It's always messy and produces a lot more liquid feeding the worms table scraps so now I am just giving them compost that I make in my compost bin. I add some coffee grounds, a little alfalfa meal, kelp meal and a teaspoon or so of rock dust along with some powdered eggshell I crush and feed that mix to them after wetting it a little. It's much easier to just put the table scraps in the compost bin and it eliminates excess water which is what kills worms the most in bins. Compost is loaded with bacterial exudes which is what the worms "eat" anyhow as they can't eat food until it breaks down.
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Feeding my worms differently now
- Thread starter Proud Marine Dad
- Start date
I feed my worms in my 6 tier worm factory anything and everything other then meat, dairy and citrus and they just devour it all... Can't beat the fresh EWC from worms... I have tons (not literally) of EWC..
Edit.. A great thing about my worm factory setup is the leachete drains to the bottom and it has a spout to drain it out.. Love it
Edit.. A great thing about my worm factory setup is the leachete drains to the bottom and it has a spout to drain it out.. Love it
Have you seen these plastic containers the garbage companies bring out and you throw your debris in it and they come and pick it up? I was told those make an excellent worm bin as the fabric is breathable. They are 5 or 6' long and a few feet wide. I would imagine you could have a fairly large population of red wigglers in one of those. 
I have one of the Worm Inn's and it's pretty good but a pain to untie the bottom to harvest, etc.
I have one of the Worm Inn's and it's pretty good but a pain to untie the bottom to harvest, etc.
Mine is only 2 tier (expandable to 5), but I take all the table scraps etc, throw them in the blender with a little water and feed that to the worms. They seem to really devour it. My bin also has a  lower container where the leachate drains to and there is a spigot on it, so I can use that in the garden. Our City has a program where they sell the bin for $40 and give you some worms to start, too.Â
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If using compost works better for you, then it`s a good way to go, obviously.Â
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If using compost works better for you, then it`s a good way to go, obviously.Â
Yeah I used 4 of them for my kitchen reno last year....here in my area Lowes sells them and then Waste Management comes and picks them up for a fee...Proud Marine Dad said:Have you seen these plastic containers the garbage companies bring out and you throw your debris in it and they come and pick it up? I was told those make an excellent worm bin as the fabric is breathable. They are 5 or 6' long and a few feet wide. I would imagine you could have a fairly large population of red wigglers in one of those.
That's a lot of work Nigel, I'm sure you know it's not necessary to blend it all up. I'm also sure you have your reasons as to why you do it that way...Nigel said:
most I do is chop the bigger sized table scraps into smaller pieces to help the worms to be able to eat it, other then that everything goes in "whole hog"...It is, but it seems to keep the fungus gnats and fruit flies down to manageable levels.sp33d said:That's a lot of work Nigel, I'm sure you know it's not necessary to blend it all up. I'm also sure you have your reasons as to why you do it that way...
The finer the scraps the faster the material breaks down to where the worms can eat it. Same with the compost bin and the bacteria that breaks it down.
I can't seem to get any ewc out of my worm factory. I've had it for over four months now and there are still a lot of worms in the first tray although most of them are in the second tray which is still the feeding tray. The bottom tray still has a bunch of ground up leaves from the yard that they never ate. Maybe the food was too much brown material and not enough green? What should I do with the bottom tray? Nothing is being consumed in there any more and I read that you should only feed from the top tray so that has me wondering what to do with the material in the bottom tray. Besides leaves, there is still some coconut coir and paper that was never eaten.
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Help! I spent about $100 on this set up and would really like to get it producing some castings.
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Help! I spent about $100 on this set up and would really like to get it producing some castings.
Hmm... You shouldn't have put the second tray on until the first tray was fully consumed or near fully consumed and nearly full of EWC.. The theory is when the lowest tray is consumed the worms will migrate upward to seek out the new food you supply..
What's the moisture level like in your first tray? If it's really moust add some shredded newspaper, wait a few days then add some shredded greens... Other then that I'm not sure cause I never ran into that issue.. You might wanna take the second tray off and put the worms back into tray 1 and do what I said above... Just have to make sure the moisture level is not to high or that will kill the worms or force them out of the tray you want them to be in feeding in..
What's the moisture level like in your first tray? If it's really moust add some shredded newspaper, wait a few days then add some shredded greens... Other then that I'm not sure cause I never ran into that issue.. You might wanna take the second tray off and put the worms back into tray 1 and do what I said above... Just have to make sure the moisture level is not to high or that will kill the worms or force them out of the tray you want them to be in feeding in..
ColdSmoke said:
There is still paper in there that hasn't been eaten. I don't want to add more... It is damp in there, but not wet; there is no leachete in the drain area. . I put the second tray on because the first one was full and the food was mostly gone (I thought). Technically they wouldn't have migrated up to the second tray if there were food left in the first. Maybe the worms are still working on it but it's just taking forever because they don't like the big leaves in there? I might just hand pick most of the big stuff out and see how it goes from there. I did find a ball of worm in the bottom tray which I think means they are stressed out? Maybe I should check the pH?sp33d said:
You said paper was still in there. Paper is food so shouldn't have added second tray till the paper was nearly all gone...worms go into a ball when stressed..
Before next tray is added you have to ensure there is next to no food left in bottom tray including paper, then when the next tray is added with new food they will migrate out of the tray that is "full" of EWC into the tray with food..
Maybe your tray is to dry? Do you keep the tray covered with a damp piece of newspape? If not you should.. But the worms are definitely stressed if they are in a ball..
Before next tray is added you have to ensure there is next to no food left in bottom tray including paper, then when the next tray is added with new food they will migrate out of the tray that is "full" of EWC into the tray with food..
Maybe your tray is to dry? Do you keep the tray covered with a damp piece of newspape? If not you should.. But the worms are definitely stressed if they are in a ball..
ColdSmoke said:
The moisture is fine. The instructions show the guy adding a tray on top of clearly uneaten food, so I'm not convinced I did anything wrong. Seems like they would just finish up the small amount of food left in the bottom tray and move up. That said, MOST of the worms are in the top feeding tray. I was just surprised how many were left on the bottom when I went to harvest castings.
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Sorry to hijack PMD
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Sorry to hijack PMD
No problem Coldsmoke. I don't know many worm people that like those tray systems.
Don't know why because mine works flawlessly and I even have 6 tiers going it works so well...Proud Marine Dad said:
Maybe it's one of those things, it either works really well for you which in my case it kicks ass and for some it just doesn't work... I'm a worm factory fan, hell I have more EWC from my factory then I know what to do with ... Boom..
That also means I eat a lot lol.. I need some PT now..
And I didn't say you did anything wrong.. I'm just explaining how I understand it and what I do and i have way more EWC from my now 6-tier factory then I can use right now... It did take me a few months to get it dialed in thoughColdSmoke said: