Bronx Writing Academy - Students journals

During the spring project, Amrita (Bronx Writing Academy teacher) and I asked the group of 6 grade students to write a few lines after each session summarizing what they have done, how they felt and what they think on that day.
Here are a few excerpt form the notebooks.


3/11/15
Today we were building the frame. I learned how to measure the center [on the piece of wood we used to build the frame]. I drew a X on the wood, the center of the X is the center. I like how we made the legs of the machine [frame], this will make it stand up. Sebastian

We are building a sort of table to grow the plants in hydroponics. One thing I liked is that we build

Update on the composting systems

Its been now 9 months that the indoor worm composting experiment has started. During these 6 months the small Styrofoam (very) mini box grew to a slightly bigger composting crate, then expanded into a soy sauce bucket for the Bronx Writing Academy, and 3 (very) mini worm bin. All of that, in an apartment, with no odour, escapees or inconvenience.
In 9 months, 50 kg (110lbs) of food scraps, 16kg (35 lbs) of paper-cardboard and wood dust (dry weight) have been diverted from landfills and transformed on 20 kg (44 lbs) of compost.

Tower farm update - Collards greens are growing and growing!

The tower farm is doing great, The collard greens growth burst is accelerating, it has put 4 mores leaves on this week (yes 4!!!), the green onions are going too, and the parsley actually put on a new leaf for the first time in
almost 5 weeks! Also the pepper has a tiny new leaf growing - it seems to have recovered from the rough handling
of the tower a few weeks back
The collard greens are really inexpressively growing in the last 2 weeks, they put out new leaves, and the leaves are getting quite big! see below - click to change the pics at your own pace

The worm experiment update #2

The 3 bins on top of the flow through crate

A few weeks back, I have started the experiment suggested by Bentley compost guy. The basic idea, is to take 2 juvenile worms, and let then grow and reproduce in a small container.
Since I have started the experiment, I set up 3 bins, 1 with 2 juveniles, 1 with one juvenile (some worms may be able to auto reproduce) and 1 with a mature worm (mature worm may be fertilized, so we should be able to see population growth there).  The mini bins have been checked every 10 days, and until yesterday's check, I have not seen any cocoons.

Compost Tea update - brewing seem to consume the nitrates!

Last week when I tested the compost tea, There was a quite high reading of nitrite and nitrate. The interesting thing is, Even if I gradually increase how much compost I add for the tea, i didn't see it increasing progressively. One thing was quite different though: we had a guest at home, so i got to brewing the tea only on Sunday late in the evening, and let it brew only for about 2 hours. So it got me thinking: what if, there is some nitrate at detectable level in the compost, but that it is used in some way by the living organisms during the brewing process ?

General update the vertical ponic plants and nutrients, the worm crate, bucket and worm- challenges

The star collard greens

I think it is time for a new update about my indoor gardening endeavor.

Worm challenge - update 1

The bedding has compacted

It's the end of the first week of the worm challenge, so I could'nt help myself that opening the container, spread things around and look for the worms to see if they survived there first few days.

 And the answer is : (drum roll) 

Look what I found sticking out of the worm bucket for the school !

2 leaves stretching for light!

And actually more seed have germinated in there :
 2 other tiny seedlings

 Sadly, I've broken the leave when I closed the bucket back ..

The 2 worm challenge

See my little helper checking my work.

Around 3 weeks ago, the redwormcomposting.com guy posted a new experiment. The experiment consists in setting a small container with 2- only 2 - immature worms. The goal is to see how fast can the worm population expand from these 2 founders.

The worms have to be immature, as mature worms can carry fertilized eggs, which may skew the experiment. 

Vertical farm and compost update

This week, the tower farm is continuing to grow. I had to add about half a gallon of water to top of, the green onions are growing like crazy in the bottom of the tower. the rest keeps growing at its rate, except the parsley that is kind of stagnant.
On the nutrient side, I have just brewed some compost tea using 2 cups and 1/4 of worm compost in 1 quart of water, and nitrite and nitrate still read below the detection level in the compost tea , however, in the system, the level of nitrate is increasing. I did add 4 mL of ammonia last week, and again this week, but I think next week I will not add any, and see what happens. I recall that during December, I was adding 1 mL everyday of ammonia and it didn't seem to increase nitrates at all, I am starting to think that the compost tea brings some nitrogen in the system, but not in the form of ammonia, nitrite or nitrate, but that the system processes it into nitrate. Also, there is a little pick of nitrite.

First year of indoor composting (ok not year, just 4 months)

The compost

Worm crate

One day, my beloved lady suggested I'd start a worm composting bin. After coming back from my utter surprise, I quickly started the bin. That was back in august. After a modest start with 2 packs of worms form a fish bait shop, I got a half pound or red wigglers from the Lower East Side Ecology Center. I applied the basic principles gleaned from the Internet experts and a dose of common sense (or so I hope). So there is the results from the first "year":

Input: 1 pound and 3ounces of worms (the bait shop worms included)

           5 kg (11 pounds) - dry weigh - of paper, cardboard, wood dust, dried leaves (actually more than that since i started to record this only later)

           20 kg (45 pounds) of diverse food scraps, including supposed no-noes like onion peel, lemon, garlic ... in moderation, there is no problem really, and anything else vegetable based, and used coffee grounds

           Unknown amount of water - as I almost always put the scraps in the blender, I add some water for the blender to be able to do its job

Output: 3.18 kg (7 pounds) of dark moist earthy smelling dirt!

The crate is fairly small (~1 x 1.5 x 1 ft, or 11 gallons, or 31 x 48 x 31 cm, or 46 L); and because it is indoor, I have been prudent in adding too much food (~140 g a day or 0.3 lbs in average) . If I can, I'd like to experiment with a larger system, maybe 2 x 3 x 2 feet and see how much can be put in it while following a similar feeding rate (I guess per surface unit).

The compost was used for a couple of house plants, to start seeds, and to brew compost tea. With the solids left from making compost tea -which contains some small worms and cocoons - I just started a composting bucket for the school project.