No-till soil help needed

Hey Dank, yes Blueberry plants prefer more acidic soil ( between 4-5). I work on a small farm/orchard and we apply Acidic Conifer Mulch to all the Blueberries as well as Sulfur to maintain a proper PH level. If any Blueberry plants do not get this they will start to show discoloration and have diminished yields.

Here is a great link ( with E- books etc..) for you for learning more about the inner workings of Soil. There are more books/forum discussions/links here than you will be able to digest haha.

GiMiKs Library of Organic Gardening PDF Files

As far as the Vermicomposting goes I would check out the link I provided up above there is literally a whole section dedicated to Worm Castings. As far as feeding the worms goes. You want to avoid anything acidic as well as ( Citrus fruit, Spicy foods, Onions, Garlic, Meat or Dairy). I would stick with Organic Products. You can use cardboard ( just no colored ink ) and you could also use newspaper as long it has no colored ink, but that isn't the most ideal food. Just know that cardboard and Newspapers ink are made with Vegetable based ink
( ie Soy/ GMO's ). So it isn't something I try to use because of the Glysophates etc...

So, personally I wouldn't recommend either of those. I also wouldn't recommend kitchen scraps unless they have been broken down and dried out. Here is a list of things I feed my worms: Kelp Meal, Basalt and other Minerals, Crustacean Meal, Oyster Shell Flour, Crushed up Organic Eggshells ( from my chickens ), Organic ( used ) coffee grounds, Alfalfa meal, grinded up Comfrey plants ( bees knees ) , dead leaves/composted small pieces of wood ( small enough for them to digest ), dried lawn clippings. There are really a multitude of different ingredients that can be used as food. Here is one link for Worm Castings and their are at least 10 more in the first link provided up above.


Feeding ・ Instructions ・ Hungry bin

 

Amen to that! The interview with coots that @OrganicSamurai posted recently had coots going crazy about this. People complain his soil build sucks apparently and he was heated. He uses 3 year old leaf mold to make his VERMIcompost and obviously layers the alfalfa, kelp, katana, MBP. However he said if youve goofed and made it with cheap stuff...i am guilty...just keep hitting it with kelp, alfalfa, neem, and MBP and it will build nice humus pretty quickly.

 

Yea I don't see that being an issue, but I would diversify their diets as much as possible. If you can find a local Organic Coffee brew house near you they will give you their bulk spent grounds for free. Just a thought. If you can try not just to use the Kelp all the time as a food source. The Granite you have might work well as long as you feel comfortable using it. Also, MBP ( Organic Whole grains ) like MajorToker suggests would be a good addition as well plus it has multiple uses in the garden.

Alfalfa meal is another one you can easily get in bulk. I don't know if you eat eggs a lot, but you can keep the shells and use them as well ( depending on how often you eat them ). I am lucky I have my own hens that get fed Organically and provide me with my shells. I try to get things that I can use in all aspects of my garden as well as my worm bin. Hope that helps.

Last thing. I also collect all my trimmings from my plants ( leaves and stems ) let them dry out and grind them up into a powder to use as a food source as well. Helps save some money.

 

I'm sure the samurai will say the same. I like to water pretty much anything I top dress with fulvic acid/aloe/silica. This will actually make minerals more available to worms. "Enzymes are the catalyst. Fulvic acid is the catalyst to the catalyst."

 

Hey Dank, yea brother diversity is the way to go. The Volcanic Rock Dust will work just fine as a mineral food. As well as the Granite. When you put food into the bin make sure you bury it under their bedding and then cover it not just spread it on top. Also, I like to spray my worm food to moisten it up to keep it from being bone dry. I believe it also speeds up the breakdown as well. You want to feed them 3x their weight in food a week. So if you got 2lb ( .907 Kilo ) of worms you would feed them 6lb ( 2.7 Kilo's ) of food a week.

I usually feed mine every 2-3 days. Everyone's worm bins are different though ( some have more worms, larger bins etc...) so you will have to find what works for your Worm Farm. Definitely save your trimmings. I see too many people throwing that away... Also, in the meantime to help save money you can use dead leaves, grass clippings, or dried out hardwood broken down into little pieces as food in the meantime. One last thing that you might be interested in is growing a cover crop ( clover, alfalfa etc.. ) in a pot either in the Veg room or outdoors and use the trimmings as worm food. If you have the extra soil and room. Just another idea. Hope that helps.

 

Hey Dank, i have read different instructions on different sites for feeding worms and some vary from style to style. Here is a link from Cornell University about feeding worms

etc.. Six Easy Steps to Setting Up a Worm Bin - Cornell Composting

" Bury food scraps under bedding. Feed the worms fruit and vegetable scraps that would normally be thrown away. "

" FEED, WATER and FLUFF!!! To keep worms happy, feed them about once a week. If bedding dries up, spray with water. (If bedding gets too wet, add dry newspaper strips.) Fluff up bedding once a week so the worms get enough air."

I wouldn't do the flushing of water through the warm farm. Seems like a little too much water to me. You do not want the bin to get too wet. I would just use a spray bottle to keep the bedding moist periodically as well as spraying during feed times. I also " Fluff " the bins every week or so and mist the bin accordingly during that time. As far as the water goes. It kind of depends on if your Municipalities are using Chlorine or Chloramine to clean the water.

If it is Chlorine you can let a bucket of water sit for 24 hours to let the Chlorine evaporate before using it. Chloramine is a little different of a beast...Chlorine and Chloramine are microbial life killers. If you have the ability/room I would try to collect rain water for your worm bins since they don't require a whole lot of H2O. In the meantime until you get yourself a RO filter, but if you can't the tap water will work ( just let it sit for 24 first ).

For your second tray I would just set up the bedding and cut your worm population in half and divvy them up between them both. Then you can start feeding them both like you did the first one. Just make sure you are not overfeeding and they are digesting everything before the next meal time. You certainly have enough worms to do so.

Another link Useful Worm Farming Information - Worms Downunder

Here is some info on the Chloramine:

DOES YOUR WATER CONTAIN CHLORAMINE? | NutriStart

" But chlorine at least will dissipate fairly fast, when water is boiled or left exposed to air (most sources suggest it takes 24hrs for total dispersal) while chloramine will not.

Chloramine is less reactive than chlorine, including less reactive to air. The supposed benefits of chloramine for disinfecting water requires a longer reaction time, but as a result it can take days (some say weeks) to break down into non-toxic components."

 

I'm not a big fan of RO, not that that means anything. I used one for years but realized it takes 3 gallons of water to make 1 gallon of RO, extremely wasteful. If you can get something like this Inline Water Filter System | Water Filters Australia you're much better off and it keeps all your minerals in place. Body Glove makes a similar filter in the US.

Look for NSF on the filters.

"The NSF International provides a range of certifications for products that involve initial and periodic testing:

• NSF 42 covers aesthetic effects such as chlorine, taste, odour and particles.
• NSF 53 covers health effects such as cysts (giardia, cryptosporidium), a range of organic chemicals (such as THM and pesticides) and heavy metals.

The Australian standard AS/NZS4348 covers a wide range of contaminants, such as taste, odour and microbiological and chemical impurities. There are also standards for water softeners (cation exchangers: (NSF 44), reverse-osmosis (NSF 58) and distillation (NSF 62) systems."

HTH

 

Here's a temporary worm reactor. I'm going to set one up outside in a 100g pot and load it with "forest humus" and leaves from the back yard.. This is a bed that's sitting. I have a bunch of alfalfa I separated for straw and I'm scared to mess with alfalfa much without cooking it so I'll just make castings in it for now. I run the red wrigglers to work the top and euro night crawlers work the bottom. I do lasagna layers.
Compost
Kelp meal
Compost
Neem cake
Compost
MBP
Compost
Chicken manure
Compost
Alfalfa
Compost
Topped with alfalfa

Aeration medium is required also.

 

Hey @DankDownUndaa, 1000 worms? Shit, that's a lot. I started with 250 so you should be cranking out some castings here in the future. If you have more than two trays than you could split them up into 3 or even 4 different trays and still be cool with the amount of worms that you have. Coco Coir will work just fine for your bedding. Here is a link about different bedding's you can use: What Can I Use For Worm Bedding? - Uncle Jim's Worm Farm

I would not be too worried about the gray looking mite bugs. I have similar looking things in my Worm Farm as well. There are also some rolly polly's ( pill bugs ) in there, but they don't do any harm. Fruit flies in the Worm Farm are not normal though and are usually a sign of overfeeding or putting too large of food scraps in the bin. Here is a link on that and how to avoid them: Troubleshooting Worm Bins - Cornell Composting

Another thing. I see you have green cardboard in the Farm. Just a heads up you want to steer away from any colored ink in anything that you put in their. Just my opinion. " Where you may find a problem is with colored flyers and magazine paper. This paper usually has a high gloss to it, so it's easier to spot than the typical matte finish on newsprint. The gloss usually consists of a caulk substance (e.g. calcium carbonate) and various latex paint residues. " link below

Can I Feed My Worms Colored Newspaper?

 

i found a limited supply on 150g official smartpot brand in tan color for $35 at amazon. my plan is to remove the soil from the current 150 and put it in totes. I'm going to set them outside on an old pallet i use that came from a deck i demo'd. then do the lasagna deal with 8 month compost and the soil which is probably 25% cast by now.

 

Hey man, I'll give you my simple take on raising worms.

Red wigglers are known as "Composting" or "manure" worms for good reason. Feeding your worms nothing but compost or better yet a manure based compost is all the worms need.

Feeding them compost is also the quickest way to achieve vermicompost, especially if using a vertical flow thru.

If you do use egg shells in your bin as has been suggested, I strongly recommend grinding the egg shells first. The availability of calcium carbonate in the soil is dependent upon particle size. Plus, it's really annoying to me, having to look at pieces of egg shell in my soil 2-3yrs later.

When you were asked about your no till becoming a large worm bin...given enough time...that's exactly what it becomes. My oldest bed is pushing 4 years old. When I transplant, it looks like the bed is just castings and lava rock. Somehow, the plants just keep growing!

Edit: Cardboard and worms. Cardboard is a great material for increasing your worm population. Not so great for vermicompost. Cardboard from the U.S or Canada is safe to use. Chinese cardboard I would avoid.

RD

 

I think you will be fine for right now since they are already too incorporated to move without disturbing things. Just make sure you do not add anymore colored cardboard in the future. I really just try to stay away from any ink at all on my cardboard ( because the ink is Soy based ), but then again I am super anal about what gets put into my plants/worms. I even steer clear of Bone and Blood Meal for the same reasons ( RGBH, their GMO Fed etc..) So, it is really just up to the individual grower on those calls.

 

why would you want to prevent that? worms are good!