I built a vermixompost bin about a week ago. Its a dark green 13 gallon rubbermaid bin with around 40 holes in the top for air. I had holes in the bottom for drainage buy had drilled them to big so I had escapees. In my mix I had cardboard from pizza boxes (the plain ones with little to no design) white paper, crushed egg shells, 20% of the mix was soil, a couple small apple cores, and water (not drown just damp). I have been using nightcrawlers bc my brother is a regular fisher n had tons. I put aound 2 dozen to 1/4 of the tub being full (started small). Its been a few days now n most are dead or missing. I know I havent followed the exact process bc it calls forred wigglers and more appropriately set up boxes. But I have saw a loy of success stoties from people just tossing regular dug up earthworms in similar set ups. Is it just a hope that they adapt to the new environment? Bc I have saw a few stories where people have followed the instructions perfectly and used bins they bought pre made for the process and still have the worms die. Most of my info on vermicompost came from a gardening forum
Also curious if all the worms do die and I just remove them, will this breakdown as a natural compost Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
1- You are using soil dwelling worms where composting worms are the ideal. 2- Shred the cardboard and soak it in water, then drain and mix with the foodstock. 3- A handful or two of native soil is fine as this will provide an initial microbial inoculation. 4- Since you are using table scraps they need to not be fresh, so let them sit in the bin for a couple weeks. 5- Keep things moist and keep your table scraps buried. Add a dry layer of shredded paper or cardboard to the top as this will help in keeping flying pests under control. 6- Your bin is now aged for a week or two and will accommodate a pound or two of red wigglers much easier. Hope this helped and best of luck.
Good help Sam.....if I might add one more thing: In optimum conditions, a Red Wiggler will eat 3/4's it's weight in food and leave 1/2 it's weight in castings. Night crawlers aren't as voracious as 'wigglers. A few dead worms left in the mix will just become vermicompost With a couple dozen crawlers, you're on the slow path to vermicompost. If it were me, I'd spring for a pound of Reds, follow Sam's lead and you will be rewarded with rich, fresh vermicompost. Good luck! Chunk