How earthworms can help your soil

[Organic Sinse]

@Organic Sinse ...... trip to the feed store is in order ...... I’m also looking to a microbrewery for some spent malted or rye barley and whatever else they may have ...... and just got a source for some horse beddding / manure which I’ll add to my four loads I got last year that is well aged and I mixed oak and hickory leaves along with some clippings in ..... I may also get access to chicken so I’ll add that into pile ..... amazing how this previous Montano Treated area has come back to life .... when I got joint year held ago I immediately started mulching, first thing I did and it’s starting to pay big time - before had to turn ten shovels to find one worm, now one shovel finds ten worms ..... feed the soil!

Another thing I like is to take a flour sack towel ..... soak in compost tea and then put entire soaking wet towel and place over the food I’ve sprinkled on the bin ...... Ruth was amazing, born 1882 I think!

With regards to composting spent brewery grains, the faint smell of alcohol in this will attract every slug for miles to your compost pile. This is the voice of experience speaking. I tried about 5 gallons of spent brewery grains in a pile and found this out the hard way. If I had a chicken guarding the pile, then I would have been on cloud 9. NO slugs and good quality manure to boot.
Ruth reminds me of my mom, except the naked gardening part.
Great conversation
cheers
os

 

[MrOldBoy]

With regards to composting spent brewery grains, the faint smell of alcohol in this will attract every slug for miles to your compost pile. This is the voice of experience speaking. I tried about 5 gallons of spent brewery grains in a pile and found this out the hard way. If I had a chicken guarding the pile, then I would have been on cloud 9. NO slugs and good quality manure to boot.
Ruth reminds me of my mom, except the naked gardening part.
Great conversation
cheers
os

Ruth taught me so much with so few words ...... Make mine mulch, mulch and more mulch ..... I’d see someone buying that dreaded black fabric weed barrier at “home cheapo” and I’d recommend mulch instead but not 1 would even listen ..... sigh .....

Hum, sounds like I need to get some chickens .... thanks for the heads up - I surely don’t want slugs, hum got a thought:

Would a barrier of Neem Meal around bin deter or kill the slugs?

 

[Organic Sinse]

Ruth taught me so much with so few words ...... Make mine mulch, mulch and more mulch ..... I’d see someone buying that dreaded black fabric weed barrier at “home cheapo” and I’d recommend mulch instead but not 1 would even listen ..... sigh .....

Hum, sounds like I need to get some chickens .... thanks for the heads up - I surely don’t want slugs, hum got a thought:

Would a barrier of Neem Meal around bin deter or kill the slugs?

It may keep them out of the bin, but they will still be hanging around, probably destroying other plants that you prize and cherish. I know they won't cross a line of salt, but who wants to do that to their yard either.
I was honestly just happy that the bears didn't eat mine. The only thing worse than slugs, drunk hungry bears.
cheers
os

 

[MrOldBoy]

It may keep them out of the bin, but they will still be hanging around, probably destroying other plants that you prize and cherish. I know they won't cross a line of salt, but who wants to do that to their yard either.
I was honestly just happy that the bears didn't eat mine. The only thing worse than slugs, drunk hungry bears.
cheers
os

Yea, I give up .... no spent grains for me.

Thnaks!

 

[MrOldBoy]

@MrOldBoy Fan Bloody tastic mate . This is how I like the thread to go , the sharing of info and learning from others . You can never stop learning , The day you do is the day you die .

Bro you are more than welcome ..... Sharing makes us all smarter!

 

[Organic Sinse]

Yea, I give up .... no spent grains for me.

Thnaks!

I even have a microbrewery in the neighborhood, and know the 'guys' that run the place very well. They told me I could have all the spent grains I could take away. Believe me, if I could figure out a way around the slugs, I would use that stuff, especially for free. Free compostables to me, is better than xmas.
cheers
os

 

[MrOldBoy]

I even have a microbrewery in the neighborhood, and know the 'guys' that run the place very well. They told me I could have all the spent grains I could take away. Believe me, if I could figure out a way around the slugs, I would use that stuff, especially for free. Free compostables to me, is better than xmas.
cheers
os

Solution maybe layering under something like horse poop or grass clippings .....

Free Compostables for sure beats XMAS ....

I love to work in the dirt, especially my own organic dirt and watch things grow ..... Doesn’t even need to be weed, that’s just a bonus in my book!

 

[Organic Sinse]

Solution maybe layering under something like horse poop or grass clippings .....

Free Compostables for sure beats XMAS ....

I love to work in the dirt, especially my own organic dirt and watch things grow ..... Doesn’t even need to be weed, that’s just a bonus in my book!

I have the love for the dirt as well! I enjoy growing veggies and flowers just as much as weed. Nothing better than picking cherry toms or peas off the vine for a snack, following a joint, while 'yardening' on a beautiful day.
cheers
os

 

[MrOldBoy]

I have the love for the dirt as well! I enjoy growing veggies and flowers just as much as weed. Nothing better than picking cherry toms or peas off the vine for a snack, following a joint, while 'yardening' on a beautiful day.
cheers
os

Oh yea, sometimes I take the BIG One outside and take a few hits, get involved mind drifts but doing task at hand .... THEN IT HITS ME ..... Where did I lay the joint down ..... After much backtracking I’ll find and then take few hits, rinse and repeat ..... my mind really drifts in the garden .....

Here’s some lettuce starts and a new system I’m trying called the earthbox, so far I’ll say it is VERY VERY Easy on Water and I can bring Organics into the mix rather easy with top dressings and as I’m learning easy to drain water in reservoir and add a little seaweed or whatever .... let that soak up and into soil thru capillary action and then either leave solution in reservoir or drain and add compost tea and leave for a few and rinse / repeat ..... earthworms also, due to steady proper moisture level, thrive inside and will, as you know, eat the topdressings and you know what happens next .....

Pretty excited as last time I had to go outa town, we’ll lets say when I returned a few unfavorable events took place but with the earthbox I don’t see those happening again with the Earthbox (top left) .... the plastic “mulch cover” condenses on rains water back into medium.... cover is black on one side and white on the other ..... being winter I opted for the black side up ..... plants in box are younger than pots, btw ....

Little Gem and Buttercrunch Lettuce in pots along with some seeds of spinach in peat pots ....

LOVE WATCHING PLANTS GROW, darn near any plant, even some weeds I appreciate.

 

[MrOldBoy]

Teo last things I haven’t seen anyone mention/suggest that I’m doing and planning to do in my worm bin:

Feed malted grains and neem/Karanja meal - I can get a 50# sack of malted barley for about $50 at a brew store. Per Clackamas Coot’s suggestion, along with many other vermicompostere and no-till guys who’ve tried it, I’m feeding the barley to my worms and they freak out over it. I just ordered a 44lb bag of neem meal from KIS Organics And a 50# sack of Karanja from Planet Natural because my worms are also diving into the neem meal I gave them. Apparently adding a 50/50 mix of neem and karanja is even better; producing a very high quality and balanced casting as well as boosting their reproductive rates.

Feed comfrey and comfrey compost - this is known to produce some of the highest quality vermicompost you can get; particularly when mixed with the barley/neem/Karanja! I won’t have enough comfrey until next summer because I just planted 25 rooted crowns and it’ll take a while to grow enough. Because they’re dynamic accumulators, they will provide your worms with all the micronutrients they need to produce the best ewc you could hope for!

I’m not feeding much table scraps because I’ve learned that the foods I just listed produce a much higher grade of ewc than most table scraps. So, the only table scraps they get are high nutrients veggies like spinach, bananas (we eat loads of them!) and kale.

Hope this helps someone!

Haven’t got the Karanja or Comfy yet but I picked up some kelp at feed store and malted barley, need meal and alfalfa, plus rock dust and have been feeding to the worms and they LOVE IT ..... can’t wait to grow some comfy and score some Karanja ..... I’m also mining some near black leafs and have horse manure composting for 1 1/2 year now and adding more manure to pile soon ..... layering the compost, leaves and sprinkling mix on top of layers and then soaking some cotton flour sack towels in old compost teat and laying on the pile, the worms eat it up and they are getting much bigger than with the food scrapes and occasional compost, horse manure and leaves we were giving them, remarkable what the grains do..... I also layering soak plain cardboard between as well. I have several flow thru bins I’m using and have three varieties of worms, reds, Euro and Africans night crawlers.

I JSU started about month ago with the grains and results are very encouraging- I want super high quality castings .