Worm Farm

I'm so excited, we were at the county fair yesterday and I purchased a Can-O-Worms worm bin. I had been looking at other models in the catalogs, but because they didn't ship the worms until March I had put it off. This one is round and stands on legs, but otherwise it seems to be the same with a bottom collector tray with tap, three working trays and a top lid with vent holes. It also came with tiger, red and blue worms, zeolite, bedding block and burlap for the cover. I got it all set up last night and look forward to "watching things happen". I just wanted to share my good news with people who might understand. Somehow my family is not as enthusiastic as I am. Does anyone have any info/experience to share? Margaret

Sounds good! And I can tell you, people have thought I'm crazy about my worms, too. I havent' used the can-o-worms, but I made my own bin. There has been a few forums in this organic gardening section that have some info on people's experiences, so you might want to check those out...
-Mara

Mara, I'll check out the other info. Do you use the liquid or just pour it back over the bin? If you use it, what do you do with it? Margaret

VeggieMom, check out the website, www.acmewormfarm.com. Very informative vermicomposting resource. The people are great --- they will email answer any questions you may have even if you do not buy anything from them.

Margaret, I haven't gotten any liquid out of mine. I kept it pretty wet at first, but the worms were trying to leave. Since I've let it dry down a bit, they seem to be doing much better, but I never have seen any liquid in the bottom. Maybe someone else can let us know if they get it. I'm still waiting for mine to be usable (I started in September, and the worms were nearly frozen all winter), but when it's ready, I can't wait to use it on the garden!
-Mara

Oh, I understand your enthusiasm! When we get ours, I willl be doing the happy dane LOL

Yardman, thanks for the website. I'm trying to learn as much as possible right now.
Mara, do you have a drain with a spigot at the bottom of your bin? I would think that would help keep the moisture at an acceptable level. We don't get cold enough in the winter to freeze the worms, but I would guess they'd slow up. My bin has three working levels and the man who sold it to me said it takes about two - three months to go through a level.
TamaraFaye, do you plan on getting one soon? Margaret

Yes, as soon as it becomes more ijmportant than all the other stuff I'm getting, including gettin gover the flu LOL. Sounds exciting! I plan to build my own, then order the worms. It is tempting to order the worms and then have a deadline to build by, but I just don' tneed the extra pressure right now...

I love my worm bin! My family teases me about my "caring for them"! I made mine out of an old chest freezer I found at the local dump site...works great for me!

Altho I have drain holes in the bottom of mine I've never noticed an excess of liquid that needed draining (or harvesting). I guess those drains are for folks that put too much liquid in? I have no idea.

veggiemom...a great book to have is "Worms Eat My Garbage", written by an seasoned "wormer"! It's available online at Amazon and there are used copies for only a couple dollars. The info is invaluable!

Have fun!!

I've been meaning to get a book, thanks for the recommendation, Shoe!

I don't blame you for holding off TamaraFaye. I had the flu a month or so ago and although the worst of it was over in a few days it took weeks to get my energy back. I think I'd get set up first and then order the worms.
Horseshoe, thanks for the recommendation of the book. I've heard of it, but haven't gotten around to looking at it. I'm going to be picking up my own copy of Square Foot Gardening and I think I'll get the worm book also.
It's nice to know there are other people out there that love their worms! Margaret

I had forgotten I entered this book in the Garden Bookworm.

http://davesgarden.com/gbw/c/230/

Good morning
I have had the can of worms for four years and I love it!I More than anything I use the liquid tea and have been for using it for the past four years.

I'm really new to all this, so excuse me if this is a dumb question but: do you make the tea out of the worm castings or is it the liquid that drips down. What do you use the tea for? Margaret

Howdy veggiemom...the liquid that drips down is considered a "leach", and it in itself is great plant food. The "tea" is made by putting some of the compost into water and air-bubbling it (and adding some other form of food for the aerobic bacteria, such as molasses, for example).

There are some great threads going on in the Soil and Composting Forum now with more info if you'd like to check out more info.

veggiemom, don't fill lonely. I am new to this worm farming thing also. Horseshoe beat me to the thread that he has mentioned. Alot of great information there.

Thanks for the info Horseshoe
Now I know that I have been using a leach and not tea.When ever it rains I have lots of good fertilizer.The can of worms is small and doesn't produce enough castings for everything but it is fun.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement and information. I'll check out the other threads. Since my time is limited I only keep track of about 20 forums so I'm sure I miss a lot. Margaret

downscale_babe, I don't think any of us will ever have enough worm castings! However, that's one reason I like to brew the tea; just a double-handful in a five gallon bucket will brew some great tea which will go much further than the actual castings themselves.

veggiemom, I know what you mean, I can't keep up with all the forums either so have to pick just so many and stay with those.

Worms are indeed amazing critters. They eat up all of our horse poop and bedding. We have 24 horses on our ranch, producing about 1,000lbs of waste each day. We feed that to our worms and they convert it to the most amazing compost. All we do is add water. We collect the tea via a series of drain pipes below the windrows. In warmer weather the rascals eat faster than the horses can provide food for them. This summer will be our third year doing this. No matter what size a worm farm is, it is exciting and a super way to convert organic matter. Viva Mary Applehoff!

A photo of our piles.

tea collection trough

Zowie! Now THAT is a worm bin! (Worm farm!)

Pretty impressive, drdon! Sure wish I lived closer to you!

Another thread for me to watch!!

John

We have a blast with our wormies. But the utilization of them from the beginning was purely economic. To have the horse's manure removed from the ranch each month costs about 350 buck every 20 days. So, out of our own poverty we decided to recycle the poop. We supply many of our neighbors and friends with high quality vermicompost and tea. And we've been able to supplement the ranch's income a little. We use most of it here to keep our soils fed. The reproductive abilities of earthworms really is something to behold. We started out with about 25,000 individuals and cocoons, and today we have millions of them. As long as their bedding is kept moist, in our summer heat they just multiply like....well....earthworms I guess. Aristotle and Darwin's fascination with these creatures was well founded indeed.

A picture of our high-tech compost advertising campaign...lol

Wish I lived closer to you!

Wonderful enterprise...I'm so glad to see ya'll doing something along those lines! That is success (to me)! (Your tea, $1/gallon? Too cheap, especially if it is full strength!) If you ever go into mail order please holler!

My neighbors have a couple horses and they just dump their stable sweepings in a pile at the edge of their pasture. There stuff is mostly bedding though and very little manure; wish it contained more, if so, I'd try to duplicate what you are doing drdon. (I'm really impressed w/your operation. Just love it!)

By the way...the heat that happens during the decomposition apparently doesn't fry the worms or run them off. Does your pile ever get hot enuff to kill any weed seeds (if any) or do you keep your pastures pretty much weed-free? (My neighbors pasture is more weeds than grass so I haven't used their stuff for years because of that reason.)

lol imway,

you should do well in Texas with them....well since everything gets so much bigger in TX, they may end up like the earthworms in New Zealand that get three feet long...lol.

I raised worms in my heated garage during my last year in Alaska. It worked out quite well. Then we moved to the Lower Forty Eight and didn't take the bins with us. Should have. Keeping them cool here would be problematic for a small setup.

hiya Horseshoe,

We thermophyllically (hot) compost the piles first, then introduce the wigglers to the pile once some of the cooler microorganisms take over (actinomycetes, etc). The worms take to the cooler piles like...well.......worms to poop..

Thanks for your kind words, I'll send you some for a SASB w/ bottle, and it is most certainly full-strength. We keep our piles very moist so we produce 100s of gallons of tea each month. I know it seems too inexpensive for the material, but it is more our M.O. to get our friends and neighbors hooked on the stuff by providing it cheap....I guess we're kind of like well intentioned garden crack dealers...lol.

Hah! Ah yes...get em hooked on the ol' "ten bottle system", eh??

I'm just tickled that you have a loader to handle all that stuff. Glad you are bottling the juice, too! Keep on keepin' on! (And thanks for the offer; I better see how much I can produce from my little system though.)

rotf...

yeah, soon I'll be hanging out at schoolyards and playgrounds trying to get children hooked on organics....the chemically dependent better watch out for the organic movement...hmmm, that sounds terribly like bowel movement...well it's all about the poop after all.

Drdon - It's amazing what you have done. I too wish I lived closer to you. Margaret

drdon, WOW, that is a magnificent operation you have there. I am just starting out using worms. I cannot wait to get started.

hiya TQS,

nice to meet you.

It's certainly not astrophysics...lol. The worms take care of themselves. All they want is some food and water, the rest is a bonus for your garden.

Don

Well, me too but, I couldn't live like that!

rotf imway,

Yes indeed, but there is the added benefit of getting to decide which sex you are going to be at mating time...lol. A toast to hermaphrodites!

I don't wanna go there. LOL

hah! *grinning here! Very fun thread, with lots of imformation!

drdon
Your set up sounds like heaven to me.I read in the local newspaper several years ago that the college of charleston has a vermi compost setup to compost all the left overs from the students dinning room.
Horseshoe
Where is Efland?we have an old home stead up in the nc. mountains North west of Boone,near the tenn.border.Mostly all forrested very steep and remote.I wish I could stay there more often.

drdon, how lucky can one get, sure wish I had your pile in my back yard.

Vi