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Cayenne's Guide to Vermicompost a.k.a. WORMS!!!

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Beelzeboss said:
cause it takes about 3-4 months, i need to get that bin started already im lagging on that.
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It takes 3-4 months for straight castings... but you don't need straight castings for tea ;)

There is nothing wrong with grabbing a handful of castings now and then that are 2-3 weeks old and trowing them in to the AACT. I do it every week.
So what the stuff isn't all the way broke down... When you are done with the tea, add the goop at the bottom to you worm bin.
Its more like borrowing :P

And as far as that resulting in the performance, I haven't had a problem yet.
 
what about red worms from the bait store? are these red wrigglers? whats the least amount of worms you would start with in a 5gal setup like pictured in the beginning of this thread?
 
The worms sold in bait stores are typically nightcrawlers, because they are plumper and more appetizing to fish. At least that is the case in my area.
 
brownb4 said:
these are red worms and much smaller than night crawlers. i have read that crawlers, although large, do not process as much as red worms.
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You will find that the red worms sold for fishing are marked up in price by a lot.
last I checked it was like 15$ for 100 at a bait store. I got 800 for 15$ at Armstrong Garden.

The reason is, the ones at the bait store all sorted for size. The worms from the garden store are mixed sizes.
 
On the topic of fishing worms, when I have leftovers I put them in my pots. They make a break for it as soon as they can, but in the meantime they are pooping gold for my peppers. When I mixed up the dirt in the pots this past spring there were even a couple of them still in there. Not sure how they survived the winter, but I was thankful for it.
 
A little trivia about the importance of earth worms from a book I am reading,

"If we used all of nature's resources except earthworms to produce topsoil, It would take us about 100 to 150 years to produce one single inch!
Bring back the earthworms and it only takes one year to produce that inch."One of the most important creatures on the planet.
 
I bought a Rubbermaid 18 gallon container today and cut out the center of the lid and put in a piece of black screen door material for air ventilation.
Now I need to purchase a pound of Red Wigglers and get started. ;)
I already have the Pink Floyd song "Waiting for the Worms" in my head. :lol:

WormBin.jpg
 
CarvinGuitarist said:
I bought a Rubbermaid 18 gallon container today and cut out the center of the lid and put in a piece of black screen door material for air ventilation.
Now I need to purchase a pound of Red Wigglers and get started. ;)
I already have the Pink Floyd song "Waiting for the Worms" in my head. :lol:
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Nice!
Make sure to cover the food under bedding a little to prevent gnats. I think fungus gnats will get through the screen. If you keep the food buried it will be fine.
Glad to see you got in on Free Castings. Do you have a blender or a food processor? I found that the food is eaten twice as fast if not faster if it is blended in to a shake.

Here is my shake resipe
  • 1-2 filters worth of coffee grounds
  • 1-2 banana peels
  • 1 cup of water to help it blend
  • Egg Shells to help gullet digestion
  • what ever scrapps I can find.

    This stuff will be gone in a few days!
 
Thanks Andrew. I have a blender and a food processor but there's no way my wife is letting me use them for waste. :lol:
I will just chop up the table scraps with a knife I guess to get them smaller and decomposing quicker.
The bedding is also food for the worms and I have a good amount that I ran through the shredder.
I got the idea for this bin from that book I mentioned called, "The Best Place for Garbage" by Sandra Wiese.
She does not recommend you drill any holes in the container other than the vent on top. Hopefully I won't have any gnats as I am going to keep it in the garage which is closed up practically all the time.
That book says to put your scraps in a container and freeze them until the day before the next feeding.
She says that will kill any eggs of insects that could be on the food and the freezing also causes the molecules in the food to burst causing a faster break down of the food.
Makes good sense I think.
 
CarvinGuitarist said:
Thanks Andrew. I have a blender and a food processor but there's no way my wife is letting me use them for waste. :lol:
I will just chop up the table scraps with a knife I guess to get them smaller and decomposing quicker.
The bedding is also food for the worms and I have a good amount that I ran through the shredder.
I got the idea for this bin from that book I mentioned called, "The Best Place for Garbage" by Sandra Wiese.
She does not recommend you drill any holes in the container other than the vent on top. Hopefully I won't have any gnats as I am going to keep it in the garage which is closed up practically all the time.
That book says to put your scraps in a container and freeze them until the day before the next feeding.
She says that will kill any eggs of insects that could be on the food and the freezing also causes the molecules in the food to burst causing a faster break down of the food.
Makes good sense I think.
Click to expand...

Hum not a bad idea... I know banana has gnats on it from the store... so yeah


I wanna say thanks to every one who is contributing to this guide and to TripleB's AACT guide. We are combineing input and learning from each others experience. WIN! This is what a forum is all about :P good work you guys.
 
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