[PHB]

Great thread Suby, thanks for all the great info.



btw, what ever happened to Aallonharja?

Thanks,
PHB

Great info! Thank you for saving and reposting. I agree..this worthy of a sticky. It'll make it easier for me to find. LOL

Last edited by Suby : 06-06-2007 at 08:56 PM. Reason: i'm a retarded frenchman who can't spell

HaHa, couldn't you imagine us trying to spell in French. I would not be able to get by the greeting. LOL

V

[Dignan]

An old guy at our farmer's market sells castings and worms and has been for many years. When I mentioned that I had a compost pile and a big rubbermaid compost bin, then mentioned that I "haven't yet gotten around to making a worm bin," he told me, "Just put the worms in the compost tub... that's what all my friends do."

I assume the old feller knows what he's talking about, but do you wormers have any caveats as far as that idea goes?

[Suby]

If microbes can populate it it stands to reason worms can live it, healthy compost ingredients make for happy worms.

2 things should be kept in check with worms:

salt content
temperature

Peace
S

[Dignan]

Thanks... I'll have to stop and try to think of any sodium I may be adding to my compost bin.

I think I read in the above article you posted that worms like temps in the human body temps range and will keel if the temps rise above 105F or so.

Missed the farmers market this AM... could have bought a coffee can o' worms for $7. The guy also sells 5 lb coffee cans full of WC for $5. That's cheap shit!

Hello people, nice info Suby!

Regarding worms in the compost pile: a couple of years ago the piece of land we live on had pretty shitty clay soil with almost no organic matter, and I rarely saw any worms. Then we started our compost pile and now everytime I take out a shovel from the compost pile, or from a place where the original soil has been amended with compost, the little guys are there. I don't know where they came from but they stay as long as there's food for them.

[Smurf]

Suby, thanks for the sticky, would love to find more on the vineyard that's safely composting @ pH2.0 (man is that acidic!),... found this info regarding foods, it still puzzles me about the salts tho. I wonder what a safe level is before it becomes detrimental to the worms? I suppose the best solution is not to add salty food in the first place until fully understood.

There are no foods that are considered toxic to worms, not even very acidic foods like tomatoes or pineapple, or those which contain protein degraders, like mango. All of these foods are routinely fed to worm beds very effectively.

The issue becomes murky when the ONLY food source going into the worm bed is one that is highly acidic, salty, or irritating, but when used in combination with other organic materials there is nothing that mammals can eat that worms cannot effectively process.

Beginner wormers most commonly get in trouble by over watering and over feeding. Worms can eat 1/2 their volume per day, sometimes more. However, you must build up to these levels, don't expect that immediately. Worms do great on any vegetable scraps or leftovers, if not too highly seasoned, especially salt. Garlic and onion are somewhat antibiotic, which is counter productive to your worms, but are good feed after composting, which apparently alleviates the antibiotic. Citrus peels seem to be too acidic for them until composted, but the pulp or fruit they love.

Egg shells are extremely valuable in your bins, as the calcium really enhances reproduction, and helps to adjust pH. It's my personal opinion the eggshells benefit reproduction partly due to the albumen content, as worm cocoons contain this as well.

There is a fruit stand on the island of Kauai that is processing all of their spoilage in an onsite worm bin, spoilage comprised of mangos, bananas, pineapple, coconut, mountain apples and other indigenous fruits. Again, this system is working beautifully. There are numerous worm systems in the pacific northwest, land of the coffee addicts, processing nothing more than coffee grounds (with some filters mixed in).

In areas of India, where vermicomposting is far ahead of us here in the US, they had to learn how to manage their foods so that they could be effectively used in worm beds because of the heavy use of pungent spices that would drive worms from the bed or kill them. Many Mexican worm composters had the same challenges, yet they discovered that by mixing with good bulking agents and allowing the material to do a bit of precomposting first the pungent, irritating constituents were remediated.

There are worm systems throughout the world processing post-consumer food waste, which is seriously salty stuff, with no problem at all (though the resulting castings tend to be high in salts).

The bottom line is that worms can eat ANYTHING that was once living or part of a living thing. There is no list of toxic foods because, well, there really aren't any.

Hey, I was checking into rice hulls as an organic replacement to perlite and found this little bit of information about using rice hulls as a worm feed. It looks as though it would be good in several ways. It is also a good composted organic fertilizer.

Description: Rice is the principal crop in the North Region of Rocha Municipality, and is produced in 55% of the Biosphere Reserve. After processing, the rice industry produces about 143,000 metric tons of rice hulls per year in the region. This crop residue is not utilized, and in most cases is burned. During 1994 and 1995, PROBIDES ( Biodiversity of Conservancy and Development Sustainable Program at East's Wetlands of Uruguay) conducted several experiments to obtain organic fertilizers by rice hull composting and vermicomposting, and to evaluate the effect of adding different sources of nitrogen and inoculum. The duration of this process was about 4 months. Using standard composting methods, rice hull degradation was not total (picture?), whereas in the vermicompost, rice hulls lost their structure.

Lessons learned: Worms can play a key role in rice hull decomposition, as rice hulls can be difficult to compost, with their high C:N ratio (~70), their high cellulose and lignin content, and their waxy surface cover that impedes microbial attack, due to its low capacity to absorb water. Using composts made by mixing rice hulls with manure contributes micronutrients and improves soil structure (more water and air retention). This is a good example of crop residue utilization and its transformation into a resource. Rice hulls, with their high lignin and cellulose content are a source of the precursors of humus, the organic matter component with the most stability and nutrient availability. At this time, people are adopting rice hull composting practices to obtain organic fertilizers, which are sold in this region for application in gardens, homegardens, parks, etc. This organic fertilizer is sold in bags made from recycled paper.

V

[Suby]

Keep it up my genius friends, let's get this sticky : rolling.

Subster