I was digging around in some of the raised beds that I already picked around the plants and I did not see one composting worm. I completely changed out the dirt to nice quality soil and added ewc and had a living mulch. I would have thought it would have been crawling after summer. So you think top dressing with manure soon will help attract them over winter? Is winter a better time to attract them? Maybe I need to directly add some?
yoctown You shouldn't expect to see composting worms and the ones that took a ride in the EWC that you added to your beds would have died off the first time that the soil had dried out to any degree. The main one, Red Wigglers, cannot live in soil. Their body structure does not allow for them to burrow like true Nightcrawlers. Nightcrawlers do live in the soil and cannot live in a compost or manure pile. Their bodies do not lend themselves to digest topside organic material. An old way that organic farmers test the soil is to dig up 1 c.f. of your soil, spread it out onto a tarp and count the number of Nightcrawlers. This is a very good way to determine the health of your soil. You'll also find a number of other organisms moving around - again a sign of viability. Healthy soils attract earthworms from deep below the top soil zone pulling up elements and depositing them in small clusters (worm castings) that you should see in your raised beds and surrounding areas as well perhaps. HTH LD
A couple you could try are European Nightcrawlers or, Alabama Jumpers if you are in the South+red clay soil. The Europeans are more like your regular 'garden' worm and in fact may be one and the same. Not 100% on this though. They sure look exactly the same as the ones that get dug up. I started a bin of the European's 5 months ago and so far they are doing great. My bedding is pretty much the start of my soil mix, peat moss, perlite, some lime, Azomite, kelp meal, soybean meal, alfalfa meal, coffee grounds ...... Not sure if this qualifies as compost or not, but they are thriving in it as are the RW in another bin. I started this bin mainly to have a supply of fishing worms since the RW are so small to get on a hook. But, I've been very happy with them as composting worms. They seem to go through the bedding top to bottom better than the RW, who seem to stay more towards the top few inches and every time I open the bin, there is a ball of 15-20 worms in the same spot I think doing the nasty. At first I thought something was wrong with the environment, but poking through the bedding, worms were evenly distributed and then it dawned on me they were probably breeding. There are way more worms than I started with a few months ago. I'm really happy with them. Wet
Well I saw a few nightcrawlers. Not many but some. More then I would normally see digging through the native soil. Thanks for the info guys. Didn't know not to expect to see the composting worms. I saw a few when transplanting initially so I thought they could live in soil. Good information to know.
Yep, red wigglers are not designed to eat and go through dirt. Regular earthworms are, and they are known to pull leaf matter into their burrows at night. Redworms like manure and decaying plant matter. Keep your beds full of organic matter and the worms will come and multiply. Good luck Yoctown.
Sounds like things are moving in the right direction. You should see far more next year and then the next year and so on. Since true earthworms can't be raised successfully in captivity it's pretty much impossible to find cocoons. I've looked for 2+ years and they just don't exist. LD
That is the weird thing. My soil mix was like 40% compost, 10% manure, 30% rice hulls, and 20% coco/sphagnum peat moss. I would expect plenty of composting still to go on. But earthworms are fine with me. How beneficial are they? Will 6 inches of manure help bring the composting worms at least for a bit? I am just trying to build a better soil. I wish to totally change my diet next year eating mostly fresh food I grew. My body needs it. I want to get my soil prepared the best possible. I want as much EWC as I can get but may need to build a worm bin. Hopefully I can dedicate a lot of my shed to make bins. As long as it is cheap enough to heat and a power outage wont kill them all (coldest it gets here is 20f outdoors). Is making EWC a good business? Like could one make a living off it? I honestly have been thinking about careers that would make me happy. Two big ones I have been considering is botany (growing things), and making EWC if I could make a living off of it. Otherwise it will just be electrics which I have always been naturally good at.... Boring at times but the pay will be nice once school is finished.
yoctown There's far more money in raising worms for re-sale than there is in producing vermicompost. With worms you have more than a single market: pet food, fish bait, etc. Normal price around here for single pounds is $30.00 - $35.00 and 5 lbs. will run you between $90.00 - $110.00 if you can find them in that quantity. Late spring is the best opportunity as the breeders are clearing the tables to set up for early summer harvest. You could do an in-ground using cinder blocks and bales of straw. RedWormComposting.com is one of the best sources online and covers worm bins, outdoor set-ups, etc. Bentley over there definitely knows quite a bit about vermicomposting, worm breeding, etc. HTH LD
Selling composting worms seems like a limited business is the problem. Sure you can sell them but how many? I was thinking more large scale. Knowing there is other people out there making EWC you know you can't price it to high but still maybe make a living with a medium scale operation? If I wanted to become rich I would move to another medical state other then cali and grow cannabis. I just want to do something that will make me happy and pay the bills. I don't need much. Give me a house, food, computer, internet, and a grow area and I will be happy.
YT Around here the Craigslist ads are a good barometer for pricing on worms and castings. Top-of-the-line castings simply don't exist unless you've got 'da source' and it's best to keep your mouth shut when you find them - "Keep your friends close but keep your humus sources even closer" Decent castings (7.5 on a scale of 10) run around $35.00 per c.f. and even then there's only 1 store in Southwest Washington and Northwest Oregon that carries a couple of products. If you buy from commercial worm breeders the price for a 5-gallon bucket of aged/cured castings are $8.00 - really stupid pricing. Load up! LD
If you buy from commercial worm breeders the price for a 5-gallon bucket of aged/cured castings are $8.00 - really stupid pricing. Boy, if those were decent castings, that sounds very inexpensive. jerry.
Jerry They're about 9.75 on the proverbial 'scale from 1 to 10' - they make big money off selling worms to home worm bin owners (over and over). Castings are a by-product for a couple of these guys. Figure 1 c.f. is only $12.00 and he's got over 9 months invested (actual vermicomposting and then 4 - 6 months curing time). I'd say that he needs a new business advisor. LD
Last year an organic farmer from California came up and bought all the castings available from this one worm breeder. Completely wiped him out - prick! LOL LD
Imagine being able to dump a dump truck load of castings in your veggie garden... Jeesh. I think/know that I am going to do the big outdoor bins next spring to make as many castings as I can. My only worry is that if I build some kind of big setup, what will I be able to do with it in the wintertime. I wonder if I'd just be better off doing many smaller bins that I could move into the cellar come late fall. I'm torn. I'd rather build some kind of cool big setup. jerry.
Jerry, If you have the space, you can set up windrows with hay bales to grow your worms, The hay acts as insulation and keeps the temps manageable. This outfit is in Central Oregon where they get up to 4 feet of snow a year. chunk
Hey the windrow is a good idea. I am going to do that with my trimmings after I process them. Should I put down some landscape fabric to contain the windrow or just let nature do its thing? Would I need to add an LB or two of red worms to get it kick started or you think there will be plenty of cacoons in some store bought manure?
Chunk Wormin' along - LOL I see several live and dead adult BSF but in digging down a bit I couldn't find a single larva. I'm thinking that perhaps there were a few live larva in the thermal compost which hatched but the current conditions in the bin (temperature mainly) have kept them from breeding because given the number of adults that I've seen the bin should be filled with their larva. We'll see I suppose. No big deal - just have to adjust the feeding program. I thought that adding some of the black leaf mold compost might slow them down since they can't do much with cellulose & lignin. The 2 SmartPots 'bins' are moving along nicely. I've seen some activity on the surface. Same with the coffin bin. I should be in really good shape by next spring with both cured and fresh castings. With the black compost and cover crops the beds should be stellar next year. How are your bins doing? LD