Comments on: Homemade Manure

By: janet

janet — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 01:46:30 +0000

I’ve been mixing blended food scraps, leaf litter and grass clippings into my garden bed each week for a couple years now. There is absolutely no odor, flies or vermin present. Though I wasn’t trying to, I have noticed a HUGE increase in the number of worms in the area being composted. Prior to adding the organic material, there were NO worms in the vicinity. I’m certainly no expert but the soil appears rich and holds moisture very well. I will be using it to fill a raised garden bed this spring. Fingers crossed for a bountiful harvest

By: Bentley

Bentley — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 17:27:36 +0000

Hi Kevin,
You can use whatever mix you want – that’s the beauty of homemade manure. There is no set-in-stone recipe.
Your mix sounds like it will be pretty tasty for the worms.

By: Kevin Jiang

Kevin Jiang — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:52:18 +0000

For my homemade manure can I use frozen banana, chinese squash, persimmon peels, and carrot peels and use cardboard for carbon?

By: Buddy Byrd

Buddy Byrd — Fri, 14 May 2010 04:29:06 +0000

Well, here goes on my manure list. First of all some of the ingredients may be odd or extreme to add to worm food, but they are what I like to add as plants supplements. So please don’t hesitate in commenting. Knowledge is good. And, if I’m doing something wrong, I really need to know.

Right now the main thing that’s available is pumpkins. I bought 20 last fall for $1 each. I think I have ten remaining. Anyway. I cut the pumpkins up into about 1 inch squares. I then put them in large plastic jars and freeze them. When I’m ready to make the manure, I thaw one jar out and then fill it up half way with rain water. Then I add up to one table spoon of sifted peat moss, pulverized sphagnum moss (has small chambers in which it can hold organic material and water), coir, alfalfa meal, cornmeal, oat meal, grits, farina (wheat), wheat germ, ground flax seed, green sand, small amount of potting soil (last 2 ingredients for grit), phosphate rock, bone meal, cotton seed meal, molasses, fish emulsion, compost and finished vermicompost. I fill it up the rest of the way with rain water and put it in the refrigerator to meld together for about a week. Then I take it out and let it sit at room temperature for 24 hours. I then put all of it in a food processor and blend it until it is some what smooth. During blending, I drop in small pieces of cardboard that have soaked in rain water for about 24 hours. Dropping in the cardboard carefully I might add, it can make the processor jump and make a mess. Then I strain this mixture. I take small amounts of the mush and distribute it on top of the bedding/food in different places. I used to put one pile in the middle, but that caused anaerobic conditions. I take the rest of the mush and add equal parts compost that is alive and well with microorganisms and more wet cardboard. I let this sit for a few days so if it heats up I can let it cool before feeding to my worms. When I’m ready to feed some of this to my worms, I take some of the left over mush water that has been brewing in a bucket with an air pump and air stone, and sprinkle enough to moisten the bedding and then put an inch or so layer of manure on top and in the middle. They start eating this manure in less than 1 one day and will finish it off in about a total of 3 days. After that I sprinkle mush water and manure as needed. I also sprinkle sifted moist compost in between manure feedings to add extra microbes. My goal in all of this is to keep a fresh supply of food (manure and microorganisms) so my worms will hopefully reproduce and make good vermicompost efficiently.

I probably left something out. But I’m really tired now. LOL Hope this is not to long to read.

Thanks

By: Bentley

Bentley — Thu, 06 May 2010 14:59:54 +0000

Thanks, Buddy
Sounds like you are headed in the right direction with your worm composting efforts

Do feel free to share your “manure” ingredients. I’m always interested to see what others are putting in their mixes (mine are never the same from one batch to the next)

By: Buddy Byrd

Buddy Byrd — Thu, 06 May 2010 08:13:59 +0000

Sorry, I forgot to say that my worms love this stuff. About two days after I put it on top of their bedding, it is full of worms. In two or three days, they may get a little slow at eating, so I sprinkle a little water on top of the homemade manure (if needed) and then sprinkle some compost full of microorganisms on top of that and the rest of the bedding. Sometimes in just a few hours there are more worms eating and mixing the bedding and food.

One of the main ingredients that adds moisture and I guess feeds the microorganisms is pumpkin. I cut it up and freeze it for at least a week. When it thaws out, I add rain water and what ever else I have on hand. Freezing and thawing it helps it to blend easier in a food processor or blender. Okay, enough for now, I may post some other ingredients later.

By: Buddy Byrd

Buddy Byrd — Thu, 06 May 2010 07:42:50 +0000

Thanks Bentley and everyone else who commented. Now I know that I wasn’t putting enough material in my bedding to aid in aeration and moisture control. I’ve started putting in more and larger pieces of cardboard in the worms bedding and this seems to help. I was also putting the mix in too thick and in one large area. This sometimes went anaerobic and produced an ammonia smell and the worms DID NOT like it. Now I put it in thinner and in several smaller areas. I also realized that I just didn’t have enough worms in my box to eat the amount of food I was putting in there, so I ordered more (this time from Bentley – I hear he knows some folks with some good worms.).

Thanks Bentley for your email letting me know about the shipment of my worms. My Jesus name prayers go out for the people in the flooded areas.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 22:50:50 +0000

I like to use store bought cow manure compost and mushroom compost.Is this ok. I don’t use food scraps I have a large wooden bin to keep my fishing worms in and let them breed a little. Is this compost ok for my worms. I do use plenty of shredded newspaper and cardboard.

By: Bentley

Bentley — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:57:25 +0000

Hi Wade – that’s a good question. I’ve never encountered issues with manure that has been allowed to age for a period of time outdoors. I say go for it – just to be safe, why not test out a small amount first?

By: Wade Watts

Wade Watts — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:45:32 +0000

I to have some horse manure that I got from a farrier. I am sure that the horses that were in her stalls have been dewormed. I was told not to use horse manure where horses had been dewormed, it was bad for worms, is this true, it is probably 4 to 5 months old.
I have red wigglers, European night crawlers and African night crawlers.
What say you, use it or don’t use it?