21 November 2016- one week into our experiment.
This past week has been a learning experience, a bit of a failure and a need for a slight adjustment.
- Day 1- setup experiment
- Day 2- Little change, worms have dug in but and appear to be throughout the bedding with no signs of preference for, or adversity to potato.
- Day 3- Bedding very dry, have turned on heat here in Ontario now so relative humidity reduced. 4 oz. water added.
- Day 4- Much like day 2. Surface of the bedding is dry, misted with spray bottle.
- Day 5- Same as day 4
- Day 6-Again dry additional 4 oz. water added
- Today Day 7- Observed the fed potato had become a hard lump from the starches drying out. Have removed and replaced it with fresh potato. I’ve thoroughly moistened bedding and cut a piece of woven poly to sit atop the bedding to try to contain some moisture.
The experiment will continue with the poly topper to see if I can better control moisture and keep the bin more hospitable over the next week. The hope is that the additional moisture will allow microbes to work on the potato better, keep it from hardening and allow the worms the opportunity to begin feeding.
Results are similar with my experiment to find out if worms will eat tomato leaves. Worms are not avoiding the tomato leaves, but they do not seem to be eating them either.
Week 2 became more interesting, Part 3 of the experiment covering week 2 will be up very soon