Plastic Lining

In tapered vermicomposters I introduced the idea of pinning an open-ended garbage bag to the tower, thus lining the inside of the tower.

It works well.

The only disadvantage I could report is that injudicious application of bacteria-laden water can result in the water hitting the plastic and channeling rapidly down and out of the tower, leaving a mess on the floor.

The solution is obvious: pour the water into a smaller pot that rests atop the compost material. A small hole in the pot will trickle out the water at a rate that the compost can absorb. Shedding the water over a two-minute period is better than a deluge in two seconds.

That said, I have learned over the past two weeks of a tip in the size of the bag.

Most of my towers are three- or four-feet tall. The open-ended garbage bag extends beyond this. In consequence, the base of the tower, inside, nets a sleeve of plastic which does not allow the free-scooping of material from the base.

I can scoop outfall from the region close to the door, but material at the rear of the tower is hard if not impossible to obtain. My plastic scoop is entangled in the loose folds of plastic down there.

This photo shows the front of the tower, with the door, and from the back you can see a "skirt" of plastic which I have pulled outside. Imagine that skirt inside the tower. It obstructs the free flow of material.

Future towers will have the plastic liner trimmed to a length no greater than the top of the aperture, so that from the view of the aperture, there is no plastic sleeve; it does not descend to the region from which I intend to scoop material.

I live and I learn ...