wormkashi

WORMKASHI

About a month ago while reviewing several DG forums, the idea of making ‘wormkashi’ occurred to me. For a number of years I have used inexpensive glass bowl blenders for blending peelings for feeding red wigglers in my four plastic vermiculture bins. The process was simply to add about a cup of gravel siphoned aquarium water to the blender and fill the bowl to within an inch or two of the top with peelings, egg shells and coffee grounds. Add a little more water and blend until the chunks are mostly gone. The blending process sometimes took several minutes to complet. Occasionally the blender motor heated to the point I would need to let it set for 10 minutes before turning it back on. In the past I have replace blenders as frequently as yearly for around $40 apiece.

The wormkashi process is much a simpler way to process your worm food and is considerably easier on blenders. As before I start with one cup of gravel siphoned aquarium water and add the peelings. The difference is I don’t add coffee grounds or egg shells and only blend for about 10 seconds. I use two 5- gal plastic pails for storing the blended peelings. Since I saved peelings from the fall harvest, I had two 5-gal plastic pails of harvest scraps sitting in my shed waiting to be processed into worm food. The wormkashi pails are placed on a concrete floor covered with a heavy duty rubber mat and on top of the rubber mat I place a 21”W x 5’L Redi-Heat Propagation Mat (Growers Supply).

When ready I bring in one of these scrap pails into the garage and let it thaw out. Once thawed the scraps are mushy and blend easily with a little water added. Although the initial blendings were watery I began adding a cup of the previously blended material to the blender along with a cup of the scraps. Using this technique I was able to thicken the wormkashi to an apple sauce or strained baby food consistency.

To keep the mixture active I added some black strap molasses, and stirred the wormkashi every day or two. At first a floating layer and film appeared on top of each of the wormkashi pails, but as the mixture got thicker the consistency became more uniform and the film became primarily a discoloration on the top of the emulsion. This mix is facultative and will quickly turn anaerobic if let to set for more than a day or two without mixing. This should have no adverse affect on the wormkashi as it is fed to the worms; however a sour smell is emitted when mixing. To combat this odor I stir in a little imitation vanilla (Costco economy size). This also works well adding a small amount to the wormkashi when feeding the worms to knock down any odors from overfeeding.

There are several really great benefits to feeding wormkashi to your worms: (1) Reduced initial blending time. About 10 seconds is all that is necessary, and even less when adding a cup of wormkashi to the blender along with egg shells, coffee grounds, and a little water before feeding; (2) worms can consume three possibly four times the amount of food; and my personal favorite, (3) moisture content of the worm media is much easier to maintain at a consistent and optimum level.

Part deux of this experiment started with a failed experiment over a year ago when I left a heat pad under the worm bins connected for several weeks while on vacation. I came home to the media in my four bins as dry as a bone, but somehow enough adult worms had survived to revive the culture once rehydrated.

My plastic worm tubs are located in an attached unheated garage which maintains an ambient temperature of 40 to 50 F in the winter months. These worm bins are placed on an insulating thick old carpet and a heavy duty rubber mat on top of the rugs. Like the wormkashi pails, on top of the rubber mat I use another Redi-Heat Propagation Mat connected to a 24-hour timer. Since no two bins are alike, the timer is adjusted according to the lowest common denominator, using the bin which heats the fastest as a means of controlling media temperatures. Temperatures in all four bins are checked regularly to maintain around 60 F. Temperatures can fluctuate quickly as media moisture decreases. Therefore, it is best to maintain a buffer below the optimum media temperature range. The combination of the heat mat and the wormkashi now has the worms breeding at an accelerated rate over normal winter activity.

I have notice that many of you are using the tiered-tray method of vermiculturing, which I have seen advertised in recent seed catalogs. The techniques described above are intended for the more old fashion method of using plastic tubs in the 30 gallon range. I would be curious to know if anyone using this tiered-tray method has tried a similar method of feeding, and how your method of feeding is working for you.

morgan

the only potential glitch i can see is to be careful not to add too much water from the aquarium and thereby create anabolic conditions....otrw sounds like your planning a fairly major operation. best wishes.

anabolic conditions!!! That's a new one for me???

Hi,
Do you put a lid on the wormkashi as you are letting it stand and stirring it?
It would seem that this might also be a great way to reduce compost to add
it to soil around plants. The worms would come to feed on the wormkashi and
feed the plants as well.
I grow straw/hay bale gardens, I think I will experiment with dumping some
wormkashi on the bales and puting some worms on them. Maybe I can
cut down on the fertilizer.
Paul.

Hey Paul, I do leave the lid on to cut down on odors. The wormkashi has a somewhat unpleasant or sour smell to it, which can be a problem depending on where you keep it. For outdoor worm cultures this stuff would be fantastic. I thicken mine as mentioned by recyclying about a cup of the culture with new peelings and some additional water in each blenderfull. You have probably read in other postings where people made earthworm collecting holes for fishing by adding scraps underneath a little soil and a cover of some sort on top of that. Wormkashi would work just in about any similar application I can think of. I'm not sure of your hay bale method which would expose the wormkashi to flies or other unwanteds. If it is as thick as mine, it would be full of fly maggots in short order, which is okay if you are a fisherman! As far as using this for a fertilizer I couldn't say Paul. The way I'm going through this stuff, I only have enough for vermiculturing. However, I really appreciate you comment. I have been looking for a way to introduce native worms to my garden and you just gave me the method...TYVM Paul. Friend Picante (Julie) here in town has offered me a starter of local earthworms and I have been trying to come up with an effective way to get them started. I have been working on ideas for growing hot peppers between strawbales for next season, and placing the starter worms under several bales with wormkashi would be an excellent way to get them going. Brilliant!

See Paul, that is what I like about these types of discussions. I know I have been a bit testy lately because there seems to be so little activity in this forum, but all it requires is some people like yourself to respond.

morgan

Hi all,
I found this site that sells EM, Essential Microbes, for composting and
worm food and other things. Interesting site.
http://www.emamerica.com./

EM is great!!! Pour some in the soil and the next day it is full of worms!!!!

I have my EM on the way. I am going to use it to help decompose my worm food before feeding it. That way I may be able to produce more castings quicker.
By the way, I purchased 25 lbs of pure worm castings from Gardens Alive for about $30.
A 25lb bag will last me a whole year on my straw/hay bale gardens.
Another idea, I bet if I use the EM in my potato barrels they might produce more taters.
Paul.