Johnson SU Bioreactor without worms?

Hey guys,

I am new here but saw that many people here seem to have lots of experience with composting, so here is my question:

I am introducing composting at my new place of living (semi-desert), which is a lot dryer than other places. We try to build up a Johnson Su Bioreactor, however I have the following problems:

1) there aren't many worms here. Is it possible to do a Johnson Su Bioreactor without adding additional worms to it?
2) there is not much forest and vegetables residues around here, which is used in all the videos I watched for the Johnson Su bioreactor. But we have plenty of animal manure and wheat and barley straw, you guys think the Johnson Su bioreactor will also work if these things are my primary resources added?

Thanks a lot for your advise, much appreciated. Since its a one year process, I want to make sure to get things right in the beginning.

I have done it with and without worms with out issues.  I have also seen it done both ways in books and in person.

I have never done testing between the 2 ways, but I do have an opinion on this that others might not agree on.

***Edit.  Adding as I missed some stuff.
You want a fungal dominated compost.  IMO you will want a lot of browns and some manure to jump start it.  You will also need to keep the pile moist and have great air flow.

Dom, welcome to the forum.

Jack has given you some great suggestions.

I had not heard of this method of composting.

This method reminds me a lot of the trash can method of composting which works, too.

Thanks Jack and Anne, so without worms should work as well!

What about the materials, can I use animal manure (mostly sheep and goat) for this compost together with wheat and barley straw and if so, what would you recommend as a ratio? Thanks a lot

(Also, thank you Anne I will look at the trash can method as well).

Here are some threads about the trash can method that you or others might find interesting:

https://permies.com/t/139253/composting/Compost-trash

https://permies.com/t/139110/composting/faster-composting-idea#1090632

https://permies.com/t/9414/composting/trash-compost-bin-work

This one is using a trash can to make compost tea:

https://permies.com/t/70607/composting/trash-compost

Dom Jennings wrote:can I use animal manure (mostly sheep and goat) for this compost together with wheat and barley straw and if so, what would you recommend as a ratio?

Dom, you can certainly compost with those items. The resulting compost may not have as much nutrient or biodiverse, but it should compost. If fungal dominated is the goal I think it's safe to borrow from the mushroom cultivation space. Cereal straw from wheat, rye, oat, barley are common compost ingredients for growing edible mushrooms, with wheat straw being preferred. The Mushroom Cultivator book by Paul Stamets suggests that typically when composting primarily with straw you'd supplement it with potassium and phosphorous, like chicken manure, perhaps with a little gypsum.
Is the straw used as bedding for the animals, or is it being added clean? Is the manure without bedding or urine? Is the manure aged? Johnson seems to prefer a higher carbon percentage than your standard 30:1. I prefer to use my spent grass for animal bedding before composting for the sake of prewetting and premixing, and to err on the side of a higher nitrogen content to ensure I can get to temperature. As another reference, one of the commercial mushroom composting recipes Paul describes includes half wheat straw and half chicken manure by wet weight, with about 3% gypsum.

Since  I have been looking at Johnson Su bioreactors for only 2 weeks take what I am saying with a grain of salt.

My understanding is as the pile composts it settles thus tending to seal air passages off.  The worms are therefore going to be necessary to keep reopening the air passages to maintain the pile in aerobic condition.  If it gets too settled and air tight it will go anaerobic wrecking the biology you are trying to build to add to your soil or compost tea.  The worms also work as little air pumps as they move pulling and pushing air around in the pile.  Since they eat fungi and your goal is a fungal pile in most cases why have them if they are not necessary?

Now as for worm simply order what you need.  You are unlikely to capture what you need as you want composting worms and not earth worms.  The 2 most common answers are red wigglers and European night crawlers but there are many other options.  An earth worm lives mainly in the soil and comes up to the detritus over the soil to feed.  A compost worm lives in the detritus and occasionally retreats to the soil for protection and warmth.  I have had really good luck ordering worms thru the Wyoming Worm Wrangler out of Laramie but there are hundreds of other places.  Wyoming Worm Wrangler