Constructing Your Very Own Worm Farm

Beginning worm farming is not immensely complicated all you'll need is a bit of fury for recycling and a easy vigor of worm trivia so here is some worm trivia that might help motivate and modify youwith your worm farming.. How much will the worms eat? Mature worms capable of eating ripening or over three times their avow body rule every day again those who are tailor-made obtaining their feet dank out in worm farming further would enjoy brainy how make worms eat further to be fresh productive.

The key is easy - shred, mash or associate food scraps as these entrust give added digestibility and is very easily eaten by the worms. also make sure you keep their brace temperature at around 23-25 degrees Celsius, being it's at these temperatures that worms meal more valuable but, duck acidic foods, because it will screw up their digestive plan. The following are a few things you may and want to evade feeding your worms term manure, onions, citrus fruits or peelings, garlic, garden dry sprayed with insecticides, dairy products like milk besides cheese or meat.

Keeping the farm moist consign heighten the venture of the liquid fertilizer but bring care not to add too immeasurably wet relaxation the farm or the worms will arrangement. Take note that keep wastes are almost eighty percent water and that gets released when the worms break them single. So, if you happen to pour dampen over the system every few weeks or so make sure that you only enclose enough to equate sure that the worm bed stays arrogant and you will presume true a constant provide of liquid fertilizer.

You won't actually stand for producing to reap the worms as they tent to regulate themselves within any available space and food given to them. The following are some supplementary questions that you could get done up asking.

Why is it common for worms to congregate on the lid of the farm during rainy periods? It is a normal functioning owing to these worms to react this way during the rainy season to avoid taking drowned.to avoid drowning. Simply move the worm farm bins or boxes to a place where absolute won't be exposed to too extremely rain and drop the worms on their bedding

Why don't the worms go to the inauguration of the tray? It may betoken because you putting consequence new food before the worms think complete the previous feeding batch. Worms have an instinct to eat leftovers and bequeath not search for a new food source until it's done with what was up-to-date left. As a result, before adding new trays, halt the feeding of the worms for at first five days to ensure complete existing sustenance is gone and instigate sure that the levels at the tray needs to be placed high enough for the worms to pass easily up to the next tray.

Do worms have the ability with opinion extremely tiptop temperatures? Worms can be aware a temperature range between 10-30 degrees Celsius and so if it gets hotter than they can stand, place the farm in a nice shady cool area post it won't have any trouble regulating moisture and humidity of the worm boxes. character gelid temperatures,cover the creel with old clothes, blankets and wool shavings to sustain the warm temperature. It is also best to food about a site that recommended since more food digested on the worms example permits supplementary fire being generated in their bodies. So, do take heed of these ideas and soon you'll be able to constructing your very acquiesce worm farm.

Worm Farms

Compost worms are amongst our favourite backyard buddies, as they turn our household food scraps into 'black gold. Worm castings are phenomenal soil improvers. We spread worm castings over the veggies beds, and around our fruit trees from the base of the trunk to well past the drip line. They're much better than any other animal manure. And they have no smell, which keeps the neighbours on side!

Can of Worms

We found a great system to start out with is the 'can of worms.' This worm home is a system of trays, shown in the picture above. You feed your worms in the top tray, and harvest castings from the lower trays.

Bathtub System

To get the worm castings really cranking, worm houses made from old bathtubs are the way to go. We set ours up on a frame for easy access.

To make sure our wormies don't go walkabout, or drown, we put a 5cm layer of gravel at the bottom of the tub. Over the top of the gravel, we put a weed matt and some washed river sand to make sure there is no mixing between the valuable worm castings and the gravel.

Ventilation and aeration is critical. Wormies need to be able to breathe easy! One way we increased air flow was by cutting 6 slits in the bottom of the tub. We also have gaps between the tub and the lid, to allow oxygen to pass across the top of the worm farm, but still keep out excess water during heavy rains. And we areate the worm bed whenever we feed the worms, or add water to the system, by lightly 'fluffing' the material in the bed with our hands or a trowel.

Guide to worm composting - Dealing with common problems found in worm composting bins

SOME WARNING SIGNS:

Some warnings that your worm composting bin is not going as well as it should be are:

If your worms are dying. And if your bins smells like rotten or it attract some flies

WORMS ARE DYING:

There are some causes why is your worms are dying:

Your worm may not eating the enough food which is you should bury it with more food into the bedding.

Your worm may be too much dry, which in case it should be moistened in a box until it is slightly damp.

Your worm may be too much wet which in case it should receive bedding.

These may also receive too much heat under the sun which in case you should put it inside of your bin so that it may receive some shade.

Your bedding has been eaten and its time for you to add some fresh bedding to your worm bin.

BIN SMELLS:

Whenever you smell that your bin smells like its been rotten or your bin may attract flies these may be the three causes why your bin smells:

Maybe there is not enough air circulation whenever in case this may happen add some dry bedding under it and over of your worms and do not feed your worms for 2 weeks.

There maybe some non compostables may present some such as meat, some pet feces or some greasy food all of should be removed.

maybe some exposed food in the bin if in case you should be secured the lid cover the food scraps with a bedding and also cover your worms and bedding it with a sheet of plastic.

FRUIT FILES:

These fruit files are not harmful but these are a nuisance and a very common problem with our worm composting bins we should discourage fruit files by always burying our food wastes and by not overloading the worm bin we should keep always a plastic sheet, piece of an old carpet or some lid on the compost’s surface in the worm bin. The author of worms eat my garbage Mary Appelhof is acknowledges that she doesn’t found a perfect solution for the fruit files. If you add a spider this helps us to reduce fruit files if some flies persisted us, move the bin to the area where will not be bothersome.

Guide to worm composting - intro to composting with worms and worm compost bins

Worms can be useful in different ways. The compost worms are more easy to raise and can turn our unwanted food and organic wastes into a healthy rich plant food that can be use directly to the base of our plants, or dissolved in water and it can be used as a foliar spray.

African night crawlers and European night crawlers are examples of large types of worms. This large type of worms can make for excellent bait and will almost catch freshwater species of any type of fish and other types of saltwater as well.

There are almost thousands of different types of worms, each of this thousands worms has its own purpose.Let worms eat our organic waste. They will be happily turned into some of the best fertilizers that can be used here at Earth. Worms also composts or it is also known as “worm castings” or “vermicompost”. A fascinating and an easy way to recycle our wastes, vermiculture or worm composting:

Requires very little work

Produces no offensive odors

Help plants thrive

Only few things are needed to have good worm compost: a bin, bedding, worms and some worm food. By following some steps listed below, you will be easily learn how to make, maintain and you will easily learn how to compost your worm compost.

SUITABLE worm composting SPECIES:

A earthworm species are most often used Red Wrigglers but European night crawlers may also be used. There are names called at the European night crawlers including dendrobaenas, dendras, and the Belgian night crawlers.

You can also get your worms from your compost bin; you can purchase them/find a horse stable/farmer with aged manure pile

In every 1 pound per day of food waste, you’ll need 2 pounds of worms. Whether you are unable to get this many worms at the start, reduce the amount of food waste until the population of worms increases. Red worms can mature sexually in 60-90 days and it can produce cocoons which take 21 days for them to hatch their baby worms. Once the worms start breeding they can deposit 2-3 cocoons per week with 2 baby worms in each cocoon.

Guide to worm composting - maintaining worms in worm composting bins

Red worms/ Red wrigglers are the best kind of worms for composting. These worms are often found in the old compost piles. These worms are different from the earthworms you would normally find in the ground. These worms have a huge appetite and they reproduce quickly and thrive in the confinement. These worms can eat more than their own weight in food every day. When you purchase some red worms, 1 pound is all you need to get started.

The best suited for composting are red worms. These worms are often found in the aged manure, compost heaps and piles of the leaves. These worms are also known as brandling and manure worms. Their official names are Eisenia foetida and Lumbricus rubellus. On the other hand dew worms are also better suited to life in the soil and shouldn’t be used in a worm bin.

You can also get your worms from your compost bin; you can purchase them/find a horse stable/farmer with aged manure pile

In every 1 pound per day of food waste, you’ll need 2 pounds of worms. Whether you are unable to get this many worms at the start, reduce the amount of food waste until the population of worms increases. Red worms can mature sexually in 60-90 days and it can produce cocoons which take 21 days for them to hatch their baby worms. Once the worms start breeding they can deposit 2-3 cocoons per week with 2 baby worms in each cocoon.

FEEDING YOUR WORMS



Worms in composting bins like to eat many of the same things we human beings to eat, only when they aren’t so picky. Favorite foods they eat are:

Stale bread

Apple cores

Orange peels

Lettuce trimmings

Coffee grounds

Non-greasy leftovers

Vegetable scraps

Feeding your worms at the beginning feed them only a little at a time. You can add larger quantities of food waste. You should do bedding regularly, if you rotate the bin as you go. If you return to the first spot, most of the food you have buried there should have been eaten.

Your worms can eat your food scraps, fruits and vegetable peels, pulverized egg shells, tea bags and coffee grounds. To avoid some potential rodent problems do not compost meats, dairy products and soon.

If you pull aside the bedding bury the food waste deep and cover it up with the bedding again divide the bin into 3 or 4 imaginary sections and bury successive loads in different areas in the bin. There’s a weekly waste food that will help us human beings to determine the size of your worm compost bin and the number of the worms you’ll need. Do this for 2 weeks to get an estimate the average of our food waste.

Nature'S Miracle Gardening ‘Green’ With Worm Castings

Gardeners around the country are increasingly aware of ‘Go Green' as more than a slogan. As more and more homeowners are devoted to beautifying their yards, they seek ways to maximize their efforts. Most importantly, the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is becoming less attractive to those who garden. They search for alternative ways to grow their plants, trees, and lawns without the use of toxic pollutants. They are becoming progressively more aware of the adverse environmental impact of these products. Yard runoff flows indirectly to our oceans or seeps into the underground water supply. Chemicals pollute. People are becoming more ‘green' minded. Hence an increasing demand for organic products. Worm castings and ‘worm tea' are two of those products.

Worm castings are nature's miracle fertilizer. They are the end result of specialized worms eating and digesting an organic source such as manure compost. The finished product is worm castings, or more simply put, worm manure. These ‘castings' are rich in multiple nutrients and minerals providing plants with a variety of essential elements found in nature that they need to grow. They are also an effective soil enhancer. And, most significantly, they are all - natural and toxic chemical free.

In order to see first hand how this process works - how castings develop from a compost pile to market - I visited Legacy Ranch for a first hand look. Legacy Ranch is secluded in the mountains of Campo, California about 50 miles east of San Diego owned and operated by long time rancher and horse aficionado, Lonnie Sole. Lonnie is a ‘cowboy' in the old fashioned sense and looks every bit like one. Lean and wiry, Lonnie is a no nonsense guy when it comes to ranching. He loves the solitude and beauty of country living. He is at home with the coyotes and other wild creatures that roam his ranch by night and attending his horses and Corriente long horned cattle by day. Doesn't really like city life at all. Now in his 60's, he still rides horses regularly and his horses know him by sight.

More than four years ago, Lonnie conceived the idea of producing worm castings for commercial sale. I believe he did so out of curiosity, somewhat from the challenge, but mostly due to his growing concern over the use of polluting chemicals and their effect on the increasingly fragile soil and limited fresh water supply of our good earth. "My worm castings and ‘worm tea' are nature's miracle for growing beautiful flowers, plants, shrubs, trees, and lawns safely without toxic chemicals. Plants love it; insects hate it" says Lonnie.

It has not been an easy journey. He started from scratch and has built his operation into a major endeavor. He now estimates he has millions of worms ‘working' for him. It is an intensely interesting operation and one full of details and watchful care.

Worms can be finicky little creatures. The wrong temperature in the beds, inappropriate food, or any little annoyance can send them scurrying away. And you don't want to see your investment leaving home. Constant vigilance is required to feeding, moisture content of the compost, temperatures of the beds and the general well being of the worms themselves.

Presently, Lonnie and his workers have three old converted chicken barns that house his worms and the castings. He has installed sprinkler systems and various pieces of equipment to minimize labor. However, worms require an intense amount of attention. There are lots of hand tools around, too.

He begins by laying out windrows of moistened composted horse manure which he obtains as a recycled product from a nearby horse ranch. Each windrow is about four to six feet wide and the length of the barn, about 200 feet or so. To this he adds his specialized worms, India Blue. They begin work immediately eating and digesting their favorite food. More compost is added to the top of the row as required and as the worms consume what they had initially been fed working their way from the bottom to the top of the windrow. Within four to six weeks they have converted a row of compost to rich and valuable worm castings. It is now harvest time.

Harvesting castings is done largely by hand. A new windrow of composted horse manure is laid down adjacent to the first. Feeding and watering of the initial windrow is terminated and overhead lighting is turned on. The worms, seeking food and water and averse to light, migrate from the first windrow to the new one rather rapidly. What is left in the first windrow is the sought after results of the eager worms ‘work', rich and beneficial worm castings along with the eggs left behind to hatch later and replenish the stock.

Once the castings are harvested, they are moved to the processing barn where they must be screened. This process removes the clumps that may contain eggs and any uneaten hay or the like from the castings. The final product is dark, rich, dirt - like material. That is the sought after nutrient rich plant food. It has no obvious odor except that of the forest floor or a rich humus soil.

Worm castings may be bagged for direct sale or mixed with a compost to use as a planting medium. They are an excellent natural fertilizer and soil enhancer, 100 % organic and becoming increasingly more popular in the organic gardening movement.

Last year Lonnie began a process of brewing a ‘tea' with his castings. This is a liquid form of dry castings using natural spring water and other organic ingredients. He brews this concoction for about twenty-four hours in special tanks. He has developed a unique product and it is presently on the market under his own label, "Nature's Big Bud Liquid Worm Castings, Premium 100% Organic Liquid Plant Food ". He also sells to other independent distributors, farmers, and commercial plant growers. His product is high in microbial content attributed, according to Lonnie, to his use of pure, high quality worm castings, natural mountain spring water and other organic ingredients he is reluctant to discuss. Trade secret. But I know that natural yucca extract is one of them.

His ‘tea' is becoming a widely sought after garden product. "This cutting edge product will produce superior results for both the home gardener and the commercial grower," says Lonnie. "We expect superb sales. The general public is becoming increasingly aware of natural, organic gardening without using toxic chemicals."

Nature's Big Bud Worm Castings, Inc. spokesmen proclaim their product as "Nature's miracle for growing beautiful flowers, plants, shrubs, trees and lawns safely without toxic chemicals." Yucca extract enhances the product immensely, they say, by acting as a wetting agent and it contains natural steroids beneficial to plants whereas the use of natural mountain spring water invigorates the microbes while conveying a multitude of valuable minerals to the soil and plant.

His use of natural unfiltered mountain spring water makes his product unique. He may be the only brewer doing so. This water, straight from a natural spring on the property, is pure and full of essential minerals unlike city water. It contains neither chemicals nor additives. That may be one of the keys to his product.

Lonnie swears by his ‘tea'; he is not alone. A brief surf on the Internet and one can view hundreds of sites pertaining to worm castings and worm ‘tea'. These informative and interesting sites all have one thing in common to the gardening buff: they are gleeful in their endorsement of worm castings and ‘worm tea'. Testing has shown these unique organic and natural products to be highly beneficial. Many noted soil experts are further studying the phenomena, but most agree that there is merit in the claims even though they don't necessarily know exactly why. There is increasing evidence that worm castings and ‘worm tea' assist in insect and disease control also. It is strongly believed further testing will prove that out. However, there is little dispute that worm castings and ‘tea' work! And work well!

I spent many hours with Lonnie discussing his love of worm farming. Several aspects of his efforts were amply evident. Lonnie knows worms. He loves producing a product that is going to help people garden more efficiently and in a manner friendly to the environment. He is not an environmental fanatic, but he knows that chemical free gardening is preferable and somewhat inevitable. The transition to "green" gardening is here and it is real. Slogans are one thing; Lonnie is proactive in his endeavors.

Lonnie loves the land and by all accounts the land loves Lonnie. His worms are promoting a healthy, chemical free environment and that comforts him.

Me, too!

Compost Tea - The Tea Of Worms Explained

Many people are tea drinkers. Whether they are drinking Oolong tea or black tea from their local grocery store, that person has a certain image as to what it is, what it tastes like, and what it is for. There is a certain kind of tea that no one should drink but is one of the most beneficial, nutrient filled solutions that has ever existed. It is called worm tea. What is worm tea? Here are a few tips on how you can create and use worm tea otherwise known as compost tea to enhance your organic gardening needs.

Used for hundreds of years, organic gardeners and farmers that have known of the value of vermicomposting have been creating this potent nutrient filled liquid that is better known as worm tea or compost tea. This liquid which some say has a fragrant odor or is completely odorless can be used on the leaves of potted plants and also in the soil to enhance plant growth as well as help protect the plants that you grow.

It is actually a very simple process with a couple of not so simple steps if you have never done it before. Basically, the vermicast is put into a filter like a nylon and added to a jug of water and oxygenated in order to encourage microbes within the mixture to flourish and grow. Some additional ingredients to add to this tea include molasses or sea kelp. The oxygenation process will continue for about a day or sometimes longer.

Once done, it can be bottled and sprayed on plants or poured into soil at the base of the plants in order to inject a kind of a topical fertilizer that not only helps plant growth but also repels insects and disease such as spider mites and various pathogens, respectively.

There are various ways to get compost tea and one of those ways is through the collection of worm castings. Worm castings are essentially the poop of the worms. Their manure feels like soft little nodules that can be bagged up and cooked like a tea (except at room temperature water) and then used in the same manner that the worm tea was used in liquid form. Usually distilled water is used in the sifting process when using the castings and can actually be a much neater process when doing this on a large scale.

Most compost tea is concentrated so even if it does come in a bottle that looks ready to use, treat it the same way you would miracle grow or other non organic fertilizers. Castings tea should not burn the leaves of plants or over fertilize the soil but it is a good idea to use it more often in diluted form than less often in concentrated form. Red worms and their castings have become a hot commodity for all of those in the organic gardening field.

In essence, you are putting healthy microorganisms back into the soil which can then begin to thrive and multiply creating the ideal environment for your plants and a natural barrier at times for things that would come to destroy them. And unlike most nonorganic fertilizers, if you happen to spill too much into an area of your crop, it will not burn your plants.

By taking the time to create your own worm farm, and making your own tea for your garden or crops, you should see not only a positive growth in your vegetables or fruit, but a noticeable taste difference and production difference in how long it takes your crops to grow. You will also notice that your plants succumb less to fungus and other pathogens and diseases.

Also, by regularly adding this special tea into your garden area, it will also help you regulate the watering of your garden which is very important for crop growth. If you are doing this on a larger scale, you may need special equipment in order to harvest the worm castings and process them, and also to make worm tea on a commercial scale requires significantly different equipment than a small scale operation.

Overall, it will be worth your while to go the natural way and create a worm farm that will supplement the nutrient needs of your garden no matter how big or small. The use of compost tea as not only an additive of nutrients but also as an insecticide to protect your crops will make your organic gardening growing experience more pleasurable each and every year.

So the next time that you hear about a special tea that can enhance the growth of your crops, make your food taste better, and increase your overall yields, you will not think about the kind of tea that you sip quietly at the kitchen table, but of natures key that is given to us by red worms to help all organic gardeners grow more plentiful crops called compost tea.