Comments on: Adding Red Worms to Your Garden

By: Ron

Ron — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 14:30:42 +0000

PS to above comment. I am precomposting for well over a month and the material is probably half done when placed into red worm village.

Are lemon and oranges that are spoiled OK to place in the precomposting bin.?

Because of their moisture in oranges and lemons they tend to grow mold and not break down like leaf matter and materials like browns and other greens such as grass clippings.

By: Ron

Ron — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 14:09:57 +0000

Unbeknown to me some red worms showed up in a bag of potting soil that I left outside. We like in southern california and we have had a lot of rain. As I wanted to start worm composting bin and needed redworms I plucked all little guys and placed them in my compost bin. Which is made of stone pavers about 42″ long x 20″ high x 24″ . There was already some half composted organic material in the bin. After about 2 months the bin organic material has dropped. The contents have lots of worm when I examine the contents and it appears the worms are doing their job.

The bin is in the shade under a tree and on top of more pavers. I keep the area moist. How much coffee grinds can I add weekly to a bin of this size?

Also there isn’t any news paper or cardboard, it that really necessary?

Ron

By: Bentley

Bentley — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 19:02:10 +0000

Hi Kathy,
I definitely wouldn’t add any of the composting species – and even a worm like the Alabama Jumper (much better suited for life in soil than Red Worms etc) would need a lot of organic matter to thrive. Don’t think in terms of top soil, but rather in terms of waste materials. Till in lots of aged horse manure, leaves, grass clippings etc etc. Earthworms cannot thrive in clay alone.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 06:14:25 +0000

I live in South West Tennessee. I do not have soil, I have red clay. My husband has tilled and tilled and it looks real nice. When we do not have rain for a couple of days the clay gets as hard as a rock. I cannot afford to buy topsoil to put in the garden. I was wondering if I put earthworms in the garden if this would help loosen the clay and also add black gold to the clay. I want to have a heavy producing garden but I am not sure about the clay – I have never worked with it before. Thanks for your help!

Kathy

By: Bentley

Bentley — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:33:52 +0000

Hi Sam,
Most of my trenches have become “windrows” (mounded beds sitting above ground). I DID do one trench excavation last year, and ended up with LOADS of great compost/mulch for my gardens, so that was pretty cool! (quite a bit of work though)
Bottom-line, if you want to keep them as trenches, you will periodically need to excavate them – might be a helpful practice for adding rich material to your garden beds every spring or fall.
8)

By: Sam

Sam — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:42:57 +0000

I know it’s been like 8 months since the last post, but was wondering if you would need to dig up the trench ever to replace bedding?

By: ella hushagen

ella hushagen — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 02:04:06 +0000

Hello,

i have worms and kitchen scrap compost in a galvanized can,partially buried in the ground. Recently I went to clean out my can and i found that my worms had died. Did my can get too hot? I have bought new worms several times now and I wonder what I am doing wrong. Please help!!!

Ella/W. Hollywood

By: Bentley

Bentley — Wed, 04 May 2011 00:23:12 +0000

Hi Debbie,
The timing of your comment is excellent since this week is dedicated to talking about various ways composting worms can be used in our yards (including gardens of course).
As for your question – the long and the short of it is that Red Worms are adapted for life in very rich organic waste environments – not soil. Do they eat the same things as other earthworms? Yes and no. While regular garden worms would certainly come up and nibble on rich materials like manure and rotting food wastes, you wouldn’t find them actually populating a manure heap or compost bin the way Red Worms do.
Your best bet is to create something like a vermicomposting trench (you can learn more via the “HOT TOPICS” page) – but instead of just creating trenches and adding material from your bin, actually set the trench up like a worm bin with bedding and food materials. If you create a rich enough environment the Red Worms should stick around and grow in number quite rapidly.

Hope this helps

By: Debbie O'Phelan

Debbie O'Phelan — Tue, 03 May 2011 21:53:44 +0000

Several times I have repeated what I have done today in my garden. The reason I found this site is because I was wondering if what I have been doing is working. My worm bins started from just 1 Sm cottage cheese container full of red worms a friend gave me from their bin. With in 6 months My worms multiplied to satisfy 4 lg dark plastic containers with lids(holes drilled in sides) these are near my garden against a shed. We eat a ton of fruit and veggies and save every scrap. when the worms have had enough, I fill 5 gal buckets with scraps and secure with lids. Today when i went to feed them all bedding was gone and their were a ton of big reds and babies (this has been normal from early on). I dig trenches between my veggie rows about 10″deep.Scatter with scraps sprinkle with a little dirt then a ton of worms and babies them cover with dirt. My garden is 2 yrs old from grassy lawn and has produced well. the soil looks nice and i have alot of worms but can’t tell they seem to be earth worms,but are very big. I don’t know how I could use the worm dirt with out getting worms in the garden because i have so many. I fill my worm bins back up with the dirt left over from filling trenches. I hope this isn’t all a waste of time because it is alot work and time. this is about the 5th time I have done this. Reading this I think I need to get a few more bins and also refresh the beds in existing bins. 1 thing I can say I have so many babies all the time(the little white worms) why can’t red worms live in the garden like earth worms, won’t they eat the same things?

By: Ken

Ken — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:43:55 +0000

yeah I use my own regular composting to cover the food waste in the planter. It all works out really well. I don’t really know if the food waste helps the tomatoes. I didnt make a control planter box to see, I just put worms in the planter just to see what happened. I would like to see the difference.