Just how quickly does Bokashi break down? - compost bin

Further to Just how quickly does Bokashi break down? the wormery is looking rather wet and miserable after all the rain we have had recently.



Normally I would have added a good dose of shredded paper to help dry it out (as well as add some much needed carbon), but for the purpose of this experiment I haven't so that I can see what is happening with the added Bokashi. However, the temperature recently has dropped considerably, which has slowed everything down and, in true British fashion, it hasn't stopped raining so the whole thing is looking wet and slimy. Rather than hide the Bokashi with shredded paper I have added a Wiggly Wigglers moisture mat in the hope of drying things out a little and giving the worms some much needed warmth so they can continue their job.



I also have a Bokashi bin ready to empty:



and decided to add it to the compost bin so I can compare how that breaks down against within the wormery. Here's the bin before I added the bokashi:



and here it is after:



Let's hope the weather doesn't get too cold over the next few weeks so that we can see some progress...

Bokashi experiment November update

Further to the original post on 19 October 2008 here are a few pictures of the Bokashi that was added to my worm bin.

Here is what the bin looked like when I added the Bokashi about 2 weeks ago:


and this is what it looked like today:


As you can see it doesn't look that much different, until you look a bit closer and see that it is riddled with worms.


What you can't see from the picture is that the layer of waste is also thinner because they have been working their way up nicely, keeping away from the very top because of the colder weather, which has slowed the worms down considerably - you would normally expect them to have been eaten more than this but the weather has changed over the last few weeks and it is a lot colder. I might move one of the bins into the greenhouse so that I can see how much quicker the worms work in warmer conditions, but I worry about a strong sunny day getting them too hot.

Another thing I noticed was the number of fruit flies - it was riddled with them and I had to wait a minute before getting too close as the little blighter's seem to delight in flying up my nose! Normally I would wrap the waste in paper so they would have less chance of getting at it, but for this experiment we need to be able to see so I didn't bother. A couple more weeks of the cold weather and they will all die off anyway...