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Worming 101

W89

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New Bin Setup, Ingredients...
1) Forest humus as a base
2) Coffee Grounds from starbucks
3) Bananas
4) Dried ground Comfrey + Dandilion leaves

Ive noticed bananas are a very good addition to a worm bin, also since adding the dried comfrey I have noticed the worms are making the patch where the comfrey is there chosen place to be... Am going to let this sit for a week then add William worm and his friends......
 

Azeotrope

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Thanks CC.

They really are an amazing little creature. Once they get going, it can be amazing to watch. Stole some castings from the bottom for a tea yesterday and spent quite a while picking out little babies and cocoons.
 

ClackamasCootz

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Azeotrope

Your combination of tree leaves and horse manure is going to give you some really nice castings. Maple & fruit tree leaves are what my 'worm guy' uses in his bins and for making black leaf mold. Premium stuff!

You won't find any of this in a bag......
 

ClackamasCootz

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Sonoma Valley Worms - as good as it gets. Quite a system that they've developed and employed...

Here's the largest operation in North America - Worm Power in New York with over 110,000,000 worms in production.
 

W89

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Ive just separated all my adult worms and added them to a soil mix im going to be potting up into next week, I had originally just added a handful but I thought fook it... So I added them all... just left the babies in there,when I re-pot my seedlings up I will add those adult worm to the new bin and let the other one with the babies and cocoons in will hatch and mature. then in about 3 months I will take everything out of the bin and the castings should be done.... top titties!
 

W89

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I was just reading some info on a red worm composting site and look what some guy is saying you should do if you have "bugs" in your castings.................

Joe
#16. June 22nd, 2011, at 7:11 PM.

@Flavia,

Have you tried cooking the worm wind/castings? 30 minutes in a hot oven ought to kill any plant-eating bugs.



I never knew that this was good for your castings...to get rid of the "bugs"
 

W89

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Here is what I will be starting my new worm bin with, I separated all the adults from the babiesand cocoons to let the babies mature and cocoons hatch while the worm castings mature too..

Must be a couple thousand..

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In the tub where I let the young/cocoons there must be 5000+ they are too small to collect so thats why I'm leaving them to grow..

I want to set up a container for Breeding purposes, I read somewhere that when you have a large amount of worms in a small space they breed quicker, I dont know how true that is but I will do some more reading(yes I can read) before I commit to it...
 
I hope you aren't serious about cooking worm castings.... That's a really bad idea, as it will kill off all the beneficial life which you've worked to create (both microorganisms and beneficial insects). The only worm bin residents that I don't welcome are fruit flies and fungus gnats, but they're easy to handle (definitely no cooking required).
 

W89

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are you serious? I cooked a cubic foots worth on gas mark 7 for half an hour..

Oh on another not I went to my old girls house today and turned the compost pile, and I kept finding red worms in there, last time I turned it there was a few, but today there was a couple hundred at least and that's only what I saw... I picked out about 50 and I found 3 cocoons too and have put them in my worm bin to add a bit of diversity to the population i've also just placed an order for 3000 red worms off ebay £29.50 delivered
 

Azeotrope

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I started my first bin with worms from an outdoor superstore that carried worms in packs of 16 labeled "red tiger worms". Just short of 200 of those and some of them have reached some crazy girth and overall size!! After adding 1lb of reds at a later date and doing much research, I truly believe that the "red tigers" are actually European Reds (aka European Nightcrawlers). I find them at all levels in the bin and there are some real differences in cocoons size and juvenile sizes.

Not a bad thing at all. The euros have a shorter lifespan, are a little more sensative to temp and may not be as prolific at breeding, but I think this is a good mix in the bin.
 

W89

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I bought 1.5KG of euros to start my bin in december.. I have some big juicy mother fuckers too in the last 2 months they have made a 21 inch x 15 inch x 8inch mass full of id say atleast 65 - 75% actual castings rest of the stuff is random shit forest duff bits of food ect they are munching through it for sure... Cant wait for my 3000 reds to turn up and join in the party.... I changed my plan of starting 2 bins I'm going to add them to my current bin to help finish it off so I can get as close to pure castings as possible... then I will start a new bin
 
Ive just separated all my adult worms and added them to a soil mix im going to be potting up into next week, I had originally just added a handful but I thought fook it... So I added them all... just left the babies in there,when I re-pot my seedlings up I will add those adult worm to the new bin and let the other one with the babies and cocoons in will hatch and mature. then in about 3 months I will take everything out of the bin and the castings should be done.... top titties!

W89,

how long did your soil sit before you tossed some worms in?
i just mixed up a new batch of soil last week and have been dosing it with some EM and it's heating up. i think the worms would get baked if i put them in, but the mites are still crawling about unharmed. what is your experience? was the soil warm when you put them in?

DDG
 

W89

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about 2 months, I made 2 batches and 1 was sitting while the other was being used.. I had been keeping it moist and just a week before I needed it I stuck the worms in jst to add a bit more life too it.. it's got quite a high percentage of castings I was hping it wouldnt need watering as often then


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ok, thanks W89.
i won't have that long to wait, i will be using my soil in about 3 weeks. probably just add a couple worms to the pot when i plant in it. that soil looks rich. where do you stash that? lemmie guess, it's under your pillow! hahaha, growing in a hostel!
 

W89

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nah I keep it n the fridge next to the milk.... lol yeh growing in a hostel... balls of steal mate :D
Thats when theyre not shriveled up when my doorbell goes hahaha
 

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