Comments on: Hay Bale Vermigardening

By: Colin Leitch

Colin Leitch — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 10:26:10 +0000

Thanks again Bentley. I currently have around 15 square metres of open worm beds and am in the process of setting up 34 Lucerne/alphalpha bales for vermigardening. I’ve been collecting about 80 kg of juice pulp and salad scraps per week and mixing them with about 40 kg of aged mulch to form a feed mix. Based on your advice, I should be able to add 40 to 50 kg of coffee grounds each week. Worm numbers are increasing rapidly and I may need to source more cafe organics in the future to optimise conditions, though I am planning to use my bountiful supply of worms to assist others in getting started. The long-term aim is to productively use 95% of the cafe organics in our coastal resort town – totalling maybe 25 tonne per year – which has largely been getting trucked to landfill!
By the way, I recently purchased your Easy Vermicomposting discourses and found them to be gold! Good for confirming what I’m doing well plus lots of ideas of how I can do it better. Great value!
Thanks again!

By: Bentley

Bentley — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 14:07:26 +0000

Hi Colin
Are you going to create basically the same sort of bale beds as the ones I made? If so how big will they (or it) be? I think I could manage 80 kg of grounds per week no problem with the beds I currently have, but I have a lot of bed space available.
25-30% grounds sounds pretty good – and make sure it get’s spread around, not concentrated in any one spot, especially during the early stages of filling the bed (when you can end up stimulating overheating of entire bed).

By: Colin Leitch

Colin Leitch — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 06:26:34 +0000

Thanks Bentley. One more question: I pick up about 80 kg of coffee grounds each week and am keen to add as much as possible to my feed mix of juice pulp, salad scraps, seaweed and aged mulch. Would 25 to 30% of coffee grounds by weight be ok do you reckon?

By: Bentley

Bentley — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 23:04:26 +0000

Austin – very sorry for the (accidental) delay approving your comment! Thanks a lot for those links. I attempted to do something similar with fruit fly larvae and the larvae of a larger fly species but didn’t have much luck. I like the idea of using the wax worms (in your first link). I may try that the next time I have some parasitic nematodes!

I’m not at all concerned about gnats etc in the hay bales though since these are outdoor systems – but the nematodes definitely come in handy when I have a bad gnat infestation indoors!
—–
Colin – thanks for sharing your thoughts! Yep, the idea is that you are supposed to let the bales basically compost for a little while. Mine got hot for a short period of time – perhaps not as long as they are supposed to – but since I am getting the worms involved I think I’ll be just fine.

Your feed solution sounds great (as long as the seaweed doesn’t have too much salt in it – worms are very sensitive to it).

By: Colin Leitch

Colin Leitch — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 04:03:03 +0000

G’day Bentley
I’ve been vermicomposting in a small way for about 15 years but have ramped it up this year as I’m providing demonstration worm systems at the local community garden.
Your article on combining worms with hay bale gardening makes so much sense! I love the concept and it should work well to enliven a concrete slab that will be ripped up one day and also to extend the confined growing area in our terraced garden.
One thing I’d like to clarify is the preparation of the bales: my understanding is that the bales need to be primed with a nitrogen rich solution to trigger the hot composting stage. I’m planning to use a combination of coffee grounds and horse manure mixed into a solution for this. When the bales cool down after a week or so, it will be time to place worm-rich vermicompost on top of the bales as well as inbetween the bales where gaps can be left. It will also be time to provide rich and varied food for both the worms and the composting microbes. I’ll be blending a mix of cafe juice pulp, potash (to neutralise the citrus pulp). leafy greens and washed seaweed to make up a feed solution. Does this make sense to you?
It’s winter down here in Ausrralia so it’s a good time to be getting ready for spring planting …
Thanks for your inspiration!

By: Bentley

Bentley — Sat, 06 Jun 2015 13:04:26 +0000

Freddi – thanks very much for sharing your experiences with bale gardening. I definitely want to try the bales in my raised bed box as well!
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Poke – I would be interesting to do a comparison between the sprout teas and the comfrey tea. Your comment about alfalfa makes me wonder how well bales of it would work as the actual garden beds.

With kelp I would wonder about sodium levels – might be too high for the worms.

As for “changing your life”, I must say that I am honored to have played a role. That’s so awesome, and keeps me reminded of why I’m doing what I’m doing! You definitely made my day – so thank YOU!
🙂

By: Poke

Poke — Sat, 30 May 2015 18:10:12 +0000

Bentley,
Comfrey tea is a great place to start, but have you ever considered seed sprout teas? A plant like corn can be sprouted for a few days in some easy Diy sprouting cups. When the tail on the sprout is a bit larger than the seed they’re ready to be blended. Take the blended corn and strain it, then blend and strain a few times into a bucket to capture the runoff until “the milk” runoff stops being milky. Either add the corn chunks to your worm bins or feed to chickens. Corn is on par with coconut milk in terms of its cytokinin content. It’s also full of enzymes. We use it to jumpstart the process of organic decay when soil building. You may also look into alfalfa teas. Alfalfa contains a chemical called triacontanol, a fatty alcohol which makes plants grow as if on steroids, but also contains beneficial enzymes (proteins). I’m sure you’re no stranger to ACTs (aerated compost teas) using castings, as even these will gain some strength when combined with an sst.

And let’s not forget kelp meal tea. Kelp contains over 73 micro and macro nutrients and as long as you’re using Acadian kelp you’re getting all of the benefits plants require, that they otherwise would not get, as kelp meal is unique in its nutrient content.

Just a few friendly ideas! I very much enjoy your experiments. You changed my life many years ago when I was terminally ill and helped me find purpose. That was nearly a decade ago now and I’ve been gardening and teaching gardening ever since. Great men are rarely aware of the trees that grow from the seeds they plant, so thank you for inspiring all of us with your contagious passion for life, gardening and family!
~ poke

By: Austin Smith

Austin Smith — Sat, 30 May 2015 15:59:51 +0000

I found this about raising your own nematodes
http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/rearing_nematodes_do_it_yourself_guide

http://www.cloudforest.com/cafe/forum/30705.html

By: Freddi Dunleavey

Freddi Dunleavey — Sat, 30 May 2015 12:23:52 +0000

PS: Put bales in still tied. Place length of hay vertically from ground up. Do not untie and fluff hay. With our 3 x 16 boxes, a bale fits from side to side perfectly.

By: Freddi Dunleavey

Freddi Dunleavey — Sat, 30 May 2015 12:21:40 +0000

After 5 years of using hay bales, we find them to be water/moisture retentive. Great for drought or low rain conditions. No weeds in old, dusty hay which is cheaper here in our area. Hay eventually decomposes and is perfect for raised boxes. No weeds to speak of. A 3 x 16 hay bale box yielded over 110#’s of golden yukons last year. Other boxes produced all kinds of squash, beans, peas, kale and chard. We cook it 2 weeks before planting seeds or starts with pelletized urea, well watered and left to sit. When bales cool down, we plant. Soaker hoses from gravity fed rain collection for when moisture is needed (not often!). As we begin our sixth year, our boxes are just about full of decomposed plant matter! We started out with 2 bales on the ground and after success, enlarged to six boxes over 3 years. Wouldn’t grow veggies any other way. (Our friends, the snakes and toads happily keep bugs at bay.)