I let my indoor bins run too dry these last few days but I just misted them all down good. I have piled up quite a bit of bedding on them as well by covering food up and adding leaves. I’m holding off now to let it decay some.
Watered the bin. Didn't add any food. Dug around. Anybody know what this is? Assuming type of egg, not sure I want to keep it but also not sure what's going to come out That avo peel was folded I read that these actually may be mites I'm excited for another week or two and I can start feeding them food scraps again, I have some nice fruits and veggies frozen with crushed shells, and some shrimp tails. Sent from my Pixel 3a using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Would need a closer look to be sure but from my experience, those look like soil mites. Beneficial decomposers. Most of the time, you might never notice them but they boom in population when conditions are right (constant wet bedding, too much food). These links may help. A Mite is a Mite is a Mite? Not Quite! | Red Worm Composting How to Get Rid of Millipedes, Centipedes and Mites in Your Worm Bin - Uncle Jim's Worm Farm
Good stuff thanks Just watered too haha, seemd a bit dry side. Lids off they'll be fine! I threw it out, I need more worm population more than anything, have enough mites, few pillbugs too, cheers. I appreciate your answer. Although my greens are just about all gone, cardboard and leaves remain Sent from my Pixel 3a using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I’m holding off on that outdoor bin for a while since we are in the middle of a cold snap. No T-shirt n shorts trips to the mailbox for me right now. Come on Spring.
Fwiw I found out shredded straw is pretty decent to add as a portion of a bins bedding. It's the stuff landscapers used as a grass seed mulch cover, sold in bales. I soaked it overnight and wrung it out, seems to add a decent amount of hydration and a good bit of aeration, at least until it's been broken down. Noodles are pretty dang active since the addition of soaked shredded straw. Eggs galore. This bedding mix is equal parts compost, rice hulls, shredded straw and cardboard. Kelp/neem/alfalfa ect added of course.
I fed the band some leftover cornbread and misted the bins down good. I’m watering these more often as I know the importance of moisture in everything breaking down and worm health. I’m sure I need to harvest these but I’ve built bedding up hoping I can skate by for another month and take them back out.
I have the Worm Factory 360 and will be making a bedding using OS’s mix and had a few questions about the process. I read through about 40 pages of this thread without finding the answers, so I apologize if they have been answered already! I am going to only start with 1 tray on the WF360. I will fill that with the bedding mix and worms. Once that gets close to being processed, I will do the same thing with a new tray and place it on top of the first. When the worms move to the second tray, I will remove the first and use those castings. I will then repeat the process with a new tray on top. If we are only using 2 trays at once, why does it come with 4 trays? Can I fill multiple trays with bedding and use them at the same time to produce more castings? Can the extra finished castings be stored throughout the winter until they can be used in the spring? What is the best way to store them? Can make a large batch of bedding and store the unused stuff until it is needed? If I can, can I just pit it in a bin with some airflow? Should I store it dry and then wet it before use? After I fill the tray with the bedding mix is there anything I need to do to it until the castings are ready? Should I be adding more amendments or water? If so, how do I know when? I will be adding a small amount of left over fruit/vegetable scraps, but it will probably only be a small amount fed randomly. Anything else I am missing? Thank you for all of the help!!
I can answer some of your questions.I'm not sure exactly what amendments Os puts in his mix. I run a Worm Cafe and use it as a static bin. Meaning I fill and feed all my trays at the same time. I feed twice a month with vegetable scraps and coffee grinds. I also add a tablespoon of one of our soil amendments each time. I scroll through all our soil amendments. I will also add MBP a few times during a cycle. I harvest 2-3 times a year this way. I store my castings as they come out of the bin. Storage for me is in 5 gallon pails or 1 gallon plastic zip locks with a few holes in them. We screen through a 1/4" hardware cloth to separate the majority of the worms from the castings.Casting can freeze solid. Microbes freeze solid outdoors all the time,so don't worm eggs. You can make and store extra bedding if you want. Keep it moist like your compost pile. Bin moisture is important. It will take some practice to get it perfected. In dry environments you will need to add water.
Welcome, we are glad to have you in the little GC worm click. I’ve got a system like that and you have some good questions. I’m just doing a single tray but like you, wondered about putting the others to work too. There have been some discussions here about storing castings for later use. Paging @TimJ , who I know has wrote on this. I just try to keep mine moist and add in food stuff from time to time. I really should do a better job of noting that but I usually mention it here. You can find some good info in the library and PDF thread in this section of the forum as well as several people around with worm bins. And we enjoy talking about them. Again, welcome.
So the strategy with a WF 360 and the four trays goes something like this. Fill first tray. Wait a month, put second tray on top. Wait a month put third on top. Wait a month put 4th tray on top. Wait a month, dump the bottom tray, fill it with new bedding and place on top. This basically gives the worms 4 months to work the bedding, and allows the castings to cure out. Although the majority of the worms will be working the upper trays. Some worms will continue to work the lower trays if conditions are right. Also if you have some Euros in the mix, they will most likely be working the lower trays exclusively. The extra volume of all 4 trays allows the worm population to grow larger, and grow faster. Since you are using my mix and just getting started you can certainly fill all the trays right out of the gate and at least get things working. For a while there won't be quite as much castings in the lower trays at harvest time, but since its compost based and filled with life, it will be great to use for top dressing or soil mixes anyway. If you skip ahead and fill all the trays at once, you will want to use this one trick however. A week or so before you plan to harvest, put some food like banana peels in the very top bin. This will attract the worms out of the lowest bin, so that it can be harvested with few if any worms still in it. I would use this strategy for the first couple of harvests. If you don't plan to add any food, you will have to keep an eye on the moisture level in the bin. Normally food adds moisture, so if you don't add food, add water. It especially important when starting a new bin system to get and keep the bedding moist enough. This will help the population grow as quick as possible. I don't really store extra casting to much anymore. I just empty trays when I need them. If you want to store them, just a tote with a loose fitting lid works great. Keep it moist and cover the top of the castings with damp cardboard or newsprint. Keep the cardboard wet. You will find that some worms will be in the storage tote and they will actually continue to further work the bedding, so that a good thing. At this point your storage bin is essentially a static bin. I wouldn't worry about holes, just put the cover on 'a little off' for air flow. Fruit and veggie scraps are great additions. The rule of thumb is not to put too much in at one time. Add food, wait until the worms are working it (you will see them physically on the food), then you may add some more. The best routine I have found with fruit and veggie scraps is to put them in the freezer in a bowl or bucket as I get them. Then periodically I thaw some out, and feed them to the top bin. The freezing action actually blows the cell walls apart, which in turn will make the food breakdown quicker, in turn making it ready for the worms quicker. You can absolutely make up bedding ahead of time. I try to make up enough bedding each fall to make it through the winter. Just keep it moist. If its compost or leafmold based, it will probably already have a few worms in it. This is a good thing. They will get a head start working the bedding, and also multiply. The bigger the bedding storage tote, the more they will multiply. Again, just keep the bedding in this tote moist, and covered with damp cardboard. I like to use a pump sprayer like a chapin for spraying water to keep the bedding mix moist (whether its an active tray or storage bedding etc). Now what you really will have going is a bedding storage bin, which getting a head start and actually working as a static bin. A 4 tray bin setup. and finally, another storage bin for finished castings that is actually another working static bin. You will be stoked when you take castings out of the finished storage bin and find that are all kinds of worms to go into your next soil mix or top dress. These worms can also be caught and added to the WF 360 if desired. HTH cheers os
I was going to add that I actually use 5 trays in wf360's. I tried 6 but it was just to heavy and cumbersome to work with. Now I run to wf360's with 5 trays each. I don't really use static bins anymore, as the 2 wf360's make plenty of castings for all my gardenening needs. I will also add that if I do need a lot of castings at once, I will just grab the bottom 2 trays and harvest them together. Then I will refill them both and just put them both on top. I got lucky and the feed store sells extra trays for wf360's. That's how I started experimenting with extra trays. The beauty of a tray system with at least 3 trays, is that you should never really have to sort worms out of the castings. The migration should happen all on its own. Just dump and refill. I will also say that out of all the different ways I have worm farmed over the years, that the tray systems make the most consistent castings every single time. cheers os
I've found after harvesting my winter castings in my unheated shed last year, the soil heating cables dry the bedding more than I thought, I just added 2 gallons of warm water to my outside bathtub bin. Feed time. -14f this morning, the worms didn't seem to mind in my outdoor bathtub bin .
I found these 2/6 bucks while just browsing garden tools on Bay today. I've got metal tools like this but figured the plastic may be better to use in the worm bins.
The plastic ones are also nice for mixing bedding or amendments in a metal wheelbarrow. The plastic eliminates the ‘nails on the chalkboard’ sound from using metal on metal. Cheers Os
Feeding time for the wigglers. Leaves,coffee filters/coffee,banana skins,comfrey,rock dust,oyster shell flour and fish bone meal.My top bin did need some water. Worms are happy..