Very Edible Gardens PTY LTD

Re: Very Edible Gardens PTY LTD

You are wasting valuable finite imputs,of course this is your choice.My line of reasoning is perfectly logical in fact,it is considered to be best practice.It's up to you but please don't be bandying about misinformation based on personal observation, you only seek to misinform and make excuse for poor practice.If you wish to practice poor worm husbandry thats fine.As permacultralists we are obliged to return surplus that means waste as well as abundance if you want to rob the earth and yourself of a valuable resource again it's your choice.My analogy might be this,if you buy milk at the shop the change you get you can either put in your pocket or throw in the gutter,I think your a guy that throws it in the gutter....thats just my 2 cents though.
Best wishes Fernando :mrgreen:

 

Re: Very Edible Gardens PTY LTD

I think a compromise is in order guys. What say we practice chopping like "yan can cook" and take it as far as we individually like it - cause though I agree with Fernando about the size of the particles, I note that worms do just fine without our intervention. :wink: I would like to add that fresher food is always better. A day for the bacteria to build is good but remove unconsumed food after a day or so more.
kind regards
purplepear
intent-observation-intuition

 

Re: Very Edible Gardens PTY LTD

I agree to disagree,none are so blind as those who won't see.What I think is funny is I remember when worms first hit the market fool proof they said.Well you show me foolproof and I will show you I am a talented fool.Apologies Gbell,If I am too much of a pedant.Best wishes to you my friend!and I have enjoyed the exchange tally ho I say lets disagree about something else ....To swale or not to swale Peter Andrews has a very interesting opinion in back to the brink.!!!!!!!! :lol:
Thankyou PP for your gentle hand of mediation.

 

Re: Very Edible Gardens PTY LTD

I guess it is the bro mantic in me Fernando 8)

 

Re: Very Edible Gardens PTY LTD

I'm happy to drop it, though I think Fernando owes it to any future readers of this thread to explain exactly how someone who feeds whole scraps to a worm bin is wasting resources. The scraps soften in a few days, the worms eat them and they become compost. Same as blitzing them.

 

Re: Very Edible Gardens PTY LTD

This is a bizarre conversation.

I can't keep up with the worms in my worm farm, so blending the food isn't really going to help is it?

Plus, I'd like to see an analysis of the water and electricity wasted in cleaning the blender ;-)

Seems like there are two different ways of doing things being offered here. I'm sure there's more than two in practice. And I'm sure my worm farm maintenance would be considered poor by some. But it works for me, so is that a problem?

 

Re: Very Edible Gardens PTY LTD

Yes I will be drawn back in.....Once more rotting is a completely different process to bacterial break down.Anything wich is made smaller becomes more bacterial,faster.The surface area of foods that have been pulverised blitzed chopped will harbour more bacteria which is worm food.Here is a simple experiment take 100 grams of lettuce leaves and shred them,now take one hundred grams of un shredded lettuce leaves put them in your farm side by side,see which disappears first.One will become highly bacterial because all it's surface area is exposed,the other will rot.Again worms eat bacteria.If you want to let your food rot away the worms will only be getting a small portion of the input.Inputs are finite,in the big picture and we are all trying to make efficent use of resource as permacultralists.Or are we?And just like Forest Gump who is my intelectual model"thats all I gots to say about that.Once again if offence has been caused you have my apologies.
Your Humble Servant
Fernado Pessoa Filho

 

Re: Very Edible Gardens PTY LTD

I've (very belatedly!) made a new thread for this conversation here with some very interesting research.

 

Re: Very Edible Gardens PTY LTD

Re: What exactly do earthworms eat?
by Fernando Pessoa » Mon Sep 07, 2009 12:47 pm

1.Fernando was saying earthworms eat bacteria so we should "blitz" food scraps in a blender, which increases the bacterial action in the food. Anything else "wastes" the food scraps since they break down before the worms can eat them.

Fernado never said this he is talking about red tiger worms or blue worms or other commonly used worms in home composting systems that rely on food scraps breaking down through bacterial action.

Fernado is fully aware that earthworms are part of the soil food web and of course each a wide variety of things mycoryzal fungi ,protozoa,et all they are completely different to the household worm.

Only an absolute or an Idiot could think this,Again I never stated that the earthworm did anything......good grief ..... lets get to the next lot of crap shall we.

2.I've always heard they eat "decaying organic matter", so I thought I'd do a bit of research.(should have done more)

I can't find much that's definitive on this issue. One commercial site and one "blogger" state that they eat bacteria, but they don't say that bacteria is the worms' primary food source. Searching Google Scholar (to get academic and science sources) yieldedhere we go he reckons he has got something)

This at science direct

says:
There is experimental evidence that microorganisms provide food for (EARTHORMS). Bacteria are of minor importance in the diet, algae are of moderate importance; protozoa and fungi are major sources of nutrients.(what relevance to home composting??????????)Again you are talking about earthworms......wow I can't even believe you spent time on this)

Also, this: https://www.compost.bc.ca/learn/factshee ... cology.pdf

says:
Worms consume bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and organic matter.

This: https://cwmi.css.cornell.edu/chapter1.pdf

says:
Worms and some other invertebrates derive nutrition by digesting the microorganisms growing on
organic detritus, as well as the detritus itself.COMPOST DERITUS IS NOT FOUND IN YOUR WORM FARM UNLESS YOU HAVE AN AMAZING DIET ie you are eating compost and throwing what you cant finish in the worm farm........this is a joke.

2......REBUTAL............I agree with this this is basic soil food web stuff relating to EARThWORMS,again we are talking about home composting in a bucket with vegtable scraps using red and blue worms the MAIN SOURCE OF THE HOME WORM IS BACTERIA BECAUSE HE LIVES IN A CAGE,HE DOES NOT HAVE ACESS TO ANYTHING LIKE THE EARTHWORM AND IS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ANYWAY>WHEN THE SOIL FOOD WEB TALKS ABOUT FUNGI THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT MYCORYZAL FUNGI

 

Re: Very Edible Gardens PTY LTD

G'day
Great looking website and great venture too; I think having different income streams like the book and product selling is a really good idea. Also as many links as you can (i didn't actually check those yet)
Hope it goes well, good luck
cheers

 

Re: Very Edible Gardens PTY LTD

Great name
Good luck
You might start flogging your services in trendy ares of the cities!

 

Have we two threads on What eathworms eat?
I'm confused about what to move??

 

site looks great best wishes!!!

on the other hand, I had no idea it was possible to get so worked up over composting methods. pretty foolish if you ask me.