best worm bins avaiable

[Bullfrog44]

Thanks you guys. I also believe shroom hit the nail on the head. Sometimes I get too worked up about making the fastest, best, most productive worm bin in the world. Then I throw all that knowledge at the problem at once. Patients is a virtue I am working on.

I think the next step for me may be purchasing a flow through worm bin. I might also keep my bins going, but start from new. My main goal is to have fresh castings for my teas all spring, summer, and fall.

Thanks for all the info, and i will be back for more in the near future. Maybe I will attempt this again in January.

 

[Harry Hoosier]

Thanks you guys. I also believe shroom hit the nail on the head. Sometimes I get too worked up about making the fastest, best, most productive worm bin in the world. Then I throw all that knowledge at the problem at once. Patients is a virtue I am working on.

I think the next step for me may be purchasing a flow through worm bin. I might also keep my bins going, but start from new. My main goal is to have fresh castings for my teas all spring, summer, and fall.

Thanks for all the info, and i will be back for more in the near future. Maybe I will attempt this again in January.

Bullfrog, if you want castings for spring, now is a good time to get busy. Just go slower and don't put so much food in the bin.
In fact, the bin should be prepared with food/bedding at least a week prior to introducing the worms. This process allows microbes/bacteria to get up and running and also for any fresh food to rot. I think it was Jay kush that mentioned feeding compost or almost compost that has been sifted. This is what I do and with fantastic results. It also keeps the hydration level somewhat even.
Hope this helps and or even makes sense.

And remember....He who has not failed raising worms has not tried raising worms....heh....Good luck

Harry

 

[mad librettist]

i bet your worms are not all dead. i have thought my worms were dead before.

 

[Bullfrog44]

Harry - Thanks for your advice. Everything you said is now in my memory banks. I try to not make the same mistakes twice, that is when I get mad.

Mad - You are right, I sifted through my bin and have noticed a small amount of worms that are still alive. I might make a new bin with only a few inches of feed. Try to get the worms to leave the bad bin and come to the new. Any suggestions?

 

[bonsai]

I noticed a depletion in worm numbers a month back. Sprinkled ground up eggshells on top, added a couple corn cons and some dry fine coco on top and left it alone. Opened the lid last night... exploding with worms of all ages. They know how to do their thing, don't rush them.

 

[TLoft13]

Interesting, tagged.

 

[h.h.]

.Some recycled soil makes a nice bed. A larger bin, though understandably not as productive, I think is a bit more forgiving. Gives them an out. I notice they move away when I put in aloe. Avocado seems to attract them.I just squish it all in my hands and mix it in the soil Corn meal sprinkled on top. Always balance with fungal material. Seems to work for me anyway. Lots of brown material. After they're left to compost and dry separately. I even crunch up lemons. I'd do the same with that many tomatoes.

 

[yortbogey]

DAM ... BF44... sorry U had such a BAD time w/ U'r worms....SUX's...
I was finally able to get 2lbsw of Red Wigglers in the mail....
made a Bin.... covered in predrilled air-holes all of the bottom and half way up the sides....placed in another bin that has the collar of another bin in it to keep the worm bin raised from the drip bin by excess of a additional bin.....works well

made a mix of 1/3 dried leaves, 1/3 shredded WET card board, and 1/3 cow manure....

added my worms over 2 wks ago.... and have sense feed w/ sum crushed eggshells, sum asparagus, bottoms {preground}, and tonight sum old apple and lettuce..... drizzled a little molasses, and a sprinkle of cornmeal.....

so far the little bastards are enjoying life.... and thriving

 

[mofeta]

There is a lot of good advice in this thread.

Here are some things I have noticed about vermiculture:

It is best to start small and slow. When you first get your worms, don't put them to work right away. Give them a comfy place to kick back, and a light snack. Treat them like you would some friends that just made a long road trip to spend some time with you.


Welcome the worms mix:

DAMP shredded newspaper- one inch strips, squeeze/wring out excess
a handful of decomposed leaves or other low nitrogen, bacteria rich duff
a small handful of mineral soil, to provide the grit their guts need

Put 4 inches of this in a plastic worm bin (MM right about worms love plastic), and fluff it up. Add your worms and cover the top of the worm mix with damp cardboard.



The point of this mix is to avoid high nutrient density, high nitrogen materials (the "greens" of traditional composting) and focus on low nutrient density, good structure materials (browns). I only use newpaper with new worms, once they are established I don't use it anymore.

Using this mix/technique is like giving the weary traveler, or the person with a cold, some broth and a cup of tea and then sending them off to a comfy bed. What you did was like making your road-trip friends stay up all night eating ribs and washing it down with down with a case of Anchor Porter, when all they really wanted to do was smoke a bowl and crash.

Over time, your worms will acclimate to their new surroundings and you can give them richer food. After a few generations they will have adapted to your place and will become voracious!

It is important to learn to judge the state of your worms health. You need to stick your hands in the mix and see whats going on. Until you know your worms real well, err on the side of underfeeding.

The advice on small space/high worm density that jaykush gave you is excellent.

MM's quote from Kelly Slocum is also golden advice. I get tired of hearing people say things like "worms can't live in their own waste". I like running a lot of small, high worm density bins that I harvest twice a year. When I harvest my bins, they are basically all castings, and those castings have been through the worms multiple times.

Good luck!

 

[Bullfrog44]

ok, I am going to try this again. Last night I placed about 2 inches of peat moss, 1 inch of card board and paper and mixed it all up. Then I boiled 3 egg shells and crumbled them up and spread them around. This is all I have done this time around and I just ordered my worms. So in 2-3 days I should get the worms, 2000. When the worms come I will put the worms in, then add another inch of peat and paper. Sounds good? What about epsom salts? Thanks for the help in advance this time.


Edit: I cut up the card board and paper very fine.

 

[mad librettist]

to make the calcium available fast, roast your eggshells and soak them in vinegar.

 

[Microbeman]

No epsom salts. I put my egg shells dry through the blender until they are basically powder. The worms seem to love it. No roasting nor vinegar, although this may be a good thing I have not tried.

 

[Harry Hoosier]

ok, I am going to try this again. Last night I placed about 2 inches of peat moss, 1 inch of card board and paper and mixed it all up. Then I boiled 3 egg shells and crumbled them up and spread them around. This is all I have done this time around and I just ordered my worms. So in 2-3 days I should get the worms, 2000. When the worms come I will put the worms in, then add another inch of peat and paper. Sounds good? What about epsom salts? Thanks for the help in advance this time.


Edit: I cut up the card board and paper very fine.

BF44, I hope you are moistening everything and not introducing it dry?
Leave the salt out! Put a small amount of food (compost, almost compost ) in the bin and leave it alone! If you want to check it, just peek in daily and take note of the moisture level. Moist is good! You must maintain a level of patience as the worms are only going to work at their speed.
Good luck!

 

[big_daddy]

Bullfrog44,

You might consider brassica greens as a calcium source for your bins. Kale, Bok Choy, mustard, collard and turnip greens are good sources of calcium. Most dynamic accumulator plants have high amounts of calcium also.

Any of the plants/weed on this chart below would work good as food for your worms or as an addition to your compost pile.

http://oregonbd.org/Class/accum.htm

b_d

 

[jammie]

if your looking to increase magnesium- avocado, bananas, rice are all high in mg and are among worm's fav foods

 

[Bullfrog44]

to make the calcium available fast, roast your eggshells and soak them in vinegar.

What is "roast," like on the BBQ? Vinegar sounds like a good idea, sounds like it would weaken the cell membrane. Good call.

No epsom salts. I put my egg shells dry through the blender until they are basically powder. The worms seem to love it. No roasting nor vinegar, although this may be a good thing I have not tried.

Another great idea, I only hand broke them up. But I did manage to get some very small pieces, but not blender dust small. Thanks for the tips, and this time I tried to stick to your websites instructions.

BF44, I hope you are moistening everything and not introducing it dry?
Leave the salt out! Put a small amount of food (compost, almost compost ) in the bin and leave it alone! If you want to check it, just peek in daily and take note of the moisture level. Moist is good! You must maintain a level of patience as the worms are only going to work at their speed.
Good luck!

Everything was pre-moistened. The peat moss I rinsed out before hand also. (I heard it has salts in it naturally) I did not put any compost in the bin yet, so good call. What do you think, a cup? Thanks for the help.

You might consider brassica greens as a calcium source for your bins. Kale, Bok Choy, mustard, collard and turnip greens are good sources of calcium. Most dynamic accumulator plants have high amounts of calcium also.

Any of the plants/weed on this chart below would work good as food for your worms or as an addition to your compost pile.

http://oregonbd.org/Class/accum.htm

b_d[/QUOTE]

I am still learning about what the worms need, so forgive my ignorance. Why would I consider these sources also? To add diversity or are egg shells not the best source? I will have to look over your link better to understand, thank you.

if your looking to increase magnesium- avocado, bananas, rice are all high in mg and are among worm's fav foods

I assume cooked rice is best right? All very good to know, and stuff I eat on the regular. That is what I love about this, most things worms eat normally go in the garbage. I know, I know, it's been around forever but sometimes it takes me 5,000 years to catch on. Thanks for the help.

 

[Buddah Watcha]

About 6 months ago I started a 10gal bin. Collected a few worms from the backyard and started composting. A few months later got one of the nice worm bins and 1000 worms. Threw a handful of the worms into the 1st bin.

6 Months later I got about 20lbs of top notch quality castings thriving with life! Thanks to that, I grew the best organic meds that ever came out of my garden!!

I got so many worms now. My plan is to start another 2/3 bins and transfer the worms after the harvest.

One useful tip, that IME helps speed of the food processing, is to freeze whatever scraps in a ziplock bag and when you are ready to feed the worms, throw in the microwave for a few minutes, wait till it cools off and then feed em! That makes the food all mushy and ready for the worms! They love it!

My bedding consists of some peat moss, some cardboard, newspaper, shredder paper, some decomposting leaves, some recycled soil. Also had some compost bag that was all dried up and decided to rerun that thru the worms! They seem to love it!

I think I got around 5k worms today. So many baby worms crawling around, its beautiful

Before I started with the bin, i gotta admit I was a bit intimidated, but there really aint no secret. Goota love them worms

 

[ShroomDr]

worms dont actually eat the shit you put in, they eat the microbes that eat the shit you put in.

If you put too much shit in, the microbes dont work as well, they have to compete with every other airborne microbe that lands on the fresh material. When you add a little at a time, the 'good' microbes can just take off. (Similar to mush cult).

Never heard of Espom Salt supplementation (MgSO4). Dolomite lime (CaMg) is a normal supplement though, as it helps keep the pH from falling too low.

Im about to go outside and gather a bunch of wet leaves. Should be a great brown (Read: Carbon) source.

 

[Bullfrog44]

You are right, I said Epsom Salt. Face-palm! I totally meant Dolomite lime, because of the ph issues from the peat. I am glad somebody is paying attention today, cause I totally spaced on that one.

 

[mad librettist]

the reason for roasting (in the oven) the egg shells and soaking in vinegar is to get homemade calcium phosphate.

you can use that directly on plants, btw. it's available to plants immediately. 1:20

I do a regular vinegar soak as well (calcium acetate), and I also feed raw eggshells. The vinegar soak does not just soften, it completely dissolves the shell. I keep adding shells until they stop bubbling.

Don't worry about the pH, bacteria will raise it for you.


This author recommends it during the stretch, basically:


http://gardenhacker.com/how-can-i-give-my-plants-more-calcium/

Here’s a recipe I found and an interesting article, just don’t know how long to roast ‘em for:
1. Roast/toast eggshells.
2. Soak roasted eggshells in equal volume of vinegar for two weeks until the vinegar dissolves the eggshells.
3. Dilute 1:20 parts water and spray on plants or water into plants.
4. Note below that this is best used during a specific period in the plants growth, just before flowering/fruiting.

This is from the BIM piece posted on an earlier thread:

“Calcium Phosphate

A lot of agriculture advisers have used calcium phosphate for better plant growth, health, pest and disease controls. Natural farmers use this very specific bionutrient. Under the theory of Nutrioperiodism developed by a Japanese horticulturist, Yasushi Inoue in the 1930�s, plants and animals need a very specific nutrient relative to the stage of their development. In the plant, there is the essential vegetative growth , changeover and the reproductive periods. In animals, like humans, there is the infantile, juvenile and adulthood. It is not only critical to provide the right nutrient at the right stage of the development, but also critical to use or apply specific nutrient of calcium phosphate in the juvenile or changeover period. For the plant, for example, we know that nitrogen is critical on the vegetative stage as potassium is critical in the flowering and fruiting stages. It is however, the changeover period that is most critical that will determine the quality of the final reproductive stage. At this stage, an additional nutrient is badly needed by the plant. And this is calcium phosphate. Calcium phosphate is good for plants� “morning sickness”. It is the stage that additional baby needs to be fed or the process where flower/fruit is about to come. Ash made from soybean stems are excellent for this purpose.

Here is a simple, natural method of generating calcium phosphate. Get eggshells and roast them enough to generate some good ashes. Afterwhich, dip these roasted eggshells on about equal visual volume of vinegar. Allow it to sit for a couple of weeks until eggshells are practically broken down by the vinegar acids. You may use this diluted 20 parts water and can be sprayed or watered to the plants during the changeover period.

When this is applied to that changeover period, it will improve plant health and productivity. The use of calcium phosphate is important to natural farmers. This however, does not mean that we shall forget the nutrient timing application of other critical nutrients for plant growth both macro and micro nutrients, given at the right stages and combinations.

We consider this very important bionutrient needed by the plants used by natural farmers.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/soil/msg0422555019136.html

[ed.] Thanks Olivia, good recipe for homemade calcium. I’d figure you’d probably roast / toast until they were just browning. Wonder how long the pickled eggshells last?