I was thinking of what I could use for storing VC over the winter that is
breathable & that I could add more VC during the winter months easily.
What about using burlap coffee bean sacks available for free at local
coffee bean distributors/retailers? The sacks are large in capacity with
plenty of room for ventilation and the burlap may help dry the VC that might be a little wet/clumpy. I picked one up today and will update with
my results.

— 2. When I make worm tea (1 cup to 1 gallon) for watering
house plants the castings accumulate on top and eventually
form a crust. Do I need to break this up?
It sounds like you empty your whole “concoction” in the watering/folier process. The process I do is simple and VERY effective. Here is my formulas and steps for the proccess of brewing. Note: I mix this in a “Food Quality” 2 gallon bucket, but only make 1 gallon batches as I only have a 1 gallon sprayer (I am an avid vermi-aquaponic grower and in which requires me to folier feed, so not that much tea is required)

SUPER Worm Tea:
– 1 — Food safe/food quality bucket w/lid, that can hold at least 1 gallon (I reccomend a 2 gallon – 5 gallon)
– 1 — Air Pump (I reccomend one that is sized for a 50 gallon aquarium – mine has 2 outlets which works best in the following plans)
– 1 — Nylon paint strainer (Found in the paint section at your superstore/hardware store)
– 2 — Small air stones (the little blue ones found in the aquarium section/pet store)
– 2 — Large air stones (make sure that they will fit in the bottom of the bucket)
– 2 — 1/4″ T fittings (used for the air line – found close by the air pump)
– 2′-4′ — 1/4″ air line (I reccomend 4′ just in case you mess up, also give u more line to locate the air pump)
– 1 gallon — Fish Aquarium Water (I use this from my aquaponic system – distilled water will work just as well. I DO NOT reccomend tap water as it contains chlorine/florine/and other nasty stuff I just dont want in my system!!)
– 1 cup — High Quality Vermicompost
– 1/2 oz — Unsulphured Organic Blackstrap Molasses
– 1 oz — Natural apple cider vinegar
– 1 oz — Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed Plus Iron (I need the extra iron for aquaponics)
– 1 oz — Maxicrop Liquid Fish
– 1/2 oz — Unsulphured Organic Blackstrap Molasses
1) Drill two holes 1/2 inch each in the lid.
2) Cut four lengths – 2 inches each and 3 lengths – 1 foot each of air tubing.
3) Attach one airstone to each 2 inch length of air tubing.
4) Connect the 2 small air stone/tubing assemblies to 1 T fitting and repeat for the large air stones.
5) Connect one each of the 1 foot tubing to the T fitting asseblies made in step 4 (you should have a large stone assembly and a small stone assembly)
6) Thread the end of the 1 foot tubing through the holes in the lid (making sure the air stones are on the “inside”) and connect it the outlets on your air pump.
7) Fill bucket with the 1 gallon fish water/distilled water, add one portion of the 1/2 oz molasses, and mix it up.
8 ) Load your paint strainer with the 1 cup of vermicompost, add to it the small air stone assembly, and tie off. (should resemble a tea bag)
9) Drop in the large air stone assembly and the tea bag.
10) Plug in the air pump. IMPORTANT NOTE: make sure your air pump is located ABOVE the bucket… just in case it gets shut off or unplugged – it wont create a syphon and ruin your air pump!!
11) Brew over night in a cool location (12 hours)
12) Shut off air pump. Remove the Tea Bag assembly (air stones included – simply remove at the air pump)
13) Remove the T assembly connecting the 2 large air stones and simply connect each to the a 1 foot tubing section (you should have an extra length cut earlier)
14) Add in the vinegar, seaweed, liquid fish, and the 2nd 1/2 oz of Unsulphured Organic Blackstrap Molasses.
15) Plug the air pump in again and brew away!! I reccomend at least 12-24 hours.

NOTE: If you dont want to make “SUPER Worm Tea” – Simply stop at step 11 but brewing for 24 hours and not 12.

Also Note: I use this as a folier feed, any extra that is left over I use a drench. I only apply when plants show a nutrient deficiency or pest problem. All these products are safe to use in aquaponics and havnt noticed any adverse problems. My plants LOVE IT.

— 3. Do those gray egg cartons which organic eggs are sold in
have any chemicals in them that may harm the worms?
I use the torn pieces for bedding but the worms have never
even nibbled them!
As far as I’m aware, there is no harmfull binders/chemicals in the cardboard. I have also never noticed them not munch on them… they love it!! Maybe try smaller pieces?
Note: I also throw them in my with my SUPER Tea for a copule hours while it is in the last hours of brewing. Then I ring them out really well before adding them to my worm bin. Because as you might know, the tea is a microbe heaven!… The worms dont fully eat the food and bedding – the microbes do – they break everything down and the worms then eat the microbes. So loading up the cardboard with microbes, in theory, should speed things up. I havnt done side by side comparisons (tea soaked and plain water soaked), but this is something I have always done from day one. It works, dont see why I need to change.

page 63 http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/warr/spd_0201_bpgvermiculture.pdf

my first gift of worms came with these ‘instructions’ – still some of the best out there

I just wanted to say that I store my worm castings in the empty 1lb. lettuce containers that you get at Whole Foods. These are clear plastic but any leftover worms (and there are always some of those!) and any worms from cocoons left in there seem to do fine. I go through the castings periodically or before I am going to use the castings in my garden and take out any worms that I have missed. I always keep the lid on but pushed down on only one side. I leave the other end “ajar” or unattached for oxygen. I think that is a great idea from Mark to have some worms in there to test if the vermicompost is OK. In effect I always have worms left in there: either I missed them or they hatch after I separated the castings from all the worms. It is a good way to recycle those lettuce containers!–Sandie Anne

I have also used all sorts of egg cartons, paper based packing materials, etc in my bin, and they have broken down pretty easily. The only exception is that the egg cartons are a little thick on the bottom of each egg-holding cell, so there are leftover paperboard rings that sometimes take longer to break down than the rest of it. Still, everything seems to break down faster than corrugated cardboard, but slower than newspaper.