I'm a Worm Wrangler!

[kundalini]

Well, soon to be.

Here's a new word for some of you..... Vermicomposting (aka. worm composting). The final result is the south end of a north bound worm.

My Worm Factory 360 arrived yesterday and setting it up today for the worms to arrive next week. I found a local grower of eisenia fetida, commonly called Red Wiggler's. I'm getting 1lb of worms which should be about 800-1000 worms and they can eat ~1/2 their body weight per day. They reproduce quickly, but are good at keeping the population to within the limits of their living environment.

I love gardening and have been composting for years. Mostly it had been cold composting, make a pile a let nature do the work. About three years ago I procured a couple of plastic bins for hot composting, one of them was a tumbler type. It is a quicker method but does require some attention to add a balance of "browns" and "greens" and turning the pile over to introduce more oxygen to the mix and then water as needed to produce the heat which accelerates decomp. I was getting decent results but my kitchen scrapes just weren't breaking down fast enough.

Introduce eisenia fetida. It's Just the Two of Us and it's going to be interesting if we can keep up with their consumption. (BTW, if a Bill Wither's song comes to mind, don't worry, it's a natural thing for the Baby Boomers) The goal is to have a constant supply of worm poop for the flowers and veggies next spring.

Is there anybody else that does something similar? Share your gardening secrets.

 

[CameraClicker]

When I was little, Mr O'Leary up the street had a 10 gallon drum in his garage. Filled with moss and worms, it provided an endless supply of bait for fishing. I don't know if compost was ever added.

 

[tirediron]

Holy s*** get out of the way... STAMPEDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[oldhippy]

Been a lot of years. Use to raise red worms for bait. Had to divide the group. Then add more food stuff. Did mine in trays. They do multiply.

 

[tirediron]

"Worm tea:... NOW that sounds just yummy!!!!!

 

[terri]

When we kept a large garden in Georgia, we did mainly cold composting (didn't know that was the name for it!). I always had kitchen scraps to add to the raked leaves and yard debris, and it was a nice way to have beautiful compost to work into the garden every year.

I live in a hot climate now with a tiny, shady yard...really miss my garden!! I've been thinking about getting one of those small units for basically use under the sink, but I've not really read up on it. I thought you could introduce some worms in that kind of arrangement, but maybe I've been misled on that.

I loved finding big old wigglers in my natural compost!! Never added any, they just magically appeared to finish off the kitchen scraps. Ah, those were fun times.