Comments on: New Vermicomposter Questions

By: Bentley

Bentley — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 01:45:14 +0000

All sounds cool, Larry – please keep us posted!
8)

By: larry duke

larry duke — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 23:03:19 +0000

I decided to give up my plastic bins and follow the mark from kansas approach.I am in the process of building it 4 ft.by 8 ft.I am also adding blue foam for insulation.my experiment may get a little bit interesting,since i live in north florida.not sure how many worms i will need to start with.I also want to experiment with solar power .So Bentley,let me know if you have any suggestions.

By: Terri

Terri — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 15:09:40 +0000

Update–last night, instead of digging in the bin, I just lifted the lid and peeked inside using my husband’s headlamp set on red light. (He bought it for fishing)

Had to really look closely, but I managed to see four different worms hanging out at the surface, just doing their wormy thing. One looked like it was chowing down on a bit of food. They looked MUCH more mellow than when I’m chasing them & trying to grab them, LOL! It was actually pretty gratifying.

By: Terri

Terri — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:39:18 +0000

Yep, I got the right kind from the bait shop, asked for “Red Wigglers” and what he handed me was labeled “Red Worms.” (He tried to sell me some nightcrawlers as well, I said no thanks.) Maybe next time hubby is buying live bait I’ll ask him to pick me up some more red worms.

I have added bedding a couple times. It did get warm & steamy in there for a few days once, with a little condensation forming on the inside of the bucket. It’s cooled off now, but it sounds like that’ll be part of the cycle.

I’ve been digging around in there pretty much once a day, when I get home from work, because I wanna check on them. 🙂 I’m afraid it does get a little vigorous at times, because with so few in there it’s hard to find them! I will back off.

Thanks guys!

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:01:44 +0000

Terri, as Bentley says, let the worms be your guide. 5 gallon buckets don’t have a lot of space for the worms to get away from heated food stock if you overfeed. Plenty of bedding, cardboard, paper, etc. will make this easier on the worms as they can dive down away from too much food. My buckets have been active for a little over a year. I read and read and read on what, how and how much to feed. The mushier food should be gone sooner than more solid foods. There’s more surface area for the bacteria to attack and more surface area means faster worm food. It’s the same concept behind crushed ice vs. ice cubes. The crushed ice melts faster and cools faster due to more surface area.
Our co-op gardening friends started their worms about the same time we did. They really ignore their worms and they have about 1/3 to 1/2 of the volume of worms/bin as us so you have to actually feed the worms :). Feeding a 5 gallon set up – watch the food you layer on top. As most or all of it is gone put another small layer of food. I cover the top layer with ripped up cardboard cereal boxes and sheets of paper that would be recycled eventually and add the food under this layer. I rarely add water since most comes from the added food. My system(s) don’t handle our daily kitchen flow(yet) but that is a goal of mine. Nothing wrong with starting small, just remember smaller = slower.

By: Bentley

Bentley — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 15:41:39 +0000

TERRI- Digging around a bit is not a big deal, but you might want to avoid doing this multiple times every day since it will likely stress the worms out. It is hard to come up with any rules for “too much handling”, since there are so many different things that can contribute. I would say that if you’ve had the worms shipped to you and you are just getting started, it is not a bad idea to just let the worms mellow out for awhile. Open up the bin and make sure they are ok etc, but try not to do too much vigorous digging around. You mentioned getting worms from the bait shop – did you make sure to get the right ones (Red Worms)?
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BRUCE – Haha! I hear ya – that does sound pretty bad, doesn’t it?
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GEORGE – That’s great. Glad everything is working out for you thus far!
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PATRICK – Great advice. Not enough vermicomposters follow those sorts of guidelines, I’m afraid! I always say “let the worms be your guide”, but many people seem set on following misleading “worms eat half their weight per day” rules blindly.
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TERRI – As long as you have a LOT of bedding in your system (lots of space for the worms to spread out in) and plenty of air flow, they should be ok. Just don’t add any more food for awhile. Yeah, 24 worms is very few! I’ve done my “4 worm reproduction experiments” with fewer worms (obviously – haha), but I generally haven’t fed much to those systems.

By: Terri

Terri — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 03:49:32 +0000

A MONTH!? Seriously? wow.

I looked at your pix, you have quite the system going! Much the direction I’d like to head. So you seem to know what you’re talking about.

Darn it, I just gave them half a cucumber (spongy & moldy), a pear core, and two eggshells–all pulverized in the food processor. Will they be OK? and it’s only been about 4 days since I last fed. But I didn’t really see too much of the previous food. Although, the way I pulverize everything, I guess I really wouldn’t…

Thanks for the help!

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 03:23:49 +0000

Teri, I have quite a few 5 gallon buckets set up in a stack type system. If you only have a few dozen you should be feeding very rarely. Leave them alone and "forget" about the worms. In another month or so, check up on them (if you can leave them alone for that long) and you should be able to start slowly adding food. You can see mine here.

By: George Sara

George Sara — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:09:28 +0000

My Worm Inn (cammo) is three days old and I use these suggestions each time I start a new bin. So far everyone is alive. Gradually adding worms each day from my Can O Worms. Home made manure seems to be the ticket. RWC has been invaluable.

By: Bruce Westfall

Bruce Westfall — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:40:29 +0000

“Vermi-Oven”

That sounds like a horror movie my poor worms would rather not see. There needs to be a worm friendly rating system for this page!

Good thing they can’t click or type…