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Post by Jay Blair on Nov 3, 2005 15:47:59 GMT -5
Thought it might be beneficial to have a discussion of the ecosystem aspects of a worm bin environment.
This struck me as I was dusting off some of my old biology textbooks and started thumbing through them.
During my thumb through I read in the chapter entitled "Ecosystems: The Flow of Energy and the Cycling of Materials", I got to thinking that a discussion of our worm bins with their beddings, producers, consumers ( worms , microbes and insect life), sproutings and how the addition of the organic detritus ( foodstuffs ) establishes a wonderful model of an ecosystem right there in our bins.
So in what direction shall we carry this discussion?
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Post by theinfamousj on Nov 3, 2005 17:19:09 GMT -5
The only thing we need to complete the ecosystem is something to grow in the worm poo. For example ... a plant.
The worm bin does show the decomposition web. But an ecosystem also has a producer/predation web which the bin is missing.
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Post by theinfamousj on Nov 3, 2005 17:19:47 GMT -5
Dear god, I now realize how much like a teacher I sound. Luckily, I'm going to be a teacher. So that's all good.
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Post by Jay Blair on Nov 3, 2005 17:35:54 GMT -5
What about mushrooms ?
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Post by tt on Nov 8, 2005 0:21:04 GMT -5
Hi
the research i did a few years ago says no to regular mushroom growing. But magic mushrooms will grow . Now i dont know for sure just the research i did . You might try wheat grass or any of the sprout crops . All i know is almost anything sprouts in a bin. Pototes seem to grow quite well
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Post by Jay Blair on Nov 8, 2005 16:01:30 GMT -5
OK so we can't do mushrooms.
What about a worm bin on top of a clear sided reservoir to both collect tea drip through and support alga growth?
Also as algae are in the plant spectrum couldn't the alga growth help diffuse the cO2 build ups and produce oxygen?
alga water could also contribute to the bin nutrition.
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Post by jerryspock on Sept 1, 2007 14:52:00 GMT -5
Funny thing... I read this thread a few weeks ago, right before I put my worm bin outside. Today I went out there to look at it, and there's some sort of hairy mushrooms growing. Here's a picture... blurredvisions.awardspace.comFor some reason my webhost won't let me link directly, so I put the pictures on the mainpage. Not sure what they are or how they go there, but they're cool looking. My bin has a combination of yerba mate, normal grass clippings, shredded paper, coffee grounds, and fruit peels. I got the yerba mate from our bigger compost pile, so maybe the shooms came from there. ------------ Well I did a little searching and though I'm not positive yet, I would say the mushrooms like Coprinus Comatus otherwise known as Shaggy Mane. Everything I've read matches up. I even found the remains of an older mushroom stem that had melted into ink. I'll be watching them for the next few days to be 100% sure. Here's some of the identification information I found. del.icio.us/JerrySpock/coprinus-comatus----------- Probably not Shaggy Mane, but it is some sort of ink cap. Got up this morning and got some pictures of the mature mushrooms beginning to melt away. |
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Post by Jay Blair on Sept 4, 2007 15:35:49 GMT -5
TT would probably know more on the mushrooms than I would.
I have started using half of my bin space to start nursery plants in from propagations in the last year though.
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Post by tt on Sept 5, 2007 22:32:24 GMT -5
hi worm castings dont do much for mushrooms except magic mushrooms.
but they will grow well in the coffee ground there are about 5 types that grow in coffee so if you got mushrooms that is what is keeping them going. I may be wrong but that is the info that i have researched.
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