Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Race of the Compost Worms

The garage composters are doing well, having had a few problems over the winter. In late 2006, I noticed groups of them attempting a mass exodus from the boxes. This was probably due to a lack of bedding material and excess of worm castings (ie. worm poop). I added some coconut coir and fluffed the boxes up a bit and the worms seem happy now.

Recently, I decided to do a little experiment with the worm castings. I am growing 2 containers of romaine lettuce, with 3 seedlings in each. One container contains pure worm compost end-product (contains worm castings and other decomposed organic material) and the other contains regular potting soil (which possibly may contain some granular fertilizer).

I am treating both containers the same, except that I put the container of worm media outside in -15 weather for a night to kill any remaining worms, just in case they might eat my lettuce roots. The seeds were planted March 3, and as you can see, the worm seedlings (on the left) are winning!!! I think this is a rather ironic endeavor: the garbage remnants of our food become worm food and now the worm excrement is growing my food!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow, your worms look healthy and happy. And your bin looks great. Congrats on being a successful worm wrangler! I have tried and failed.