[who dat is]

What about Rocky Mountain Worm Company? highyieldorganics.net I guess you ruled them out because I think I've heard you mention them before...?

[Avinash.miles]

i haven't ruled any source out yet - except uncle jims.... they are big guy in the industry, who i had sourced when i was considering buying last year.
moving forward i'll be looking into other sources of live worms, specifically red wigglers, since i can get nightcrawlers locally as bait.

my local vermiculture place also told me they shipped worms, didn't sell them from their location. so i opted out of that back in summer.... did the trap instead.

[heady blunts]

give northwest redworms a shot. they're way closer to you than jim's.

[Stoney Johnson]

The urbanwormdirectory.com shows two worm farmers in Colorado.

Looks like there is one in Liberty Maine too.

[Stoney Johnson]

Urbanwormcompany.com

[Shooter350]

I could have brought you some of my wigglers while I was out there. Dang it. I made a big batch of vermicompost for this year. I'm stoked to use it.

[Seaf0ur]

https://groups.yahoo.com/group/worm_exchange/

its done by this guy...

https://www.cowormman.org/

[Keif Stoned]

Avi,

Given the number of Colorado growers following your thread, I thought it might be the place to post this subject, but also for anyone who lives where the snow falls often. Like many growers starting out, I began a process of discovery with what these plants liked and needed, stumbling along the learning curve with most common mistakes and adjusting when necessary.

One common frustration for soil grows revolve around tap water ph and the problems resulting particularly from high ph levels. If all things are right with your soil, the ph of your water has he greatest potential for upsetting your balance, it would seem to me. My tap water where I live is pretty high, maybe like 7.8-8.0 and early on at some point I began to have problems. I've learned since that there's several fairly simple remedies; lime, adjusting tap water for proper ph...ect.

Before learning these things, it occurred to me that for several months of the year after each frequent snow fall, the sun pops out and many of gallons of perfectly balanced plant water was available to direct into a container and use to eliminate the tap water ph problem. I can fill this up in about half a day usually.



I placed a 30 gal container down into the window well and mounted a spigot at the bottom. Used a simple means to divert melt water from a nearby down spout into the barrel. I know now that I can eliminate the ph problem by simpler means, but this worked so well that I never changed and continue to this day.

I was wondering if any other growers who have the snow fall to make it possible are doing this, and does the snow water contain good things for the plants, maybe like nitrogen and other elements. Also would like to hear any opinions about possible downsides to this practice. Seems like it would fit well in general with the concept of organic growing. Did a thread search about this and nothing returned.

thanks, KS

[Avinash.miles]

genius status, keifstoned! best use of window well ever (especially here in CO) thanks for the input.
i have used snow, actually recently, for "root icing" i just filled a couple 5 gallon buckets of snow and put the snow directly on the mulch layer, let it melt in, also the "last" watering was done with very cold water (left outside).
also concerning high pH tap water... I've recently been using ascorbic acid (vitamin C) powder to accelerate de-chlorination, i'm sure this must serve to lower the pH of the water, however slightly.
previously i had been concerned about slightly high pH tap water, but then considered that many additive to the water are acidic, like fermented plant extracts, em1/lacto, quantum vsc/lite. i've since decided that adding things to the water would not only be good for plants but also to help slightly lower pH of the solution before putting it on the soil.

thanks for all the good worm advice, y'all

fixing to start harvesting here soon, veg is super overgrown, I've been transplanting alot lately, all seedlings went into 1gallons, all prime plants in 1gallons went into 3gallons, all that up-potting-jazz.
shuffling thru a sea of clones in cups...

[Eighths-n-Aces]

Originally Posted by Keif Stoned

Avi,

Given the number of Colorado growers following your thread, I thought it might be the place to post this subject, but also for anyone who lives where the snow falls often. Like many growers starting out, I began a process of discovery with what these plants liked and needed, stumbling along the learning curve with most common mistakes and adjusting when necessary.

One common frustration for soil grows revolve around tap water ph and the problems resulting particularly from high ph levels. If all things are right with your soil, the ph of your water has he greatest potential for upsetting your balance, it would seem to me. My tap water where I live is pretty high, maybe like 7.8-8.0 and early on at some point I began to have problems. I've learned since that there's several fairly simple remedies; lime, adjusting tap water for proper ph...ect.

Before learning these things, it occurred to me that for several months of the year after each frequent snow fall, the sun pops out and many of gallons of perfectly balanced plant water was available to direct into a container and use to eliminate the tap water ph problem. I can fill this up in about half a day usually.

View Image

I placed a 30 gal container down into the window well and mounted a spigot at the bottom. Used a simple means to divert melt water from a nearby down spout into the barrel. I know now that I can eliminate the ph problem by simpler means, but this worked so well that I never changed and continue to this day.

I was wondering if any other growers who have the snow fall to make it possible are doing this, and does the snow water contain good things for the plants, maybe like nitrogen and other elements. Also would like to hear any opinions about possible downsides to this practice. Seems like it would fit well in general with the concept of organic growing. Did a thread search about this and nothing returned.

thanks, KS

better make sure that trash can never freezes with any water in it Keif. i've had 2 different ones split at the bottom because i let that happen. i switched to the 55 gallon barrels after the second one and they can handle some ice.

yours might never freeze solid in the window well ...... could be bad if it does though