WORMS ANYONE?:-~)

[Kikiriki]

My son-in-law and daughter lived by a lake for a while and loved to fish so I made them a worm bin. Took a very large nursery pot - the type that trees come in. A large black trash can lid fit right on top of it to keep the worms in. I put screen mesh in the bottom to keep soil and worms in. Filled it with compost, shredded newspaper, dirt. Then dug a hole the size of the pot in their backyard [the hardest part, had my son do it]. Put it in a spot that got afternoon shade. Put some small rocks in the bottom of the hole for drainage and then sunk the nursery pot into the hole. Went to the bait store and got several containers of bait worms and put them in the pot. A little oatmeal and garden trimmings were added and some water but not much. Put the top on and told them to "feed and water" the pot a few times a week. 

Not scientific - I'd never done it before - and may not be the type of worms we'd want for chickens but it worked like a charm and he had bait worms all summer and fall. Don't know how they did over the winter as they moved from the house. Whoever moved in either had a great pot of compost or a bunch of worms sunk in the dirt! 

Bothe if they were lucky! Even if the worms die, their cocoons will hatch when the weather warms up, I believe.

 

[cmcanallen]

For those interested in the garden barrel and worm tower, check out half-pinthomestead.com they sell the plans, the plans plus the hard to come by parts and the fully assembled barrels for much cheaper the $300. I want to get some for my garden next year.

 

[cmcanallen]

For those interested in the garden barrel and worm tower, check out half-pinthomestead.com they sell the plans, the plans plus the hard to come by parts and the fully assembled barrels for much cheaper the $300. I want to get some for my garden next year.

 

[gaitngirl]

Lol - I was trying to figure that out from all the angles (and what else could be used parts-wise), too. I have 3 of those barrels sitting in my pole building waiting to become rain barrels or something fabulous. I think I have most of what's needed except time and the tool to heat/melt the plastic with . . .

 

[Kikiriki]

I wanted some castings to put on my corn, so I collected from my heaviest bin. I found tons tons of babies and cocoons all throughout the castings. I want them in the containers because I am trying to increase my quantity, so it made the process really tedious: took me all day. The corn did eventually get a dose of castings, though! The next day it already looked improved: darker green in the leaves. I need to do the rest of plants today

 

[Troela]

If you harvest by making piles, make a pile on top of the new bedding so the (baby)worms will not only go down, but also straight into the new bedding.

 

[Hammerga]

I just happened to find this thread. Just looking around, I am big on worms and have been for a few years now. I have a fairly large garden and I do vermicomposting in my garden. I have raised rows and compost on each side of my rows and mulch the tops. I try not to bother the worms any more than I have to. Just let them do what they do right where I want it done. I keep them in food and safe as I can. I have never added worms and think I have several kinds. I believe I have a pretty large population of them and can relate to those of you that get excited over having increased your population of worms and produced and used the castings.I see worms every time I am in the garden. If I pull weeds I see some scatter or if planting there are some where I dig.

 

[Kikiriki]

If you harvest by making piles, make a pile on top of the new bedding so the (baby)worms will not only go down, but also straight into the new bedding.

 

That was what I was doing: the babies just dug into little damp masses of material and stayed there. Yesterday, I found some that had actually dried out and stuck to whatever they happened to be closest to as I continued to sort for cocoons.

I do intend to have a business, which is another reason I don't want to lose too many to the garden. I just can't afford to make the big outay for the quantity of worms I need. The past year has been a time to research, experiment, and learn on a small scale, but I did kill off a large portion of the worms, so it set me back... That was the chicken manure debacle...I think I must have killed two thirds of my adults. . On the bright side, they had made plenty of cocoons that I collected out of that mess and the number of babies is astounding!

I did discover what I did wrong with the chicken manure, though, while doing other research (on using purslane as part of the chicken fodder). I had allowed the chicken poo to just sit dry, thinking time would serve to break down the bad stuff. This is not so... The manure becomes encased in a dried shell that repels moisture and traps in the chemicals that convert into ammonia when water is added. Old chicken manure was also shown to be depleted of nutrients for plants, so fresh is better, but fresh has the problem of being in the wrong form for plant nutrients. The ammonia has to be converted by bacteria, and if you have poor soil, it is going to be slow at best.

I am running an experiment now with adding water plus vinegar to the chicken manure: the vinegar is an acid that provides hydrogen to convert the ammonia created when water is added into ammonium. Ammonium as a plant food was shown to significantly reduce oxylates in both spinach and purslane. I found that when I mixed fresh manure with water, it smelled strongly of ammonia, but when I added vinegar, the ammonia smell went away and the odor was just like wet soil... I will be adding that to a portion of my garden to see what happens, and specifically to some purslane I gathered and put into pots. I will test the purslane to see if the chickens show a preference for the one grown with the ammonium rich mixture. I will also test a small batch of worms to see if they can tolerate the vinegar treated chicken manure, and if they like it enough to eat...

Update: Put two worms on the top of a small handful...the could not get away fast enough. Will try another batch with less vinegar when I have a bit more chicken poop. I am not hopeful of ever making the chicken poo into a useful worm food, though. With the plants, I applied to a couple of corns, one set of beans, one portion of purslane, and blueberries. All got watered in, thoroughly, and it is raining today.

 

[LaLa Chickie]

I want to get earth worms or ? to put in my composter. We let the lawn go the water bill was very high, so maybe I should just make a smaller area of grass? I have a Giant Composter, can you put earth worms in it and just turn the composter as usual? Any ideas?

 

[LaLa Chickie]

are those the nightcrawlers that eat up my Pototato bush? They are like huge moths when they grow and burrow in the soil? They were so destructive to all my flowering plants.