Worming 101

[jaykush]

that stuff can be a bit touchy sometimes. and i wouldnt let it sit for that long it will go anaerobic and start to stink. best use would be on top of a compost pile or on some flowers.

castings Tea is soaking the finished castings in water and sometimes bubbling it to help aerate the mix, the microbes multiply in the tea and benefit your plants soil.

 

[Guest]

i would add to your reputation but i cant. remind when i hit 50 posts.
live on jaykush!

 

[HighonPottery]

I have been trying to get my hands on some of these red composting worms without any luck. I tried at a few nurseries and they don't have any advice other than try a bait shop. All the bait and tackle shops only carry nightcrawlers. Any advice?

I'd figure vermicomposting would be a big thing nowadays, but I guess not.

I'm going to try and put a craigslist want ad for some.

 

[PHB]

I have been trying to get my hands on some of these red composting worms without any luck. I tried at a few nurseries and they don't have any advice other than try a bait shop. All the bait and tackle shops only carry nightcrawlers. Any advice?

I'd figure vermicomposting would be a big thing nowadays, but I guess not.

I'm going to try and put a craigslist want ad for some.

Burn1 has a great link in his sig for http://www.vermiculture.com/store/ They sell both redworms and cultured nightcrawlers for vermicomposting.

PHB

 

[HighonPottery]

thanks!

 

[jaykush]

http://www.wormcompostingtips.com/

 

[1stimer]

This is a great thread. I am going to have to start some worm bins. It looks fool proof and super easy.

 

[Mt Toaker]

One of those articles mentioned not to put spicy foods in there and I read in this thread some one put a pepper in theirs. Just thought I would bring that up.

 

[jolene]

You need to have a nice mix of wet soft things like fruit peels and fibrous material like damp newspaper and hay - if you sprinkle some rock dust on the top it will help the worms eat more as they use it in their stomachs to grind up the food and it will add loads of minerals for the funghi.
You can make a worm treat to encourage growth and breeding by mixing oats, bakers yeast, rock dust, dolomite lime and alfalfa (a handful or two on the top) and covering it with damp newspaper. If you chuck some rock phosphate in the mix too you get good flowering worm castings.

 

[Suby]

Jolene great post!

S

 

[Smurf]

Recently I've been feeding some of my worms a diet of roughly 80% coffee grounds, with the remainder being - pollard, egg shell dust & shredded paper with sugar cane mulch. I normally go to great extremes when feeding my worms but wanted to simplify things this time round. I must admit that I was a bit surprised to see how quickly they are munching through this particular mix,,, then I use this ewc to brew in a tea,,, oh I forgot to say I pour a fungal tea over the coffee grounds (sealed in container) and left for about 2 weeks before using,,, and the sugar cane mulch has been thoroughly saturated also. There's usually a nice mat of fungi growing on the coffee grounds by then.

Hey I'd like to give that recipe of yours a go jolene,,, sounds good.

There some great info coming together in this thread.

smurf

 

[Crhazey Daze]

Super nice thread! Its the start of my soil revolution

 

[b52]

all WORM shit is not created equal...

all WORM shit is not created equal...

GREAT THREAD... I've been using castings for years . makng teas n using them as top dressing....

ASked the LOcal GURU bout using em a few years back.. asked why he didnt carry them in his store..... the guy has a National Radio show called the GARDEN REBEL on AM chaneels Satureday mornings...... HE said he had a guy come thru who wanted to stock his stroe with em .. but

" I didnt like what he was feeding them with"..

THis guy knows his shit... literally.. so thats something ya'll should keep in mind... all WORM shit is not created equal...

anyhow..

THis week I'm going to be getting a few pounds of em form a friend... n THe plan is to get them to shit what I nutrients My plants NEEd ..... Via Feeding them Trimmings from my grow......... I fugure ther s no better source for MJ nutrients than a MJ plant..... time will tell...

 

[Doj]

Anyone has worm compost inside house?
or does it require so much air that it smells too much?

 

[Dignan]

If you do it correctly, which is very easy, there is no smell at all.

 

[Clackamas Coot]

I'm using the 'Can-O-Worms' bin and I had a couple of questions if anyone else is familiar with this system.

I used an organic compost that's readily available at the local nurseries around here, i.e. composted forest products, dairy compost & poultry compost and also contains some dolomite lime and a bit of sea kelp.

Does that sound okay?

I only started with a couple of lbs. of red wigglers from a worm supplier down the road. There were lots of large worms, babies, cocoons, etc. They're buried deeply into the bedding and I do see several babies and they're devouring plant trim (sun leaves, etc.) like crazy!

My concern is that the bedding will be providing a large amount of food for several weeks if I understand raising worms correctly, right?

I've never kept worms in such a device, i.e. I usually just toss stuff outside in our outdoor worm bin for our vegetable garden & fruit trees but with the cold weather we had this past winter and we even had snow this past weekend, I lost a lot of my worms. I wanted this smaller system to raise worms where I could control the type of foods in an attempt to raise the quality of the castings for compost teas.

Thanks for any/all input.

Clackamas Coot

 

[Dignan]

Wish I could help you, Clack, but so far the only things I've put in my worm bin are kitchen scraps, shredded newspaper, a little composted horse manure and some coco coir. I know some folks make castings using just compost and bedding, but I had never heard of that until just the other day, actually.

Did that contraption of yours comes with an instruction booklet?

 

[Clackamas Coot]

Wish I could help you, Clack, but so far the only things I've put in my worm bin are kitchen scraps, shredded newspaper, a little composted horse manure and some coco coir. I know some folks make castings using just compost and bedding, but I had never heard of that until just the other day, actually.

Did that contraption of yours comes with an instruction booklet?

Dignan

As it turned out, the worms are concentrating on eating the compost - that's a good thing. I added a couple more lbs. of red wigglers to get the indoor worm bin up to speed and it seems to be working.

The worms will concentrate on leaf trim, soaked kelp meal, glacial rock dust, alfalfa meal, etc. when it's made available.

I'm looking forward to making some compost tea with these castings in a couple of months. They should be better than most commercial earthworm castings I'm hoping.

BTW - they really love the kelp meal if you soak it for a couple of days in some water and then put it on top of the bedding. It'll be gone in a few days. Banana skins are another favorite from what I can tell.

Since there is absolutely no smell, I'm assuming that things are working correctly. In fact it's in the corner of the kitchen so the temperature is staying in the mid-60's I would guess since it's near a sliding-glass door.

 

[Duke_]

neat stuff, good work.

 

[Tactical Farmer]

Just got back from the golf course after a hard rain, there were trillions of night crawlers spooning with each other. Got 3 on a single grab some times, about 10 per square foot in the hot spots (pretty much everywhere) it was real trippy.

New to worming - building a bin tomorrow. Going to post pics of my catch in the morning.

Here is a great thread:

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=47457&page=8&pp=15&highlight=worm