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Living organic soil from start through recycling
- Thread starter Gascanastan
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Why I decided to make my own... learn from others mistakes...
Usually it's more about not finishing the job than making mistakes...
RanchoDeluxe
Member
Like this past summer when I used some of my backyard compost without letting the worms work it?
Worms will always work my compost before I use it...thanks for that advice Coot.
I wish I had brought more of it inside for the winter. I just had the worms work on a bag of shitty Teufels for a couple months or so. I added food for them as it disappeared. Screened some down last night. Looks a whole lot better than what I started with but no where near as good as the EWC from my own compost.
Worms will always work my compost before I use it...thanks for that advice Coot.
I wish I had brought more of it inside for the winter. I just had the worms work on a bag of shitty Teufels for a couple months or so. I added food for them as it disappeared. Screened some down last night. Looks a whole lot better than what I started with but no where near as good as the EWC from my own compost.
RanchoDeluxe
One of the great things about vermicomposting is that you can make almost any compost better. Not great perhaps but definitely better.
GIGO applies! LOL
One of the great things about vermicomposting is that you can make almost any compost better. Not great perhaps but definitely better.
GIGO applies! LOL
Dramm Dribble Rings - 12, 24, 36 & 48" and costs between $0.66 - $0.78 each. Pack is 100 ea.
Used with 3/4" supply hose - standard stuff.
Red Wigglers
Cocoon Production - 2.45-3.5 cocoons per adult worm per week
Time to Hatching - 18-26 days
Juveniles per Viable Cocoon - 2.5-3.8
Time to Maturity - 28-30 days
Source: Vermiculture Technology: Earthworms, Organic Wastes, and Environmental Management
Cocoon Production - 2.45-3.5 cocoons per adult worm per week
Time to Hatching - 18-26 days
Juveniles per Viable Cocoon - 2.5-3.8
Time to Maturity - 28-30 days
Source: Vermiculture Technology: Earthworms, Organic Wastes, and Environmental Management
B
BlueJayWay
I just received my worms and cocoons Coot, finally getting a smart pot worm bin going after talking about it for so long....I layered old ROLS that I have too much of and has just been sitting there. Layered it with dustings of rock dust kelp alfalfa neem etc etc and some more rice hulls, and feeding the, all the kitchen scraps.
In a #45 I put 1000 cocoons and 1lb worms from blue ridge - I already want to order more worms and really get a decent sized setup in motion. But what do you think with that amount to get started in a #45? I figure its more a matter of how quickly you want/need it be processed, and also how many worms you can handle from just these in a few months....
Also threw a handful under the mulch in a large notill setup in flower...
In a #45 I put 1000 cocoons and 1lb worms from blue ridge - I already want to order more worms and really get a decent sized setup in motion. But what do you think with that amount to get started in a #45? I figure its more a matter of how quickly you want/need it be processed, and also how many worms you can handle from just these in a few months....
Also threw a handful under the mulch in a large notill setup in flower...
B
BlueJayWay
So if my 1000 cocoons all hatch lets just say I have 2000 worms...in one month I'll have another 2000 cocoons and at the two month mark those will hatch and I'll have 6000 worms total (based on this simple estimate), with thousands more worms hatching each week going forward..... In 6 months there could be tens of thousands of worms?
Hot diggity dog! Watch out Craigslist here come some worms LOL
Hot diggity dog! Watch out Craigslist here come some worms LOL
Blue Jay
It's a good start for a container that size. Looking at the rates in the post above, you can see how fast you'll progress.
The real key to maximize increases in worm populations are the temperatures in the food stock. Ideally you want to be in the mid-70's because that is the zone where you'll have the highest bacterial activity.
Here's another number to consider, if correctly aerated and running correct temperatures, you can get up to 3 lbs. of worms per square foot. You can see how productive a large or even medium SmartPot can be because you definitely have the aeration covered and maintaing the correct hydration with these containers is a no-brainer - all you're down to is the temperature factor.
From my experience this is one of those things where minimum human intervention is best. The worms & microbes (primarily bacteria) create a contained ecosystem so to speak and the less we do to try and correct or fix things the better off you'll be.
leave 'em alone!
CC
It's a good start for a container that size. Looking at the rates in the post above, you can see how fast you'll progress.
The real key to maximize increases in worm populations are the temperatures in the food stock. Ideally you want to be in the mid-70's because that is the zone where you'll have the highest bacterial activity.
Here's another number to consider, if correctly aerated and running correct temperatures, you can get up to 3 lbs. of worms per square foot. You can see how productive a large or even medium SmartPot can be because you definitely have the aeration covered and maintaing the correct hydration with these containers is a no-brainer - all you're down to is the temperature factor.
From my experience this is one of those things where minimum human intervention is best. The worms & microbes (primarily bacteria) create a contained ecosystem so to speak and the less we do to try and correct or fix things the better off you'll be.
leave 'em alone!
CC
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Thermal compost is best - the heavy lifting has been done in that process.
for those in the UK/europe that need to buy worm castings, the best i have found are the biobizz ones that are stocked by Greenshorticulture. Worm casting not actually that easy to find in the UK
VG
VG
VG
I've seen your comment about availability at several gardening forums from the UK. I wonder why that is?
You folks are way, way ahead of the US in so many other areas of organic & sustainable farming and gardening and this goes back decades. I would think that having worm bins would be a good fit.
CC
I've seen your comment about availability at several gardening forums from the UK. I wonder why that is?
You folks are way, way ahead of the US in so many other areas of organic & sustainable farming and gardening and this goes back decades. I would think that having worm bins would be a good fit.
CC
Hey everybody.
Wanted to show a few things that I've been working on.
In the last month I've been building soils, and a worm condo.
This is my worm condo, made from used soil(3 y/o soil) as a base.
Contains about 3 yds soil. 6' x 12'
Amended with 10lbs GRD, 10 lbs neem meal, 5 lbs alfalfa meal.
Also 3 wheel barrows full of shredded, semi-full composted leaf matter.
All tilled in (prior to worms) to a depth of 2-3'.
On top is a layer of straw, mostly to make it difficult for the birds to dig up my worms, but also a cheap top dress.
Added 8 lbs of Red wigglers, and 1000 super worms.
The super worms are deep soil critters and the reds are surface dwellers.
I'm adding about 10 lbs a week of vegetable scraps/ coffee grounds/eggshells.
Also recycling all my leaves from my grow on top.
I will be removing a 2 x 6 from the front bottom so I can get to remove soil from the bottom, then rotate it to the top.
In a few months I will have some real choice castings.
All I have to do is install a Sat Dish for them.
California has happy cows. Oregon has chillin worms.
I finally have some good soil to play with.
My standard base mix amended with the following.
Crab, kelp,fish bone, alfalfa, and neem meals.
GRD, humic acid, mycos, and lastly ground up leaf compost with some clay soil from under leaf compst pile.
This cooked for 4 weeks and was dumped/ rotated weekly.
I also made some big SIP pots made from cheap 17 gal rope totes.
It has a 4 gal reservoir and exterior fill spout.
Still following the thread every day, but I'm more a do'er rather than a talker.
Thanks for the continueing knowledge.
SG
Wanted to show a few things that I've been working on.
In the last month I've been building soils, and a worm condo.
This is my worm condo, made from used soil(3 y/o soil) as a base.
Contains about 3 yds soil. 6' x 12'
Amended with 10lbs GRD, 10 lbs neem meal, 5 lbs alfalfa meal.
Also 3 wheel barrows full of shredded, semi-full composted leaf matter.
All tilled in (prior to worms) to a depth of 2-3'.
On top is a layer of straw, mostly to make it difficult for the birds to dig up my worms, but also a cheap top dress.
Added 8 lbs of Red wigglers, and 1000 super worms.
The super worms are deep soil critters and the reds are surface dwellers.
I'm adding about 10 lbs a week of vegetable scraps/ coffee grounds/eggshells.
Also recycling all my leaves from my grow on top.
I will be removing a 2 x 6 from the front bottom so I can get to remove soil from the bottom, then rotate it to the top.
In a few months I will have some real choice castings.
All I have to do is install a Sat Dish for them.
California has happy cows. Oregon has chillin worms.
I finally have some good soil to play with.
My standard base mix amended with the following.
Crab, kelp,fish bone, alfalfa, and neem meals.
GRD, humic acid, mycos, and lastly ground up leaf compost with some clay soil from under leaf compst pile.
This cooked for 4 weeks and was dumped/ rotated weekly.
I also made some big SIP pots made from cheap 17 gal rope totes.
It has a 4 gal reservoir and exterior fill spout.
Still following the thread every day, but I'm more a do'er rather than a talker.
Thanks for the continueing knowledge.
SG
They can be and often they will be identified as such - back to the usual 'sourcing' issues.
This is one of those situations where if I wasn't sure about where they came from I would buy new ones - no reason to court disaster
The way that it was intended to work, white is food grade and the other colors, red, blue, yellow are to correspond with the haz-mat placards on the sides of trucks. This way if the truck is involved in an accident and plastic tubs spill out on the highway, the haz-mat color system helps to identify which correct clean-up procedure needs to be used
CC
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SG1
Nice set-up! You put some real effort into this project I'll bet!
Nice set-up! You put some real effort into this project I'll bet!
I'm wondering if it's not the length of time the ground has been under cultivation,,, add to that the fact that they are ahead of us, because they've had to. The dirt over there was mostly tired before the ground over here even felt the plow.
They've had to 'fix' their dirt just to grow crops. Farmers here in the US have had to amend the dirt since I can remember. Of course I can only remember since the 1950s. If I remember, when I was young the GH/nurseries, in Nebraska did not keep worms in a bed, because they had masses of them in the compost piles, which they would water to keep them moist if it didn't rain. Worms were everywhere. When it rained the worms would surface and crawl out onto the concrete walks and drives.
No one in their right mind would consider 'raising' worms as a crop unless they were sellimg them for fish bait.
Farmers inadvertently feed them when they disk in the stubble from row crops. It seems weird to me to hear of actually buying worms. You give them vegetable matter to eat, keep it moist and they will come.
I got some random shrooms in my pots too.. thinking of trying to inoculate a fresh mulch layer with a spore mass slurry from fresh shitakes. According to the book I am reading, it should work, Paul Stamets says that any debris pile will become a mushroom colony, so why not inoculate it? I am still in the early part of this book, it is not a quick weekend reader to be sure.
http://www.amazon.com/Growing-Gourmet-Medicinal-Mushrooms-Stamets/dp/1580081754
http://www.amazon.com/Growing-Gourmet-Medicinal-Mushrooms-Stamets/dp/1580081754
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