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celbrise

how long can you keep food scraps for?

Celbrise
11 years ago

we eat a lot of fruits mainly banana's and i mean the food scraps just pile up and i don't even have a big vermicompost going yet not even a pound of worms or 1/4 a pound. i got all these food scraps and i was just wondering how long can you typically hold them for such as just keep them to rot/w.e. before they are too bad for the worms?

usually i only see people keep their food scraps for a week and they usually have a pound or more. i mean is a week all they can handle or can it go for say 3-4weeks? usually by then i would think it would be all soupy but just wondering if anyone knows of how long one can keep food scraps for.

PS- they are not refrigerated.

Comments (8)

  • Aindra
    11 years ago

    You freeze your scraps so you can use them when you need them. I have a ice cream bucket I use for freezing scraps. I would take that bucket out of the freezer and let it thaw. Then I take stuff I want for my bin. You can use ziploc bags, buckets, or what you have on your hand.

  • Celbrise
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    never heard of freezing it but i guess that is actually a good idea. i will do this :) thanks for the idea

  • machinist17
    11 years ago

    I think the idea is that freezing it (besides preserving the food) ruptures the cell walls of the food, because water expands when frozen. Then when you thaw it, it's mushier and decomposes faster.

  • boreal_wormer
    11 years ago

    "i got all these food scraps and i was just wondering how long can you typically hold them for such as just keep them to rot/w.e. before they are too bad for the worms?"

    I don't think they would ever become 'too bad' for worms but they might be objectionable for you. Can you have a compost bin/pile outside for the excess material?

  • 11otis
    11 years ago

    There is no expiry date on worm food. In time my freezer got so full with worm food & the rest of the family complaining not finding human food in it. So I resorted to just stuff the scraps in 3 gal buckets I have, put them at the shady side of the house. When it got too mushy I added shredded corr. CB (newspaper will mat). The worms love it.

  • Celbrise
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    yea i decided not to freeze it after all because my family will become very violent when they find rotting food in the freezer. they don't garden and the ones who do like my dad don't even know what composting is.

    in the end im just keeping it in a tuppawear container and when it does over flow i will resort to a 5gal bucket with a lid. this way it has time to decompose at least unlike before where i just put in the food fresh and it takes like a week just to start molding and is still untouched. i found out the hard way that they like the moldy stuff better then the fresh stuff

  • rygo796
    11 years ago

    I tried keeping scraps for a while in a rubbermaid but that was a disaster. I just throw extra stuff into my regulat compost bin and feed the compost to the worms.

  • Celbrise
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    i wish i could do that but sadly my outdoor compost bin is full of twigs and huge leaves. i was thinking of putting the leaves in the food scrap bin as we have a lot of food scraps i almost filled my 5gal bucket with food scraps in just a week. but i don't think i will be able to compost my outdoor bin and feed it to my worms.

    i only have a few worms atm but i will be buying a pound soon or half a pound so that is why my scraps are plentiful

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