*payin rapt attention to this one* I am very interested in this one anisten. It is one I contemplated myself, but lack the experience and time rite now... 3 kids, 5 and under :)

*bein careful not to incite "G"ness envy* :)

Yes I really want to find out if indeed clay can be broken down by the worms and food scraps. If it works my mom will have to chane her mind on this and this would also proove lasjana jardenin is the way to jo if you have heavy clay.

Anisten, hope you're still checking the forum.
How's your experiment going so far? Have you seen any improvements in the clay? Has the worm population doubled?

anisten, it looks like the g is bad on your keyboard too, it keeps putting j's in. I could send you a used dell keyboard if you want one.
drop me a line.

Its not November yet but I was peeking in the kitty litter bin box the other day. I had some cucumbers on top that needed to be cut open to rot down quicker and when I picked up the cucumber I noticed many, many red worms. I will probably dump out the contents soon and post the findings. The local red worms seem to be smaller here so I should be able to differentiate and see which had reproduced from the original 4.

Where was the system located? Was it in soil contact outdoors?

Regardless, this is a very cool experiment, and I, too, look forward to hearing the results.

Some tidbits of info to keep in mind as you make your observations:

~ The types of worms drawn to enviornments like your bin and that behave as you've described are not species that ingest soil, thus it is unlikely that they would ingest and process the clay. However, the other organisms associated with decomposition, from the micro to the macroscopic, can and likely will have an impact, possibly signficiant, on the incorportation/blending of all of the materials in that system. It would be very cool if you could take a core sample of the clay so you could view a cross section to see if/how much blending of the clay and decmposed material was going on.

~ Were you to perform this same experiment in/on the soil itself, where soil ingesting worm species could participate in the game, you may well find even more profound results.

~ Know that worm color and size cannot be used to reliably identify either parentage, as these characteristics are heavily influenced by enviornment; or species, as many worm species posess the same external physical characteristics. Were the worm bin kept indoors and and bedded and fed only with materials that could not have been innoculated with worms naturally (no leaves, soil, or compost, for instance) you could be reasonably confident that all worms in the system were progeny of the original population. If the unit is in soil contact or fed materials that have themselves been in soil contact it is quite likley that some of the system's population increase was the result of "wild" worms who made themselves at home.

Again, though, who was the parent of whom is irrelevant if I follow the purpose for your trials. What you're hoping to find is if and how the clay soil is impacted, and those results should be fascinating!

Some other tidbits on clay soil that might be of interest (or that you may already know!):

~ Clay forms the basis of all nutrient-rich soils since a given volume of clay has staggering numbers of nutrient holding sites compared to the same volume of silts or sands. Thus, having clay as a COMPONENT of soil is a very good thing.

~ The composting community has done research that demonstrates that by virtue of clay's nutrient holding capactiy, the the addition of clay to compost systems can/does increase the level of nutrient in the finished product. One could reasonably assume that the same would apply to a vermicopmosting system in which clay was used...

I look forward to hearing how this worked out for you! Be sure to keep us updated!

Kelly S

I harvested on Sunday and here is what I found.

-over 300 worms, from what I could tell 90-95% were red worms not bad from 4 but the bin was ontop of gravel with a dirt base so many could of found their way in. Many cocoons but few dew worms.

-the clay on the bottom was a rich black colour now instead of gray and it crumbled much easier but there still were small chunks with grey clay in the middle. The few dew worms were found in this clay section. There were originally a dozen or less of earthworms in the original clay put in at set up. The coccoons in the clay looked different than the red worm coccoons.

-many gross slugs in the pail

-few centipede and rollie pollies.

I harvested as many worms as possible and then put the heavier clay like material back in the pale and will feed the top and see what happens next Spring.

My conclusion is that clay does indeed slowly break apart by the use of organic material aided in/also by the worms.

This experiment was in no way scientific since out door worms could of/most likely infiltrated the bin. Therefor the second conclusion is If you build it they will come.