you'd be surprised, you'll probably think that 4000 worms is much more than you get.
Will do!
that's my setup, two big ole smartpots, I don't even know their size because the sun kinda bleached the tag to nothingness.
Just to touch on what you guys were talking about earlier this week.. In addition to providing the beneficial microbes that Hyroot mentioned, and the water holding capacity that Hize mentioned, one of the most important parts of what Worm castings do is improve the Cation Exchange Capacity of your soil. The castings are rich in Humus, which has a high CEC so it improves the nutrient holding ability of the soil and helps to buffer the PH.
erlite 24 (1:1 v/v) peat:vermiculite 141
maybe get a small bag of peat in there too,could be in my head but my worms seemed to reproduce faster when they have peat in there as well as the newspaper, (I had two different bins one with peat one without) like a 50-50 ratio or so, the peat holds a "happy" amount of moisture as well, also it's easier to bury your rotting kitchen stuff with peat too, keeps those gnats away.Just to touch on what you guys were talking about earlier this week.. In addition to providing the beneficial microbes that Hyroot mentioned, and the water holding capacity that Hize mentioned, one of the most important parts of what Worm castings do is improve the Cation Exchange Capacity of your soil. The castings are rich in Humus, which has a high CEC so it improves the nutrient holding ability of the soil and helps to buffer the PH.
Some examples of CECs for soil or potting mixes or their components include
(in meq•100 g-1):
humus 200 vermiculite 150 sphagnum peat moss 100 - 200
fine clay soils 55-65 (2:1 v/v) bark
Good luck with your worm farm! I just started one myself. Going on day 3! So far, I've had a couple wanderers, but none have left the bin and seem to be OK so far. Bedding is mostly cardboard with some shredded paper. The bin I made is one from the Rubbermaid bins, with multiple levels so I can use the top bin to move the worms to make harvesting castings easier.
Thanks.. My worms came in peat, so there is some in there. I went with corrugated cardboard since I read it was easier to control moisture that is often associated with plastic bins. I'll have to try out peat on my next one. More people just moved in with us, so more food scraps means I need more bins!
ahh I gotcha.. I have mine in samrtpots so they breathe way more than the plastic, but i'd speculate that peat would dissipate moisture better than cardboard, which would mean less problems with anaerobic conditionsThanks.. My worms came in peat, so there is some in there. I went with corrugated cardboard since I read it was easier to control moisture that is often associated with plastic bins. I'll have to try out peat on my next one. More people just moved in with us, so more food scraps means I need more bins!
Hey I appreciate your post however I must plead ignorance when you went into the examples of CEC's I don't know what that means or any of the other stuff you said but I want to know can you elaborate in English? LolJust to touch on what you guys were talking about earlier this week.. In addition to providing the beneficial microbes that Hyroot mentioned, and the water holding capacity that Hize mentioned, one of the most important parts of what Worm castings do is improve the Cation Exchange Capacity of your soil. The castings are rich in Humus, which has a high CEC so it improves the nutrient holding ability of the soil and helps to buffer the PH.
Some examples of CECs for soil or potting mixes or their components include
(in meq•100 g-1):
humus 200 vermiculite 150 sphagnum peat moss 100 - 200
fine clay soils 55-65 (2:1 v/v) bark
Good luck with your worm farm! I just started one myself. Going on day 3! So far, I've had a couple wanderers, but none have left the bin and seem to be OK so far. Bedding is mostly cardboard with some shredded paper. The bin I made is one from the Rubbermaid bins, with multiple levels so I can use the top bin to move the worms to make harvesting castings easier.
CEC is basically the ability of soil to hold certain nutrients(the ones that are cations, like K, Ca, Mg, etc.). A cation is a positively charged ion and it is attracted to really small particles, like those found in clay soils or organic materials such as Humus. The CEC level of different types of soil measures the ability of the negative ions in the soil to attract positively charged cations and use those exchange sites to bind those cations. Hydrogen gets displaced from these sites allowing the larger nutrient particles to cling to the exchange site.