Boulder Vermicomposting

Interview: Redworms in an middle school

April 30th, 2010

I wrote a while back about redworms in a Durango middle school.  I actually contacted the teacher there (in late March) and was able to ask her some questions about her experiences.

Dan: What piqued your interest in vermiculture?

Sharon: Actually, it was Jennifer Craig (Durango Compost) whom I met at the Farmer’s market in Durango a few years ago, and I was tired of buying expensive worm casting soil for my garden.  Now I have tea, and great compost.

D: How many bins do you have running?

S: I have one huge bin… a commercial metal bin that holds about 16 pounds of worms.  It has a heater, but it is not adequate for our cold winters (it has to be outside on the dock at school)  so I had to use rope lights wound around it with a thermal wrap over that.  It worked great; however it is now difficult to regulate the heat factor, so I am wrapping it with reflective material. Unfortunately, there is no other spot.

D: How have the kids reacted?

S: They think it is very cool!  Of course, some of them don’t want to touch the worms, but I make them, and then they are ok.  Now, since we are turning over soil in the garden, they bring the biggest earthworms they can find and are very proud of themselves.  Who can figure?

D: How have the parents reacted?

S: Great!  I am holding a workshop in April to show them how to make their own worm bins so I’ll let you know how many are really interested.

D: Is it in the classroom, or in a different space?  Is it inside?  How do you handle odors/fruit flies (if you have them)?

S: It is on the dock.  I had them in an empty room in 5 different bins, but fruit flies were an issue.  No one was patient enough to see if the neem oil would work, so we took them to the big bin, where they are not a bother.  I will be spraying neem oil soon to that bin.  The bin odor is not an issue, as we must be feeding them the right amount because it doesn’t smell bad…just earthy.

D: How much do you feed the worm bins a week?  How many worms did you start with?  Do you feed them mostly food scraps?  What do you use for bedding?

S: Right now we are feeding them about 4 lbs. of food a week, mostly raw food scraps and coffee grounds.  Our bedding is shredded paper and newspaper.  We started with 5 lbs of worms, but given our data, we think there are about 8 lbs. now.

D: How do you harvest the compost?

S: It is mechanical—a handle rotates and it comes out the bottom.  I don’t like it as well as our smaller bins (we had layers of screening with bedding and food, and they worked their way up, and mostly compost was on the bottom.

D: How much time/week do you (or your class) spend maintaining the bins?

S: We take the temperature daily and feed once a week, so no more than 10 minutes a day.  Sometimes we do data collecting which will be a class period.

D: What overall lessons are you trying to convey with the worm bins?

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