Had a week where my worm bin actually smelled like fresh soil instead of rot

Last Tuesday I added a batch of coffee grounds and eggshells from the cafe down the street. For three days straight the bin stayed damp but not wet, and I stopped stirring it so much. By Friday the whole thing smelled like a forest floor instead of that sour smell you get when stuff goes anaerobic. Has anyone else noticed that backing off on turning the bin changes the smell more than any fancy bin design?

2 comments

2 Comments

harper_owens19d ago

Stopping the stirring is the whole secret honestly. When you keep turning it you break up the fungal networks that actually break stuff down slow and steady. The bacteria take over when you're always mixing and that's what gets sour. Letting the worms do their thing in layers lets the good smells build up. A friend of mine runs a community composting site and they only touch the bins once a month at most. Everything smells like earth and you barely see any flies or gnats around.

wesley_thompson19d ago

Honestly, @harper_owens is spot on about the fungal networks. But the angle nobody's talking about is the microbe competition itself. When you stop stirring, the fungi and bacteria basically work out a truce and stop fighting each other, which cuts way down on the stinky gasses they release when they're stressed out.