do worms eat sawdust?

[betho]

I'm planning a container garden and I'm seriously considering doing potatoes. I'd grow them in a trash can and most of the goriwng medium would end up being sawdust with only the first 2 feet or so being the actual soil.

I'm wondering if after my garden is done, can I throw the old dead plants into the can with all the sawdust & all and throw some worms in and see what happens over the winter?

Not sure if it would insulate well enough - the can would be right up against the house...

I guess my main question is, would they eat the sawdust? It would be lovely to open up the can in the springtime to a bumper crop of worms AND castings to enrich next season's gardening.

[Jay Blair]

As long as the sawdust is not chemically treated, the worms should consume it with the rest of the organic material.

Of course if your using the sawdust for food crops you shouldn't be using dust from chemically preserved word anyway.

[priswell]

I use wood pellets for bin filler most of the time. Once it's wet, it becomes fluffy and expands to 2-3 times the original volume. It's also very inexpensive, although there has been a severe shortage of pellets this year.

[Jay Blair]

I never thought of the wood pellets. Since they are burned as a fuel, EPA standards would require that they be made from non treated sawdust.