Worming 101

[ThaiPhoon]

I use rice husks as a bedding material in my worm bin. The worms seem to like them. I feed them kitchen scraps and I grind up all the eggshells to a sand like consistency. I also throw a few handfuls of used coffee grounds every few days. It is hotter than hell here most of the time. 30+ C. I keep the bedding most by sprinkling a bit of water every few days. The bin is in the shade, and it stays relatively cool. I mean the worms are alive and I see little baby worms so they are reproducing. I have a collection tray to catch the runoff which I throw into the compost tea bubbler. I usually put the used coffee filters as the top layer, some very white stringy/hairy fungus grow on them and sometimes little mushroom heads start showing, but I usually turn them into the compost by then and add new food/material.

 

[qwerty]

I'm trying to start a worm bin.










Can you tell me what kind of worm this is?

 

[ThaiPhoon]

qwerty, where did you get the worms? I'm sure the supplier can tell you! I can not tell exactly what worm species it is, however, I can tell you that they do look very similar to the worms I have. Not a big deal as long as they are some type of composting/manure worm and not dew worms. Give them a nice moist bedding made from shredded newspaper or coco coir or rice hulls keep moist, if you have holes on the bottom of the container (you should if you don't) just sprinkle water on them before they dry! Worms need to get adjusted and probably wont eat much the first week. Start burying your worm food in the bedding, in a different spot each time...That should get you started.

Peace

 

[jolene]

If you can get a hay bale and soak it with piss and seaweed solution and then partially bury it in the ground, after a few months you should have a good colony of red worms or manure worms moving in which you can use to start your worm bin. Or you can spend a few pounds and get some pre-prepared which I would guess is easier in the US than here in the UK

 

[qwerty]

Thank you for the replies.

 

[Deft]

I'm going to start two bins soon, my only concern is where I will keep them when it starts to freeze. I'm assuming they would have to come inside, guess I could store them in the bulkhead which is semi heated.

 

[qwerty]

Deft,

Go ahead and put them inside. I did. Now snap some pictures so we can see them

 

[Deft]

Going to start them in a few days, have to go away from home. Bulkhead will be perfect and I could put 10 large bins in it, just need to insulate it a bit and it will be great for worms.

Ohh: found out my aunt has raised worms for years, going to talk to her about it, maybe get her to send me some worms.

 

[Smurf]

Hi wormies
atm its winter down this way so I've been keeping a close eye on my worm bins because I keep them outdoors under a large eucalyptus tree (also covered with corrugated fibreglass),,, anyway yesterday I was aerating the inside of the bins in my attempt to prevent compaction etc. and I noticed something about the clumps of hair I placed in there a while back,,,,,, much to my delight the worms have been laying their cocoons all thru the small hair clumps. Currently the moisture levels are so high & I'm thinking these little air voids (hair clumps) are ideal breeding areas?

I use a good amount of shredded paper, sugar cane mulch & pollard to help prevent excessive moisture levels, & also feed a lot of egg shell dust.
Has anyone seen or heard of this before?....the temps are well below ideal so I'm a bit puzzled as to why there are so many cocoons.
Any thoughts on this, I'll try to get some pics up asap so you can see how many cocoons there are in such a concentrated area.

Cheers smurf

Here ya go,

this is after I've pulled it apart, its hard to show but they are every where thru this hair, as well as the underside.


2 clumps of hair contained all these...



It still blows me away, I've never seen this before.

 

[space cowgirl]

Thanks for this thread!

I just started a worm bin, and do find it best to leave them alone to do their thing, but it IS interesting to poke around and see how they're progressing on the vegetable waste going into the bin. I started with one pound of worms in peat moss, added four inches of moist shredded newspaper about 10 days ago and have fed them the "waste" parts of one green pepper, which is nearly gone. I'm going to start a juice diet this weekend, and will be feeding them all the pulp created. The worms definitely like a moist, dark environment - I place a piece of cardboard on the surface just to give them darkness when I lift the lid. The first few days I noticed lots of worms trying to escape, but now I don't, so hopefully they're happy.

 

[Guest]

is their a minimum size to a worm bin, or can it be scaled to meet the need of the grower? and how long is the wait before you start to see usable ewc at a level great enough to do some planting with?

 

[Dignan]

I've never seen a complicated worm bin but still... here's a really nifty little one that serves as a way of removing worms/harvesting castings/collecting leachate tea all in one!

http://www.newfarm.org/features/0804/wormbin/index.shtml

 

[Smurf]

and how long is the wait before you start to see usable ewc at a level great enough to do some planting with?

rkrone - that all depends on the size of the food scraps they're fed (smaller the better) & the amount of worms doing the job but its roughly about 90 days,

Checked out that site Dignan,,, nice find, good info.

 

[space cowgirl]

I just threw my chopped-up male plant in the worm bin, we'll see if they like it.

 

[Guest]

is male saying goodby there in the bin?

 

[space cowgirl]

The worms seem to really like the MJ plant, also some dead plants from my pond.

 

[Guest]

tnx on the info space cowgirl.

well tomorrow i'll make my own worm bin i want to know, where should i store worm castings till season 2008? and how to store worm tea (drainage)?

 

[space cowgirl]

Earthworm Products

Earthworm Products

I believe you can store earth worm castings in a covered box, and the tea in any kind of container with a lid. I *think* they would still be good in 2008, but I haven't tried saving either one, so I'm not 100% certain. If you have houseplants, they'd certainly use them.

 

[jaykush]

keep fresh castings in a closed container in a cool dry place. you CAN NOT store tea. if your tea was brewed right and you put it in a container it will explode from pressure build up. use fresh as possible

 

[Guest]

aha! tnx on the info space_cowgirl and jaykush!

but i think we didn't understand on the storing worm tea. maybe my understanding of it is wrong.

tea is something you make out of worm castings right?
drainage that comes from the bottom of the worm bin is just worm casting drainage, but not tea?

my question was, if there is possible to store plain drainage that comes from the bottom of the worm bin?