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Worming 101
- Thread starter Suby
- Start date
blackpulpit
Member
Hello all, I have a 150 gallon bed filled with my Organic ingredients and today I receive about 3,000 red wigglers to place in the bed, what is the best way to do this? should I wet my soil, place/spread worms around and cover with my hay mulch until they travel below surface? any advice would be great for this large a bed and around 3 to 4000 worms.
'Boogieman'
Well-known member
When i order red wigglers they often come in barely wet peat moss wrapped in a damp newspaper. I make a shallow trench in the worm bin and place the peat moss or whatever bedding they use to ship worms in the trench and carefully make it level with the bedding, then place the damp newspaper on top.
FredyJohnSmith
New member
I always go for fruit and veggies waste as they are organic and my worms just love them...
Bilboscrogins
Member
great thread.
Just want to say hi, and add my experiences since I started a year ago. Maybe someone can learn from it.
I bought a pound of worms = 1000 worms, on my local kjiji/ craigslist site first, but I killed them within a month. The bin was too wet and in a closet in the basement. It was completely anaerobic and stunk so bad. Lesson here is assume that you will kill your bin at least once in the beginning - start small! I didn't give up and bought just 150 worms and tried again. Those have multiplied to almost 5000 in under a year!
This is what I use:
40% Compost (homemade - kitchen scraps mostly layered with carbon materials)
20% Shredded Paper
20% Cannabis Leaves / Stems
20% Guineapig Droppings
I let this cook and heat up for a good week. I feel it to make sure its not super warm anymore and I mix it up every few days.
When I harvest my worm bin I have a screen that catches most of the worms, and anything that hasn't broken down yet. All this I just dump on top of bedding in the new bin. This way all my stems (big 1 inch wide ones too) eventually break down. To this I just add leaves and coffee grinds as needed every week or two if I don't see a lot of material left. I harvest my bin every 3 months. For the last 2 weeks they get nothing and I leave lid off to help dry them so they stay loose and crumbly and don't go anaerobic while storing before use.
All I use is a 27G Black and Yellow tote. I made holes in the bottom and put it inside another one, but have found when you control the moisture there is no leachate.
To control the moisture, remember that it comes from all your inputs so you need to balance it. You can add dry bedding, shredded paper or dry leaves. I like to just mix the bin up, and leave the lid off for a few days.
Just wanted to share, as In the beginning it was scary, and really once you "get it" its super simple. I make 5 Gallons of castings every 2-3 months, and all my plant matter gets reused and doesn't leave the house!
I bought a pound of worms = 1000 worms, on my local kjiji/ craigslist site first, but I killed them within a month. The bin was too wet and in a closet in the basement. It was completely anaerobic and stunk so bad. Lesson here is assume that you will kill your bin at least once in the beginning - start small! I didn't give up and bought just 150 worms and tried again. Those have multiplied to almost 5000 in under a year!
This is what I use:
40% Compost (homemade - kitchen scraps mostly layered with carbon materials)
20% Shredded Paper
20% Cannabis Leaves / Stems
20% Guineapig Droppings
I let this cook and heat up for a good week. I feel it to make sure its not super warm anymore and I mix it up every few days.
When I harvest my worm bin I have a screen that catches most of the worms, and anything that hasn't broken down yet. All this I just dump on top of bedding in the new bin. This way all my stems (big 1 inch wide ones too) eventually break down. To this I just add leaves and coffee grinds as needed every week or two if I don't see a lot of material left. I harvest my bin every 3 months. For the last 2 weeks they get nothing and I leave lid off to help dry them so they stay loose and crumbly and don't go anaerobic while storing before use.
All I use is a 27G Black and Yellow tote. I made holes in the bottom and put it inside another one, but have found when you control the moisture there is no leachate.
To control the moisture, remember that it comes from all your inputs so you need to balance it. You can add dry bedding, shredded paper or dry leaves. I like to just mix the bin up, and leave the lid off for a few days.
Just wanted to share, as In the beginning it was scary, and really once you "get it" its super simple. I make 5 Gallons of castings every 2-3 months, and all my plant matter gets reused and doesn't leave the house!
Stoney Johnson
Member
Uncle Jim is mids.
Lots of great worm talk. It never ceases to amaze me that this little garage processor, can be so cheap/easy to maintain and provide so much benefit. FREE!!!!!! So long as the chow is organic and I don't get it too wet or too dry - I close the lid and forget about it. I have both a store bought WORM BIN and a simple plastic tote with a crack in the lid. (No holes drilled). The cracked tote does better than the $100 tower. Just check in on the boys every 2, 3 days days and add what is needed to balance it out. I leave newspaper/cardboard boxes literally thrown in there to soak up the excess humidity/moisture. As they get too damp to the touch, I replace it.... unless it's the bottom layer and it's being consumed. Just keep the chow coming and the climate comfy... Its hard to mess up.
- Don't freak out on what crawls outta there - just close the lid
- If lotsa stuff FLIES out at ya - let them out / add paper-cardboard - close lid
- As the poo gets thick and matted down in the tote. I will reach in there with an old spatula and FLUFF it up to let air in. I wouldn't call it stirring. Just raise the pile and roll it over a bit. Everybody seems to like it. Probably not....HAHAHA
- Don't freak out on what crawls outta there - just close the lid
- If lotsa stuff FLIES out at ya - let them out / add paper-cardboard - close lid
- As the poo gets thick and matted down in the tote. I will reach in there with an old spatula and FLUFF it up to let air in. I wouldn't call it stirring. Just raise the pile and roll it over a bit. Everybody seems to like it. Probably not....HAHAHA
OBTW... worms LOVE corn cobs. Half eaten, are best. The butter/salt don't seem to bother them. So after dinner, take the left over cobs, use your garden shears to cut them down to 1 inch chunks. Now this isn't necessary as they'll do a complete cob as well. I just like to spread the wealth by having lots of smaller chunks. Bury them or not - doesn't matter. Give it two days and go dig a couple up to check.... you'll find each piece now has a worm ball orgy going on underneath of it. Cocoons everywhere, new borns will eventually take over the cob and be INSIDE of the core. They're a huge boost to the worm life in your bin. Shred up some of that nice brown AMAZON packing paper and add that to balance the moisture out.
OkieSmokie
Member
Start slow with the food. Give them time to adjust to their new home. All neutral bedding (peat or shredded paper or coir) proper moisture and just a couple pieces of food. Dont feed more till that first food is almost gone.
But the worms don't eat the food directly they eat the microbes that eat the food. So food being gone just means microbes have broken it down, it doesn't mean that the worms are now full and couldn't eat more microbes.
My understanding at least. educate me
OkieSmokie
Member
That's my understanding as well, Paulie. But what I have experienced is that overfeeding right at the start can make for a disastrous first experience.
All I'm saying is start slow. Lost of bedding (carbon/brown) material and just a bit of nitrogen. Then add slowly from there as the worms get used to their new home.
To much nitrogen will cause the pile to heat up and the worms will abandon ship.
All I'm saying is start slow. Lost of bedding (carbon/brown) material and just a bit of nitrogen. Then add slowly from there as the worms get used to their new home.
To much nitrogen will cause the pile to heat up and the worms will abandon ship.
Hello all, curious what I should be doing here on my small hobby farm. Need a grand idea/setup. Thought about using the shit troff on the floor in the barn but then someone said it might not be that swell of an idea. They mentioned the fact it was concrete and no air flow. Thought it would be grand having a 60' worm bin though.
Limited experience and totally different environment .. that being said..
I prefer to have my worms in a container.. That way it is easier to take out rich soil and put used soil/ food for worms in.. AND once in a while do a total renewal of soil (take out rich soil without adding deplated soil thus lowering total volume). this is where containers rock
When total volume is appropriate and still enough for worms to live in.. put all this to a ' temp home' with holes that allow worms to migrate..
put deplated soil in and 'temp home' on top >> worms will move shortly from temp home back to their home with new deplated soil.
While this can be done on concrete floor.. I do thing it would be a lot more work.
+ I do have to occasionally move my worm bin around .. much easier in container.
Container can be from 5 Gal to 120 Gal .. later requires machinery to move but if you have barn you might have machinery..
PCBuds
Well-known member
After reading this post I have decided to introduce a dozen Canadian Night Crawlers to my grow bin.
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=722434&postcount=420
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=722434&postcount=420
'Boogieman'
Well-known member
Yes, lots of people do just that.
