Posted: 4/12/2010 11:38:32 AM EDT
| Anyone on here use red worms for composting? Advice, pics, help...anything I need to know? |
I have a commercial made worm composter I purchased after a failure with a tupperware container. check on amazon or ebay to purchase one. I bought one last Winter along with a pound of worms. They have taken up residence in my basement next to the canned goods. Two to three times a week I feed them veggie and fruit scraps. NO SMELL no mess, no problems at all except a few fruit flies now and again. The population has turned over a few times and there are always worms of differing sizes when you lift the lid. I have been over feeding and have an extra tray in right now so I can ramp up production in the next two months for a few extra wigglers to put some bluegill in the freezer. I will have about 15-20lbs of castings to place on the roots of all my pepper and tomato transplants in a month or so, I know they liked it last year.
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All I know is wife and kids cleaned out the winter's worth/foot of droppings under all the rabbit cages the last few days and they were literally CRAWLING with little, red wigglers. I mean buckets full!
Chickens got some excitement, and protein, and rest got spread on gardens. |
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I tried starting two separate tupperware composters last year, with a pound of worms in each. I got the instructions online. My goal was to have a control container and an experimental container. In the control container I started the worms exactly as instructed online, and took care to not overfeed/etc. The experimental bin I just piled as much on there as I wanted. Each container started with a pound of worms.
The worms appeared healthy when they arrived, but very early on I noticed the population had dwindled severely in both bins. Then it leveled off. I don't know if this was due to the shock of shipping or maybe too little air flow. I got them from a reputable source. After a couple months I had not noticed a difference in the success of the control container over the experimental container, so I stopped being fussy and started piling the stuff on in both bins. I kept the worms in my garage over the winter because it would be too cold for them outside. In retrospect, I think the Tupperware idea is not worth the savings unless you have a good local source for cheap worms. The shipping costs for the worms are sufficiently high that I think it's worth spending the bucks on a commercial bin. If I get some other projects done in time I plan to make an outdoor bin and have a commercial bin inside. The outdoor bin will be large and designed to handle the added amount of organic matter I produce in the summer. I will not expect those worms to survive the winter. The indoor commercial bin will be there to handle kitchen waste over the winter and provide my starter worms for the outdoor bin each year. I'll let you know if the plan works in a year or two. |
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Can you keep them outside? I've kept mine outside the last few years, but not without problems. My worms were pretty much self sustaining for a few years, but they mostly died off a few months ago. My bin is invaded by black soldier flies when it gets warm––-their maggots are also good composters, but they don't stick around once it gets cold, and they outcompete the worms, which go to the bottom of the bin to avoid the maggots. They usually bounce back when the flies go away, but didn't happen last year. Very few worms left for some reason. You have to be sure the bin is well drained. I tried a tupperware bin a few years back that didn't properly drain when it rained––-killed off all the worms. Very cold winters will also kill them off, but ours are pretty mild here in western Oregon. All in all, though, it's really not that hard, and it produces some very rich compost which is great for container plants. |
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We're just a little south of you and at a higher elevation and ours stay outside and survive. We literally do nothign to them over the winter other than keep them fed with compost material. We go to the master gardener area at the Cowlitz Co. fair grounds and they have worms there and have given us a supply of worms. |
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So you can't use regular worms from a bait store to compost with? The worms used for composting are commonly available at bait stores. Around here they're called "red wrigglers", but I've heard that there are regional differences on that name. The problem with buying from a bait store is cost. Around here wrigglers cost about $3-$4 for 30 worms at the bait store. If you order 1000 worms (1 lb) online from a reputable dealer you can get them for about $60 shipped. Those 30 worms from the bait store are going to take a long time to multiply to the point that they're doing much composting. I have known people who started their vermicomposting with leftovers from a fishing trip, though, it just takes more patience. |
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if you are paying $60 shipped for 1k worms you are gettting raped imho.
http://www.unclejimswormfarm.com/organic/111-black-gold?fontstyle=f-larger this is where I got my worms from about 16months ago and they are still going strong. |
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We're just a little south of you and at a higher elevation and ours stay outside and survive. We literally do nothign to them over the winter other than keep them fed with compost material. We go to the master gardener area at the Cowlitz Co. fair grounds and they have worms there and have given us a supply of worms. What type of container do you guys use? |
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if you are paying $60 shipped for 1k worms you are gettting raped imho. http://www.unclejimswormfarm.com/organic/111-black-gold?fontstyle=f-larger this is where I got my worms from about 16months ago and they are still going strong. Sorry, did my math wrong. I paid $60 for 2k worms. It was $20 per k and $20 for the overnight shipping. Edited to add: Have you used that vendor? I researched that company when I was buying and heard a LOT of bad reviews. |