For Posterity: The Vermicomposting Process

[mousme]

As promised, I am now delivering Worm Pr0n. My html skills are negligible at best, and all my attempts at aligning the images to the left or right went horribly awry, so I'm afraid you'll have to make do with a very basic layout.


So this evening I set up my vermicomposter. The whole process took about twenty minutes, one-quarter of which was spent taking lots of photos, and another quarter of which was spent keeping the cats out of my way. So all in all, this should take the average person only about ten minutes to do.

Step 1: Assemble Your Tools

The first thing I did was to put everything I'd need in the same place.

1- I started out with a bin designed for composting. A large rubbermaid container with holes is ideal. I was told to make sure that the lid seals tightly, especially if one has cats. As you can see, in this picture Gretzky is making sure that I have all my stuff together. She's useful that way.






Here I have shown a view of the box from above, so that you can get an idea of the spacing of the holes. It's important for the air to circulate well, to promote the happiness and well-being of your worms, and to prevent your compost from turning into sludge. The bottom of the box should be similarly perforated.





NB: You may place your box on wooden slats an inch or so off the ground to permit the air to circulate even more, and a plastic mat to catch any run-off is a good idea as well. From what I've been able to gather, run-off is rare as long as your composter is not overly damp inside. Updates on this as events warrant.



2- With duct tape, I affixed a piece of screen to the bottom of the box. This, too, should contribute to limiting run-off, and will help with the circulation of air.






This compost-bin is George-tested and -approved, in case you were concerned about QA.




3- I also procured a 16-litre bag of compost from Pousse-Menu:





Pan-Pan, at this point, felt compelled to intervene, just to make sure the compost was up to snuff:




When questioned about their motivations, both Pan-Pan and George vehemently denied any interest whatsoever in the compost they had been trying to eat a moment before.




The rest of the tools include:

a. Newspaper, for the bedding. It amused me to use the Journal de Montréal, but it doesn't matter what kind of paper you use, so long as it's free of harmful chemicals.




b. Scissors, and a spray bottle, better known in this household as the "Bad Cat Bottle."




c. The Eco-Quartier's Practical Guide to Vermicomposting, to make sure I wasn't doing anything back-asswards.





At this stage, George decided he'd be of most use to me by sitting on my tools. He moved a moment before I took this picture:




And here he is playing innocent. "Why, Mummy, of course I would never dream of getting in your way!" Yeah. Sure.




d. Last, but not least, a can o' worms. More specifically, three-quarters of a pound of Eisenia Foetida, aka Red Wriggler Worms, aka Compost Worms. They are the sine qua non of this whole project, after all.




Step 2: Prepare The Bedding

First I cut up a bunch of the newspaper into strips. I was going to post photos of the strips in an orderly pile, but George decided that the strips were great new toys, so instead I shall give you photos of George pwning the newspaper:


After the first few strips were cut, he figured out that this was potential fun.






As I cut more strips, he decided to appropriate them all. Why not? They were on the floor, and thus his.






"Mine! All mine! Mwahahaaa!"






Of course, newsprint isn't all that great-tasting if you lick it.






This is kind of unrelated, but I was amused by the irony of coming across an article about a leopard running amok in the streets of a city in India while my cat was helping me shred newspaper.






Step 3: Install Bedding

I started with a layer of newspaper in the bottom of the box.




I then added a layer of shredded newspaper, which I sprayed with water. I took before and after pictures of the newspaper, but you can't tell the difference between the two (well, I sort of can, but whatever), so I'm only giving you the one picture.





On top of that I dumped a bunch of the compost I got from Pousse-Menu.




Beware the pitfalls of not owning a trowel, incidentally. I accidentally dumped dirt all over my floor. :P





Step 4: Add Worms

I was a little startled to discover that opening the can of worms did not, in fact, involve unscrewing the cap from the bottle (I'll admit I had been wondering how to get the worms out). Turns out the people at Pousse-Menu are a little cleverer than I am about these things. ;)




Here is the best close-up I could get of our little composting buddies, with a Canadian penny provided to give you an idea of their size. The large one is the biggest one I could find, and the smaller one is about average, from what I could see of the others. They are active little dudes, let me tell you! I couldn't get them to stay still very long for their close-up.






So I dumped the contents of the container directly into the composting-bin, as evidenced here:





Here's a pretty good close-up of the worms "hanging out" in their new home:






I then covered the whole shebang with more shredded newspaper, generously moistened with the Bad Cat Bottle, before putting the lid back on.






And that's the end of today's demonstration. I didn't take any pictures of the closed box at the end, because, well, it looks just like the closed box at the beginning, so there wasn't much point.

There you have it. :)

Comments

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I shall see if I can find the aforementioned programs. :)