Vermicomposters Unite! Official Worm Farmers Thread

[DonTesla]

Talked to 2 different bait farmers and both specified the laying mash. This was also some years ago. Mentioned that other chicken foods would work, or ground corn in general like cornmeal, but the laying mash gave the best results..

One grocery store here has Starter mash in the pet food aisle. Not super rural here, but rural enough. LOL

I get the true mash rather than the crumbles or pellets on the same guys recc. Have gotten both crumbles and pellets (both, just 1lb), to try out, but both needed to be pre-moistened and didn't work all that well in the bins. The true mash seldom even needs to be spritzed to start breaking down in the bin.

I really miss my avacados! All you can find up here are those tiny Haas things that are a joke to anyone from SoFl. Had a Choquett in my front yard that gave 3-5lb fruits and 1/2 of one would make a decent meal just eating it out of the shell. The little ones do make better guac though. They are like $1.50 each here and not even fist sized. It's crazy!

We jump on them when we see them five for $4 but normally they're about 1.50 each as well! Sometimes $2!!!!

But we eat less meat now as you can see !!

 

[calliandra]

My favourite thing to spark insane* worm breeding is tossing in halved avocados, its also high in mains and enzymes and supports a lot of life with all the vitamins and minerals. I feed them six shells a week per bin and they breed like crayyyyzy in them all

What a coincidence! When I found an avocado that had gotten lost in the fridge, of course I had to try it out immediately

After 12 hours



@Wetdog, I think of you every time I mess with my worms now, you're so right about leaving them in peace haha - my excuse is I'm still getting to know them? Aaand I do apologize too!



Sometimes, the amount of whiteworms that turn up in my bin make me pensive, but when I see them mingling like they are here, I stop worrying.

Cheers!

 

[Rasta Roy]

Love seeing all that sweet worm love! Happy 420 to everybody smoking worm grown smoke today!

 

[DonTesla]

What a coincidence! When I found an avocado that had gotten lost in the fridge, of course I had to try it out immediately

After 12 hours

View attachment 3928133

@Wetdog, I think of you every time I mess with my worms now, you're so right about leaving them in peace haha - my excuse is I'm still getting to know them? Aaand I do apologize too!

View attachment 3928134
View attachment 3928136
Sometimes, the amount of whiteworms that turn up in my bin make me pensive, but when I see them mingling like they are here, I stop worrying.

Cheers!

Way to start the party @calliandra !!!

 

[Wetdog]

What a coincidence! When I found an avocado that had gotten lost in the fridge, of course I had to try it out immediately

After 12 hours

View attachment 3928133

@Wetdog, I think of you every time I mess with my worms now, you're so right about leaving them in peace haha - my excuse is I'm still getting to know them? Aaand I do apologize too!

View attachment 3928134
View attachment 3928136
Sometimes, the amount of whiteworms that turn up in my bin make me pensive, but when I see them mingling like they are here, I stop worrying.

Cheers!

After 2 or 3 days, or when that 'cado is about 3/4 gone, you can scoop under it and easily grab 1k of worms in your hand. It gets to be solid worms for 3" or so down. Providing of course, you have the population.

I use it a lot to start new bins, pulling most of the worms out of a bin to be harvested or, if I want a good chunk of worms somewhere like the garden, flower bed, or .....

Take a look, you'll see.

 

[Wetdog]

Started a couple Seasonal *Batching* Bins

The *batching* concept is more or less worms in a limited, very rich bedding and working that bedding only with no further inputs for 3 months or so. Then, it's used as is, with little to no harvesting. I do usually lure/trap some using melon rinds and return them to other bins, but most go with the VC.

Made ~15 gallons of a very rich bedding that required a cook. This was nothing like my normal bedding mix, that is pretty neutral. It was:

Peat moss; ~10 gallons, expanded and screened
Perlite; ~3 gallons
Lime; healthy 2cups of powdered dolomite
Play sand; ~1 1/2 cups (several handfuls)
Soy meal; healthy 2 cups
Neem cake; 1 cup
Kelp meal; 1 cup
Alfalfa cubes (alfalfa hay formed into ~2" cubes); coffee jug full with some hot tap water to soak
Black Kow composted manure; coffee jug full, plus some more

Mixed all this well and moistened. Made more moist than say a fresh soil mix, but not soggy. Left it in the wheelbarrow till the Santa's beard showed up, then mixed some more and transfered to 5gal buckets (with drainage), and set outside for a couple weeks to cook.

Am using 10gal Rubbermaid totes for this and ~3 gallons of this bedding fills them just under halfway. This is also the amount mentioned when I read about it years ago. The totes also have drainage holes.

On top of the bedding I also added a coffee jug of grounds to each along with some frozen grapes and banana peels for a quick nosh/microbe action, for the worms. The worms haven't been added yet.

Once the grapes and peels were covered in fuzz (about 3 days), I put some melon rinds in a seriously overcrowded bin to lure and trap some. Ended up adding easily over 1k of worms to each bin, 2 big handfuls of solid worms in each. Also added a couple handfuls of active bedding to each bin for the established microbes. Ended up being about a week after the bedding was first put in the bins and about a month after the bedding was first mixed.

That is it AFA feeding goes, although I may add some comfrey leaves depending on how the plants grow. They just recently came out of dormancy. IDK

The concept is similar to letting worms 'work over' finished, or, nearly finished compost, but with richer inputs and working just on the initial amount. In this case 3 gallons or so.

I'm figuring on it being ready late July/early August, right about the time the summer heat breaks (somewhat), and the plant growth picks up again outside. The fresh VC should provide a boost for everything.

We'll see how it goes.

Wet

 

[DonTesla]

Fair bit of extra work but..the batching would be great for an indoor cat in a condo who can't access outside or has no space to make amended compost.

I just like to "starve" or buffer my castings for a few weeks before using .. Let them recycle and refine everything through- Very good idea! And everyone should add some chemical free-sand to their bins.. Excellent digestive aid

Commercial cow products are becoming GMO in my opinion as dairy farms are insanely gross overall so and tap water is far from safe from contaminants as well imo, but great idea / little guide for a one stop shop topdress if hand amended compost or compost making is unavailable

 

[Chunky Stool]

What kind of paper do you give your worms?
I hear that you can shred junk mail and give them that, but is it really organic?
Coffee filters seem OK...

 

[Wetdog]

What kind of paper do you give your worms?
I hear that you can shred junk mail and give them that, but is it really organic?
Coffee filters seem OK...

Was this directed to me or, DT?

Anyway, I don't use paper at all, except coffee filters, but make a basic peat moss, perlite, lime, bedding. I also add some cardboard every now and then for the worms to lay eggs in.

Of course the paper is organic for our purposes. It's wood pulp and does decompose. Slick, glossy paper is an exception and except for specialty inks (for the glossy paper), they are all soy based now and have been for 30 years or so. I was a printer in another life, and the nasty inks were going out as I came in, in the early 80's.

 

[meangreengrowinmachine]

My worms looooove banana peels as much as avacados... i wonder if it has to do with how fast and easyily they break down into things the worms can actually eat. Also i have heard from pro vermiculurists that newspaper and the like contains clay when it breaks down, which worms dont like so i have never used any and have always had great results

 

[Chunky Stool]

My worms looooove banana peels as much as avacados... i wonder if it has to do with how fast and easyily they break down into things the worms can actually eat. Also i have heard from pro vermiculurists that newspaper and the like contains clay when it breaks down, which worms dont like so i have never used any and have always had great results

They definitely like zucchini. My wife froze a bunch that we will never eat, so I've been giving it the worms a little at a time (lots of water, so gotta go slow).

 

[Jaybodankly]

I add cardboard, newspaper, napkins. Give me all that sweet carbon to add to the WC mix.

 

[greg nr]

hey guys, quick question. I have a catch bucket under my worm inn, and it has a really dark liquid in it. Just runnoff from the castings.

Can I use that to feed my plants? Does it need any prep like pumping air through it or adding amendments?

Tx

 

[calliandra]

hey guys, quick question. I have a catch bucket under my worm inn, and it has a really dark liquid in it. Just runnoff from the castings.

Can I use that to feed my plants? Does it need any prep like pumping air through it or adding amendments?

Tx

I'd say it depends on how it smells.
If it has any sort of smell other than fresh / forest, I wouldn't water pot plants with it, as it'S likely to be full of anaerobic microbes, and you don't want to tip your pots that direction.
Maybe dilute and spread under bushes outside (gotta get rid of it somehow )

Or yeah you could try and bubble it to tip the microbial balance back into the aerobic.
I've gotten ACTs to tip back (but they weren't far gone, just starting), so that could work.
Not sure it's worth the effort though.
Probably better to watch your bin's humidity more in future and avoid having runoff in the first place

 

[ShLUbY]

I'd say it depends on how it smells.
If it has any sort of smell other than fresh / forest, I wouldn't water pot plants with it, as it'S likely to be full of anaerobic microbes, and you don't want to tip your pots that direction.
Maybe dilute and spread under bushes outside (gotta get rid of it somehow )

Or yeah you could try and bubble it to tip the microbial balance back into the aerobic.
I've gotten ACTs to tip back (but they weren't far gone, just starting), so that could work.
Not sure it's worth the effort though.
Probably better to watch your bin's humidity more in future and avoid having runoff in the first place

definitely shouldn't be having run off from the worm bin. it's good to have the drainage holes in case there is too much moisture. but it should never be so wet that you have dripping happening. rinsing castings for humic/fulvic acids is one thing, but as Calliandra said, it's probably anaerobic soup and you definitely don't want to be putting those guys in your containers.

today I get to make my first ACT with my homemade VC. sooooo pumped (that was almost a pun!) hahahahaha

 

[greg nr]

definitely shouldn't be having run off from the worm bin. it's good to have the drainage holes in case there is too much moisture. but it should never be so wet that you have dripping happening. rinsing castings for humic/fulvic acids is one thing, but as Calliandra said, it's probably anaerobic soup and you definitely don't want to be putting those guys in your containers.

today I get to make my first ACT with my homemade VC. sooooo pumped (that was almost a pun!) hahahahaha

It's a worm inn, not a bin. According to the instructions, you are supposed to get some runoff. It smells fine. I'll try putting an air hose in it and see what happens on some inconsequential plant like a male.

 

[calliandra]

It's a worm inn, not a bin. According to the instructions, you are supposed to get some runoff. It smells fine. I'll try putting an air hose in it and see what happens on some inconsequential plant like a male.

Ah ok - makes sense you need runoff in those, given your worms are basically in a cloth bag, that would probably dry out too much without the addition of more water than in a wooden bin, let alone a plastic one.
It sounds like what you're getting there in that case could be something like a VC-extract, which is a nice thing your inconsequential male will definitely enjoy
Probably a good idea to not let it sit around for too long, but use as it collects - no need to aerate if it smells good and is used fresh.

I was just wondering the other day how the hell you harvest those bags, without all the VC falling out?!
It has an opening in the bottom, right? How does that work?
Cheers!

 

[Rasta Roy]

Ah ok - makes sense you need runoff in those, given your worms are basically in a cloth bag, that would probably dry out too much without the addition of more water than in a wooden bin, let alone a plastic one.
It sounds like what you're getting there in that case could be something like a VC-extract, which is a nice thing your inconsequential male will definitely enjoy
Probably a good idea to not let it sit around for too long, but use as it collects - no need to aerate if it smells good and is used fresh.

I was just wondering the other day how the hell you harvest those bags, without all the VC falling out?!
It has an opening in the bottom, right? How does that work?
Cheers!

Same question!

 

[greg nr]

Ah ok - makes sense you need runoff in those, given your worms are basically in a cloth bag, that would probably dry out too much without the addition of more water than in a wooden bin, let alone a plastic one.
It sounds like what you're getting there in that case could be something like a VC-extract, which is a nice thing your inconsequential male will definitely enjoy
Probably a good idea to not let it sit around for too long, but use as it collects - no need to aerate if it smells good and is used fresh.

I was just wondering the other day how the hell you harvest those bags, without all the VC falling out?!
It has an opening in the bottom, right? How does that work?
Cheers!

There are a few youtube vids out there, but basically you let the bag dry somewhat and then pull the castings out of the bottom. You have to claw it out. It won't just fall out when you open the draw string. It's a fifo system from the bottom.

 

[calliandra]

There are a few youtube vids out there, but basically you let the bag dry somewhat and then pull the castings out of the bottom. You have to claw it out. It won't just fall out when you open the draw string. It's a fifo system from the bottom.

Ah OK so there is a sort of rhythm to the harvesting, you can't just go, "oh, I need a handful of VC here" and go pull it anytime, which was kind of the expectation somehow created in my head haha

Sounds like you then need to harvest in small amounts - like before feeding?
Would make sense, scratch bottom, then feed top... but purposely letting the bag dry for a few days before... hm.
Does that in any way resemble your practice/experience?
Cheers!