Quote:
Holy cr@p
Geez Yak_chat, that beats socks, books and cds!
Geez Yak_chat, that beats socks, books and cds!
Yeah I prayed pretty hard for those 3 days.
Browse Forums Eco Living Re: Worm farm or composter?? 22Aug 07, 2009 1:19 am Re: Worm farm or composter?? 23Aug 09, 2009 8:59 pm They all have their pros and cons: Here are a couple useful sites to read. The compost guys looks at all the different ways including Bokashi. http://www.compostguy.com/composting/ho ... omposting/ Here is the US Agricultural dept site on hot vs cold vs worm composting: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/FEATURE/backyard/compost.html Re: Worm farm or composter?? 24Aug 09, 2009 9:12 pm The aerobin looks good, did anyone end up buying one? Re: Worm farm or composter?? 25Aug 09, 2009 9:17 pm fitnhealthy The aerobin looks good, did anyone end up buying one? I've read good and bad things about them on blogs. They are one of the more expensive models! Because we have the room, in the end I am deciding to make compost bays out of the old pallets left on the building site. I am combining Bokashi with organic hot composting. I will probably grow comfrey for the nitrogen source and cut hay for carbon. I going to also try propagating my own Bokashi mix my using the commercial stuff and mixing it with bran and molasses from a feed store. See how I go. Re: Worm farm or composter?? 26Aug 09, 2009 9:50 pm They do seem mighty expensive. Has anyone had experience with the compost tumblers? Or what would you recommend for someone in a unit, as I am looking for something I can put in the corner of my small rear yard. Re: Worm farm or composter?? 27Aug 09, 2009 9:53 pm btw dymonite i'm keen to hear how you go making your own bokashi mix. I did look into the bokashi for under the sink, but they seem expensive for the size Re: Worm farm or composter?? 28Aug 09, 2009 10:28 pm fitnhealthy btw dymonite i'm keen to hear how you go making your own bokashi mix. I did look into the bokashi for under the sink, but they seem expensive for the size I didn't get the commercial bucket system which are around 85$ each. The difference is that they are impregnated with 'Bokashi ceramics' I saw this idea improvised with two 'Handi' buckets that you get from Bunnings or Mitre 10. I use a pair of big ones and little ones. I drill holes in the bottom of the big ones and nestle that in the little ones. It is a bit more fiddly to remove the juice. Alternatively you can buy your own fittings to make a tap. After several batches it seems to work ok. Re: Worm farm or composter?? 29Aug 27, 2009 12:40 am Over all a worm farm is way better. The ducks nuts of composting. Maybe not if you are in a flat, then the bokashi bins are good. Worms are our soils workers and they do it better than anything. Their eggs will be present in the composts they create and end up in your garden where they will spread the good word or should I say the good worm. Worm eggs look a little like an osmocote prill. They will also remian in dry soil for up to 6 or 7 years ready to jump into action when rain comes! Compost heaps or compost bins are ok on rural properties if you have the time but what is being found now is the use of a chipper or shredder is better. Shredding your plant waste and putting it straight onto the garden is far better. It will be like a horizontal compost heap. All the nutrients break down at a rate that the plants will absorb back. It also turns out to be the most water wise mulch available. It also is the very same principle that mother nature has used to create forests and sustain them. For food scraps then a worm farm takes care of that. The bokashi bins and the like may break down the organic matter but there is no worms and the associated different microbes that all go on to do bigger and better things in your garden. Re: Worm farm or composter?? 30Aug 27, 2009 1:09 am Fu Manchu Shredding your plant waste and putting it straight onto the garden is far better. It will be like a horizontal compost heap. All the nutrients break down at a rate that the plants will absorb back. It also turns out to be the most water wise mulch available. It also is the very same principle that mother nature has used to create forests and sustain them. For food scraps then a worm farm takes care of that. The bokashi bins and the like may break down the organic matter but there is no worms and the associated different microbes that all go on to do bigger and better things in your garden. Worm casts are soil gold but how do the worms go with citrus and onions? I like Bokashi because I can put anything in it including dairy and meat (admittedly this isn't a big component of kitchen waste). You can also do it indoors for the daily refuse. When the bucket is full I bury it (or when I build my compost bays - throw that in for the worms and other microbes to continue their work). The good thing about Bokashi and cold composting is less volume loss and GH emissions. Cold composting apparently gets rid of more germs but hot composting kills weeds better. Re: Worm farm or composter?? 31Aug 27, 2009 1:29 am yeah it is something that is now proven to be wrong or more like a bit of wobbley science. The CSIRO has been doing a fair bit of study with worms and how they interact with the environment and have discovered some pretty amazing stuff. we have been traditionally treating our worm farms with to much kindness. The worms will break down anything that was once living and yes meat too. technically you can have the meat in there but it will get woofy! so who wants to do that? Anyway the citrus and onions are fine. A light spreading of dolomite of lime every week will keep it all in check and if there is a fair bit of onion etc in there, well chuck in some extra dolomite. Use dolomite not just garden lime. As long as you do that the worms are happy as. Bread is also fine where as that was also considered a no no because of mould but the mould is harmless to the systems/ worm farms. Good idea to turn the compost once a week or before you chuck in lots of stuff. Re: Worm farm or composter?? 32Aug 27, 2009 10:50 am What type of worm farm would you suggest? Also how many worms would you need to buy? I have heard that worms can be slow if they have too much scraps. Re: Worm farm or composter?? 33Aug 27, 2009 3:50 pm Fu Manchu technically you can have the meat in there but it will get woofy! so who wants to do that? Anyway the citrus and onions are fine. A light spreading of dolomite of lime every week will keep it all in check and if there is a fair bit of onion etc in there, well chuck in some extra dolomite. Is it the low pH that the worms don't like? Apparently pouring neat Bokashi juice on them makes them very unhappy. No woofiness with meat using Bokashi but you do have to watch out for dogs that might want to eat it once it goes into the compost bin! Re: Worm farm or composter?? 34Aug 29, 2009 12:46 pm Yeah they don't like acidic soils nor do they like alkaline. But because composts get very acidic, they need to have lime applied to keep it in check and as balanced as possible. So if you chuck in a heap of citrus and onions and other acidic things, you need to add more dolomite than normal. For compost heaps, you'd use dynamic lifter (Very High pH, or extremely alkaline) which also contains good nitrogen for the bacteria to break down the material faster. Re: Worm farm or composter?? 35Aug 30, 2009 9:55 pm Oh I forgot to mention that studies have also found it to be beneficial to add some sand to the worm farms because worms have gizzards and the sand acts to aid their digestion. Re: Worm farm or composter?? 36Oct 02, 2009 1:01 am Hi Guys,
I'm just wondering if you know why my worms are trying to escape my worm composting bin! I've tried many solutions that I read online but none of them seem to be working. I'm hoping you guys could help me out with my problem. I can't risk loosing all my worms, they are too expensive! lol
Re: Worm farm or composter?? 37Oct 05, 2009 1:25 am Well considering you are trying to sell us worms, then why are you concerned? Your web page seems pretty well geared for knowing about what you are flogging. For genuine people reading this worms will pack up and leave if the conditions become a bit adverse. mainly happens before heavy rain. Worms will go to high ground. Considering they are not super fast they get going before the air in the soil fills with water and they run out of oxygen. Also you might not have the tap open and the water might be building up in the farm. Again they head to high ground for air. They will also leave if the soil becomes very acidic. Dolomite of lime once a week will be fine to help control the pH. If you load up the worm farm then it will need some extra dolomite of lime. Re: Worm farm or composter?? 38Oct 28, 2009 11:30 pm fitnhealthy The aerobin looks good, did anyone end up buying one? I bought an Aerobin. Only had it a month so hasn't produced 'finished' compost yet (think it takes 12 weeks as it's a hot system) but I'm happy with it so far! Will try to remember to report in again in a couple of months. |