For those that remember, I wrote up a post on raising worms in a product called Can-O-Worms. I've decided to create a spreadsheet and chart to track the output of the Compost Tea that I'm getting from mine. I know that you can't see this particular image really well, because it's too small. I'll provide you with a finished .xls file some other time, that you can download for your own use if you want. So far, in this draft, I have...
1. A row for daily tracking of how many ounces accumulated for the day.
2. A row for how many ounces of food was added on a particular day.
3. An itemized list of specific foods added.
What do I hope to gain from this spreadsheet? So far, what I have should be able to help me predict long-term output of my compost tea. Additionally, I should be able to get a visual of how my adding foods impacts that output. For instance, if I stop adding food, the trickle of compost tea will become slower and slower until it stops. If I add sliced tomatoes, which are high in water content, I can expect to see an increase in compost tea sooner, and in greater volume than say fresh whole bananas. The sliced tomatoes will break down faster, making them more available to the worms sooner, and speed up the process. And because they contain more water, they will obviously put more liquid through the system.
Once I've collected some data for awhile, I can figure a few things out. I can figure out how much compost tea to expect in a 1-year period, and if I'm to store it, how much space will I need, and how many storage containers will I need? And since I know I'll have more than I need, I'll see which neighbors might want some. And then, if they request any at any time and I happen to not have any in storage, I'll know from my records on what day I WILL have some for them. And if for some reason I want to increase output a little, the data should show me to some degree exactly which foods and in what quantities to add in order to do that. Obviously, you don't want to overdo that to the point of creating a swampy mess and killing your worms off. A better approach would be to just wait for your worms in their own time and if you want to increase production, just buy another unit and raise more worms. I should also be able to see what impact the change in seasons will have. In fact, maybe I'll keep a thermometer out there and track that data too.
A couple of things to note in my data collection right now is that my current data is based on one tray of a three tray system. And that tray does not yet have a full worm population. Until I've collected data after adding my second and then third trays, I won't know what my adding trays might do to change the rate of output. I guess I'll know months from now. And then I'll let you all know. The most accurate data is going to be at least a couple of years out, but there will be very usable data within a couple of weeks or so.
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