WormMainea
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A Protected Species Earthworm
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Jute in worm bin: report of results - 2006/07/04 10:54
Report of an experiment of using jute to line bottom of worm bin.
In January I learned that a friend had waste jute from his rug factory. I read up on jute and learned that it is a biodegradeable natural plant product (like hemp) and is used in potato fields to absorb excess mositure. I asked him to bring some home for a vermi-experiment.
Instead of lining the bottom of my bin with shredded newspaper, I used jute (I did this in 2 small bins while I used shredded newspaper in another control bin). To prepeare the jute, I rinsed it thoroughly with rainwater twice (it was dusty from the factory but otherwise clean) & cut it into 1/4" strips. I lined bottom of bins as ususal and added about 3# of worms and worm compost in early February.
It is now 4 months later & I am happy to report that this worked pretty well. I see NO differences in these bins as compared to the newspaper control bin. No better and no worse. Worms hang out in the jute just like they do in the newspaper.
Jute is still quite visible (doesn't appear to have degraded much if at all), and I think it is going to be around for a while. These are new bins for me so that shouldn't be a problem.
Good news:
1) Jute is free 
2) Jute will go in worm bin rather than to dump 
3) I won't have to scrounge around for newspaper as much 
I will continue to keep a log of the jute experiment to see how long it takes to breakdown.
Mark
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