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Question about worm compost

h.h.

Active member
Veteran
It is a waste of real estate...unless you have the room.
Feed the worms like you're feeding your soil.
Begs the question.

Why does nobody want to feed their soil?
I want to do all this guess work up front and just water afterwards.
Why?
 

Big Nasty

Active member
It is a waste of real estate...unless you have the room.
Feed the worms like you're feeding your soil.
Begs the question.

Why does nobody want to feed their soil?
I want to do all this guess work up front and just water afterwards.
Why?
I don't have any room problem.

That being said you are asking me why i want to do this and my answer is because that's what i've always done in my vegetables garden and my father before me.You add things first,then you just have to water.Is this in any way different than mixing stuff and let it sit for a month?

The worms in the bin come from my garden and another compost pile,both are not meant for growing worms,however worms grow well despite me throwing in them pretty much anything that can be decomposed.
I can't see any difference,to me feeding the soil is feeding the worms and the plants and every living thing in the soil.
 

DrDee

Member
What i'm trying to do is not only to feed the worms(there are 3 species of worms in the bin)but at the same time i'd like to create an almost suitable growing media for the plants without the need to add amendments during the grow.While the red wigglers love manure,cardboard and vegetables the nightcrawlers mostly eat rotting leaves and dirt.
I want to keep the things in balance so each amendment that i would use to fertilize the plants is added slowly over time to not bother or kill the worms,let me clarify that it is not just about feeding the worms,something goes in for worms and something else for the plants and texture.I appreciate any input though.

Always make sure you have someplace safe like just dirt and coco for example...so the worms can escape and take a breather... if you put too much of something they don't like in there. Don't be a worm abuser...
JD
 

Big Nasty

Active member
The bedding is 60% used soil from my last grow,I'd like to try a mix of char,sand and lava rock for oxygenation instead of perlite,last time i turned the bin(yesterday)worms were doing great.The smell was fine,earthy musky almost sweet,this "compost" is way lighter then the starting soil itself,the moisture content seems good to me.I also added some ash mainly made of olive tree.What kind of problem can't I see?
Btw MicrobeMan i took your suggestion and with the leftover of moss i made a moss-loaf and cooked it in the firplace,maybe i can charge it with the horsetail-nettle tea?
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h.h.

Active member
Veteran
there is a difference between feeding soil and building soil
Even nature has yet to come up with a perfect no feed soil.
Why do we stress ourselves over such a task?~~
Hand grenades, horseshoes and humus.
Close is good enough.
If I was a golfer, I'd kick the ball when I missed.
Virtually anything under 15 gallon is going to leave deficiencies.
Living soil needs food, water, and oxygen.


Another thought on adding amendments to a worm bed...you just end up with a soil bed with worms.


Build soil, not walls.
 

Big Nasty

Active member
Even nature has yet to come up with a perfect no feed soil.
Why do we stress ourselves over such a task?~~
Hand grenades, horseshoes and humus.
Close is good enough.
If I was a golfer, I'd kick the ball when I missed.
Virtually anything under 15 gallon is going to leave deficiencies.
Living soil needs food, water, and oxygen.


Another thought on adding amendments to a worm bed...you just end up with a soil bed with worms.


Build soil, not walls.
Ah man,is this a riddle? :)
A soil bed with worms(and other things),just like nature,that is not bad at all,everything blends together.

So you think i will have sooner or later to use some kind of tea,molasses or fpe during the grow?It's not a big deal and i will if needed but don't be shy,i don't bite and i'd like to hear your opinion as i'm enough open-minded to change my mind.
 

Gdoggg

New member
I was thinking of doing this exact same idea. Last year i had a slight nitrogen deficiency that i am confident was caused/made worse by only using a 3 gallon container and not having enough organic matter in my soil mix.

Same as your idea, this year i want to vermi-compost the organic matter component of my soil mix with the amendments already added in.

I'm currently trying to figure out the quantity of amendments to add.
 

KIS

Active member
The bedding is 60% used soil from my last grow,I'd like to try a mix of char,sand and lava rock for oxygenation instead of perlite,last time i turned the bin(yesterday)worms were doing great.The smell was fine,earthy musky almost sweet,this "compost" is way lighter then the starting soil itself,the moisture content seems good to me.I also added some ash mainly made of olive tree.What kind of problem can't I see?
Btw MicrobeMan i took your suggestion and with the leftover of moss i made a moss-loaf and cooked it in the firplace,maybe i can charge it with the horsetail-nettle tea?
View Image

Awesome you're worm composting! Don't take this as a critique, as it's just 1 photo and impossible to tell, but it appears the material looks a little dry for worms to be totally happy. Just wanted to throw that out there in case they needed a bit more moisture. Usually the issue is the opposite as many people throw in food scraps that are high in water content.
 

Big Nasty

Active member
I was thinking of doing this exact same idea. Last year i had a slight nitrogen deficiency that i am confident was caused/made worse by only using a 3 gallon container and not having enough organic matter in my soil mix.

Same as your idea, this year i want to vermi-compost the organic matter component of my soil mix with the amendments already added in.

I'm currently trying to figure out the quantity of amendments to add.
-Hi Gdoggg,think of this compost like a all-in-one pre-amended growing medium so rather than try to guess the quantity of each amendment i'm trying to figure out the quantity of the compost in the final mix ranging from 80/20 compost-soil to 20/80,bear in mind that the aeration is already there and i'll add more if i'm not convinced.
-Hi Bob99,the point is not making the best bedding for the worms but making a nice compost,i think sawdust will take too much time to be well decomposed.
-hi KIS,positive and well argumentated critiques are welcome so don't worry.Things went a bit further,i started another worm bin and a bokashi compost bucket,the juice is diluted and added to the worm bins regularly,say 2 cup every week.So far very little vegetable scraps went in the bin for the reason you explained plus the wooden container sucks up moisture.
 

Big Nasty

Active member
Everything is looking fine,the compost doesn't stink,the worms are happy so i decided to do a germination test in the pure "thing" to see if it burns young seedlings.It seems to be well oxygenated too.

I keep adding worms,bokashi juice,ash,etc.
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Mate Dave

Propagator
ICMag Donor
Veteran
It is a waste of real estate adding things like sand, rock dust and lava rock to a worm bin. They live on organic matter and I highly doubt their transformative influence over rock particles. I'm not sure on biochar. Perhaps very small particles may be of benefit.

When growing with living soil some of our initial mixes consisted of almost 50% vermicompost. You are correct that vermicompost consisting of a fairly diverse source input is just about the only amendment needed in your initial mix. We did have free horse manure. You don't have a source of free manure?

I think you will really regret mixing moss into your soil.



https://www.researchgate.net/figure...8-days-of-drought-The-left-pot_fig6_322644078

I was gonna post this over in my thread because I though it interesting to have a pot as an experiment. See if I need make any more..
 

Mate Dave

Propagator
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Bio char seems to need to be charged within soil or liquid feeds before you add it to a growing media so it says.

I doused mine with neat Worm juice & the runoff nitrate from piles of manure & compost.
 

h.h.

Active member
Veteran
I think everything benefits from being in the bin.
As MM says not much transformative influence over rock, however they do get nicely coated.
Takes up a good bit of room. Basically what you end up with is a bin full of soil with worms in it.
That means I have to have twice the amount of soil, if I'm going to grow concurrently.


Initially for me this worked. I swore by it. Everything in the bin.
As I progressed I went with just a simple bin for teas and topdress.
 
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