Composting Experinces 2012 [Guests]

diabloz13 wrote:Substrates?

Cardboard
Food wastes
Some Soil[around 1 handful will do it!]
Anything you'd use for worms could probably be used as slug bedding.

diabloz13 wrote:Anything else?

There is a lot of diffrent things that you'll need to know later on such as:
Watering
Feeding
Preparing for First Harvest
and all that fun stuff

Wow thats a lot to absorb, there must be thousands of diffrent things to do with a sluggy colony. Imagine having a colony of slugs in the thousands!

Yes there are a lot of diffrent things that you could do, some [almost all] are unknown to us] as this is a new hobby no-one really has tried everything, thats really what i feel is my job, that and what else am i gonna do for the next few months of summer

Thanks a ton dermy! Might be setting up a bin later on! I can't wait till i can see just what these lil buggers can do!

Hey dermy! Feel free to merge my posts with yours! Maybe you should just have one huge topic?!

No problem!

Merged with the one big topic

Merged!

As you guys can see i've decided to just merge every topic into one big blog post. We will see how well this works out later. Even if i have to add the same answers everytime someone posts something i really don't care!

Sounds great dermy!

Thank-You!

Day#55-June 19/2012- I have beun the secondary harvesting, unlike last time i have not kept any compost leftover, this is to show that at the end everything was made by pure slugs. I moved them out of my isopod bn now its just a slug composting system. I have fed them:
10 flowers
2 watermelon rinds
3 Leaves
and some older watermelon.

Thats an o.f.c right there i now have 40+ slugs as i found a dozen baby slugs.

That sounds great dermy! I hope your slug composting system does well for you! I've always wanted to know whats the slug lifecycle?

Here compostguy:
Leopard Slug
Egg- 7-10 Days
Juvies- around 2-4 weeks depending on conditions and food avalibility

Hope this helps!

Thanks dermy!!

Maybe you should make a slug caresheet?

No problem compostguy101!

If i have time i will, oh wait i already have a small caresheet!

Composting with slugs
Slugs are a very good option when It comes to what you can use to reduce your food waste within your home. Slugs will process things much quicker and don’t need the added times for microbes to become established, which can take weeks to do.

I- Enclosures
Slugs require an enclosure to be housed in before you can begin composting with them. The enclosure must have a few things in order for it to be useful for composting. Various things affect the process of decomposition and also will tell how fast the slugs are able to process the food wastes. Slugs will also require a lot of ventilation. The ventilation will help keep mold and other fungi out. It will also prohibit the fast and elusive fungus gnat which will love to get at your slugs and eat the moldy food residue.
Here is how to make a vent:
1- Cut the top part of the lid off. Squares work the best for this.
2- Glue/tape some window screen onto the lid.
3- You can do this on all sides as well.

Enclosures must be big enough in the long run for a large colony of slugs. This is because slugs will frequently boom in population. This will be discussed more in-depth later. The enclosure should then be prepared in the way of our next step, bedding materials!



II- Bedding
Slug composting will not need bedding unlike other methods. The slugs will however benefit from a small beginning pile of pre-compostable materials. Soil will work well as a bedding source. It will be fluffy enough for the slugs to burrow and lay countless eggs.

III- Food Material
Slugs will eat a variety of different food materials.



Here is the good and bad food list for feeding your slugs:

Good Food
-Fruits
-Vegetables
-Leaves
-Flowers
-Basic greens

Bad Food
-Meats
-Dairy
-Grains
-Common sense applies here!

*This is based upon my own personal slug rearing experience!*

IV- Other
After you’ve had your setup for three months it is time to harvest. The easiest way to do this is to wait till everything is fully composted, then take out all the slugs from the finished media. Dump the compost out and restart the colony with new material. Place the finished compost into a bag and put it into a freezer to kill any eggs before using it for plants.

Once a week you’ll need to water the colony as they need a lot of water.

Here’s slug care in a nutshell:
1-Start off slow!
2-Keep them watered
3-Harvest every three months
4-Make sure the temps are cool, even 10 is a better temp then 30C
5—keeping them dark will improve the production of slug compost
6- If you wish, allow the slug compost to become dryer and then add it to your plants!

-Wish you all luck with your slug colonies!

-dermy

Nice caresheet dermy! I may be keeping slugs after all....

Thanks compostguy101!

That would be great if you kept slus! I am trying to get more people into this newly started hobby!

No problem!

Yes i see that it is a newly started hobby! That means there is soooo much that i could learn before you even learn it and then i can post information about slug composting.