wormkashi update

Been crazy busy with new garden projects for this year and would like to give thanks to all DG'ers for hundreds of fantastic new ideas. The wormkashi idea was a combination of ideas from various forums so I have no idea who to credit but I have had numerous responses via Dmail to comments on this subject. The latest recipe I have been using is simply to blend peelings in an inexpensive glass bowl blender from Wal-Mart with about two cups of warm water. I add this solution to two five gallon buckets with lid to reduce the 'sour mash' odor in my attached garage where I store the buckets.

In experimenting with ways to thicken this mix I have tried using a cup of the aged blended mix with some warm water to mix new peelings. This method worked fine but somewhat tedious. My latest method is to add into the buckets several large scoops of ground corn cobs and left over dried corn/cob from last year's garden. There were several bushels of unpicked corn at the end of the growing season and lots of corn cobs which had been saved as well drying in my shed. A special thanks here to FarmerDill for increasing my corn production by 300 percent over the previous years with his suggestion to plant the seeds 14-inches apart instead of the package recommended six. I had five sixty foot rows of sweet corn with an average of 2.5 ears per stalk. Not bad considering my past performances of less than one ear of suitable corn per stalk.

I had also bashed my McCollock electric grinder for not being able to grind up dried bean stalks and other garden refuse at the end of the season. The grinder worked fine for the dried corn and cobs as well. I ended up with about fifty gallons of ground corn/cobs and have been adding this to my wormkashi buckets now for about a month. By rotating the wormkashi buckets I can allow this mix to set several days before feeding to the worms. Although the wormkashi is somewhat chunky when I add it to the blender, it takes just a few seconds to emulsify the mix before feeding to the worm bins.

I recently purchased 5-pounds of European Night Crawlers which I added to a 40-gallon plastic bin with peat moss media. I have read in some place that the euros were not as voracious a feeder as the red wiggler, but they were worthy composting worms as well as excellent fishing worms. I do not agree with the later comment; however these worms far exceed my red wigglers in their spite for the wormkashi. They have easily gone through twice as much food and all have swollen rings after just a couple of weeks which should mean new baby euros shortly. Their bodies are similar to red wigglers in that they are too soft for my type of fishing. After one cast they begin to come apart exposing the hook to wary trout. Canadian Night Crawlers will usually withstand about three casts and are more agreeable taste wise to larger rainbows. I have heard of placing worms in wet sand to toughen them up and may give that a try. Any suggestions here would be greatly appreciated.

There is another suggestion I would add for anyone interesting in using wormkashi as worm food and that is to stir the mix daily. A layer of molded material will collect on the surface of the bucket after a day or two. This material is not a problem in terms of feeding it to the worms, but I find it best to mix this material back into the more liquid layer beneath to incorporate the mold. As I understand it composting worms actually feed on the molded matter as their food decomposes. My theory is that mixing this moldy layer back into the wormkashi actually increases the consumption rate of the feeding worms. I am also adding small amounts of black strap molasses to the wormkashi mix weekly which seems of aid in fermentation of the mix.

Late in the fall I plan to experiment with the euros in an outdoor project. Due to harsh winters and deep permafrost I have not establish any native worms in my yard or garden. I have been planning a sixty foot double row of closely planted pepper plants between straw bales and covered with window panes. Sort of a hot house in effect. At the end of the season I will use these bails as retainers for layers of ground leaves and horse manure. Once the area between the bales of hay is filled with this material I will add the euros, and cover the pile with hay and black plastic before replacing the window panes. Occasional feedings of wormkashi under the hay layer may draw some of the worms to the surface. Anyone interested in this experiment or some of the harvested worms just let me know.

morgan