Multiply the worms!!!
- Thread starter kkt3
- Start date
MustangStudFarm
Well-Known Member
I had some homemade bokashi with red wheat bran and the worms loved it. I made it 10gal at a time, so I had plenty. Bokashi, alfalfa, and rock dust in pic...
A month later... I did this in Dec 2018 after the leaves were a year old. Anyways, the bokashi helped heat up the worm bin. The top of the worm bin had snow, but I would pull the tarp back and look under the cardboard and it was nice and steamy. The light brown stuff is the bokashi. Def changed the color of the leaves. Now, if I could figure out how to keep mice out of it because they eat all of the worms. My worm bin turned into a mouse hotel, which is probably attracting snakes in the summer...
my avocado pic from a while back. reminds me I need to start eating avocados again. do your avocado skins break down pretty slow? my skins always seem to take a while to fully breakdown after the worms have had their fix and move on.
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PadawanWarrior
Well-Known Member
That's really interesting. I'm gonna have to try that out. Nice tip.
kkt3
Well-Known Member
No, mine take forever and a day to break down. I usually end up taking what’s leftover of them and tossing them in my outside compost when I harvest my castings.
kkt3
Well-Known Member
And of course freezing your worm food enables the worms to break it down in half the time.
PadawanWarrior
Well-Known Member
Do you freeze the avocado first, after it's fully ripe?
I've both left them in the bin and thrown them outside as well. I only threw them in the outside bin when i had like three all go bad on me before eating. I figure the bits left offer some sort of aeration as they seem to crumble super easily when even just mixing and moving things around a bit, but still hold their form for a while.
What do you use as your starter base or do you just continually run in them same environment? My bin has been going without transfer or much use in well over a year, probably pushing two. I use a 21 gallon tote type set up. I do add some leaf compost or soil from a bin every so often to keep some carbon replenishing too.
kkt3
Well-Known Member
Nope, I just leave them on the counter way to long for me to eat. Then I feed it to the worms. Win Win as far as I’m concerned!!
PadawanWarrior
Well-Known Member
Nice. My wife lets avocados get over ripened all the time. My worms are in for a treat, lol.
kkt3
Well-Known Member
Hmmm, that’s a great idea to just leave them in. A great man, GMM, taught me long ago when making up my soils to put in rotted wood chunks. He said they make great places for microbes to hang out. These would be similar. Sure wish he would come back to the site.
When time permits I don’t feed the worms for about a month. That way the eat up all that’s in there. Then I make up some bedding. I put damp cardboard, grass clippings or older leaves, fruit pulp from our juicer and a coffee can full of banana peels, coffee grounds, apple cores and what ever else ends up in there. I have 3 plastic coffee cans that I fill up on the go with whatever compost stuff I have around. When the cans are full, I feed the worms. Works pretty well that way. I will also add things like alfalfa, kelp, neem meal and such periodically. My fav thing to add is frozen comfrey. I harvest a ton of it in the summer. Use most of it but freeze a few containers.
kkt3
Well-Known Member
Yes they are!! I can’t imagine the fun they are having. Pick up the half when they’re chowing down and behold a mound of worms!!