Vermicomposters (and wannabe's) UNITE

[madhen]

Due to the high level of interest, I am starting this thread for all of us who promote "global worming."

My little verms are in my downstairs birds' room, which is a converted garage. I've kept them alive for about three years now. Started with 1,000 worms from "Happy D Ranch" and have been supplementing with "wild" stock ever since.

My little guys and gals (or isn't each worm both?) are in a stackable composter, and give me 10-15 pounds of castings (moist - not sure what dry weight would be) per year. I usually clean it out and harvest the castings semi-annually. They get fed damp newspaper and organic wastes that my finches and parakeets don't find palatable enough to eat. The occasional cup or so of coffee grounds and sometimes I give them a bit of yeast if it's gone stale on me. For the most part, I ignore them and they ignore me. Very "sympatico."

[homesteadmamma]

Where and how would we begin. I don't even know of a place where I could purchase some and their "home". Do you need a special container to keep them in? How much do you have to put in to keep them alive per week?

Which is better, composting or this?

[madhen]

They are two completely different systems, so it is hard to say one is better than the other. Compost is dead organic matter. Vermi-compost is worm poop. It is denser in nutrients than regular compost, but acts in much the same manner in re: amending your soil.

As for special containers, I have one, but a lot of people vermicompost in rubbermaid containers. If you do a search in Yahoo or Google, you will find umpteen different sites about how to build your own homemade worm bin.

I bought my first "herd" from Happy D Ranch. I think they are still around: www.happydranch.com. But you can also harvest your own, if you are anywhere near livestock. They aren't called "manure worms" for nothing. Don't get regular earthworms or nightcrawlers, though. You want red worms: Eisenia foetida. You can usually find them in very moist and (ah hem) poopy areas, especially under containers that sit on moist ground. I find them under rocks and such sometimes, but mostly around the pasture. This is because they feast on decaying organic matter, and where better to find decaying organic matter than in the poop of animals that eat live organic matter!

Once you have them rounded up, put them in your worm bin in a nice base of loamy soil or finely shredded newspaper. They do better with a bit of their natural habitat around them, so you can put a scoop of whatever soil you found them in into the bin, as well. Then cover it up so they are in the dark, and let them alone for about a week. After that, you will want to put a small amount of organic matter in the bin. Put it in one corner and cover it up with damp newspaper or bedding. Check it in a few days. If you have happy worms, you will probably see a bunch of them diving for cover when you remove the bin cover. They eat the organic matter, but only as it decays.

Main problem with worm bins is keeping them temperature-controlled (worms like temps similar to what we like, and if you overdo the organic matter, it will compost and heat up the bin) and the right level of moistness. Most books say to keep the bedding the consistency of a wrung-out towel. Once you get that down, you just sit back and let your worms do their work. If they are VERY happy worms, they will reproduce on their own.

The general rule of thumb is 2,000 worms per one human (non vegetarian). If you are a vegetarian, you'll need more than 2,000 worms to keep up with your organic waste. (Or if you are like me, and you have picky flocks of birds who turn their nose up if the sprouts are "just" right.)

[Debbie-cat]

Thanks for all the info so far madhen. I think I will make a trip to the library and see if I can find a book on it as well. I will have to wait til spring to begin though as there is 3 feet of snow out there right now and I won't be able to look for any little critters for a while.

[madhen]

If you can find it, there is a book called Worms Eat My Garbage that most people use as a jumping off point. I wouldn't recommend buying it (I did and was not impressed), but it is a good introduction. Honestly, though, you can find everything you need to know by doing a couple of Google searches. Worms are kind of built for low maintenance.

[ri*smom]

I'm a wanna-be . . . this is on my list of things to invest in this year, along with a rain barrel. Maybe I can talk dh into both for a super romantic anniversary gift to ourselves. *snort* Don't fret . . . one year we went all mushy-gushy romantic and got a deep freezer.

[madhen]

I can picture it now....the big red Valentine's heart. You open it...and a thousand red wrigglers go diving down to get away from the light! Oh, honey, you DO love me!!

[ri*smom]

I can picture it now....the big red Valentine's heart. You open it...and a thousand red wrigglers go diving down to get away from the light! Oh, honey, you DO love me!!

I'm glad I wasn't drinking anything right then!

[madhen]

I couldn't help it. I have a romantic soul.

[homesteadmamma]

Are saying to go where livestock is and dig up these worms. Think I might stick to composting. I can't see me trying to find these worms. Either that or try to find some place where I can buy them. I'm also trying to figure out where I'd put them.

[madhen]

Not saying you HAVE to get them way, just that vermi-composting can be as cheap or expensive as you make it. Just like you can invest in a composter, starter, etc. for regular compost, or just throw it in a pile and shift it once in a while; you can also invest a lot of money into vermicomposting, or just get a plastic container and dig up some worms.

I bought my first bunch of worms and an "upward migration composting worm bin system" to start with. Now that I know what I'm doing, I would probably have been just as happy with the plastic bin.

[brook]

Ima a lot of things and one of them is Ima Worm Farmer!

Seems every time I turn the soil I come across a ball of worms!... well anywhere that the soil is kept moist.

It started with a gift from my bosses wife. She came into my office and handed me a box. I was tickled to get a gift from my bosses wife and when I opened it to see a box of dirt and wiggling dirt too boot! I jumped with joy! I knew they were worms!

My first worm bin was a Tamale steamer. I punched holes in the bottom to be able to use the liquid fertilizer so I needed a tray to put under my tamale steamer. Off to the garden department to get a plant tray. Next was to put a screen over the tray that sits inside the container. I didn't want any worms to drop down into the liquid. I used window screen. I am ready!

I drop the worms into their new home and place it next to my desk. Daily I feed my worms, tender loving care I give them and a name! Fred! too many to name.

My co-workers thought it was a cute trash can with a lid and opened the lid to see garbage inside. I explained and the next thing you know... everyone is feeding fred!

I had purchased a very old hand crank cream separator from a gentleman in Canada. It separates 5 gallons at a time, needs to be bolted to the floor and stand 4 feet tall. The crate came to my office..I unpacked it and this became my new worm box. In the mean time we had gone to the Environmental Expo and I purchased a Can-O-Worms. I set it up at home and loved is so much, I bought another the following year.

For the last 10 years I have had worms (scoots around on the carpet in the living room! ok, J/K!) and I love them.

I mix the castings with my compost and the eggs do hatch in the garden.

I used the worms under my rabbit cages... inside the rabbitry cause the chickens would wipe them out in a week if I didn't have fred protected.

fred is happy and multiplying in thier COWs.

thanks for starting this thread!

Promote Global Worming!

[Dave'sGirl]

Geesh, do I feel stupid...I missed the 'global wOrming' all together! Well, it is 4 in the morning...

I honestly am going to look into this! How big of a garden area does 10lbs of 'juice' supply for? I bought worm castings last year to suppliment for my veggie seedlings cuz I couldn't find an organic plant food last spring. I'm ordering early this year so I don't have to try to find supplies local.

[madhen]

Well, there are two by-products of vermiculture: castings and what some people call worm "tea" (i.e, the juice). I don't get much of the tea, so I just mix it up with water and use it to water my houseplants. I have never really thought about how many pounds per square foot on the castings. I have a small fenced in garden area, and I just typically either dump the castings out there or use them when I repot my container plants. There is no such things as using too HIGH a ratio of castings, as you could probably plant right into them with no problem. So really it is more a matter of how much you can afford/have available to you. Kind of like vegetative compost - you can't really have too much of it!!

The nice thing about worm bins (or what I like about mine, anyway) is they are small and not conspicuous at all. I keep mine in the house (some people actually keep them in their kitchens!) and no one even guesses at what it is, even though it says "Upward Migration Composting Worm Bin System" on the lid and has a big green bumper sticker that proclaims" Promote Global Worming" on the side!! (People aren't terribly observant, I notice.) No smell, only about 1.5 feet wide and deep, approx 2 feet high with all the tiers added, and I get about 10-15 pounds of castings per year. I'd get more if I had more worms. My system will theoretically support 15,000-20,000 worms, but I don't have the energy to go looking for that many, and they haven't bred to that level yet. I probably have 1,000 or so in there.

[missyali]

My dh got his for father's day. We bought our first round of worms and they are doing quite well. I do have trouble keeping the moisture in check, but we just pour off the liquid & away we go! I harvested mine 5-6 months after we got it & it was too long. I will probably go 4-5 months & see how that works. Here's a great site