Suelovesworms
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Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2009 3:10 pm
Location: Davis, California

Worm Composting

Hello fellow gardeners! Organic gardening and worm composting has been my hobby for many years, but now that I have furlough time from the California state government, we are trying to use our home-grown produce to reduce our food bill. Since I can grow fall vegetables here, I plan to remove some tomato plants that are past their peak to use the space for fall veges. I know that tomato leaves are considered to be poisonous because tomatoes belong to the nightshade family. Does anyone know if they are toxic to worms in vermiculture compost bins?

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hendi_alex
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Posts: 3604
Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 7:58 am
Location: Central Sand Hills South Carolina

I think that composting tomato plants can promote the spread of the many tomato pathogens.

Bl Blue
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Joined: Tue Sep 08, 2009 11:45 pm
Location: sw/ mn z 4

So sue;
Just how big is your compost system? My worm bin is small and is only for winter waste. I sure could not do tomatoe plants in there. I would guess your's is outside? I have composted for years outside, and added tomatoe and potatoe with out any trouble. Of course I never gave it any thought either. I think there is a vermicompost thread on here some where.some one there might know. :)
Curt

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hendi_alex
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Posts: 3604
Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 7:58 am
Location: Central Sand Hills South Carolina

I was worm composting in an old webber kettle grill, but the thing always seemed to stay to full and management was a bit of a problem. The weber would have worked fine if we were generating less kitchen scraps, but as it was, only about 20% of our scraps could be composted in the grill. My decision to upside the composter was made for me when the legs of the grill rusted loose and the grill collapsed to the ground. I scrounged around for the next readily available container. For the past few months have been using an approximate 70 gallon horse watering container made of plastic. That holds enough material to allow almost all of the kitchen waste to be composted. The problem is that the container has no drain holes, so I have the monitor the moisture level and add some dry browns or shreaded newspaper from time to time, so that the material doesn't get too wet. I'll be constructing a new worm bed soon. Will probably build a raised bed on legs and construct it out of treated wood lined with concrete board. Will drill drain holes in the bottom and will line with either aluminum screen wire or weedguard fabric. Will likely make the container about three feet by five feet and ten inches deep which should handles most or all of our kitchen scraps.



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