Express Worm Feeding Tip

shadow_moose said:

I've found the KNF method for extract IMOs is just as good for creating a solution to speed up decomp, and far cheaper. Just extract some IMOs from an older tree's root ball using the KNF rice box method, make the IMO mollasses mixture that's commonly recommended everywhere, dilute that 1:100 with water, spray on your scraps, and throw it in your worm bin.

One thing you mentioned that I am curious about - what do you think the freezing is doing? I've never heard of that and I'm interested in what biological process it's actually aiding.

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shadow_moose said:

Thanks greasemonkey, that clears it up! Looks like my girlfriend's gonna be yelling at me tonight asking why there's compost in the meat freezer.

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eastcoastLou said:

Why worry about it, seriously compost from start to finish is what 3 - 4 weeks just let nature take care of it rather then trying to speed up the process

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greasemonkeymann said:

compost?
Not sure about a compost being able to start and finish in that amount of time man
3-4 months maybe, but not weeks, not unless you are doing external things to accelerate it, like bokashi or whatnot

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shadow_moose said:

Thanks greasemonkey, that clears it up! Looks like my girlfriend's gonna be yelling at me tonight asking why there's compost in the meat freezer.

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shadow_moose said:

Thanks greasemonkey, that clears it up! Looks like my girlfriend's gonna be yelling at me tonight asking why there's compost in the meat freezer.

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Richard Drysift said:

Haha, a few weeks ago before a shopping trip there was virtually nothing left in our freezer but a bag of worm food scraps; ol lady was like wtf...we only have worm food and a half eaten pint of cherry Garcia.
In early fall we took the kids to an orchard to pick apples but ya know they don't really inspect them good enough (think some were on the ground already yuk) so we ended up with a fuckload of half rotted apples by the end of October. But even fully solid frozen apples will squish to a pulp once thawed; it like breaks down the cell structures making them into pulp at room temp. The wormies luv em and I get some nice high brix leacheate for my house plants

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BurnzAU said:

I have a few worm farms going and for the last month or so ive been putting my kitchen scraps in a container, freezing them, and then before feeding I give them a quick spray with EM1 (Bokashi solution available at Bunnings here in Australia). I have found this rapidly speeds up the feeding process. The worms get through the softer stuff in a couple of days and the harder stuff in around a week, roughly doubles the speed it breaks down I reckon. Would be even quicker if you blended your worm food, but I dont have a blender haha.

Just a handy tip for worm farmers out there wanting to be able to feed more to your worms.

Even if you dont want to spray EM1 simply freezing food will speed up decomposition.

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BurnzAU said:

I have read in a couple of places about a chicken feed mixture.

As for diluting the EM1, the solution I buy is in a "ready to use" bottle. Doesnt have ingredients on it rather than contains EM1 and says to spray into compost or bokashi bins. So I have no idea on dilution rates, you would have to play around I guess.

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paraordnance said:

Thanks for the tip. Do you dilute em1 prior to spraying or spray worm food undiluted?

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shadow_moose said:

That being said, bokashi is really just fermentation prior to composting. It's a rip off if you're paying for the brand name bokashi grains and stuff, you can accomplish the same thing in a five gallon bucket with some of your own IMOs. Additionally, you're dealing with loads of anaerobic microbes from the fermentation process. Why the heck would you want those guys in your compost? It's exactly what you don't want. I think the freezing thing sounds like the best way to do it, based on my experience. Break that stuff up, cause those cells to blow up, let those worms and aerobic microbes do their thing. Don't bother with bokashi.

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platt said:

exactly. I'll add gram+ = wonderland, gram- = mordor
because my dear kids... a zebrasus its the algebraic cross inbetween a zebra and a pegasus

and dont forget the lollipopins

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Bareback said:

An old worm farmer told me to use chicken scratch to feed worms, he said the hormones caused the worm's to breed like crazy. And it's what the old man did for a living, but he wasn't doing what we do with it . Any thoughts?

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iHearAll said:

Em1 is a mother culture.
Dechlorinate 1 liter of water, and mix in 2T of agricultural molasses and 2T of EM1. Seal it up in a 1 liter bottle and allow it to ferment for one week out of the sun at room temperature. This bottle is now called EMe or em extended. It is as concentrated as the bottle of EM1 but should NOT be cultured into another EMe but rather be cultured into bokashi, FPE, FFE, EM5, etc.

The dilution rate of EM in water for foliat or soil drench is 1:100 by volume. Add 1:100 agricultural grade molasses so your EMe has food for the week and apply both EMe amd molasses weekly or biweekly.

In almost all instances of turning EMe into fpe ffe etc, use one kilo of solids and one liter of nonchlorinated water with two tsp (10mL) eme and 10ml of molasses. Ferment solids for two or more weeks, strain, feed solids to worms, use liquids foliar or soil drench like syated before.

Anther rule of thumb is 2/3c each per 5gal of water. If you mix multiple liquid extracts do not double up on the molasses, let the bacteria sort out who gets what at that level.

Do you need fermented chicken feed recipes?

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