You had to ask

What will I do next, in the name of gardening? I had to chuckle yesterday when an old friend saw me by the street, stopped and asked what I was doing, off the back of my truck.

I had been caught! I don't think she believed me when I told her I was harvesting worm poop (well, that's what it is).

Worm casting are touted as the miracle of organic gardening; I want to see how true that is.

Have you by any chanced priced this stuff? Let's just say, at retail prices I can't afford to do much experimenting.

Solution? Raise my own worms-- there are special worms for this?

Vermiculture is quite fascinating.

Anyway, I harvested my first casting yesterday and immediately realized it is not as easy as it seems it should be.

In exactly 4 months I am amazed at what these little creatures have accomplished and how they multiplied. I am looking at black gold here!

Well, Julia, you did ask.

Ok, Lane,
We seriously need to talk. As I recall, we started our bins at, roughly, the same stroke of genius on the clock sometime in December.

I'm not sure what I've got going on in my bin, but, I believe I have not been as attentive to my wigglies as you and morgan, so my production of "black gold" is way down.

QUESTIONS for You:
How big are your bins (mine is a small, 10-gallon tote tub. Kinda cute, and not deep)

How often and how much are you feeding your bin? (mine get fed when I get to it -- no regular schedule...) I'm feed an average of about 2-3 cups at a time -- probably waaaaaaaay to little, huh?)

How often are you adding new peat/bedding medium to your bin? (I was adding some to the mix every time I fed, but the last couple times I didn't add any new peat)

How moist does your bin stay? Mine stays about as moist as a wrung out sponge, although lately I've been pouring in about 3 cups of water at a time to keep it a little more moist.

How fast are your wigglies multiplying? Mine started off slowly, ramped up, and seemed to have tapered off, although the ones there have grown significantly...

Finally, How did you know it was time to harvest? All my bedding still looks like peat moss, and I KNOW the wigglies have been eating up the slush I put in there. Everyone's casting looks sort of like muddy clay, but my bin just stays the same...

Ok. Will wait for your reply.

Thanks!

Linda

Linda will reply in detail in little while, after I think about exactly what I have done. Good to hear from you again.

There's always a place in my heart for you! Uh, you can explain that to Linda1

Linda, check this out. Explains better than I can re-explain

http://mckarion.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/worms-they-aint-all-bad/

Then scroll up for another entry on my worm bin
http://mckarion.wordpress.com/2013/02/

For the first 3 months I feed about 2 lbs of scraps that I blended in a blender and let ferment for a little while, every week. I just dug a trench in the bin and poured the "stuff" in. Kept wet newspaper on top (also covered with box lid)--I did not have holes drilled in box nor did I keep them under a light. (In other words I did everything "wrong" according what I was reading.) The bin you see in the video is the actual bin I used. It is a translucent under bed storage box.

I decided NOT to feed at all for the last 30 days to see what happened. They fed on the bedding, I guess, cause the volume
of the material reduced to about 1/2 what I had put in during the last month.

The material was FULL of tiny baby worms, as well as skinny adults, so I know there must have been egg capsules, I just couldn't see them (since I really don't know what they look like).

I was very pleased with what I got. Fettie (Eisenia fetida) did good. (That's what I am calling these red wigglers. I have started a bin of European Night (Eisenia hortensis) crawlers named "Hortense")

Interestingly, hands do not get dirty when working with the castings.

I am experimenting big time with organic methods now and am anxious to see if worm compost/tea is the miracle worker it is suppose to be.

BTW: if you are on FACEBOOK look me up. Got loads of pictures I share of my garden/flowers and experiments. For some reason Daves's doesn't seem as interesting as it used to be for me.

This message was edited Apr 24, 2013 2:50 PM