Mind expounding a bit on what you didn't like about it? I was under the impression that 1/8" was pretty standard for getting the finest grade of castings. Like Wet said, I could use it to screen out the cocoons and such but it's not totally necessary for me. In fact, I hope to build a little population in my pots to assist with my no till effort.
worms in the pots rock! haha thats fun to say fast anyways, I just restarted my worm bag with a dried out bedding b/c a friend was taking care of them for me and I don't think he kept watering them after awhile D: so the original bedding was simple perlite/compost/peat with dolomite thats about a year old or so now. I watered it and added a 1/2 lb of fresh skinny wigglers to my bag and fed them papaya/mango rinds. then I added a thinnish layer of rock dust, worm castings, kelp, and newspaper pieces. I let that sit for a while and it kinda clumped up so i mixed in a broken up slice of sprouted wheat bread and some more mango rinds ( idk yet if they like that…) on top of this food I added a layer of compost/EWC and crumbled leaves. Watered it and am letting it chill until I feel like adding more stale bread and kitchen waste. what do you guys think? anything else I should or should not be doing? sorry for the long story guys, I just don't want a pound of worms dying on me again! ps-im going to make my own EM inoculate and ferment some wheat bran to start the bokashi bucket! I'm sure this waste is great for the worms, right?
I would suggest avoiding any high starch products in the bin (like bread or rice). Easy way to manage moisture for longer periods in the bin is to use plastic rubbermaid trays or "boxes" with minimal holes drilled throughout the bottom (or even none at all and just an open top)...they hold moisture much longer than my wooden bin.
Think I just got my first lesson as a nube. I put my Damp cardboard on top yesterday after my worm all disappeared. when I went to look this morning alot of my worms were under it. Which I know worm do and they seemed very lively .Left ithe cardboard off for a bit and they disappeared again. I have a question. Should I leave the cardboard off till my worm get cozy and put it on after I feed them for the first time ? Could this be a sign that maybe I need a little more moisture in my bedding Or as I said before is it becausr this is just what worms do.
Keep the cardboard and stop. The TWO biggest mistakes newbs make with worms are the same as mj. Overwatering and overfeeding. The third being too much attention. I seldom open my bins more than twice/month and that's in the summer. In the winter, it's more like once/month or 6 weeks, whenever I think of it. Leave them alone for a couple weeks or so, then stick your hand in the bedding and see if it feels moist, not wet. If you're feeding fresh stuff, that usually supplys enough moisture. If it's dry (food), use a spray bottle to moisten and stop. Like dried manure, say. Way better too dry and under fed. They won't be as happy, but it won't kill them like too wet and over fed. Wet
Not Jerry, but nothing to expound on really, it's just too small, for us anyway. Yes, it is pretty standard for getting the finest grade of castings if you are a commercial worm farm/castings and have a progressive type harvester set up. Like, 1/8" screen first, followed by 3/16 or 1/4" and so on upwards. Like grading aggregate for concrete, starting with sand size and working up to 1 or 2" or whatever, with progressively larger screens. If you tried it by hand with 1/8" screen, perhaps 90% or so would never make it through the screen and that would be with a LOT of cranking. I found out the same way Jerry did years ago, but it wasn't with worm castings. If you're real handy, one of those 2 chamber harvesters should do the trick. Like, 1/8" in the first chamber and 1/4"+- in the second. Now, I just shoot for keeping the worms out of what I harvest. I'll save what cocoons I can see and toss back with the worms. The rest inoculate the mix, or the garden, or where ever the fresh vermi is applied. It's still a win-win. Wet
gimick, the homemade trommel is so nice, Thanks for sharing. Unfortunately I am so inept at building that I would screw that up. I'm still gonna try though!
Thanks I won't even bother with trying to find 1/8" then. That's what I was thinking too but I wanted to make sure to follow exactly what you all are doing...or as close as possible. Just looking to get a better blend instead of the clumps. Now I can concentrate on making that tumbler. Should be a fun project.
Cardboard back on Will leave them alone. I was surprised a how dry the bedding was they were shipped in I figured it be a little moist. Must have to do with shipping weight I suppose. Edit: Thanks wetdog, MotoMike
ok so i already added some starchy bread into it, will it be ok as long as I don't add any more? also I'm using a worm bag that is made of plastic fabric with a zipper screen on top and a cinched hole in the bottom for harvesting. It breathes well but maybe lets too much moisture out?
Meant to post this here Got a 5 gall bucket of egg shells and about gal of coffee grounds that I plan on feeding some to my worms. How much of the inside goo should I be worried about rinsing off. I crushed them up best I could by hand put them on a screened box I built and sprayed water on them and today Im going to put then on the grill to dry then grind them up. The owner of the R.R said seeing how Sat. was opening day of trout season in Mich. and my town is just minutes away from a excellent river and a lot of smaller streams she would probably have at least another 5 gal. of egg shells today.
One thing to note is you live somewhere like me with almost non existent humidity at times during the year, you will have to check on your worms moisture quite a bit more often than once a month I have to add water 1-2 times in between feeding at certain times of the year
I don't bother rinsing eggs off anymore but I also don't bother tossing any into the vermi bins either. If you can crush them up really fine (flour consistency) then they work wonderfully well as a liming agent/calcium source in a bed but otherwise they take forever to decompose. Even the crab shell meal I use is decomposed 4-5 times as quickly, perhaps even faster, than the egg shells. This is me too. I have to continually add moisture to keep my wooden bin regulated in the basement where I keep it though it's only around once a week during the dry months.
Good cause thats allot of rinsing Today I feed for the first time litely and corners only as Chunk suggested. Figured kelp, coffee,ground crabb shells. put a little compost on top.. All I have is crabb shells can I just grind those up fine? I also read they say theirs 9 spots to feed your worm bin assuming corners, between corners, middle. After a couple weeks of feeding the corners do I put a little food in all spots or just in one of the spots or dont worry about it a just sprinkle on top and bury kitchen scraps?
www, my best advice is to chop up all your kitchen scraps and freeze them. I take this a few steps further. I take the frozen scraps (mainly coffee grounds, bananas, egg shells, and leaf waste), and I run them through a blender and then into my bokashi bucket. After a couple of weeks I bury them in random spots in the worn bin and the material is completely gone in a week or two. If you don't want to go crazy like I do, just make sure you get your food wastes into the smallest pieces possible so that they will break down sooner. Good luck!
I pretty much do the same as what Matt suggested. Hitting the corners just gives the worms a safe place to get away to if the corners are not hospitable when you add the food scraps. I've been letting my scraps ferment is my bokashi bucket first then feed but its totally not necessary. I put food in opposite corners and then every now and again I put it in other spots (the middle or wherever). Before long, you'll pick up on their feeding patterns and duration it takes for them to finish the food.
My worm seem content in there new home nice and lively. Fed in two opposite corners Kelp,coffeee grounds,neem meal, Ground fine crab shell. Need to do some more reading on bokashi seems to be a pretty popular way to take care of food scrapes for a bin. Thanks for the tips.
For $12 I got 20lbs of NYC made EWC. They collect yard and food waste, add it to thermal compost piles, then feed it to worms. 20lbs is going to last me quite a while. I feel like it has to be much better than the Wiggle Worm I've been using. Is there any way to tell without a microscope?