Vermicompost

Spike_KCanG Time for an update. A week hasn't passed yet but I was forced to work the top layer of the soil today. Fungus gnats found the soil and decided they were going to hold a massive disco. Must have been one heck of a pr team because adults were swarming the soil within 48 hours. Note made: close off the top of the pot. It's felt. Air can come through the sides and bottom. ----------------------------------- March 11 Checked in to see if there were any alterations. Found several red wrigglers who didn't immediately react to my touch. but soon scattered away. I'm guessing they came up for food and didn't find any. I also found three fungus gnats walking around. Squished them and threw the copses out of the window above to ward off future intruders. Soil generally looks drier but it's too hard to tell by looks alone if it's still moist enough for the worms. Note made: invest in a moisture meter ----------------------------------- March 13 (no pictures) Checked in on the soil and was unwantedly greeted by 10 gnats. On the soil partying were another 10 or so gnats. There was an orgy in one corner that I respectfully disturbed. (It may or may not have involved two spoons and an old hash grinding technique) Considering these buggers aren't paying rent here, they need to go. Since the first warning of corpses outside the window was ignored, it was time to step it up. I mixed up a solution of apple cider vinegar and lavender dish soap. Poured that into two of the smallest glasses I could find and one small saucer, that I borrowed from the kid's room. Game on! ----------------------------------- March 14 Mission acomplished 😎 Now to take care of damage control 👿 Those pesks can lay eggs. Damage control consisted of removing the top 1-2 cm of soil (approximately 400g), carefully as not to perform an unannounced biology experiment on a worm. This soil underwent my infamous 300ml water treatment, performed at a little less than 100 Celsius. Leave to aerate and crumble dry. Preferably burn it at this point. Wouldn't want these things swarming the trash bin later would we? Having removed the top layer it was interesting to see just how much the structure of the LightMix had been impacted by one run, and the Living. It is loaded with roots and isn't easily separable. I'm gonna need a top layer though. There needs to be a layer where you can mix in nutrients and snacks. This means, disturbing the Living 😱 After having plowed the top 3-4 cm with my fingers, I mixed in a little snack for the Living as a thank you for their patience. 200g diced strawberries and one diced paper towel roll. Topped that off with 1L of dechlorinated tapwater + PH Down to 6.5. Just to signal to the Living that there is food. Now to get to closing off the pot... the rings in the pot will allow pests in so the pot needs to be closed off a bit lower than that. I had an idea. Dunno if it'll work or not, nor how often I should replace it but I found a lid for the pot 😉 Good ole non stick baking paper. ----------------------------------- I may have to rethink the position of the pot. Being directly under a window that gets opened several times a day may not have been the best move. Can't move her into the drying tent because §10 KCanG. (My child would no longer be able to help or come look at the worms every now and then because that tent is in the same room as my grow tent. Even under adult supervision, they are not allowed in that room. Even if you lock the grow tent, they are not allowed in that room.) Could purchase a new tent, but that involves investing in ventilation, temperature and rh monitors etc.. dunno if I want to go that route yet. That sounds quite serious just for some microbes, fungi and worms 😂 Postponing the objectives until a stable place in the house is found, for the Living's sake.

Spike_KCanG Time for another update. All is well so far. Found a new place in the house, where even the kid can come help 👍 Time to get back to the objectives, starting today. ----------------------------------- March 16 Checked in to see if the baking paper lid had held out (it did) and if there were any new gnats crawling around. Found 1 between the paper and lid, but none on the soil. This is a pretty good sign! Much of the strawberries and cardboard are still visible, so they haven't been eaten completely yet. Some pieces haven't even been touched and are developing a nice fungus layer on them. I'll have to mix that into the topsoil if the worms don't find it. Other microorganisms should take care of it then. Soil is still moist, and the sides of the felt pot still feel moist too. Don't think the pot needs any water at the moment. ----------------------------------- March 20 Not quite clear what those two worms were doing... Checked in on the paper and the gnat situation again. The paper had holes at several places, presumably eaten by the Living. And gnats? None to be seen. None under the lid. None under the paper. None running around the soil. Not even on the outside of the pot. None. We might have gotten lucky but I don't wanna cheer too soon... Soil was visibly drier, but could have gone another day or two. The fact all the strawberries, including fungus, were gone was a good sign. Without poking around too much in the soil, I wasn't able to find any strawberries in the topsoil either. What I did find, was all the leftover cardboard! The buggers left behind nearly 75-80% of the cardboard!! Did none of them need it at the moment? As they went through the strawberries within four days, I take it they are chasing sugars at the moment. It's been a while since I did a population check too.. gonna use this chance now, before the next microbes and BioGrow are given. Time to round up the Living 😱 Dug a hole about 4 cm deep and 4cm wide. Placed my infamous rotten banana patty (overripe banana, peeled, diced and covered in grounded egg shells) in the hole and buried it up again. Will check back in two days, this time with camera in hand. Luring the Living with banana has not failed so far. We'll get a good impression what the population count is. How many are older, younger, newborn.. Hopefully i'll have EC and moisture meters in soon! ----------------------------------- Next update, there should be plenty of pictures 😅

Spike_KCanG Just realized, it's been a couple weeks since I last updated this diary. The soil and the Living have not been neglected. On the contrary, they are multiplying and definitely picky eaters 😂 -------------------------------------- March 23 Checked back in on the banana patty. Unfortunately it hasn't even been nibbled on yet. Found no traces of the ground up egg shells. Did find a lot of cardboard though.. Great, so the Living refuse to eat cardboard that doesn’t came from Amazon directly or, the expensive stuff. (The inked and labeled sides removed of course.) And now they don't wanna eat the cheap ALDI bananas... I'm about to throw this pot right out the window. See if they only eat "the good stuff" then.. And then I saw them. Two golden pearls. Had never seen these before in the other pots, or perhaps they just never caught my eye? The camera on my phone says they are bugs. Yeah, great help there. Need a spliff for this one... It began with the thought, "How are worms born?". I had seen them doing the nasty. I've seen really really young worms crawling around but never a real baby red wriggler. So I Googled it. Well don't you know, red wrigglers lay eggs. Those two golden pearls in my soil, were red wriggler eggs!! Good sign! The environment is stable enough for them to procreate and birth. The eggs are obviously hatching as well. Okay, the pot can stay. I won't throw it out the window 😂 -------------------------------------- March 26 Went in for minor surgery on Monday so wasn't around the soil much the first few days. In that time, fungus gnats found my plants, and this soil👿👿👿 Nematodes arriving 1st week of April 💪 Unfortunately I am not able to dig down to the banana patty today but I'll return for that. Took a picture of two young ones. One just barely has its stripes and the other hasn't really started to develop color yet. I think this is the closest I have been to seeing a newborn red wriggler 😍😍 The soil was quite dry already so I gave it a watering + feeding. 4L of dechlorinated tapwater + 0.2g/L Microbes + 1ml/L BioGrow + PH Down to 6.5 There was no runoff. This watering was aimed at moistening the soil. Left out the CalMag this time. One dose per month should suffice if the living are already being fed things like fruits and leaves regularly. It may sound odd, but red wrigglers process calcium and magnesium. Not in the amount I was giving them previously though 😂 -------------------------------------- March 31 Nematodes arrived earlier than expected. 6 million Nemabest SF (Steinernema feltiae). Wasn't able to get pictures of this, but I added them to this pot as well. Followed instructions: 6M - 6L of Tapwater. Two liters of that was applied, in a circular motion. Hope this doesn't f-up the ph etc... Changed the baking paper as the worms decided to munch on that again instead of the cardboard. Stupid critters.. (Don't tell the Living I said that though! 😅😅) -------------------------------------- See you next update, where we'll hopefully see if the nematodes worked or not 🙏

Spike_KCanG Okay, so one week hasn't passed yet. Sue me. The soil will need watering Saturday or Sunday. I'll leave out the feed this time and just give water. -------------------------------------- April 4 Still not able to dig the soil due to the operation, but I can at least checkin and see if it needs watering. Also, we should be checking if the nematodes have had any luck yet. Didn't see any gnats nor anything unusual crawling about the soil. I did find a lot of shit though. Worm shit to be exact. And a big spider. I found that chilling in the grow room. She wouldn't stay still long enough to put the measuring stick next to her but I estimate, she is about 10-12cm. She was kindly tossed out the window. I unfortunately have no footage of that. You'll have to take my word on it that I did not kill her and feed her to the Living. Like seriously, how do you even come up with ideas like that about me. Sheesh.... -------------------------------------- See you next update!

Spike_KCanG A couple of problems arose with my two newest grows so I thoroughly checked the compost pot and looked if the worms were okay. After harvesting the GDP, I wanted to throw out her soil. It had been used two runs and I have no place to reuse it outside. Did my best and sifted through the dirt looking for her worms. Found only six 😔. Four adults and two adolescents who were just getting their red color in. This was not a good sign. The worms were obviously not reproducing enough to keep up a colony, and that was most likely due to the soil ph. Don't have the instrument to measure it, but as my ph meter was broke the past two weeks.... 😅😅 Time to check in on the Vermicompost and see if they are still 'grinding'. ----------------------------------- April 17 Last picture I have of her soil structure. ----------------------------------- April 23 Took that thing apart!! It must have took 3 hours to sift through all the soil, rip up bark coco and what not. sift out the worms and keep them moist, but it was finished. I don't know how many worms there are but it's a good handful. About the same amount I put in there in the beginning. There were also perhaps 20 or so eggs that caught my eye. These are good signs! After the manhandled soil was put into an other pot, I drowned her with 12L of dechlorinated tapwater (thanks to Envi Chlorine Clear!!). BioDown to 6.3 ph + 0.2g/L Microbes. I don't know how many liters of water ran off, but that soil is definitely at 6.3 now... .. and the sewage pipes might be clogged 😅😇😂 Let the pot set to dry, at a tilt. Changed position every 5 minutes or so, about 2 hours long. Hopefully all the excess water is out! Introduced the Army of Wiggles to their new accommodations and said good night. There are probably still remnants of BioBizz nutrients in the soil, and I'm too lazy to flush again. Won't start her on the new microbial food until I'm sure the Living take hold of this environment. Coming from a possible 7.5 down to 6.3ph might be an adjustment. I'll check the topsoil in a week or so and see how the Living are getting along. ----------------------------------- Thanks for stopping by 👊 See you with the next update!

Spike_KCanG The medium was in for a watering, and it was about time to check on the Army and the rest of the Living. I didn't get many pictures this time unfortunately. And didn't get any of some of the key points I'll be mentioning either. Both hands were covered in poo, dirt and Living. Had I but been born with three arms. Alas. -------------------------------------------- May 3 Nearly the entire top layer was poo. Some soil texture could be seen here and there, but mostly poo resided in the top 2cm of medium that was still moist. By the time I had disposed of the half-eaten baking paper, all the worms that were napping, had disappeared. The hall lights are only 3w each, but bright enough to scare the Army away. The two molded over avocado halves were carefully removed and even more carefully spooned out. You can see from the pictures why one does that carefully 😅 The top 4 cm were plowed through, by my fingers, as I tried to mix up as much of the poo as possible, with as much soil as possible and get the poo back into the ecosystem where the microbes and the rest of the Living can break it down. How much time that takes, I suppose, shows how the big/small the microbial population is as well as how much they are feeding. In other words, if they are healthy or not. After all the plowing, I dug a hole about 10 cm deep and placed the scooped out avocado remains together with 2 handfuls of hand-ground GrandaddyPurple leaves, that I conveniently stored in a paper bag, for this occasion. (In hindsight, i'm pretty sure the hole was too deep and the food now needs to be searched for by the Living. I've been told, they don't like that and to treat them like fine diners at a Michelin star restaurant.) Will check in on the food in about a week and see how well they have done. -------------------------------------------- Dragged the pot to the bathtub and watered the entire medium with 4L of dechlorinated tapwater (Envii Chlorine Klear 👍) + Bio Down to 6.3ph + 0.2g/L of BioBizz Microbes. I didn't bother collecting the few drops that came out as runoff. In hindsight, I should have watered 5L and tested the ph 😶 An hour later, the pot was back in it's spot in the house, with it's lid on and a fresh layer of baking paper applied. If all is well, with the next watering, the medium and Living should be ready for a liquid feed. 2ml/L of AlgaGrow might make them happy 😉 -------------------------------------------- There were a good amount of active worms in the top 4cm of soil. I also saw a lot of extremely tiny red crawlies and white crawlies. I don't know if they are good, or bad crawlies, but they are there. Doing their thing. Also worth noting, the amount of medium in the pot has reduced. It's not only visibly noticeable but also by how easily the lid fits the top of the pot 😎 This is the first time that has happened since starting this venture. Could it be... ..the soil is being eaten, due to lack of (sufficient) liquid feed? 😕 It's what the Living should be doing, right? Turning all the organic matter into poo and other useful nutrients and minerals? Could it be... ..it's actually working?! My vermicompost is working?! -------------------------------------------- Find out next time! Thanks for checking in 😀 See you with the next update!

Spike_KCanG It is time to check in on the Vermicompost, and compare how much they have eaten in just one week. Also, time to check if the medium needs watering. ------------------------------------------------ May 10 After removing the lid, I was greeted once again by half eaten baking paper. Either the population is increasing or the Army is getting really f'ing hungry for some paper in their diet! Gonna have to prepare some cardboard soon! Luckily, I snapped a shot in time to present how many worms were napping! Seven days have passed, and look at the medium structure of the topsoil already! It's nearly 50% poo!! Dug down about 10cm and literally had to search for avocado remains. I'd estimate, about 25% of the avocado remains hasn't been eaten yet. And only a small cluster of leaf material was found. Seems like they are eating alright. As they are hinting at needing paper in their diet, I crumbled up the remaining baking paper that was used as a lid, and put it in the hole. Topped off with two handfuls of dried GDP leaves and an old banana. Covered all that up with medium and closed off the pot again. ------------------------------------------------ It didn't get watered today as I felt the medium was still moist enough for the ecosystem. May have to checkin on it tomorrow or Monday to be sure though. The buried paper and leaves will more than likely suck some moisture to it so I'll have to keep an eye open. Also, I'll have to remind myself to get a runoff reading from this pot. As much as I would like to feed the Living some liquid, right now it's more important to know where the medium's EC and PH are. To get a runoff of 1L, I'll need to water 5L. The more water that goes in, the less likely it'll be that a feed can follow immediately, due to overwatering. Hence, if I check runoff now, the Living will have to wait at least another week for liquid feed. It's moments like these where experience is needed. So what if the dry feed mixture is 100% perfect or not. Is it in the ballpark of what the Living need? I don't know the nutritional value of the baking paper. Don't know the nutritional value the leaves either. Nor the avocado 😅 Have I been feeding the Living the correct dry diet to keep them satisfied another week? Will the current poo be broken down in the meantime or will the microbial life leave the poo aside searching desperately for other things to eat? The worms will 'swim in their own sh*t' for a little while but at some point it will start to affect them. Yes, I've read up on the Soil Food Web, which helped some. I ended up spending more time on Google than was healthy for a human being... should have studied Biology when I was young. I haven't a clue what half the terms mean 😂😅 Trying to figure out what the heck I should be feeding these things in preparation for this specific Liquid feed. And how long it can take to release.. and how long before the nutrients are plant-ready.. what happens if they aren't taken up by a plant.. what happens to EC/PH in the meantime.. it gets exhausting. Well, it's an attempt I am going to see through: runoff EC/PH values are too important. Next watering, 5L of dechlorinated tapwater + BioDown to 6.3ph Nope, not even microbes this time around. ------------------------------------------------ Fingers crossed, runoff ph isn't above 6.8!!!! See you with the next update! 👊

Spike_KCanG One week has passed and it was time to check in on the pot of Living! On the one hand, hardly anything has happened. Upon close inspection though... It's neat what you can pick-up on, if you look closely. And what's with the 7.2ph I measured from the runoff? ---------------------------------------- May 17 The Army is making 'something' of the newly improvised cardboard lid. They're not eating it, but seem to be burrowing in it ready to jump out and attack at any notice! Except, they're not attacking 👿 (Perhaps they are working on their stealth skills. Yeah, that's it.) Peeled away the lid layer by layer and helped the Soldiers back to the soil mixture. It's almost odd to see them behave this way. I am tempted to believe the soil is either too 'hot' (7.2ph isn't THAT bad is it? 😂) or the temperature may be too warm. Could it be there isn't enough aeration in the medium? Or perhaps not enough decomposed material in the bottom of the pot for them to feed on? Nah, it's not due to feed else they'd be eating the cardboard, and everything else organic that was placed there last week. Speaking of that, how is that going? ---------------------------------------- The two bananas are all but untouched. Having carefully dug them out, I was offered a glimpse into what was left of the avocado, leaves and baking paper. Do you see any paper? I didn't. There is some green leafage and yellow goo remnant from the avocado. But no paper. Instead of filing the hole up with the lid shreddings, like any normal human being would do because the worms obviously NEED paper in their diet, I filled it up with some rotting raspberries instead 😂 I'm going on a hunch here, but the raspberries don't hold the same nutritional properties as cardboard does. So why the heck am I doing this, you ask? Why am I intentionally feeding the Army and the Living things they aren't asking/begging for? Why am I giving the soil products that will more than likely raise the PH of the medium when it's already at 7.2?? Simple. For the fungus. ---------------------------------------- I'm not going to get the ph of the medium down to 6.3ish by flushing. It'd take multiple flushings of 6L of dechlorinated water @ 6.3 to achieve that, and that amount of water would kill off most of the Living and the Army. Gradually reducing ph would take even longer than what I am about to attempt. So, to do this properly without harming anything living or the medium itself, it's time to farm fungus. The mold on the raspberries should expand and start giving off spores. As long as the living aren't touching it anyway, it might have weeks available to grow and expand. The mold and its spores should help push the ph down to normal territory. If I can keep the Army distracted with the cardboard lid long enough, we might have one disgusting looking pot in two weeks 😎 ---------------------------------------- Holding off on feeding the Living liquid as long as this situation plays out. As I didn't give Microbes last week, due to wanting to measure the runoff ph, I'll be giving the medium an increased dose with the next watering. I think, 0.5-7g/L should do the trick 👍 The 💩 needs to be broken down somehow! EDIT: will NOT be increasing the Microbes until I see the fungus growing. How is the fungus supposed to grow when the Microbes eat it? ---------------------------------------- See you with the next update 👊😎

Spike_KCanG The Living and Army of Wigglers have been busy this past week! Dunno why I expected fungus on the raspberries already, but I did and was let down. There was some fungus forming on a banana though! ------------------------------------- May 23 The leaves are gone, save a few stems. Completely gone. And the Army chewed up half the cardboard lid. The bananas have rotted into goo and worm cum. Just the peels remain, partially covered in a white fungus. As for the raspberries, they're smushed up into two clots and each housing its own orgy of worms. (I'm sure these red wigglers are direct descendants of the Romans 👉👌) I'm sure if I improvise a new lid, water the pot a little, close it up and leave it stand for another week, the fungus will be at the stage I want it to be.. everywhere throughout the pot. Did I do that though? Did I do the right thing this time? No, of course not. Why would I do that? 😂 To prepare a feast. ------------------------------------- The Army is hungry. Hungry for paper/cardboard/leaves. Fungus will do its thing, I can ignore it for a few days. You can't ignore an Army though. I dug a hole about 15cm deep, cutting through two distinctive layers within the medium. Placed all the remains of the cardboard lid in there and on top, the rest of the organics (bananas, raspberries, etc.). Plowed the entire top layer carefully with my fingers and then proceeded to close up the hole. Took the pot to the bathtub. Placed it on the plant riser and watered it. 4L of dechlorinated tapwater 2ml Pure Zym 2ml Power Roots 1ml Sugar Royal 1ml Silic Rock Lemon Juice down to 6.3ph 0.3g/L Microbes Runoff was 6.8ph (lower than the 7.1 from a couple weeks back!) Why the Plagron additives? Pure Zym to help breakdown the food particles. The rest is simply nourishment for the Living and the Army. At least, that's what ChatGPT said 😂 ------------------------------------- We're breaking down the organics now. Proper supply of paper and greens in the medium. Sugars for dessert. This is a fitting ending for the vegetation stage. We've not got all the kinks out and the PH isn't stable yet but, I think I got the balance between Living and Army sorted. Next stage. Stability. aka Flowering 😂 ------------------------------------- See you with the next update 👊😎

Spike_KCanG As far as I am able to tell, with my limited knowledge, there is a good 50/50ish balance of Living and Army. I base this off how much of each product (greens/paper vs fruits) is being processed. ------------------------------------- May29 The lid (paper) was half eaten again by the Army. All but a few shreds of banana peel remained from the fruits. Could not find any remains of berries. Unfortunately no molds or fungi either. Perhaps I should not have given Microbes at all last week 😅 Buggers ate all the organics!! Put gloves on both hands this time as I wanted to mix the first and second layers of medium. The top layer is running out of soil and at this rate, I may have to start thinking about topping up the pot with a layer of medium soon. Perhaps in a week or two. You can clearly see a steady decline in how much the pot is containing. First, I carefully dug out all the food (cardboard) and set it aside. I then mixed up the first 20cm of soil throughout the pot, carefully and gently. Dug a new hole, about 15 cm deep and placed the remaining cardboard in it. Closed the hole and watered. ------------------------------------- 2L of dechlorinated tap water + feed + lemon juice down to 6.3 + microbes. There was no runoff. It was intended to remoisten the soil and cardboard. ------------------------------------- I'll open her up in another week or so and see how far along the Army and Living are with the cardboard. See you next update!

Spike_KCanG Can hardly believe it has been 19 days since the last update of this diary. I know I fed the pot in the meantime but unfortunately did not take pictures. Shame, that may or may not have been interesting to you. Oh well, bygones are bygones. --------------------------------------------- June 8 The cardboard from the previous feeding was all but gone and the improvised lid of wax paper was chewed through as well. Those are very good signs! We may have just been in time with the cardboard. I can't recall if the amount of medium in the pot had reduced more or not. There was enough room to stuff the pot full of the remaining foliage from the GDPauto. It was about 3-4 handfuls of green. Let's see if we can get some fungus growing from the greens! Watered the pot with feed. Pure Zym to breakdown organics for the Living. The rest is dessert. --------------------------------------------- June 17 Today I came prepared and brought the camera. Not that there was anything really interesting to capture, hence I left with two pictures today. The first shows the medium structure upon opening removing the lid. Look how much medium is gone!! The second shows how I left it before closing the pot off again. In the first picture, you can see just how much cardboard and foliage remains have not been eaten yet. If you look closely, you can see the start of a white fuzz appearing on the foliage remains. That should be the start of fungus! Could also be Mycorrhizal from the Microbes. I contemplated mixing the topsoil up and trying to spread the fungus but as it's only just white fuzz aka the beginning stage, I decided to leave it as is a little longer. That should give the fungus time to grow on its own. Increased the Microbes from 0.3 to 0.5g/L to help with the composting as the Pure Zym is clearly doing its thing. Guess we'll know next watering if that fungus was Mycorrhizal or not. If not, the fuzz should be gone due to the Living. If it is Mycorrhizal, we should see a decent amount of white throughout the topsoil! Topped the pot up with leftover used soil and fed them 2L of dechlorinated feed. --------------------------------------------- Thanks for stopping bye! Hope to see you with the next update. 👊😎