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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The 2-Storey Worm Bin

Here is the 2-storey worm bin. The black tape blocks out the light so the wormies can munch mush in murkiness. The Husband helped me to drill holes at the bottom of the worm bin so that worm tea (or pee) would flow out to the container below. Then, I happily collect the worm pee and water my plants.

I am told that worm pee/tea contains a whole host of different bacteria which help to break down organic matter so that plants can more easily absorb nutrients from the soil. There is also bacteria that will attack insects such as mealybugs in order to eat the sweet sugars that can be found in such soft bodied insects. Another theory holds that the bacteria converts sugars in the soil to alcohol and the plants die of alcohol poisoning because they haven't any livers... but that doesn't quite make sense to me because alcohol is usually made from fermenting yeast. It is vinegar that that results from bacterial fermentation.

Anyway, who cares what the theory is. The important thing is that my plants love worm tea and soft bodied insects that feed on plant sap, hate it.



Here is the vermicomposting pile. The worms are hiding in there somewhere. There's quite a whole bunch too! The supplier who sold them to me was quite generous with his 100g of worms. He was also very thorough in the way he quizzed me about worm care. He gave me great advice that I followed to a T. My worms love their new home.

I've been making apple crumble and pear crumble about once a week because the children are home for the holidays and they love crumbles. That means there is quite a pile of apple and pear peelings. I put the whole pile into the blender and store the mush in the fridge. Every 3 days, dear wormies get 200ml of mush mixed into their bedding.

2 comments:

Blur Ting said...

Woah, I can't help but admire your worm's home. Mine looks like a ghetto now. :-) Your hubby did a really good job with the drilling. They're in such a straight line!

Petunia Lee said...

Hee! Hee! I was so traumatized by the death of the worms you gave me that I went the other extreme and got them a high end condo!! Hee!