Vermicomposters Unite! Official Worm Farmers Thread

[hyroot]

I had major mite infestation on a previous bin which failed and perished. I do not think they were "predatory" however. I learned that time to not overfeed. This bin has no such mite problem.

predatory mites are the red little guys. They are beneficial. They eat decaying matter and bugs and larva. Then die off when their food source is gone. The bad mites are yellow and brown. They eat chlorophyll. The bad ones are attracted to heat.

 

[SpicySativa]

Turnip -

Here are a few key pieces that have helped me avoid worm bin pests. I agree there are many ways to go about it, but this is what has worked for me.

* Keep a 6" layer of completely dry bedding material on top of the moist "working" layer of the bin. The Bedding I use is a mixture of shredded brown paper bags, cardboard, and newspaper plus some dry leaves. When you feed, push this dry layer aside, bury your food under a thin layer of the moist material that's under your dry bedding, then replace the dry bedding on top.

* Keep the lid off your bin so that your top layer of bedding stays dry. If you put the lid on, the moisture will even out much like it does in the cure jar.

* Keep a couple quart-sized yogurt containers in the freezer. As you generate food waste, put it in the yogurt containers in the freezer. When it's full, take it out and let it thaw (I pull it out in the morning before work, then feed when I get home). This freeze/thaw cycle kills any eggs that may have been on your fruit peels, etc, and softens things up. The worms process pre-frozen food MUCH quicker, which really helps prevent pests.

*Periodically (about once a month), I add some neem, crab meal, and mosquito dunk (about 1 TBSP of each). I mash them to a powder with my mortar and pestle, sprinkle underneath the dry bedding layer, and scratch it in a little with my fingers.

After you're bin has been up and running for a while you should start seeing various mites show up. My bins now support healthy populations of both predatory (hypoaspis miles; brown/tan, fast-moving) and non-predatory (brown, red, white, or tan; slow-moving) mites. The predatory mites graze on the non-predatory mites until some unlucky pest shows up. You will not find any harmful mites in your worm bin (mites that eat plants seek out plants, not decaying organic material).

Anyway, this is what works for me in my Rubbermaid bins. Give it a shot and let us know how it goes.

 

[NickNasty]

Here are a couple places to get hypoaspis miles they are predator mites and will eat the fungus gnat larva I have these in my soil and rarely see gnats.

[video=youtube;KEhSjRiEnnI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEhSjRiEnnI[/video]

http://www.everwoodfarm.com/Organic_Pest_Control/Beneficial_Insects_Listing/ENTOMITE-M_Hypoaspis_miles?gclid=CN7zwJPz17kCFctcMgod8ngAEw
http://www.evergreengrowers.com/stratiolaelaps-scimitus-182.html

 

[Rrog]

Coolest vid of the day, right there NN!!!

 

[SpicySativa]

Awesome video! I've watched that happen in my worm bin. It's amazing how ferocious those little buggers are.

 

[hyroot]

Apparently rotten corn on the cob smells like dank skunky weed

 

[WeedKillsBrainCells]

Apparently rotten corn on the cob smells like dank skunky weed

i have broccoli stalk that smells like shit

 

[Crab Pot]

It's my first time making bokashi. The lactobacillus culture that I've been making is close to being finished and I have a 50lb bag of red wheat bran. Can someone describe the process for properly inoculating the bran, storing the bran and using the bran please? I plan on using the finished bokashi in the worm bin.

 

[WeedKillsBrainCells]

It's my first time making bokashi. The lactobacillus culture that I've been making is close to being finished and I have a 50lb bag of red wheat bran. Can someone describe the process for properly inoculating the bran, storing the bran and using the bran please? I plan on using the finished bokashi in the worm bin.

So bokashi does/can involve lactobacillus? Cuz I just watched a vid on making that the other day. sounded pretty good stuff for like keeping general nasties out of water, stopping algae growth in small doses etc. is it really that helpful? a question for a question sry, just couldnt find much about it

 

[hyroot]

Will worms eat basil stems? I just pulled a basil a plant. Using the leaves for cooking food. I didn't just want to toss the stems. I can't find anything specific on composting basil.

 

[Wetdog]

It's my first time making bokashi. The lactobacillus culture that I've been making is close to being finished and I have a 50lb bag of red wheat bran. Can someone describe the process for properly inoculating the bran, storing the bran and using the bran please? I plan on using the finished bokashi in the worm bin.

Go to you tube and search bokashi bran, several videos. I used the one by PodChef, but that was several years ago and there are more recent ones.

Wet

 

[NickNasty]

Will worms eat basil stems? I just pulled a basil a plant. Using the leaves for cooking food. I didn't just want to toss the stems. I can't find anything specific on composting basil.

I don't see why not if they dont it will just compost on its own. Maybe give it a rough chop just to help it along.

 

[SpicySativa]

I worm binned all my basil plant scraps earlier this year after they were done for the season. The worms liked them just fine.

With the "pocket feeding" method, you don't really have to worry much about upsetting the worms. If they don't like something you feed them, they'll just let it sit until it's composted to their satisfaction, then mounge it...

 

[hyroot]

Spicy do you dry out the basil or freeze them? I dry out dandelions and leaves. I freeze veggie scraps. I puree or shred everything. I have 3 little containers in the freezer with veggie scraps now. And a paper bag filled with canna leaves and dandelions.

 

[SpicySativa]

The Basil and dandilions I just pluck from the ground (roots and all) and bury in in the bin. I figure I'm adding a little microbial diversity each time I introduce a little healthy soil from my outdoor veggie garden or "lawn" (I use that term loosely...). The worms have no problem munching them whole, it just might take a little longer.

As for the fruit and veggie scraps from the kitchen, I freeze those. I keep a couple quart-sized yogurt containers in the freezer to store food waste until I'm ready to feed. I don't worry much about chopping or grinding. The freeze/thaw cycle turns most scraps to mush anyway. If I have something a little bigger (like an apple stored past it's prime), I'll sometimes give it a little whack with a hammer to bust it up before I thaw it.

As an added bonus, freezing also kills any fungus gnat or fruit fly eggs that might be hitching a ride to the bin with your fruit peels.

 

[SpicySativa]

As for the cannabis leaves, I usually bury some fresh and spread the rest over the top of the bedding to dry. Once they're dry, it's easy to crumble them down a little.

I'm out of town for work right now, but I can snap some pics of my setup when I get home. It's not fancy (at all), but it works very well.

Gotta love organic growing with big 10 gallon pots... Try leaving a hydro garden unattended for 5 days without any worries!

 

[Javadog]

My worms eat:

-Fruit and veggie scraps (chopped about pea sized and frozen)

-Cannabis - Fresh or dry fan leaves, mush left over after hash making, etc, etc.

-Alfalfa meal

-Neem meal

-Kelp meal

-Oyster shell meal

-Crab meal

-Rock dust (Azomite, soft rock phosphate, etc)

-Powdered mosquito dunk

All that goes in a bed of cardboard strips, brown paper, and leaves.

Subbed up.

I was going to ask about crustacean shells making chitin eating bacteria
being a problem for good worms, but then I did my homework and
confirmed that they do not have teeth. :0) So, after deleting that novella,
I just wrote "Subbed up".

Take care all,

JD

 

[RedCarpetMatches]

Great thread with what might be the most important organic info. Thanks to everyone for sharing your knowledge and ideas. I'm sick of buying shit. I read people using newspaper, but don't the colors have harmful dyes? Would peat moss as a bedding be too acidic? Do you have to pick out all the worms and eggs to harvest? Rep for answers!!!

 

[SpicySativa]

Great thread with what might be the most important organic info. Thanks to everyone for sharing your knowledge and ideas. I'm sick of buying shit. I read people using newspaper, but don't the colors have harmful dyes? Would peat moss as a bedding be too acidic? Do you have to pick out all the worms and eggs to harvest? Rep for answers!!!

What's up RedCarpetMatches? Your name cracks me up! I keep reading it as "RedCarpetMunchers"... Guess my mind is in the gutter this morning...

Anyway, I agree. Producing your own worm castings is the single most beneficial thing you can do for your organic garden. If you get your soil's compost/humus content dialed in, the rest just seems to fall into place effortlessly. Really makes gardening SOOO much easier and more enjoyable.

Back to your questions...

- Most big newspapers these days are printed with vegetable or soy-based inks (both color and black/white); these ones are just fine to use in the bin. Give your local paper quick phone call and see what kind of ink they use.

- Another good free/cheap source of bedding material is brown paper grocery bags. These make up about half of my bedding.

- Peat is OK. I add some now and then. Before I add the peat, I add about 0.5-1 tablespoon dolomite lime per gallon, then soak it in water for an hour or two to hydrate it. Then I squeeze out the excess moisture and lay it in the bin. I wouldn't rrecommend using peat as your only bedding material, but it works well as part of the mix.

- For harvesting the castings, there are lots of ways... I made myself a casting harvester using 1/8" hardware cloth (metal screen/mesh with 1/8" holes). It's basically just a 2'x2' square made of 2x4's with the hardware cloth stapled to it. When I tthink the bin is about ready, I stop feeding it for about 2 weeks to let the worms finish up their meals. Then I screen the material one big handful at a time to separate the worms, majority of the cocoons, and unprocessed bedding from the finished castings. Inevitably some worms and cocoons end up in your finished castings, but that's no problem. If you don't store your castings in a sealed container, the worms will survive, and the cocoons will hatch. If you want, you can screen the finished castings a second time to remove these worms, but I don't worry about it. Many end up in my pots, where they seem happy and healthy.

When I use my castings for making compost tea, I first pour the cup onto a little tray and pick out any worms I see and return them to the bins.

 

[st0wandgrow]

Great thread with what might be the most important organic info. Thanks to everyone for sharing your knowledge and ideas. I'm sick of buying shit. I read people using newspaper, but don't the colors have harmful dyes? Would peat moss as a bedding be too acidic? Do you have to pick out all the worms and eggs to harvest? Rep for answers!!!

I use coco coir and shredded carboard/brown paper for bedding for the most part. I've used extra bagged soil (peat moss) I had laying around for bedding too, and also used partially composted material from my compost bin outside. The worms don't seem to mind whatever is used.

Harvesting the castings is the only time consuming part of this. You don't really "pick" the worms out. If I'm harvesting a small amount for a compost tea, I just use a spaghetti strainer and put a handful or two in there and shake it in to a bucket. It only takes a minute or so to get a cups worth of castings. If I'm harvesting a larger amount to re-ammend soil with, I will lay the contents of my worm bin out on to a tarp in a fairly thin layer (no more than 2 inches) with a larger mound of castings/bedding on one side, then turn a bright light on over head. I leave it like that for about an hour. Worms hate bright light, and will move quickly to escape it. What happens is the worms that were in the 2 inch layer will relocate to the larger pile to escape the light, and you're able to just scoop the castings up. There will still be the odd worm that you have to pick out, but the vast majority of them will move. I don't think it's possible to remove the cocoons, though. Every once in a while I find a worm in my potted plants when I dump the soil out, and they're always alive .... so no harm done.