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What about the 'JUICE' at the bottom
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Posted by daman1974 (My Page) on Mon, Oct 12, 09 at 17:50
| Do you guys get "juice" at the bottom of your bin? Mainly for you that are growing them in a rubbermaid container. I have enough in there that I figure it would drown my worms if they were in a container. How do you drain this stuff off. |
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RE: What about the 'JUICE' at the bottom
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| The "juice" is Leachate, mainly just water from the veggies. Veggies are around 75% to 80% water. Some worm herders use double bins. The inner bin has holes in it for dripping and air circulation. The outside one collects the leachate. But you can choose not to go the double bin method. Use a turkey baster to get out the worst of the liquid and add paper so soak up more of the liquid. One way to cut down on the leachate is to freeze the food first. When you thaw the food drain the excess liquid out before feeding. I never did this myself but there are people here on the form who say they squeeze the liquid out to get rid of as much of the liquid as possible before feeding the worms. |
RE: What about the 'JUICE' at the bottom
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| I got myself an extra turkey baster to drain the leachate. Use when scooping a hole out of the vermicompost and it fills up. Probably once every few months. Drainage holes doesnt always take care of it and adding bedding is only temporary. |
RE: What about the 'JUICE' at the bottom
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| Your bins are far too wet. There shouldn't be any liquid in the bins. The turkey baster works great, then mix in dry paper. As fosteem said, if you freeze the food (I always do) make sure it's well drained before adding to the bin. If you don't want to freeze, cutting the food into large chunks should help with the excess water. Takes a lot longer to break down and be edible for the guys, though. |
RE: What about the 'JUICE' at the bottom
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| I have no idea if anyone else does this, but I add any liquid that drains from my worm bin to my compost tea. I figure it's full of all sorts of microbes and soluble trace elements. I can say it definitely hasn't hurt. L8r,
Don |
RE: What about the 'JUICE' at the bottom
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| You'll see differing opinions on this, some good some bad. I think it's due mostly to the fact that the components in the leachate vary depending on your bin, what you put in it, how wet, etc. The leachate will be composed of things dissolved in it from your bin. As organic material decomposes the water in it is released, this will flow down and carry 'stuff' from your bin down to the bottom, good, bad, all of it. The best advice I've seen with regard to leachate is to either dilute it with water or brew it by bubbling it and adding molasses. That being said, I don't get a lot of leachate but I have quite often just dumped it into my kitchen herbs and have not had any issues. Not sure if the leachate is doing any good because the kitchen herbs are also getting a handful or so of vermicompost but it's another form of recycling ... less wasted anything. |
RE: What about the 'JUICE' at the bottom
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| Opps. I meant that I put it in up front as I begin making the compost tea. I typically don't have a lot of liquid and as you can guess it's a couple of days after I've added quite a few veggies to feed the "kids". L8r,
Don |
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