Afew Brickshort

BCGuerillaGrowa

Hey Brindie,
wondered what happened to ya!.

this is cool post. never looked into culturing
my own worms for worm cast however i have
looked into culturing worms for fish food.

busy coffee joints throw out a ton of
coffee grinds.

just last week found some on craigslist in the Free section
an all Organic coffee shop in need of someone to pick up
150 pounds of coffee grinds / week. check this out

FREE Coffee grounds for compost

Free Coffee Grounds - Year Round In Bulk

worth checking the craigslist in your area

Futuregrower

grow advice for MJ AND other plants together? Worm bins? Man if this site had a post on guns I'd be ecstatic. .

Anyway, my

Almost any food is fine, I stay away from garlic and the like, my worms hate it and so do I. Too much garlic or spicy/strong flavored stuff like it will acually make them migrate.
Lizzie Borden I think talked about the eggshells not disappearing- you have to crumble them up for best results.

Worms love stale bread, too- they will make that go away in about 3 minutes, seems like.

People mentioned "worms eat my garbage"......GREAT book, for beginner- experts alike.



Now, just take a minute.....picture this........
Every household in America has a functioning worm bin, give the worms all the organic matter they can eat. Compost used for houseplants, gardens, lawns, or in the city, the ROOFTOP garden that helps feed the building.
Waste paid to ship to a landfill decreases by at least 30% (more than that, really, but people are not perfect, wouldn't separate everything).
Worms eat all the thrown out grocery store produce, worm poopies (sorry, didn't wanna say "shit" ) feed garden to make more veggie matter. Worms eat grass clippings too....

Now go make it happen.

__________________
~~ The Once And FutureGrower
The futures here, we are it, we are on our own....Singing Ashes, ashes all fall down......

"I inhaled, frequently," Senator Obama said before being elected President "That was the point."

First Grow! Twofer, Mandalas "Satori" and KC Brain's "Northern Lights Special"
http://www.gardenscure.com/420/hydro...kc-brains.html

Caution! (Do not stop on tracks). Grow 2

LINK to a great way to search, written by Burndt

BCGuerillaGrowa

There are several companies around that sell premade vermicomposters with 1/2-1 lb of worms and all the accessories. Priced at $60-$75 Canadian! Is this a sign of the times or what!

I went to my local home supply store to buy the trusted local brand of potting soil and worm castings I normally use. the potting soil I use was on sale but the worm castings were sold out.Luckily this particular brand of potting soil already has SOME worm castings in it.

local worm farms sell worms for $35 for a lb of worms others are $50!

A local overpriced nursery and asked if they had any wormcastings and found it nearly 4 times the price im used to paying! This stuff is 18.99 for 20 Liters! Worm Castings

I normally pay 5.97 for 20 liters! outrageous! Although you have the choice between East Java Cane and African Nightcrawler. Is it really worth a dollar a liter? Wow.. I think I'll just wait for a good rain, go for a midnight walk harvesting as many of the slimy bastards as possible.

Time to build my own vermicomposter

BCGuerillaGrowa

Heres my homemade vermicomposter. Using a sytrofoam bin with a dozen holes punched in each side 2 in each end and
drainage holes in the bottom. Used an old window screen to cover the vent holes to stop worms from getting out.

Will post pics tomorrow with worms and bedding added.

BCGuerillaGrowa

K so I picked up my half pound of worms yesterday. Showed the worm farmer pictures of my proposed vermicomposter. She advised me it would be better to use rubbermaid with smaller holes. So I made a new one using 1/16 drill bit for the sides and the lid, same as Brindie but more holes . 5/32 drill bit for the holes on the bottom and Window screen to cover them.

About an hour after I placed them in their new homes I still hadn't added any significant amount of food. So when i opened the lid they were all attempting to escape .

I frantically put them all back in and quickly added some steer and chicken manure, which they seemed to LOVE!

Then got a few brown paper bags including the one they came in and shredded them with the paper shredder. Figured it's best to use brown paper only for the bedding, which they also seem to love. I also put another window screen over the top secured with a large elastic band lid still fits snug on top of the screen.







For anyone who tries this at home make sure you have your bedding and food prepared
in the vermicomposter first. Don't make the holes any bigger than what Brindie here had suggested.

I should have taken a picture before I added the food. They were attempting a-wall at an alarmingly
rapid rate. Use manure and shredder brown paper they LOVE it! Now they're happy none trying
to escape!









Thanks again for inspiring me Brindie. I know I'm a big brown noser

Peace

BCGuerillaGrowa

I found out very quickly. It's important not to mix the bedding with the food/compost. Otherwise it goes sour which can kill the worms and also throws off pH. the paper shreds need to be kept on the opposite side of the food for bedding.
also make sure the paper shreds are soaked 24 hours in advance .

DO NOT use Chicken Manure. I found this out very quickly the hard way and had to move
the worms individually by hand. They became very sluggish very fast and surely would have
died if I didn't remove them.

Use mushroom manure as it is most decomposed, mushrooms being decomposers as well. Chicken manure is considered hot (fresh) manure and needs to be composted a bit before use in a vermicomposter. Steer and Horse is ok but mushroom manure seems to be the safest bet.

Commericial growers go with 50% peat moss 50% manure.

Looks like Brindie had too much food in there. it's likely that you were suffocating them. You should try to chop up the food finer before adding it. add less ..start with basics mushroom manure,peat moss and paper shreds