My worms have been trying to escape since I've put them in the bin, I added lots of shredded newspaper and cardboard bedding, along with some banana peels and shredded comfrey, gonna add some watermelon rinds today and hopefully they swarm that and try not to escape! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Mash, if you can find it, but it seems that they are going to 2 sizes now instead of 3. The crumbles are smaller, but a bit larger than the mash. Pellets are more the size of the old crumbles and large pellets are the same as the old pellets. At least this is what I came away with looking for laying mash at Tractor Supply. Get the smallest grind you can and mist well, it will change color when moist. DO NOT BURY IT! It will sour. Crumbles was the smallest size they had. HTH Wet
If your bin is inside, shine bright light at the outside of the bin, that will help them want to stay in the dark bin. A handful of compost in a little pile helps as well. They will flock to something that is already broken down to a form they are accustomed to. cheers os
Thanks for the replies! I have a light over it now, it's not too wet, but slightly damp. I'll add some old soil to it and see how they like that Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Grasscity Forum mobile app
If you have some fan leaves or trim, mist them and put a little pile in a corner away from any food. They like to hide in leaf piles, even small ones. cheers os
Dumped all my smaller worm farms into this 100gal Geopot, with Bio-char, oyster shell, Neem/Karanja, rock dusts, leaves, and finished outdoor thermal compost. Should be really nice in 6 months!
very nice. Looks like you have room to continue adding material to the top at regular intervals if you would so choose as well. Its always nice to have extra capacity, just never know when the 'plan' changes a little. cheers os
Absolutely, going to start layering in ingredients for the worms to eat. And more leaves, lots of those!
Try and source at least semi-broken down leaves if at all possible and if you can get or have well broken down material even better. I’ve seen my biggest, strongest and fastest worms ever in heaps of leaf mold at home. Damn things were like small snakes in size and speed... lol I’m honestly really surprised I don’t see a bigger percentage of folks using leaf mold. J
Most likely due to time and space vs just popping down to any gardening place for a bale of CSPM. My long term goal is to only need Perilite, and make my own leaf mold. Got comfrey planted this weekend, so will have plenty of that! Lol
I'm making all my own leaf mold too. I'm running a bunch of peat free grows right now and I just love the results with the leaf mold. I am giving bark nuggets a solid try as aeration in everything I do for a year or so. It the season of "Dare to be Different". cheers os
My first pure leaf mold bin will be done in about a month. It is the bin I posted over in wetdog's Converting to vermiculture thread in December. I cannot wait to throw a plant in it. The worm population exploded in that bin. Especially since it is indoors, my mancave is around 65F. Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
How do you think the bark is working out for you? Will you need to dump out and remix new bark fines every year or two?? Are you using bio-char in there also?
Hulled 175 gallons of municipal leaf mold home the other day and 125 gallons of woodchips. I don't even bother collecting and shredding leaves anymore. Someone else does it for me lol. Lots of worms in both. Sore as shit from digging, fired up them lats. Free other than the time spent digging. Should have some nice maters, lettuce, peppers, etc going on this year. Got the fence and trellises up. Keepin them critters out. Going to try out zukes and cucumbers this year. Anyone got any advise for them? The comfreys be sprouting up now. Getting close to the last frost
Where in the world are you? Cucumber beetles are the battle I fight every summer. This is with any plant in the Cucurbit family(squash and melon). I have found plant bug netting is the best option. Once the beetles get on the plant they carry bacterial and viral diseases that will kill the plant. Last year we had an especially bad year and I lost almost an entire pumpkin patch before I saw the beetles. Once the plants get one of these diseases they will not product and will wilt and die quickly.
I'm on the east coast usa, zone 6a. Thanks, will definitely put some netting over them. Just read this on farmers almanac: The cucumber beetle was a problem for me one year. A friend and soil specialist said that it was an indication of a potassium deficiency. I added greensand to the cucumber bed in subsequent years and haven’t seen this beetle since. This same soil specialist also clearly states that if we give our plants everything that they need, the insects won’t be able to eat them because the sugars will be too high for them to digest. Kelp might help. Also I was wondering if nasturtiums, marigolds or other supposedly beneficial companion plants may attract some predators bugs
I have some plants in the bark now. When these grows are done, I plan to dump the pots and analyze them to look at the bark break down and drainage. These are leaf mold, plus rice hulls, plus bark nuggets. These were deliberately a 1 grow deal. Due to the way things are working out, these won't be finished in time for me to start my next crop, which will be in the green house. My greenhouse mixes have assorted aeration of rice hulls, perlite, and bark nuggets all in the same pots. I would have loved to have used a 100% leaf mold plus bark nuggets in the greenhouse, but I used up all my finished leaf mold over the winter in worm bins (100 or so gallons!). These are actually 3 different types of vmc that I made with different bases, 2 of which, used bark as the 1/3 aeration during the vmc operation. I also added an extra part of bark nuggets to bring the aeration up to 40-50%. In the fall when I move back inside, I will have at least a yard of finished leaf mold (that I started last fall), I plan to run that mix with bark and rice hulls for 3 or 4 rounds and see how it does towards the end. Its all about how well they drain at the end. The one thing that I see with combo of bark nuggets and leaf mold, is that I don't need to water often. They both hold a lot of water. The worms just thrive with the bark nuggets in bins as well. I haven't really been using bio char in my recent mixes at all. I love the stuff I make from rice hulls (carborized rice hulls), but I can't get my bbq grill hot enough in the winter up here to effectively make them, so I have been mostly going without. What I really like to do is add cowboy charcoal to both my compost and leaf mold when I build the piles initially. cheers os