towards the end of December i had bags of left over soybean husks to use eventually in the worm bins. not wanting to pass up a good chance of comparing processes i took some worm castings (about a dry quart) and added them to layers of wetted husks and then kept the bin moist.
i started one bin and then a few weeks later started a second bin. both had more husks added to them as they compacted. two bins eventually held five bins of husks. if i'd continued the test i could have added another today (about two months from the start date).
as noted in another thread recently the fungi side of the rotting equation is somewhat oriented towards acidic and ammonia. i noticed last week that things were starting to get a little strong smelling, but was hoping it would pass. it didn't. the bacteria in the worm castings alone could not keep up with the fungi without their worm hosts to keep the bedding aerated and stirred. today i broke apart the first bin and added it to the worm bins.
digging into it was like opening a bottle of ammonia. phew! tomorrow i'll hope to get to the second bin.
in the end, the compaction and rotting by fungi, etc of the worm free bins was good for getting space back, but the smell and having to then process it anyways in a second stage didn't save much. for the storage considerations it was much easier to store dry bean husks than to have more bins. much lighter.
this next season i hope to not have quite so much late husking to do and that will keep the shells outside and in the ground as fast as i can get them buried. we'll see... :)
songbird