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juicer pulp as food?
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Posted by
dinahsgarden (
My Page) on
Thu, Sep 20, 07 at 18:42
Greetings,
I am in the planning stage for our first worm composting system. I am looking at designs, and will start on the cheap, with a rubbermaid container system. My question pertains to using the fruit and vegetable fiber / pulp that is extracted when juicing. It seems a shame to throw that out, I was hoping this would provide suitable nutrition to our soon to be new worm friends. I expect that they will need additional liquid, and will save cooking liquids and left over coffee for their misting fluid. Do you think the pulp will be a good addition to their diet? They would also get the whole fruit and veggie scraps and cooked veggie leftovers - the pulp would be intermittent. Looking forward to your input!
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: juicer pulp as food?
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| Use it but don't put it in a bin in a big lump. I use half a bin. I put pinches of it all over that half of the bin then cover. I did use the lump once but it drew mites. Start out small and see what happens. |
RE: juicer pulp as food?
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the pulp will be great for the worms!
Spreading it out is a good idea. You may not need to mist or add as much liquid to the bin as you might think. Always stick your hand in and check the moisture before adding much liquid. You want the bedding to only be as moist as a wrung out sponge. Even if the very top of the bedding is dry, it is likely that the bedding under is moist and possible that the bedding in the bottom of the bin is sodden. |
RE: juicer pulp as food?
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| Thank you! I can't wait to get started on this! |
RE: juicer pulp as food?
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I give my worms the pulp from when I juice vegies. I do mostly carrots, and I scatter it around the bedding. Before my bin I always felt SO guilty dumping the pulp, not now!!
When I do mild fruit, such as apple, its ok for the bin, but I don't add any of the sweeter fruit pulp, such as pinnapple, I don't want to encourage fruit flies! |
RE: juicer pulp as food?
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| If you want to use pulp from sweet fruit you might be able to without getting fruit flys as long as you bury the pulp under bedding. Dig a little hole or trench dump some pulp in and cover it back over. Test it on a small scale before using lots to see how it goes. |
RE: juicer pulp as food?
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| Great suggestions! We plan to make our bin this weekend, put aside some food to start getting "yummy" and order the worms! |
RE: juicer pulp as food?
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| Be conservative with it because of the moisture it will add to the bin. Plastic bins have a tendency to get too wet, and can get stinky when too wet with lots of nitrogen material. You might try wrapping the pulp in a sheet of newspaper when you put it in the bin, to absorb the moisture. Deanna |
RE: juicer pulp as food?
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| I use pulp almost daily because my parents juice everyday! I currently have 3 bins because my first bin couldn't handle all the scraps my family produces. Anyway the pulp is GREAT. I usually dig a trench the length of the bin and dump it in that trench. Then I fill back with the stuff that I moved to make the trench. I usually split it into 3 parts for the trench and the worms love this stuff. No water problems here, I actually use a spray bottle sometimes because the tops of the bin is a little dry. |
RE: juicer pulp as food?
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I juice too! And mostly carrots. I mix the pulp with torn up coffee filters (used) and whatever else I am saving. Depending on your juicer the pulp can be very dry (supposed to be that way) or on the damp side but I find that the pulp absorbs liquids from the other scraps.
My worms LOVED the pulp and I had a population explosion. Pineapple (I'm in Hawaii) is a bit too acidic but they love apples, papaya (not the seeds - it will make your worms temporarily sterile until you get rid of the seeds), all melons and ground up eggshells! I also use the carrot pulp for baking and fillers in meatloaf, spaghetti. . .not just for my worms! |
RE: juicer pulp as food?
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| Juice pulp is probably great for you worms but be a bit careful with lemons. I read in "Worms Eat my Garbage" that the chemical Limonene, found in lemons is toxic to worms. I do put lemon and orange peels into my bin but i try to spread them out so that the concentration of lemon juice is low. |
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