Compost and Composting

Earthworm Garden Live Red Wiggler 1lb Size

Earthworm Garden Live Red Wiggler 1lb SizeNo description for this product could be found, but have a look over at Amazon for reviews and other information.

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Red Wigglers worms (EF) for Organic Gardening, Composting or bird food.

Red Wigglers worms (EF) for Organic Gardening, Composting or bird food.

Price is per pound of red wigglers. Our red wigglers are home grown in bins and compost heaps on our property. They winter well and reproduce rapidly. Your worm population should double every 90-days or so, given enough food and moisture. We ship Monday thru Thursday, so your order should arrive on within two days… Always graranteed live delivery! Each shippment includes instructions, suggestions and tips. We ship packed in coir or peatmoss, weight dies not include packaging.
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Worm Factory 360 WF360B Worm Composter, Black

Worm Factory 360 WF360B Worm Composter, Black

Composting with worms allows you to turn kitchen scraps, paper waste and cardboard into nutrient-rich soil for your plants. The Worm Factory 360 composting system makes the entire process quick and easy. With a thermo siphon air flow design, the Worm Factory 360 increases the composting speed. Now you can produce compost much faster than traditional composting methods. Master Gardeners agree, worm castings are one of the richest forms of fertilizer that you can use. The Worm Fac (more…)

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Worm Factory DS5GT 5-Tray Worm Composter – Green

Worm Factory DS5GT 5-Tray Worm Composter - Green

Worm composting is an incredibly efficient way to convert kitchen scraps, junk mail and cardboard into nutrient-rich compost for your garden. Master gardeners agree that compost produced by worms will produce the best results and help your plants thrive. The Worm Factory’s unique stackable, multi-tray design makes it the most efficient worm bin composter around. Worms begin eating waste in the lowest tray, and then migrate upward as food sources in that tray are exhausted. By al (more…)

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Worm Factory DS3GT 3-Tray Worm Composter, Green

Worm Factory DS3GT 3-Tray Worm Composter, Green

Worm composting is an incredibly efficient way to convert kitchen scraps, junk mail and cardboard into nutrient-rich compost for your garden. Master gardeners agree that compost produced by worms will produce the best results and help your plants thrive. The Worm Factory’s unique stackable, multi-tray design makes it the most efficient worm bin composter around. Worms begin eating waste in the lowest tray, and then migrate upward as food sources in that tray are exhausted. By al (more…)

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Food For Your Worms.

What do you feed your worms? If your like me , I’m always looking for the free goodies to feed the crew. I like a mix of food scraps and yard waste, who knew all those leaves would be worth raking?!
Anyway , in case you need some ideas her is a list of things I have droped into the worm bin at one time or another.

And in no particular order:

  • pasta
  • cornmeal
  • culls from the garden, damaged or bruised fruits and veggies
  • manure, horse, cow , chicken litter  use with caution, chicken litter can get real hot !
  • coffee grounds
  • tea bags, remove the little staple if it has one
  • grass clippings
  • fall leaves

And the list could go on and on.   But for the most part any organic material can be digested by the worms.  I’ve even used shredded paper for the bedding , and they burrow right thru that stuff.

Anyway , I hope that gives you a few ideas of the stuff you can use to feed these little worms, until next time.

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How to Article On Vermiposting

How to Make Your Own Worm Compost System

from wikiHow – The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Vermiculture, or worm composting, allows you to compost all your food waste faster than you ever imagined, while producing the highest quality compost and fertilizing liquid. Best of all, it’s self-contained and nearly odorless!

Steps

  1. Obtain a worm bin.

    • These can be purchased from many online vendors or your local gardening or farm supply store.
    • You can build your own. Use rubber storage totes, galvanized tubs, wood, or plastic.
      • Material: Rubber is cheap, easy to use and durable. Galvanized tubs are somewhat costly but will last forever. Wood will eventually be eaten, and plastic cracks easily, but either will do in a pinch. Some people prefer wooden compost worm bins because they may breathe better and absorb excess moisture[1], which can be hazardous to the worms. Just don’t use chemically-treated wood, which may be dangerous to worms or leach harmful chemicals into your compost. 5-gallon plastic buckets now for sale by most hardware stores can be used – especially if you live in an apartment. Clean the big 5-gallon soap buckets thoroughly and let them sit for a day or so filled with clean water before using as a worm bin.
      • Ventilation: Your bin should be well-ventilated, with several 1/8 inch (3mm) holes 4 inches (100mm) from the bottom (otherwise the worms will stay at the bottom of the bin and you may drown your worms). For example, you can build a worm bin out of a large plastic tub with several dozen small holes drilled out on the bottom and sides.
      • Size: The larger you make the container, the more worms it can sustain. Estimate 1 pound (0.45kg) of worms (1,200) for every square foot of surface area. The maximum productive depth for your bin is 24 inches (61cm) deep because composting worms will not go further down than that.
      • Cover: The bin should have a cover to prevent light from getting in and to prevent the compost from drying out. Choose or make a lid that can be removed if your compost is too wet. Use a canvas tarp, doubled over and bungee-corded on, or kept in place with wood. Burlap sacks also work well, and can be watered directly.
    • Use 4 old car tires: To make a four-tire wormery, create a base from old bricks or flagstones (must be flat and with as few cracks as possible). Place a layer of heavy newspaper on top of the bricks. Stuff four old tires with newspapers. Pile the tires on top of each other, with the first tire on the Sunday newspaper. Put some scrunched up paper or cardboard in the bottom to soak up any excess liquid. Fill the entire wormery with organic material (semi-composted is best). Add the composting worms (tiger or brandling species are best). Use a piece of board weighed down with bricks as a lid. The lid must be big enough to stop rain getting in. Harvest a tire’s worth of fertilizer roughly every 8 weeks (during warm months).
  2. Prepare the box for worms. Fill your bin with thin strips of unbleached corrugated cardboard or shredded newspaper, straw, dry grass, or some similar material. This provides a source of fiber to the worms and keeps the bin well-ventilated. Sprinkle a handful of dirt on top, and thoroughly moisten. Allow the water to soak in for at least a day before adding worms. You can also use Canadian peat moss, which is more expensive but yields a loamier vermicompost.
  3. Get worms. There are several varieties of worms that that are bred and sold commercially for vermicomposting; just digging up earthworms from your backyard is not recommended. The Internet or local gardening club is your best bet for finding a worm vendor near you. The worms most often used, Eisenia foetida (Red Wigglers), are about 4 inches long, mainly red along the body with a yellow tail. Another variety to consider are Eisenia hortensis, known as “European Night crawlers.” They do not reproduce quite as fast as the red wigglers, but grow to be larger, eat courser paper and cardboard better, and seem to be heartier. Dendrobaena’s are also a good choice, search online for them. They are also better fishing worms when they do reach full size. However, with any non-native species, it is important not to allow them to reach the wild. Their voracious appetites and reproductive rates (especially among the red wigglers) have been known to upset the delicate balance of the hardwood forests by consuming the leaf litter too quickly. This event leaves too little leaf letter to slowly incubate the hard shelled nuts and leads to excessive erosion as well as negatively affecting the pH of the soil. So, do your best to keep them confined!
  4. Maintain your bin. Keeping your bin elevated off the ground, using bricks, cinder blocks, or whatever is convenient will help speed composting and keep your worms happy. Worms are capable of escaping almost anything, but if you keep your worms fed and properly damp, they should not try to escape. A light in the same area will ensure your worms stay put. Sprinkle the surface with water every other day. Feed your worms vegetable scraps at least once a week. Feeding lightly and often will produce more worms (which is good when starting a new bin) and large amounts fed less often will fatten your worms (good for fishing). Add more cardboard, shredded newspaper, hay, or other fibrous material once a month, or as needed. Your worms will reduce everything in your bin quickly. You will start with a full bin of compost or paper/cardboard, and soon it will be half full. This is the time to add fibrous material.
  5. Harvest the compost, using one of the following techniques.
    • Put on rubber gloves, and move any large un-composted vegetable matter to one side. Then, with your gloved hands, gently scoop a section of worms and compost mixture onto a brightly lit piece of newspaper or plastic wrap. Scrape off the compost in layers. Wait a while giving the worms time to burrow into the center of the mound. Eventually you will end up with a pile of compost next to a pile of worms. Return the worms to the bin, do whatever you want with the compost, and repeat.
    • If you prefer a hands-off technique, simply push the contents of the bin all to one side and add fresh food, water, dirt, and bedding to the empty space. The worms will slowly migrate over on their own. This requires much more patience, of course.
    • The last technique is to use a separator.
  6. Apply the harvested compost to plants, or use it to make worm tea.


Tips

  • If you have two bins, it can be a bit easier to get at your compost. Fill one bin and start the next. When you want to get at the compost, move the uncomposted matter from bin one to bin two and use all the finished compost. Bin two, the now-active bin, becomes full and then bin one becomes the active bin again.
  • Egg shells in your bin increase the calcium content of the compost you produce. Worms also seem to like to curl up in them. To be most effective, eggshells must be dried out and finely ground (with a mortar and pestle or a rolling pin) before their addition to a bin. Use raw eggshells, not cooked.
  • You can throw your coffee grounds, unbleached filters, and used teabags (remember to remove the staple!) right in the bin.
  • The smaller you chop up/crush the food, the faster the worms will eat it. (And the faster your bin will produce compost.) Although some home-scale worm keepers use blenders to puree food scraps, others believe vermiculture should be a low-carbon-footprint endeavor and thus use little or no electricity.
  • If you would like to collect the water (liquid fertilizer) produced by watering your worms, place a tray under the compost bin. Otherwise, the ground under the bin will become terrifically fertile. An elevated bin (either on bricks, or a bin with built-in legs) sitting in a tray of water will also prevent ants and other unwanted critters from getting into the bin.
  • Remember that a worm bin is a tiny ecosystem. Don’t attempt to remove the other critters living in your worm bin, they are helpers. However, do remove centipedes: Centipedes are carnivores, and eat baby worms and worm eggs.
  • Shredded paper junk mail, egg cartons, cereal boxes, and pizza boxes all make excellent bedding (avoid glossy paper). Always soak household paper waste bedding for at least 12 hours before adding it to the bin, and thoroughly squeeze out the water first. Don’t shred junk mail envelopes unless you remove the plastic windows! Worms won’t eat plastic, and picking hundreds of shredded plastic window panes out of otherwise beautiful compost is a vermiculturist’s nightmare.
  • Pre-composted cow manure is a great food for worms. Just be sure to bury it at least 3 inches deep. Rabbit, sheep, and goat droppings do not require pre-composting and their addition makes outstanding vermicompost.
  • Green food increases nitrogen in your finished compost. Examples are: green grass, beet tops, carrot tops, philodendron leaves, fresh cut clover or alfalfa.
  • Brown food increases carbon and phosphate in your finished product. Examples are: paper, cardboard, wood chips, leaves, bread. If adding fresh lawn grass, be certain chemicals have not been added to the lawn. Lawn chemicals are deadly to the ecosystem in the bin.
  • A balanced diet makes for a healthy bin, healthy worms and a great finished product.
  • Finely ground and moistened grains (flour, oatmeal, etc.) are eaten the fastest, followed by fruits, grass, leaves, cardboard, paperboard (cereal boxes), white paper, cotton products, and magazines (slick paper). Wood takes the longest (up to a year or more).
  • Calcium carbonate works well to solve most problems. Be sure to use calcium carbonate (e.g., powdered limestone) and not quicklime (calcium oxide).
  • There are several types of pre-made wormeries available online. From Beehive Wormeries which take care of home/kitchen/green waste to Dog Poo Wormeries which will deal with pet waste, try searching online.


Warnings

  • Do not feed your worms meat, dairy products, eggs, or oily foods.
  • Go easy on the citrus rinds. You can add them, but remember that they’re acidic. If possible, a little at a time with plenty of other matter.
  • Don’t allow your bin to dry out. If there are enough holes at the bottom, your worms are not likely to drown, but they will die without water.
  • Some varieties of worms may be sensitive to the oils or pH of your skin. Internet forum posts by active vermicomposters indicate that handling their worms seems to not yield any negative effects.
  • Extremes of temperatures are deadly for worms- about 50 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal. Don’t place a worm bin in direct sunlight or out in the cold. Sustained frosts will kill your worms. If this is an issue in your area, move outdoor bins into a garage or shed during winter. If bringing your worm bin indoors during the winter is not possible add a small heating pad as follows: push the matter away from one side, place the pad up against that side, then backfill onto the pad. Run the wire out to an extension, plug it in and leave the pad set on low – or medium in particularly cold weather. This will prevent freezing in winter.
  • Don’t allow your worm bin to heat up past 90 degrees. You will cook your worms — something no one should smell.
  • Large amounts of green feeds (grass, alfalfa, etc.) heat up quickly and should be added lightly.
  • Fresh (uncomposted) cow manure contains harmful pathogens and should not be used. It will also heat the bin to deadly levels and kill your worms.
  • Powdered limestone will create carbon dioxide in your bins and suffocate your worms if the bins are not well ventilated. Use sparingly only if absolutely necessary and stir your bin every few days following adding.


Related wikiHows


Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://vermontworms.com/red-wiggler-compost-worm-bin/

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Make Your Own Worm Compost System. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

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How Not To Bake Your Worms!

I was poking around on the Instructables website and I found this interesting Instructable, I guess that’s what they are called. I had been thinking about this when it was 105 degrees here at my place back in August, how could the worms live when it is 100 degrees in the shade. Well here is an answer that looks like it would work!


The Worm-A-Rater – More DIY How To Projects

Check it out and lemme know what you think!?

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Top Five Things I Put In The Compost Pile.

Hello again and welcome back !!

I was in the yard doing some cleanup and I got to thinking about what I have put in the compost pile this week, let me rephrase that…alot of cleanup!
So here they are , its what works for me, your mileage may vary!!

1.   Old Hay

We have alot of hay bales and they break open or get wet and just generally get unusable, I take the old bales and break them up, soak them down real good with the water hose and then layer them in the pile, This makes up the main ingredient in my system.  You have to soak them good, otherwise it acts like a thatched roof and water just rolls right off of it!

2. Grass Clippings

Grass Clippings are the green component or nitrogen ingredient of this set up, I have about an acre and a half of “lawn” area and that provides plenty of grass clippings for 2 piles I use a Cub Cadet walk behind mower with bagger for harvesting the grass clippings, it works great !    P.S.  We also have a riding mower for the rest of the yard, I don’t push the bagger over the whole yard! :/

3.   Animal Manure

We have Cows, Chickens, Pigs, Goats and a Horse, there is no shortage of manure choices.  I usually us chicken litter for this component, it’s easy to get because the chickens roost in the same place every night, occasionally the odd cow pie will go in if I have the shovel handy  but I don’t go turd hunting for the most part!

These three items make up the main part of the compost pile, once I get the layers they pretty well sit for about a month, after about three days if everything is working, you can pull back the top layer and feel the heat that is building up… that means its working!

The Next two ingredients are stuff that just goes on the pile as they build up, they add that little extra boost hehehe.

4. Garden And Yard Waste

This is anything that I pull from the garden that doesn’t get eaten or fed to some animal, weeds, dead plant matter, well let me say naturally dead, not anything that was diseased, that’s a good way to ruin your garden!  And as above more grass clippings, shredded fall leaves… they too will make a waterproof mat if left whole!  They don’t have to be powder, just break em up a little.

5. Kitchen Waste

This can be just about anything but meat, dairy, or oils. I drink alot of coffee and all my used coffee grounds go into the pile, we put the egg shells in there the whole shooting match.  This makes up a small amount of the overall pile , but it adds alot of good stuff!

So there you go , this is what I have put in the compost piles I make. If You want to see the pile being built check Here.


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Whats Up With Worms?

Here is an interesting article on worm composting or vermiposting. I have an old upright freezer I’m converting to a worm bin, I’ll let you know how that goes in the future.

Anyway Here is Michael’s article.
Enjoy

Worm Compost – Why Worm Composting Works

Author: Michael Kohler

Perhaps you have heard the age old adage that you can’t get anything for free. This is true for most things in life with the exception of Irma composting or what many call worm composting. Basically, worms will take your organic garbage and transform it almost magically into a type of compost that is rich and ready to be planted with your garden plants to enhance their growth and make your food that much more rich. There are a few things you should know about worm compost that will show you clearly why it works so well.

Regardless of the affordability factor, worm compost is one of the richest forms of fertilizer that you can use in your garden today. Though this is a very simplified idea, it simply has to do with you taking a handful of worms, dumping them in a pile of dirt with some newspaper, a little water, and your every day organic trash such as leftover vegetables and in a few weeks you will have your worms producing the richest fertilizer that you may every news for your indoor or outdoor garden.

The reason why this is possible is that worms are ultimately natures greatest recyclers because they can take your organic garbage and turn it into expensive gardening real estate. Red worms are typically used in any worm composting bin which can be as small as a Tupperware container with holes or as large as a rain barrel depending upon how much compost you actually want to produce.

Be careful how much food that you give the worms because over time they will begin to overcrowd themselves and you may need to expand your operation which can only be good for you especially if your garden is in need of extra compost from time to time. Some people will actually use buckets and harvest the compost in as short as two to three weeks. Often times 50 to 60 days is necessary in order to keep a proper balance of happiness with your worms as well as moisture content and cocoon productivity.

Probably the most expensive thing that you will have to invest in is in the worms themselves which run about $25 to $35 a pound, which is about a thousand worms. Also remember that the container that you keep them in should be relatively warm as red worms do not produce well or create compost well in colder climates.

As far as a worm bin goes for your worm compost, you can usually pick one up for $20-$30 for a medium-sized one or if you are interested in a barrel, it would be a good idea to get a plastic one. Typically water barrels are made from Oak because Oakwood is used in wine barrels that are commonly seen in many landscaping schemes. Oak wood has an acid which is detrimental to your worm population so you would be better served to spend her money on a sturdy plastic container.

The average worm compost harvesting will net you a round 50 to 55 gallons a year. Make sure that the bottom of the barrel or the container that you are using has drainage holes for the excess water and if you have a lid on top it needs to be aerated with holes on the sides as well as on top of the container itself. Worms can be very finicky and you will have to get to know how the dirt fields with your hands in order to make sure that it is moist enough for the worms to continue breeding and creating compost area

Once you have your worms supply, and you have your bedding and dirt ready in your worm container, simply put the worms on the top about six to 8 inches beneath the soil and add the food scraps on a regular basis on the top making sure to close the lid because worms despite the fact they do not have eyes are photophobic and will not come to the food if there is too much light.

That is it! You are now on your way to creating worm compost for your garden. By following the simple steps provided, you should have enough compost to add to your small garden and create and enough food for your family on a regular basis all year long.

About the Author:

Chris Dailey is the owner of Super Organic Gardening Secrets, a free online service that provides valuable information on organic gardening and worm compost. To download his free organic gardening reports, go
to http://www.superorganicgardeningsecrets.com

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Worm Compost – Why Worm Composting Works

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