Worming 101

oh Marali i just saw your link. gonna take a look at it after i finish this post.

just doing some research on vermicomposting i came across the holy material of jouney to forever. this link from that source goes on the discuss various aspects of vermicomposting and has many more multiple links.

http://journeytoforever.org/compost_worm.html

Marali I saw that website one time. however i dont want to use plastic afterall. wood allows for greater ventilation, is better for the environment. also i can compost the bin after many years of use. thanks though

yea good idea. I also don't have any indoor bins, everything happens outside for me. I had a plastic one though, and now it's used for planting and stuff. And yes, it's important what we do with materials. reduce! reuse! recycle! First for buying, second for home material and potential trash, third one for things which really don't have other chance.

well although many make their own worm bins i decided to purchase mine first one and then make my own afterwards based on the one i purchased. alittle mesh wire, wood, glue and some staples make a nice wood worm composter. thought id show u all what i bought.








i have two more stackable trays. cant wait to get started.

Hey that looks like a v.tidy bin emmy!

Someone at work told me onion are bad for worms... true?

i believe that is because it is antibacterial alone with garlic. Why does the worm bin need a mesh screen?

Worms will not decompose onions or garlic, and they will not decompose by themselves. They hold very well in the worm bin. Oftentimes, I find them sprouting in the bin, so I will transplant them somewhere else. Same with avocado seeds and potatoes. Even when I cut them into little bits, the little bits will sprout.

Those damn plants are so determined!

Lemon peels and orange peels though will kill worms.

Thanks OG. I saw this one and fancied it so much that i payed a ridulous amount to ship it to my house, literally half of the cost of the bin.

and yah worms dont compost onions, garlic which says C21H3002 is because of their antibacterial properties which makes perfect sense. However Quad thanks for mentioning the potatoes. I have a whole bunch and was gonna feed them to my worms but not I think otherwise.

C21H3002 my bin has a mesh screen instead of a bottom with holes drilled into it. Through the mesh the worms can get to the next upward bin and downward through the mesh will spill out all the liquid.

Worms love citrus fruit, but do not like the rind so much, same as us. So I throw in bananas and melons and eggshells and greens and lemon skins and onions. What would you rather eat?

Now, as we know worms do not directly eat foodstuffs, but the bacteria and fungi that break them down. Onion and garlic are resistant to bacteria yes, but they are not resistant to fungi, which will eventuially make them palatable. Even if they weren't antibacterial the only thing that will break the lignin in their skins down is fungal enzymes.

The citrus oil from the rind could pose a problem. But there are enzymes to break this down too, if you want to assist by adding lignin cellulose protein and fat degrading enzymes, add alfalfa to your worms.

You need to 'train' a worm bin to take foodstuffs that are seemingly undesirable. The continued presense of small amounts of onion garlic and citrus will bring about the presense of the microbiology required to break these things down.

There are however other creatures in the worm bin, and what role they play in the composting of these foodstuffs I do not know.

I do know that composting all of the above in worm bins is possible, and something I now take for granted. I am cautious as to amounts of any of the above, but prefer having it in there than not.

Why?

So my worm castings can assist with undigested onions potatoes etc in my soil when I apply them there.

could I mix mulch hay 50/50 with chicken shit and use that as feed/bedding? how about oak leaves? would I possibly have to compost it first?

Hey I have some pond zyme(same enzymes as in soil products), and I was wondering if it would be good or bad for a worm bin to add these?

magiccannabus said:

Hey I have some pond zyme(same enzymes as in soil products), and I was wondering if it would be good or bad for a worm bin to add these?

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magiccannabus

On this Organic Soil sub-forum is a thread about EM-1 which is a specific 'microbe inoculant' (for lack of a better term/phrase) and almost every claim made for the EM-1 product reads exactly like the claims/features of the septic tank products, pond products, koi pond products, etc.

There's a connection to the science of all these products and the differences may be very, very slight between the 'coir enzyme products' and pond maintenance products. I found this product Microbe-Lift PL and if I can get some kind of realistic mixing ratio, I'm ready to experiment. It's only $20.00 per quart and has active bacteria because the shelf-life is 1 year according to the manufacturer.

To answer your original question, in part, the EM-1 product is used on compost piles as well as worm bins so there's that I suppose.

HTH

CC

this is great info

Howdy ,I have just recently decided to start growwing my herb a more natural way and worms are going to be a big part of it .I tried searching this thread with no luck and I cant seem to find any where online on the subject except that it is a good idea .
Heres my ideas and few questions for the worm wranglers out there.I want to make the best worm castings possible,so I am planning there diet and there bedding .I am thinking about a mix of Coir,Alaska Humus.high quality vegetable compost .All 3 parts in thirds keeping the 1 part green 2 part brown ratio .I am also planning on using green sand for grit.I am thinking this bedding will make them happy and they will start eating it .I then want to feed the homemade kelp meal ,grapefruit ash,organic friut and vegetable scraps,local mountain plants .I am also thinking alternating citrus ash one feeding lime the next but not both at same time to keep ph from getting too high.
The plan is to blend the food into a slury/paste .Plan is to fee them for about 2 months stop feeding and force them to move up to the next tray..Ok that is my worm plan for high K castings .Alot more reading to do and a few questions .
After worms have left the tray and I have trapped any that are left behind ,if I leave tray alone will cocoons hatch? If so how long do you wait to retrap small hatchlings ?
I want castings that are as free of cocoons as possible any advice?
Do you make custom castings?
Proven recipes?
Any advice?
Ok enough questions Thanks for all the great info I have aquired already and look forward to learning more about others making High quality castings.
I think i can make castings that are many time more effective than brands such as wiggle worn brand pure castings .I do relize there are castings out there that are of the highest quality but I am not willing to pay the prices they want .
I live in a remote coastal mountain rainforest with tons of natural resources I plan on making the best castings possible with the highest microbe count I can with
We also have a garbage problem in my area and I cant find anything localy about it hopefully i will have a million worms this time next year and my whole town will turning garbage into gold
Thanks again for making me think

Just take dry harvested castings and sieve them in a good sized screen so the cocoons will be trapped. This way you will really get clean and very very pure castings. Super small particles which will mix with soil mix like crazy. Good stuff. Also read this three web sites. Short reading but very valuable for ya.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/verm/msg0108005723968.html
http://www.redwormcomposting.com/worm-composting/red-worm-cocoons/
http://www.wormmainea.com/FAQ.html (scroll down for separating cocoons and worms)

Your list of food is amazing, especially local mountain plants. These are loaded with beneficial microbes and nutrition value. For bedding i would also look for some leaf mold. It's just great!!! Btw, personally i wouldn't add so much ash and lime as you would. Go easy with it, as i recall, worms don't like that kind of stuff. Use diverse carbon material. Avoid using a lot of newspaper, i personally hate it.

Yes, cocoons will hatch, but not quickly enough for you i think. You want them to hatch so you can get the worms out, right? it's easier to just get the cocoons out, faster and much more reliable if you want cocoons free castings.

Diversity is key for me, and just like you, as i see, i i'm just crazy about plant material, just like for composting. They go crazy about mj trimmings and roots, so this is your number one specialty for them if you are into using castings for mj. there are tons of plants which will benefit your plants. Just search around in nature and collect some. And here is a wonderful info i have found usefull. When you have extra food, just freeze it. When it thaws back it'll break down twice as fast, so worms will be able do digest it twice as fast too.

wowweeee

is cedar toxic to worms? I thought about building a bin out of cedar since it resists termites and rotting and repels insects.

P-NUT said:

is cedar toxic to worms? I thought about building a bin out of cedar since it resists termites and rotting and repels insects.

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If you use cedar I would line the interior with a dark 4 mm plastic or pond lines.

V-man

select microbes

select microbes

MrFista said:

Forgot to mention. you can add chitin (crab shell, locust, cicada, preying mantis shells) to your worms and they will select for fungi and microbes that break it down.

The end result is you have castings containing fungi that kill larval stages of insects in the soil. This is patented, but doesn't stop the home gardener from doing it themselves.

If you use crab or lobster shell make sure you get all the meat out first, then crush up fine, and add.

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this is great,any info on the patent? who`s patent is it?