[quote name="GiMiK" post="19096042" timestamp="1386115930"]Step one - build fireStep two - ???Step three - profit But really, I need some land of my own before I commit to raising any "farm" animals. Worms and dogs are enough for me given the space I have atm, though I'm looking into building a chicken coop as well as making several large vermi bins for year round use for a friend. I'll help tend to everything until he's established well enough for me to venture into designing a small cherry orchard, then laying out next years garden plots and turning/adding to the compost piles.One step at a time though I suppose.First thing is to find a hood for this 1000 watt I have sitting off to the side...getting really tired of vegging out with T5's. They don't build the plants up enough, though I like how tight the nodes grow. [/quote]That's the thing my plants lack more than anything, tight node spacing. Hopefully with all these nifty organic tips you guys have been giving me I can fix that issue finally!Organic Restorations in Progress!!
Lol sounds like cards against humanity?I want chickens just for their poop n eggs. Perhaps their poop more than the eggs lol. Put their coop above a compost pile for easy cleaning.Git two birds stoned at once!I want rabbits fer poo too..N maybe i'd learn how to skin n eat the bastards as well!tj
"Plants lack more than anything, tight node spacing." Kelp and alfalfa! Alfalfa meal contains a couple Auxins which reduce the internode spacing which will give you flowers that are more dense." "However, to maximize the shorter internode spacing on your colas, this you do want to apply as a foliar spray for the first 2 weeks of your 12/12 cycle. You want the Auxins made immediately available on the meristems. Spray 2x per week. On this spray specifically, you want both Kelp and Alfalfa because there's another Auxin in Kelp that helps in this regards as well." (LD) J
[quote name="jerry111165" post="19112047" timestamp="1386329530"]"Plants lack more than anything, tight node spacing."Kelp and alfalfa!Alfalfa meal contains a couple Auxins which reduce the internode spacing which will give you flowers that are more dense." "However, to maximize the shorter internode spacing on your colas, this you do want to apply as a foliar spray for the first 2 weeks of your 12/12 cycle. You want the Auxins made immediately available on the meristems. Spray 2x per week. On this spray specifically, you want both Kelp and Alfalfa because there's another Auxin in Kelp that helps in this regards as well." (LD)J[/quote]Wow!! Thanks Jerry!! (And LD)You answered a question I've been hesitating to ask. lol That's gonna help me out a great deal. I've never foliar sprayed before. What's the ratio again? Is that info in the ACT thread?Proud to be an Organic GCU Student!!
Shoot; foliar applications are the fastest way to elicit a response via outside stimuli on a plant, besides physical damage. Love em, would not do this without the ability to fine tune something so to speak. I use kelp up to week 4. I believe the hormones start working against you by delaying senescence and promoting "weird" growth patterns after that point in maturity but I haven't tested this thoroughly enough to state for certain 'this does that'....so much to learn, so little time. I use 1 cup total for my 5 gallon bucket when making teas, which is usually about 75% full so I don;t make a mess with the air pump on. I would also dilute this for smaller plants, until the "tea" looks like a mellow yellow/golden color just to be on the safe side.
Hey Chunk, do you still have pics/plans for that 2'x2' production bin? I read the first couple pages here but the images are no longer available and I didn't see anything more than you mentioning you might design/build one for folks with smaller needs. Thanks man.
Bumpin' this up... Well, things are starting to warm up here in SW Colorado. Days are pretty nice, but it still freezes regularly at night. Anywho, I'm starting to get the spring bug and have been going over some plans for building a unit like Chunk's. But I have some design questions... Chunk, you got your ears on out there? Don't make me PM you...
If I use 1/4" inch hardware cloth for the bottom, are worms gonna be wriggling on out? I don't want to have a solid wood base, so right now I just have that hardware cloth for the bottom (drainage, aeration, etc.)
LOL! Man, you crack me up sometimes . Love the Bandit! So I've decided to go with the OSCR bin design, even though the Seattle Tilth Bin looks less involved construction wise. I really like the feed through design of the OSCR, plus I'm going to need the heater option. My poor worm friends have been sitting in 50 degrees down in my shop all winter. Well, I should have plenty of cocoons hatch when things warm up, no? Anyway, on to the design questions... So obviously your build was a bit different, especially the use of the large grid hardware cloth for the bottom of the reactor bin. Would you change anything about that, like maybe using a smaller grid (1/2")? The venting that you installed looks to be permanently open. You live in the PNW, right? Is it humid where you are? It's pretty freakin' dry here in SW Colorado, and I'm wondering if I should stick to the original design where the ventilation can be open or shut. And just so I'm understanding the OSCR designs correctly, the heater rack is something that's removable, right? So I'll be building the support for that rack at the beginning of bin construction? And the castings screen in the bottom of the unit. It's for separating the castings from the vermicompost that might fall through when scraping the bottom of the reactor bin? Anything you'd change about that? Is there any chance that you could take some pic's of the area around the drain in the bottom of the bin? The directions for how to pour the concrete around the drain were a bit hard to understand. By the looks of the plan, it seems as if though we're trying to create some kind of ramped pooling area to direct leachate back towards the drain and away from the side of the bin?
I used to drive truck in the late 70's / early 80's so when you asked if I had my ears on, I had a flashback Actually, I wouldn't use the wire again. Instead, I would use 1/2" electrical conduit on 1.5" centers. I would countersink the 2"x2" frame to accept the conduit. Instead of the two 2"x2" cross members that the wire screen was attached to I would rum some all-thread material through the center of the conduit and use some nuts and flat washers to add the structural strength from the front to the back of the bin. If you were to use a smaller mesh wire on the bottom, you'd be harvesting from the top. Actually, the top vents have foam cutouts that fit the openings of the vents so I can close those of if I ever needed to. I never have had the need to close it off as it seems to like the airflow it gets. You can certainly build it as the plans specify and it will work equally well. Dan Holcomb of Oregon Soil Corporation is the designer of these bins and his designs are in use at Worm Power in New York Actually, the heater rack is free standing and can be removed and replaced in the harvest chamber. I've entertained the idea of running the heater cable through the electrical conduit so it was integrated right in to the grate. If you used a router and routed out a 1/4 to 3/8" deep channel between every other countersunk hole for the conduit (on the outside of the frame) you could weave the cable back and forth across the grate. I can see it in my head...lol....it's just a retrofit that I think would work. The screen is just to set to the side and used when you harvest your castings. It is not a part of the actual reactor. Instead of building that....I'd build a much larger screening system. I hand harvested a cu/yd +/- last season and won't go through that again. Something like Jerry built or the larger harvester on Northwest Redworms page. I didn't build the slope in to the floor nor did I put a drain in it. These bins were designed to set up a worm composting system for school / business cafeterias where the inputs were going to be massive amounts of produce. Produce is primarily water, so there was going to be a significant amount of leachate. LD and I knew we were going to be feeding primarily compost and composted manures with minor amounts of produce so we weren't concerned about to much moisture. LD had just read Clive Edward's "Vermiculture Technologies" and had studied several flow through systems including the Worm Power System. The food stocks in the big commercial systems are silage and cow manure and the media is run through twice. The moisture element is there, but not excessive. TBH, I've never had anything leak it's way through unless I've watered down to moisten it during summer. One thing I would do on the next one is glue down a piece of vinyl on the harvest chamber floor. I painted my current one and it is a bitch to clean. I use one of these to harvest: Then I use a hoe to scoot the vermicompost to a mortar tub set under the edge of the harvest chamber floor. If I can be of any more help, please let me know.
Chunk, you are still the man! Good tips, especially with the vinyl bottom and fact that I don't need drainage. I'm using compost for bedding in my big-ass smarties now. On the electric conduit for the reactor floor... sch. 80 pvc, or EMT?
I think the EMT would be a little more sturdy, but I'd be lyin' if I said I'd compared the two. I'd use whatever you feel would be less likely to flex. When you get 12-14 cu/ft of moist vermicompost piled in there, you certainly don't want the grate to flex. That was my biggest problem with using the recommended weed whip string. One of our old members, "MizzaFishKilla" built a 4'x4' flow through with the nylon string and didn't like how it stretched and bowed.
EMT it is. I think I actually have a few sticks in the shop. Thanks again. Hopefully I'll have some pic's of a finished bin to share soon...
Yo, Chunk! Is this a proper heating cable to keep the bin warm in the winter? It turns on when temp's fall below 74<sup></sup>F. http://www.amazon.com/Quick-Electric-Heating-Warming-Cable-ea/dp/B00HWA21XU/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1399317010&sr=8-3&keywords=soil+heating+cable BTW, I've opted to go with PVC with all thread run through the middle for the bottom of the reactor chamber. There's no telling how the metal in the EMT will react when in contact with organic material.
That should do the trick Wak......looks like you're all in now! Can't wait to see some pics of your new bin.
Thank you kind sir! I'm working on a few design changes today, and tomorrow I'm picking up my materials. Should have the thing finished in the next few days. The worm "Ritz Carlton"...
Hello GC! I just built a horizontal migration production worm bin and wanted to share a couple photos. (photo is prior to adding moisture to the bedding) My medium is as follows ~ 4 gallons of organic soil (peat, castings, lava rock & fix it mix) 4 gallons of finished compost 5 gallons of aged top dressings off previous plants (ewc, comfrey, chamomile, fix it mix, etc.) 2.5 gallons of last seasons leaves. Still trying to get the bin dialed in so to speak. Having some issues with worms bailing through the screen. Going to add moisture to the medium and go from there. TwB PS - Thanks @[member="Chunk"] for all the help!