[gramsci.antonio]

This is my little christmas' gift for the forum

This tutorial is aided to make you able to do your own vermicompost (from now i'll call it humus)...

Why should i do my own humus, instead of buying it?

Because it's cheaper, it's more effective, and ABSOLUTLY bio. Moreover you'll be able to recycle some trash, being an eco-fanatic and all the stuff like this

Furthermore i have another personal reason. I have always grown in coco and i like coco. I'm just sorry that you can't find organic nutrients for coco. So i decided to make some coco based humus, instead of the usual soil based humus. I'll use it to amend my coco recipe and to make teas...

Where i can find more information about humus?

This is a great site:

https://www.allthingsorganic.com/

This is a very intersting pdf about humus:

https://www.allthingsorganic.com/pdf/...sManual_gm.pdf

The last one especially is FULL of infos about worms and humus: wich one to choose, best environmental conditions, what to feed, growth rate...

Ok which worms should i use?

The best worms are Eisenia Fetida, aka redworms. Unfortunatly i haven't been able to find it, and i have a free supply of Lumbricus Terrestris from the local forest , so i went for Lumbricus.

What to feed to them?

https://www.allthingsorganic.com/How_To/05.asp

I would add: molasses are good, both for worms and plants

[gramsci.antonio]

Ok this a very simple wormbin design. I have copied from i don't know where, and adapted.

What you need are:

-Two plastic box

-Something to drill holes, whatever you want, just remember you have to make A LOT of SMALL holes.

-Some kind of soil, i used coco.

-Some worms and some trash

The idea is to buy some cheap wal-mart plastic box. Usually big shops to save money place one box in another, and this is what we want. A box in another:



It's better if they are dark, light shouldn't pass, but i bought thoose for just 5 bucks. A dark one would have coste me 10 buck each.

Ok now drill a LOT of SMALL holes in one of them.
There is needed a lot of holes to help the traspiration and the drainage of the humus, but enough small to prevent any worm to go from one box to another.

Be careful: don't leave any sharp border, this would kill the worms... So make the holse from inside to outside, so the sharp borders will be on the outer surface.

Now you have the two boxes:





Place on in the other and wash them. The put the soil. BE CAREFUL: worms HATE salts, so beware. If there are too much salts in the soil then you have rinse it.

I prepare a recipe of 90% coco coir, 5% clay pellets for drainage (i had some spare pellets floating around ), 5% humus to give some of the bacteria to start the reactions.

Be sure the medium is well areated, and spongely wet: it must be wet to the touch, but no water should come from it if you press slightly...



Ok now that the soil is ready you need the worms:




Note: Thoose are the wrong worms. You need Eisenia Fetida, but i wasn't able to find them.

Gently place the worms in the soil an place the box in a dark humid place.

How many worms?

The ideal rate of worms to start with is 2.5 kg/m^3, wich means 1 oz (25 grams) each 10 liters of soil.

Worms will work very well up to 10 kg/m^3, with 20 kg/m^3 the highest concentration desiderable. But theroically there could be up to 50 kg/m^3.

The best humidity is 80%, always be sure the worms has something to eat. Temps can go from 0 C (32 F) to 35 C (95 F). Optimal is 23-27 C (73-82 F).

In around two months you'll have the best humus possibile but the more it age, the better it is

Dudes, that's all

[SilverSurfer_OG]

How do you separate the worms from the soil?

[sunnydog]

Does any one put worms in their pots?

[gramsci.antonio]

Originally Posted by SilverSurfer_OG

How do you separate the worms from the soil?

I use small ammounts of soil, so it's not a big deal. I place the soil on a newspaper, in a very thin layer, and then i can see all the worms.

Anyhow you can also make them starving and then put some food in a box. All the worms will go there.

SSOG - I believe there are a nuber of ways to separate the worms from the bin, but my favorite would be - "Baiting"(let the food supply run low) then use the new food that your about to add, in 1 single spot in the bin. then removing that portion of soil(humus) , and replacing the bait again to make sure you got most of them ( they will gather to the Bait and make it alot easier to remove the worms*1-2days). its the safest way i know, without harming or upseting the worms! ... cheers .. happy holidays!!

-- Also - if you freeze your table scaps(worm friendly food only) then add it into your worm bin they will be able to digest the food alot easier( i think its called predigestion )... oh yeah make sure its not frozen when adding to the bin

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Cool. Sounds like a plan. Makin em hungry that is...

I heard banana skins would attract em real fast but no joy when i tried.

Freezing em huh? Sounds interesting.

Very nice thread. There was another thread like this before. Lots of info and other members building units like these. Nice to see more members are getting into raising worms for good worm castings.
Merry Christmas all
BG

[gramsci.antonio]

Originally Posted by JamesChong

Very nice thread. There was another thread like this before. Lots of info and other members building units like these. Nice to see more members are getting into raising worms for good worm castings.
Merry Christmas all
BG

i've searched it... but found none... can you link it?

Originally Posted by gramsci.antonio

i've searched it... but found none... can you link it?

This is the thread you want. Pretty good thread with a lot of info. For some reason and I don't know. The pictures have been edited. Which is sad, because it was a cool thread. Still lots of info. I'm also including some other link to same topic. The word I used in my search was Vermicomposting. Worm Bin cam up with some but not what I wanted. Good luck and Merry Christmas.
BG

1. https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.p...ermicomposting

2. https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.p...light=worm+bin

3. https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.p...light=worm+bin