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Worming 101
- Thread starter Suby
- Start date
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greenmatter
jay if you say it i believe it (and that goes for mads input too) but please understand im dealing with organic concrete here. not sure if the term clay would even apply. gonna give the sweet potatoes a try this year. thanks for the advice
Greenmatter, hopefully this helps.
About 20 some years ago I had a pond dug. My land had about 2-5 foot of sand over hard gray/blue clay. I knocked down about 3.5 acres of woods, then dug the pond of about a 1/2 acre. This clay from the pond brought the old wooded area up about 18 inches to two feet, and made it equal to my yard, but it was like a parking lot in the summer. I tried 200lb of fertilizer and then 200lb of grass seed. What grass grew, was very sparse.
Next I bought two of those huge round bales of alfalfa from a neighboring farmer. I bust the bales up and spread it around as best i could, then had the alfalfa disked in the soil, then reapplyed the ferts and seed.
This time the clay was broken up enough with the alfalfa, the the grass could grow decent roots. I no longer have that piece of property, but I do see it from time to time and the grass is nice and green and doing well.
BTW the extension service recommended I use gypsum to bust up the clay, but due to the hauling cost, I went with the second choice, alfalfa, and it worked out well......good luck.......scrappy
About 20 some years ago I had a pond dug. My land had about 2-5 foot of sand over hard gray/blue clay. I knocked down about 3.5 acres of woods, then dug the pond of about a 1/2 acre. This clay from the pond brought the old wooded area up about 18 inches to two feet, and made it equal to my yard, but it was like a parking lot in the summer. I tried 200lb of fertilizer and then 200lb of grass seed. What grass grew, was very sparse.
Next I bought two of those huge round bales of alfalfa from a neighboring farmer. I bust the bales up and spread it around as best i could, then had the alfalfa disked in the soil, then reapplyed the ferts and seed.
This time the clay was broken up enough with the alfalfa, the the grass could grow decent roots. I no longer have that piece of property, but I do see it from time to time and the grass is nice and green and doing well.
BTW the extension service recommended I use gypsum to bust up the clay, but due to the hauling cost, I went with the second choice, alfalfa, and it worked out well......good luck.......scrappy
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greenmatter
i use alfalfa pellets to amend the beds i already have started, great stuff but i never used it to bust clay. thanks scrappy
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greenmatter
think i may have gotten us all drifting here ... this is worming 101 .. sorry about that! good info anyway
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Stankie
I'm trying to bust up my clay yard for a veggie patch, so I found it very useful!!!
give it a try! Fukuoka did it with daikon and compost made with kitchen scraps and ash. You've got sweet potato and a whole bunch of other helpers people have brought to light since his time.
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Chong_Irie
When buying worms does it matter if the worms come from a commercial operation and fed manure compared to say a smaller scale operation where they are only fed food scraps. I'm thinking of getting a few pounds more and I found a local "organic" supplier, but I dont know if its worth double the price?
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greenmatter
not really sure if a worms diet would make the worm itself ''better" or worth twice the money. on the other hand i would say supporting a small local operation is a good thing if you can afford it. always help the other little guy, he is more likely to help you out in the long run and your money stays in your area. PEACE
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greenmatter
does anyone feed their worms a special diet? i have wondered what difference worm food has on the end product. do amino acids make it through a worms gut or are they completely broken down?
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Stankie
I put hair in my bin 
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greenmatter
been doing some reading on amino acids. i was wondering if you fed worms foods high in amino acids and/or proteins would it make better castings. i feed my worms some strange stuff too and i have noticed that they LIKE several things that are naturally high in glutamic acid. do aminos make it intact through the worms gut? has anyone actually done any real research on the subject? anyone with a worm bin knows how great home made castings are, so has anyone figured out the ultimate diet for castings?
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greenmatter
I put hair in my bin
i put dog hair in the bin and they seem to like it. seems to me it would be better than eating junk mail. i try to mix things up as much as possible as far as fibers and food go, but they like the things i get from the unfinished compost and leaf mold piles lots better than shredded paper.
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greenmatter
sounds like we feed our worms the same stuff. i always use materials from my own compost and leaf mold piles. i do a good bit of hiking and have been wondering if feeding stuff that i find when i am out would be a good idea. there is always great stuff in the woods and by river banks. i was wondering if a few handfulls of that stuff might "inoculate" my bin with something that is not already there. could that work for a compost pile too?
also .... on the subject of worm food, i put a handfull of cracked sunflower seed kernel bird food in my bin, in 24 hours every visible worm in that bin was on the sunflower kernels. they went nuts over this stuff. anyone tried this? can anyone explain why worms would love sunflower seed? they did not even give the stuff time to soften up
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greenmatter
so when i start a new leaf mold pile in the fall would it help to wet the pile down with an AACT made from finished leaf mold?. organic jump start if you will. leaf mold rules, it just takes forever.... how can i speed it up?
