New Grower Suki's Perpetual Grow-a-thon
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Well if you want to get an argument going get three people together that have worms and ask them what you should do.
I keep mine pretty simple. Well sort of once it is set up anyway.
I do a bed of peat or coco whichever I have on hand mix it will some paper and that is my start. Then I do layers. One of food then one layer of leaves that I shred from the yard. Then I have a feed that I sprinkle on top of the leaf layer.
The feed came to fruition from listening to a podcast with kalakamas coot as a guest. When it comes to organics and explaining how things work I think he is hard to beat. Plus his organic pesticide works wonders on my tomatoes. He spoke about what certain ingredients do in a worm bin. All the ones I think made sense went into my dry feed. This is all equal parts.
Neem Cake-great for plants, keeps bad bugs out of bin, also will cause worms to reproduce by hmmmm no idea cant remember I think it just triggers them to start reproduction
Kelp Meal- Plant and worm friendly Hormones
Egg Shells- Calcium and grit for worms helps them number 2.
Bio Char-Grit for worms and this is how I inoculate mine for when it goes in my pots.
Malted Barley (easy to find at a brewery store)- This adds P to your castings and well I have know clue what else something to the effect of it is an equivalent to sprouted grain feedings.
Now I take these all in equal parts and grind them in an old spice grinder.
The eggs I put in the grill out side in a pan on lower heat until that flimsy little film in side is gone . While on the grill I just toss the around and they will start getting brittle and little film floats away. Some people just heat them in the oven, but for the love of god don't it smells so bad and lingers. That bacteria that the egg residue can bring you issues. Never put protein in your bin. This seems like a hassle but I use this prep method when I make Korean Natural Farming (KNF) WCA (calcium supplement)
So that is basically it. easy huh. It actually is after that. You can find lists all over the place of what you can and cant. I stay away from onions, garlic, tomatoes (can be done sparingly),meat, dairy.
My worms are kind of spoiled. They (all worms love melon and pumpkin) get pumpkin and watermelon rind all year long. I have about six after Halloween pumpkins in my freezer along with all watermelon and banana peels the house consumes add it throughout the year. I freeze it and feed from one side of the bin throughout a week. Then cover with leaves then the feed. Then wait a week or two and repeat.
I freeze them because it breaks them down better and when I put them on there as they thaw it provides moisture to the bin. Some people even puree before they freeze to help it break down faster. I just do not because i do not like cleaning the food processor.
I will put a layer of fresh cannabis leaves in there every now and then but I do not over do it they basically wait till they break down to eat them I am not sure if it is due to being acidic or they are a nightshade. A year ago I put some leaves in a bucket let them break down some threw them on top. Worms would not leave the bedding they were not fans when that was the only food. Just do not go crazy with them.
Now as your bin gets bigger or taller worms will procreate when they have room. I have more than I can count at this point and can feed pretty heavy but I control that so I make sure spots of food are not missed or not completely digested. You can use cardboard or paper instead of tree leaves I just have a yard full so it is convenient.
It is a little intensive at first but once I made the feed (you can buy worm chow online) I spend maybe ten minutes a week feeding and checking on them. Best feed and forget pets ever.
You do not necessarily need to feed the worm chow I do it as a supplement to add to my worm castings what the scraps don't to help my grows. I also have all those items on hand. I used to mix soil and every ingredient individually so that is where the kelp and neem are from. Eggs...who doesn't have eggs? The malt I buy but a few cups cost peanuts at a home brew supply store. Biochar I have a char barrel set up when I got fascinated with it so I have bins of bio char.
Harvesting. You will get times all over the place mine are stackable trays so once a tray is filled I bed a new one and put it on top once I see that the last feeding is almost gone. Every now and then I check the lowest tray and when all the worms have migrated up I harvest. Some will say wait 6 months I have even heard a year but I have never gone that long and the size of your bin and how many worms you have will dictate (my guess is mine are done in 3-4 months). I have 5 trays stacked right now and I would bet the bottom two are completely empty, but they produce more castings than I will ever use so I do not really sweat it to much.
I actually emptied a bin Friday and it is drying so I can sift it. What ever chunks do not make it through the screen get put back on top of the newest bin. Pot stems will break down in a bin but it takes some time. I would say usually two or three passes on this set up.
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Sorry for the novel.
Thanks for the in depth write up! Saving it to reference later!
Seems to be really taking off under the TSW2000!
She also seems to be really enjoying the new light!
Bedroom was getting a little unbearably warm trying to get the heat up/humidity down in the big tent last night, so I made the stupid move of putting the heater in the tent. Thought the fan would push the heat up and away from the plants but I was wrong, and of course this girl took the brunt of the direct heat. Took of the super brown toasted bits, and hopefully she will recover alright. Eventually realized the room was staying too humid since the central air hasn't been running at all. The intake is right outside our bedroom door so opening that and turning on the fan for the central air seems to have fixed the issue. Heater was only in there for like an hour but it was plenty long enough to do quite a bit of damage. Oh well, live and learn. Considering this girl was destined for the trash I'm not too stressed about it lol. Looks like she may be starting to stretch some, so thats exciting!
These two continue to impress! The 5gal girl is chugging along quite happily, while the 1gal girl does seem to be showing an onset of N toxicity. Current plan is to re run the grow dots with the WTF in the same sized pots, but I will only be doing a standard top at the 4th for both of them. I think that will help me to pinpoint if it is a matter of the GD not scaling down to 1gal well or if its the training causing the N excess.
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