Is it OK to use tap water in my sprayer to moisten the compost my worms are in? I assume it is as compost can be used to neutralize the chloramine in our city water correct?
I bought a worm factory from a worm farm and I was reading about the bugs that could be found in the castings. It's in the same room as my grow but my grow is in a closet. I don't want mites or any other pain in my ass bugs. I have been bug free since I sta Dr Ted growing. Only bugs I have are spiders. They eat bugs for me. I will get the essential oils like cinnamon, clove, rosemary, lemongrass and a few more. Those work great I heard. So has anyone had problems with their grow because of a worm farm being in the same bedroom. I have no basement. Sent from my SM-G900R4 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
SoloToker I (unfortunately) bought the small one which is 2' long and for a paltry few dollars more I could have had the 5' model. These are stupid easy to build yourself if you have any skills in this area which I do not - outsource, baby! LOL I like it fine and once you wrap your mind around the fact that harvesting is a time-consuming project it's no big deal. There are many other ways to harvest and some involve motors and advanced design. YouTube is a good place to look for options - use 'vermicompost harvest' vs. 'worm bin harvester' irrespective of the size or capacity of what you have in mind. You will be able to find how to videos of building a trommel like the one in the video that I posted. LoneRanger has a grow journal in the Organic Journal sub-forum and on the last couple of pages he posted a photo of the one that he built. Basically it's a 5-gallon paint bucket cut in half connected with a screen. The size of the actual screen is something you can decide for yourself. A trommel does far less damage to the worms vs. the motorized systems but again it is slower - much, much slower. CC
Mine uaed to be right next to my veg space, with no problems. During that time I also made sure I had a proper IPM schedule alternating between neem and spinosad. Minus recently I had some mealy bugs on a stem in the flower room, but outside of that I have been pest free the better part of a year and a half or more.
I got some food grade DE or Diotomataceous Earth made from the shell flour. My worm lady (lol) Hannah said this suff is great. And you can eat it. Sent from my SM-G900R4 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I love DE I have used it for a long time. I used to take it un juice til I forgot my bag outdoors. I put it around my worm bins and sometimes I sprinkle it inside if I see lots of soldier fly larve in my bins that is close to the house. It's good to treat fleas. I still have it down on the floors cause I wanna make sure they are gone. Dogs have stopped scratching but I just think there still have to be some eggs so I keep putting it down after I vaccum.
So this is my first worm factory and vermicomposting. The first pic is to show where the farm is and the next is the door to the grow room and the last is an up close view of it. I have 5 more trays also that I can use in about a month. Sent from my SM-G900R4 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I am very new to this. I bought some feed that uncle Jims worm farm gives their worms. It's oats corn and something else. I gave some coffee grounds and the filter four days ago. I took out some of the mix I bought, because it wasn't getting smaller. I have to spray my newspaper cover everyday and give a spray to the coir if it's dry. I try not to rake to much so I don't shock them. I have 2500 red composting worms and 1000 red nightcrawlers Sent from my SM-G900R4 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Here's my harvest from last week, best one I've screened yet from this bin. And here's half of it mixed with about 70% of the comfrey leaves I harvested, which were stripped by hand then cut into small chunks before mixing into the vermicompost. I then used this material, right after mixing, as mulch for my plants in the greenhouse and watered it in with a nice mixture of SST, coconut water, aloe, fulvic acid and potassium silicate. Here's a shot from a bucket I had filled with the comfrey/vermi mix, to be used on my indoor garden, along with the rest of the comfrey I harvested that I'll be using on my outdoor smartpot filled with compost and worms.
GIMK I like to top-dress my plants with chopped comfrey leaves mixed with vermicompost from time to time. Quite a potent combination! Nice vermicompost that you're turning out. Your hand work is obviously paying off! CC
I recently filled my Worm Inn with finished compost instead of putting food scraps in it and I came out in the garage to check on them and all the worms are gone except for a couple. I guess compost was a bad idea as the population was pretty good with food scraps.
@[member="MotaMike"] I just started my bin close to 3 months ago so my populations aren't quite fully developed yet, but I've been noticing that the worms like to travel a lot. Sometimes there's a bunch of the top when I pull back the black plastic cover on top of the bedding. Other times, nary a one... Did you wet your compost down really well before putting it in your worm bin? They prefer 80-90% moisture content in their bedding.
I wasn't 'liking' the fact that your worms split, but the observation you made. To me, the whole idea behind worms is turning food scraps and such into something useful (VC), rather than chunking it in the garbage and then to a landfill. I don't use much in the way of food scraps simply because we don't generate a lot other than coffee grounds. Very little gets peeled, since we eat peels and all. But what there is, goes in the bin. Wet
Thanks Wetdog. The worms didn't leave as they can't. They all died apparently. I wet the compost fairly well but it dries out fast since this Worm Inn is made of Cordura so it's breathable. I thought putting all my food scraps in the compost bin and then using the compost as food for the worms would be best but I think they need water to be misted on the compost every couple of days and I have only been doing it once a week. The compost was not dry but it wasn't as moist as it should be either. Guess I'll have to buy more worms or just get some from the compost bin and try and establish a new population.
Well here is what my worm feeding bin looks like. I have 2500 red composting worms and about 1000 red night crawlers. I feed them banana peels egg shells coffee, paper, veggies (no onion or garlic) and the blend the farm gave me. Corn oats and some other starchy thing. Can Anyone give me some suggestions on a good food blend for these babies. Sent from my SM-G900R4 using Grasscity Forum mobile app