Comments on: Worm Factory 360 | 2-02-12

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 07:51:15 +0000

@Red stroud…. I use all of the above. In my worm factory 360 I make a nice mixture of my own that the worms simply love. I start with 1 part coco coir and 1 part aged horse manure. I then add about 1 cup of a micronized glacial rock dust/corn meal/crushed egg shell mixture. After that I add fruit/veggie waste that went through my food processor. The final addition is dried shredded cardboard/newspaper. This helps absorb any extra moisture and I’ve noticed since adding this mix to my bins that they are congregating much more on the top of the bin. When I feel they’re ready for a”treat”, I give them some watermelon rinds and water the bin with watermelon juice. They really enjoy that. I have a lot of fruit/veggie/bokashi waste that friends donate to me and I wrap this waste up in newspaper to bury as well (store it in my deep freezer). If you have any other questions, I’ll be happy to help where I can because I know how busy Bentley probably is.

I hope this helps,

Adam

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 07:40:02 +0000

Garden lime scares me. I much prefer crushed egg shells to balance the PH.

By: red stroud

red stroud — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 02:23:49 +0000

just got composter can of worms. very confusing one person says put in carboard and paper for bedding next person says dont . use coco nut fiber. what do you use .

By: Bentley

Bentley — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 04:04:25 +0000

GardenWizard – I definitely don’t sweat it too much with most questionable materials. It really just comes down to moderation. Plus, it certainly helps if you can do anything to “optimize” the materials. I wouldn’t add heaps of citrus all at once to a small bin like this – that’s for sure – but a few peels chopped up won’t be an issue at all. I find that other critters like springtails tend to start of some of these materials, and the worms take over later on.
————–
Sharon – same idea with pineapple as with citrus etc. I actually really should write a new post about that since one of my older posts makes
it sound like pineapple is “bad” (I was actually sharing something someone else had sent – my own stance has always been fairly mellow). I’ve actually been adding quite a bit of pineapple waste as of late with no obvious repercussions. I guess I MIGHT encounter issues if it was a much smaller bin – not sure.
In line with what Kate and Wendy have suggested, using some lime (or rock dust) would likely offset some of these really acidic materials – just don’t go too crazy in the opposite direction! Higher pH can result in ammonia release – definitely NOT what you want in a smaller enclosed bin!

By: Wendy Johnson

Wendy Johnson — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:46:33 +0000

Sharon,
I have put both “fresh” and canned pineapple in my beds before and haven’t noticed any problems. It has been some time ago and I can’t remember if the worms seemed to like it or not, but if it killed any of my worms it wasn’t many. The citrus fruit does need to be followed up or mixed with the garden lime though. I frequently put in oranges too, but add lime (not the Corona kind lol).

By: Sharon

Sharon — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:04:34 +0000

Bentley,
I also saw pineapple in your pile of food stuffs. I once killed a bin of worms and thought it was due to the pineapple I had added b/c there is something in them that is not worm friendly (I found out after the bin went south). Have you added it before? If so I guess you had no problems so adding again would not be scary, but since that one time I have not added pineapple to my worms.

By: Gardenwizard

Gardenwizard — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:18:53 +0000

Bentley,
I noticed in the posting you made on the worm bin 360 that you had orange peels in the food you were adding to the bin,I was always under the assumption that the worms did not care for citrus waste in there food supply. what is your experience with the addition of citrus peels ?

By: Kate

Kate — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:50:33 +0000

Colleen,

Another thing you can do if your bin is too acidic (which is indicated by large populations of mites and pot worms – those tiny white worms) is add some garden lime – just a few tablespoons per tray as you’re adding food. This can help to balance the pH and get it back to a more worm-friendly 6.5-7.

By: Bentley

Bentley — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:07:18 +0000

Hi Colleen,
What this MAY indicate is that you are adding too much food and/or not getting enough air flow. These mites are very common in enclosed plastic worm bins – they seem to really thrive in moist, often-acidic conditions when lots of decomposing food waste is present. You…uhhh…MIGHT (yuk yuk) try: 1) leaving the lid off for periods of time during the day, 2) removing excess food materials, 3) adding more dry absorbent bedding.

By: Colleen

Colleen — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:50:42 +0000

I’m getting millions of white mites in my 360. Is that a problem?