate. But when I decided to clear the space, I discovered some unripe fruits of different (unknown...) varieties. And there were 10lb of them!
I would be a pity to throw all this Nature's gifts back to compost, so I decided to pickle them.
Let's hope for the best...]]>