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Looking to add Vermiculture to My Greenhouse for Heat

 
Posts: 217
Location: Ontario
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I have a raised garden bed about 8' by 1.5'. It is covered with 2 layers of greenhouse plastic and is typically around 80 degrees Fahrenheit during the day in the winter as long as there is daylight. I was thinking of adding red wiggler worms to aid in composting and generate heat, but I am concerned it may get too cold at night for the worms. The growing medium in the raised bed is straw and the box is made from wood sides and bottom with an epdm liner. So the box has some insulative value to it. I have never tried worm composting and was wondering if the worms would live in this box through winter and still break down this plant matter into compost which would generate heat. The raised bed air temp only gets to around zero degrees celsius at night, so I was wondering if this would be a problem for the worms.




This picture is of a straw vermiculture pile in Southwestern Ontario.


 
Steve Harvey
Posts: 217
Location: Ontario
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https://guelphorganicconf.ca/composting-and-vermicomposting-for-farmers/

a good article on this subject.

 
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Location: Coos Bay, Oregon
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I've never used vermicomposting for heat, my worm bin is a cold conpost system.  Hot composting can be done fine at 0 c though.  I live in a mild climate where 0 c is about as cold as it gets, and I hot compost all winter.  Typically my compost temp is a bit lower during the cold months where nights are around freezing temp, but still stays around 50-55 c.  Worms don't like it that hot, so any that colonize the pile stay around the edges and avoid the hot middle of the pile.
 
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