December 5, 2007

Interview With Jack Chambers – Part III

This just in – direct from Shanghai, no less! I’m totally serious. Not only has Jack been incredibly generous with his time, but he even replies from foreign cities (remember, he is a commercial airline pilot)! First Tokyo, now Shanghai – pretty cool!
Ok, on with the interview…This time I’ve included a couple of responses.


Can you tell us a little about your flow-through reactors? How many do you have now? Would you recommend this type of system?


JC – Our flow through reactors are 90′ long, 5′ wide, and 2′ deep. They sit 18″ off the ground. We adapted a design from the ones Dr. Clive Edwards developed in England, back in the 1980’s. A very simple idea really. On the bottom of the bin is a screened floor. The worm castings (vermicompost) actually rest on this screen. The screen is a 2″ by 4″ material.

The idea being that you feed at the top of the flow through reactor, and the majority of worms are at the top working the material. At the bottom, just above the screen is a breaker bar which cuts the finished material, which falls through the screen. The worms work the material for about 60 days. In other words, what we feed on top today, will come out the bottom of the reactor in about 60 days.

The system works very well. We had some issues in the beginning with the beds heating up. We solved that be watching how we pre-compost the material.

We currently have 3 reactors, and over the winter we will install a 4th.

Yes, I would recommend this system. It is especially good for making high quality vermicompost that will be used as a starter material for making vermicompost tea. You have a great deal of control and can turn out a very consistent product.


I know you’ve worked quite a bit with local vineyards in your area. Have you found vermicomposts (and worm teas) to be a really beneficial for this industry?


JC – We have been fortunate to work with some high end vineyards in both Napa and Sonoma counties. They are using a cup of our vermicompost when they plant, or replant their vineyards. They find that the vines do very well with this small addition. It costs them about .12 cents a plant. Sort of like insurance for your vine. A vine costs about $3.00. If you lose the vine, you need to replant it next year. Now you have $6.00 in the hole, and you are a year behind with that vine.

Some vineyards were losing up to 20% of their new plantings. When they use our vermicompost, the losses are less than 1%. One vineyard used our vermicompost, and after planting 3,000 vines, they found that they didn’t lose a single vine.

Different growers are using tea, mostly to fertigate their vineyards. They find that the vines respond well to the tea. It is low in NPK, but very high in microbial activity, and to put it simply it acts as an inoculant in the soil. It helps bring microbial life to the soil.

In our vineyard, we use the vermicompost tea as both a soil drench (fertigate) and as a foliar spray. We have found that it helps create a nice canopy for the fruit, and also keeps powdery mildew at bay. We also spray our roses with tea and it is very good at keeping powdery mildew away, and good for black spot and rust as well.


Stay tuned – still more to come!

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European Nightcrawlers – Eisenia hortensis

Red Worm (top) with European Nightcrawler (bottom)

My new worms arrived today and needless to say I am very excited – almost excited as when I received my first batch of red worms (many moons ago now). I’ve never seen a ‘Euro’ before (aside from photos), and was surprised by just how different they look from my red wigglers. Aside from the obvious size difference, they seem to be much more of a brown colour, but still display the distinct banded pattern typically seen in Eisenia worms.

Euros being added to an aged worm bin

Given the quantity of worms a received (likely close to a 1 lb) I decided to split them between the two aged bins I set up for my worm composting videos. I had originally planned to start my “4 worm experinment” in one of them, but I’ll start a new one for that. It has been about a month and a half since I set up the bins, so much of the food waste is very well decomposed and not even recognizable – I have little doubt that the microbial population is quite rich (certainly lots of visible fungal mycelia). Moisture seems to be well balanced in the bins, but a little on the dry side so I made sure to add some more water. When I checked back on the worms after letting them sit for a bit they seemed to be exploring their new surroundings quite readily (definitely a good sign – they came in a decent amount of bedding, so they would have stayed in it had the bin conditions not been to their liking).

I received the worms as a thank-you gift from my worm farmer friend, Jeff. I’m in the process of helping him set up a website for his business (and will certainly provide more info once it’s ready for visitors). Jeff was kind enough to send the worms via priority post, and made sure to label the box well. The postal delivery lady seemed to get a real kick out of saying “enjoy your worms”, as she handed me the package! Oh, the things we worm fanatics have to put up with – I tell ya!!!
😆

Some More European Nightcrawler Info
As mentioned, Euros are a larger cousin of the red wiggler. They are also known as ‘Belgian Nightcrawlers’, ‘Euros’, and ENCs for short. Another very common scientific name is Dendrobena veneta – this is what they were referred to prior to the change over to Eisenia hortensis. The former name is still used extensively in Europe.

Due to their larger size, Euros make an ideal bait worm. I’ve got such a soft spot for worms these days that I can’t imagine putting one on a hook anymore (and I’m a pretty avid fisherman), but I can definitely see how they would be ideal based on their size alone – they are significantly bigger than a red worm, but smaller than a ‘dew worm’ (‘Canadian Nightcrawler’ – Lumbricus terrestris), which are often TOO big. I’ve read that they are incredibly durable on a hook even in very cold and brackish waters – thus making them a very versatile bait.

As composting worms, research seems to indicate that they are not as ideally suited for the task as Eisenia fetida. They have a lower rate of reproduction and take considerably longer to mature. That being said, I’ve been told they can be more tolerant of poor bin conditions and low food levels – more apt to stay put as compared to red worms.

I will certainly be very interested to test them out for myself to see what they are capable of, and of course will continue to share my findings here on the blog!

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