WeeDroid, lookin good. i like how moist everything looks. I like the pics haven't been able to source coco shells or rice hulls out this way. Buckwheat hulls are the best i can get around here. you might find this funny. i happened into ah... like an herbal apocthary shop that does reki and crystals and stuff.. and picked up some powdered comfrey root. i guess it has healing properties. next time my gout flares or my knees give me trouble making a slurry and slap some on and see what happens
If you can get buckwheat hulls I wouldn't spend much time looking for rice hulls. Outstanding product. LD
thanks stankie i would never of though of using a bbq girl that's perfect i hope to get things going when its warmer,right now its about 70 its goes from being hot to cold so i dont want to kill the worms and a lot of place wont carry them till spring
The nice thing is, even the failures make good food. I'm still experimenting. 100% alfalfa meal didn't work all that well. Seems to be too 'heavy' and absorbs a ton of liquid. 4 gallons of dry alfalfa meal totally filled up 2-5 gallon buckets and I had to make several batches of the AEM mixture to totally saturate it all. Never got good bacterial growth in the buckets, but did when put in the bins a handful or 2 at the time. Now, I'm trying 1/2&1/2 of wheat bran and alfalfa and the same with soy. It's a long process since the worms don't eat that fast. Not in my smallish bins anyway. 18 gallon, IIRC. I'm really liking the European nightcrawlers with my bedding. They do rip through it, top to bottom and keep it well aerated. The RW don't seem to visit the bottom of the bin much. Wet
Indeed they do everything at their own pace. If a person is not patient they may as well not be a worm herder. I ran a couple of 18 gallon rubbermaids (and still do) before I built my flow-through. I kept them as back up in the event of failure in the flow thru. I still have them and they are still productive. One is a coir bedding bin and the other I use to toss trash into. I have heard many good things about the Euros and one day plan to acquire some. Right now I just have reds.
I got them for fish bait. LOL The RW are so small to get on a hook, especially with over 60 eyes and muscle control. But, after getting them, I was really impressed. RW get all the press, like they are the ONLY worms to have for any success or whatever and any others take too long and blah, blah, blah. *I* really didn't see that much difference in production. Not with my set up anyway. Perhaps with a flow through or production type set up you could see a notable difference. But, not so much when you harvest the entire bin at once. Next spring, I might start another bin and see how well they do together. They ARE both from the same family, Eisenia. Wet
I also use European nightcrawlers - also because I fish! I like them a lot for both purposes and have turned quite a few people onto vermicomposting as a way to have constant fish bait and get rid of kitchen scraps!
Sam, good morning. How long has your flow-though bin been up and running, and are you harvesting ewc yet and how much? Just trying to get all the info I can from everybody I can as this is going to be one of my next projects - come spring. jerry.
Good morning Jerry! The flow through bin has been working for about 2 1/2 mos. I suppose. That is how far I have feeding records for that bin. I started the bin with the contents of an 18 gal. rubbermaid bin. The material that was introduced was very well worked over by the worms, I could not recognize anything I had tossed in there. It was very fine and I used many layers of newspaper to support it so as not to fall through the grate/bars. Make sense? It has been in a constant state of buildup. In other words I felt I needed to the worms to top feed and work through everything consistently so that when it harvests it will be 'ready' and the worms will not fall out with the material. The newspaper has not rotted/broke down and consequently there has not been a harvest. This is not bad news though. The worm population is thriving and healthy. The material they have worked and that rests on the bars is rich, moist lively VC (vermicompost). I know this because I dug around in there the other day before I added 10 lbs of compost . I previously added 5 lbs twice a week for two weeks and they are devouring it. They have attacked and are now in full possesion of the 10 lb pile. They do share with the sow/pill bugs and mites. Yes, I said mites . The oribatid mite which lends it's devouring capabilities to all 3 of my bins is a welcome resident. Sam
of all the myriad food sources I have introduced I think I can say that compost is the favorite. They get after it much more quickly and don't seem to mind if I lay it on heavy!
+1 on the newspaper, makes all kinds of sense. Was wondering about stuff falling through when starting up. When the newspaper rots out or gets eaten then you will just keep it in continuous production? That was a stupid question. LOL But, I was thinking of the bottom layer being firm enough and thick enough so it's mostly castings falling through and not bedding. Euro's might not be a good idea for a flow thru. I think LD mentioned something about them in his set up. IIRC, it had to do with them not staying near the top like the RW do. They do like to burrow around. I like the back up bins, I like redundancy for important things. "Two is one and one is none" type of thing. Wet
Yes exactly. I believe my bottom is firm enough to hold things in but loose enough to allow things out. I doubt that we'll ever get 100% castings with this method but who cares as the compost that falls out with it is equally as usable. Not so familiar with euro's but I have read that which you described above. "two is one and one is none"......I like that
I used kraft paper and within a couple of weeks, it had degraded into what looked like little bits of leaves. Next time, I feel that several layers would be a better bet because I was having bedding falling through rather than finished vermicompost. I just recycled it back through the top, but it's noteworthy that the newspaper you used Sam is still intact. chunk
I've been finding paper filter for coffee grounds breaks down really slowly as well (worm bins and in bokashi compost). These are organic filters as well.
I am at the point where I may start tearing it away or at least helping it along. I spray it with water and have poked holes in it. It comes from hardy stock apparently. The castings it holds up don't feel hard yet so maybe I will let it ride. The newspaper that is.
After reading posts from assorted people here regarding the flow thru bins, it appears that it simply takes those 2-3 months to really get things moving properly. The multiple layers of newspaper seem like a fine idea to ensure that the lower nether regions end up castings and not worm food. Great stuff from all of you! Thanks Sam, Wet! Chunk are you guys starting to harvest regular yet? jerry.
So added some more Mix to my worms tonight. Added in some leaf compost and oat, rye, barely, quinonea (my breakfast mix basically) to the Mix. In 5 hours I was already seeing worms near the top. The weather has been a far bit warmer, although it goes up and down. I was seeing a lot of worm activity in the upper tray where the Mix level had shrunk a good 2-3 inches since I filled it last, hence my decision to put in more Mix.
it has been a bit warmer. I left my F-I cut outside for the last week- just brought it in... nice and hardened, but aside from that (and projected stress from 37 degree nights) it's fine.