Comments on: Four Worm Reproduction Experiment Wrap-up

By: gigih

gigih — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 10:59:25 +0000

I am from Indonesia and this is very interesting. I have raised lumbricus rubellus and they are not having high reproduction rate than that peryonix that I easily get from my garden. However; the worm farmer community in my city always telling me that l. rubellus will double 4 times in a month. But I didn’t see any proof of it. We are using worms not for casting but for fish food. So I prefer to choose the best reproduction rate of any worms.

I want to ask questions to you:

1. Which kind of worms have the highest reproduction rate?
2. Have you ever had experience with worms that live far below the ground? not epiegeic if I am not mistaken the spelling.
3. What is great diets to make them grow faster and mate frequently?
4. I am really interested with red wigglers, does their close siblings eisenia hortensis also have the same growth and reproduction rate?

thanks a lot

By: Casey Wilder

Casey Wilder — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 20:42:52 +0000

Hey Bentley!

I know this is an older thread, but I just read through all of it for the first time! Very inspiring!! Your adult population tripled in that time and it looks like you were getting ready for a juvenile outbreak! Love the content!

-Casey

By: Bentley

Bentley — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 19:23:13 +0000

Hi Tal,
Definitely lots of factors to consider, and I totally agree that this will obviously depend on how many worms you are starting with. I’m sure with an overcrowded (“maxed out”) system – if anything, you might end up LOSING worms, let alone seeing a doubling or exponential growth. This only makes it all the more ridiculous to come up with these guidelines (doubling in 60, 90 or whatever number of days).

Would love to do a more extensive study – but it may be beyond my current means (in terms of available time and space).

By: tal

tal — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 06:31:20 +0000

hello Bentley,
i think that the Result you got (if you could reproduce it) shows that the saying that the worms double in amount every two months is not correct entirely, i thinks that there is an exponential growth rate that is influenced by space, food , temp , wet/dry conditions and worm population size.

i think that if you would take 4 containers (1 with 4 worms, 1 with 8 worms , 1 with 16 worms, 1 with 32 worms)
and put in them the same food type and amount , same temp, same wep conditions and same space, you would probably see that after 2 mounths the worm amount increased in that containers will be diffrent from container to container and probably not 2 times the amount you started with.

what can you learn from this ….
1. see the effect of worm population and space on the growth rate.
2. this way you could find the max number of worms (or Weight) that will give you the best reproduction rate.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 17:30:23 +0000

Inspiring. I have set up a couple of 4 worm bins myself, and am hoping for similar results. From everything I can gather a mature worm can produce an egg sac every 7 days, and reach sexual maturity in 60-90 days. The two main variables I would like some data on are:
1) time it takes a cocoon to hatch?
2) number of worms in cocoon?
I have read cocoons can hatch 3-30 baby worms, and assume healthier worms in ideal conditions will hatch more.
In addition I have set up a 10 cocoon bin.
Thanks for all the great info.

By: Bentley

Bentley — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:36:31 +0000

Hey Allen,
Good to hear from you!
I will definitely keep everyone posted on the various other experiments I’m hoping to get started.

By: Allen

Allen — Sat, 31 May 2008 19:53:55 +0000

I knew it had to end sometime. Sounds like your’s did better than mine have been doing. Two months ago mine were only up a couple worms (http://www.driftlessramblings.com/index.php/2008/03/30/four-worm-experiment-2/). They has also been suffering some neglect, although they are now in buckets like the rest of my worm bins. I do think I’ll let mine contine, although I’ve actually lost track of which bin the one was, I know which ones were the boys, so will continue to monitor them over the next months.
Let us know if/when you run another one.

Allen