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jgore_gw

Worms in Drainage...and some other questions...

jgore
15 years ago

Hi All, I'm new to the worm composting bit and recently started a Worm Factory (tiered, upward-migration style bin). I've been following the directions for setting up the bin carefully as I've gone through the process so far, but I've noticed something that bothered me and thought I'd sign up for the forums here to see if any members have some insight to share.

I've been checking the bin pretty frequently to make sure the system looks like it's developing properly, and I happened to notice that somewhere in the range of 10-20 worms are ending up in the draining area of the bin every day. Most of these worms end up saturating in the seepage/water/tea or whatever you'd like to call it, and I wasn't sure if this was normal or not.

The temperature seems warm throughout the bin with good moisture, but not too moist. I actually have been adding very little bedding at all, as I haven't noticed more moisture than the literature told me I should see.

The squeeze test, as I believe it's called in the directions, said that the bin should be moist, but if I squeeze the coir/compost mixture, no significant water would be released, similar to a damp cloth. There hasn't been any extensive moisture to this extent, so I was a little hesitant to go ahead and add additional bedding than what I originally began with in the system - newspaper lining the bottom and shredded newspaper on top along with some full newspaper sheets.

Is there a chance this small number of worms I'm finding in the draining are moving there to cool off and get away from the heat or moisture? Is there a chance I should be adding more bedding even though the moisture isn't so extensive as to drip when squeezed? I see lots of baby worms and many many worms actively moving around throughout the system.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I love my worm bin so far and enjoy thinking I'm treating my worms to an indulging diet of kitchen scraps.

Tonights dinner included: garlic husks, garlic scraps, scallion bottoms, ginger skins and coffee grounds!

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