flowers, beans, and worms

[hime]

Okay. So I have a worm bin. I filled it full of about 3 pounds of beans recently. The worms, they didn't like that so much. They've migrated away in the bin.

I have the trash can compost bin, full of grass clippings and a few trimmings from my tomato plant and a few leaves I've picked up. And a lot of water too. But hey, it's shrinking. I need to find an icepick...

Anyway, boss got some flowers for his anniversary the other day, and they've wilted and he is now ready to dispose of them.

Should I put them in the worm bin, or my compost out in the back yard?

[Gar]

Just curious of what you need the icepick for?

[hime]

To poke holes in the trash can compost bin.

[Gar]

Good idea, Compost needs air. A cordless drill, along with a drill bit, might work for the job as well

[Fito]

Gar wrote: Just curious of what you need the icepick for?

Dont you recognize a budding, cold-blooded ice-pick muderer when you hear one?

:D

[hime]

I'm not cold-blooded. I'm an emotionless killing machine. Look for me next year on the World Series of Poker.

[Gar]

I'll be looking for you. You should be easy to identify. Just look for the icepick. (LOL)

[hime]

I won't take that with me, it might keep me from getting on TV!

We are so off topic. And I forgot to grab the flowers again today. I guess I'll do it tomorrow.

[Kathe Kitchens]

I know I'm gonna regret joining in here, but ...

Okay so, what kind of beans were they? How big is your worm bin?
What kind of worms do you have?

If you don't have air circulation in your compost bin, you'll get anaerobic activity that makes the decomposting materials bad instead of good for your plants. Bet it's kinda stinky? :shock:

Put the flowers on your compost pile. The worms need their environment dried out, I'll bet.

Ice picks, huh? Hmmmm.... :wink:
Kathe

[hime]

You know, just ranch style beans. A friend's brother gave him a 5 pound can for his birthday. Long story.

It is incredibly stinky in the bin right now... I have been mixing in the beans a little bit at a time.

I did add some shredded paper to try to counteract some of this too.

(edit: I can spell brother)

[Gar]

Thanks Kathe for getting us back on track.
Yes hime, we love to have fun on this great forum, but we all take it seriously as well.

[Priswell]

You know, just ranch style beans. A friend's brother gave him a 5 pound can for his birthday. Long story.

A few things come to mind:

The beans might be salty. Worms don't like salty stuff. Or too spicy. Hot peppers and chili will burn the worms, so they make an exit while they wait for that stuff to breakdown or be diluted by other things.

Also, there is likely way more beans than the worms can clean up in a reasonable amount of time, so things fermented and went sour, causing an acid environment, unlivable conditions for worms.

1. Add some more of whatever you are using for bedding, peat/sphagnum moss, dirt, coffee grounds or ground coconut shells, damp, please.

2. Turn the stuff in the bin with the added bedding to expose to air. Do this every day until the smell changes from bad/sharp/acid to "fresh turned earth" smell. Add your worms again, but this time, add less food until your worm population catches up.

3. And the next time, you plan to dump a whole bunch of something in that your worm population can't keep up with, be sure to turn the bin every 2 days for a week or so, to get the air and microbes to help with the burden of breaking all that stuff down.

[hime]

The worms just went around to the other side of the bin... and they've come back nicely.