WORMS ANYONE?:-~)

[equinealot]

How do you get worm poo? I mean how do you find worm poo in the dirt?

 

[3forfree]

I just found 4 cat litter plastic pails at the dump and plan on using them for my worms. I was wondering if, after putting them together, will they stick when trying to take them apart. I've had round pails do that, and ended up throwing them away. How many worms should I start with in these pails, Thanks. Where's a good place to get worms, I've advertised on the local CL and got no response. Ebay is all about the same price..

 

[LoveChickens123]

How do you get worm poo? I mean how do you find worm poo in the dirt?

 

honestly you don't it is the compost the stuff that looks like dirt

 

[LoveChickens123]

we have worms we give them coffee grounds and egg shells

 

[cmcanallen]

...

I just found 4 cat litter plastic pails at the dump and plan on using them for my worms. I was wondering if, after putting them together,  will they stick when trying to take them apart. I've had round pails do that, and ended up throwing them away. How many worms should I start with in these pails, Thanks. Where's a good place to get worms, I've advertised on the local CL and got no response. Ebay is all about the same price..

 
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Put sports tape, the kind you use to tape sports injuries, on the buckets where they'll touch. I use it with my seedling tubs and it works great. I'll use it with my worm buckets too.

 

[Kikiriki]

Interesting thing: I called our local Publix Supermarket to ask if I could have their spoiled organic vegies for my worms: they are not allowed to do anything but throw them away. How freakin sad is that??

 

[Kikiriki]

How do you get worm poo? I mean how do you find worm poo in the dirt?

 

If you go stand under a tree and gently move leaf litter aside, you may find little piles of dark brown or black soil. Those are piles of castings.

Good picture on this site:
http://kenfuller.exactpages.com/earthworm0.html

 

[Kikiriki]

Here's my start up plan. Let me know if any of you think I need to change anything.

6 large (36 gal) Rubbermaid tubs with lockable lids
1000 earthworms
1000 African nightcrawlers
1000 red wrigglers
Rebar frame
Hardware cloth

I've got a blank spot in my garden that will eventually be my chicken coop/run. It has several 10+ foot bushes that shade the area. I'm going to take three of the tubs and drill the smallest holes I can all over the tubs and lids for air flow and draining. I'm going to take the othe three buckets and drill hole in the top half. I'll then place the first tub in the tub with the holes on top. The bottom tub will be able to collect my worm tea easily while I can keep adding compost materials to the top bucket with the worms. Each set of two buckets will hold 500 of a different type of worm. Then I'll put the three sets of buckets under a rebar and hardware cloth frame for predator protection and under the bushes for shade. Of the rest of the worms, 1/3 will go into my current open compost pile and the rest will go directly into the garden beds.

The liquid that seeps out is called "leachate" which is not the same as "worm tea". The leachate can be harmful to your garden, because it mainly consists of juices from what goes in the bin, and it can harbor bad microorganisms, especially if you notice a bad smell from it. I would pour it on a compost pile, instead.

Worm tea is made by soaking casting in water, heating and stirring it to give it oxygen and warmth to grow the beneficial organisms found in the castings. When you do this, you will see the liquid get a foam. Worm tea is better for succulent plants, which are prone to develop rot from the water retentive castings if they are added in the soil. All plants benefit from using the liquid as a foliar spray, or as food in watering, especially if you have a pot that does not have room to add solid castings.

The solids are filtered out of the worm tea and can still be used for plants: the solids contain chitons that seem to be involved in helping the plants resist bug attacks.

 

[Kikiriki]

we have worms we give them coffee grounds and egg shells

I tried to grind my eggshells, but they stayed pretty course: do you do anything special to them? Do they break down?

And do you find you have problems with mites or springtails using coffee? When I tried it, it seemed to make the bins too acidic, which was why I wanted to add the eggshells!

 

[3forfree]

Interesting thing: I called our local Publix Supermarket to ask if I could have their spoiled organic vegies for my worms: they are not allowed to do anything but throw them away. How freakin sad is that??

time to go dumpster diving. We raised pigs one summer and dumpster dived at a local veggie market to get stuff for the pigs, you wouldn't believe the stuff we got. Mom made us sort it out and she went through it picking out stuff that was good.