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Amy
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- Minneapolis, MN
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I give my worms lots of coffee grounds and they do take a while..but be patient..they will get eaten. My worms love them and they are really a great addition. One thing that helps is to mix some of your fruit..juicy stuff..soured milk..soft vegeta...
Amy,
My new Gusanito system is just 2.5 weeks old and I've already done away with the weed barrier cloth. I set by bin up with bedding and food and let it sit a week before I got my worms. Probably not the best idea, but being a newbie... I added ...
If we touch a cut chilli with our bare hands, it will "burn" our skin. I imagine it will burn the worm's skin too and they breath through their skin. I would not put hot peppers in the bin. The big peppers (paprikas?) are OK.
This is probably an obvious one, but will worms eat hot peppers? Like Thai chili peppers or jalepenos? We have some peppers in our garden and I didn't know if it was dangerous to chop them up and feed them to the worms.
Starchy things when in a worm bin will tend to heat up, how much depends on the amount of material you're talking about. That's why in a smaller bin moderation is important. Organic material is broken down by bacteria that is everywhere in some qu...
We had a bug infestation in our kitchen and consequently tossed out many half-used bags of dried beans. I gave them to a worm bin. The heat from the decomposing beans killed the worms. It got really hot.
Mark
I put in spent flowers. No danger of fruit flies there.
I use my kitchen shears and cut them up into pieces and then put them in the freezer in my container.
We buy 5 pounds of bananas a week, which is approximately 15 bananas. I peel them all at the same time and cut them up to put in the worm bin. I cover with bedding and when I check them in about 3 days they are pretty black and on there way to get...
Worms are part of a food chain. Organic material starts to decompose the moment it stops living which is why we refrigerate it to slow down this procees which is heat dependant.
The material is attacked by bacteria and fungi (mold) that feed off ...
The worms will the blueberries and the mold. The only thing you have to watch out for if food that has gone anaerobic - that rotten.
Hi - did you ever get an answer to food with mold on it? That is what I am curious about...I found some old blueberries...thanks
I am concerned about possible poisoning my worms with pesticides used on the bananas. However, my worms love the banana peels. I certainly do not want to wash everyhing going into my worm bed but dont want to poison them either. Has anyone used ba...
Hi Dennis,
that's very good info. Thanks.
I found answers to some questions I had.
There's an excellent article on the Wormswrangler site on storing worm compost/castings at: http://www.wormswrangler.com/articles/how_to_store_worm_castings.html. I thought that the other articles on this site were good as well.
My first beautiful stuff - from the weed barrier!
Comment Wall (3 comments)
- At 1:42am on July 2, 2009,
Esther said… - Hi Amy,
Yes. It certainly is a super long one.Got that from my garden after the rain. The worms come to the surface after a heavy downpour. I just dig about an inch or two deep below the soil and they are there resting. But I am not sure of it's 'type'. Anyway I am looking forward to my African Nightcrawlers this Sunday. Got my bedding and kitchen scraps all ready. Getting excited.
esther
- At 6:22am on April 11, 2009,
Robyn said… - Hi Amy,
My system does not produce liquid, but that really depends on how much you "water" it. It's important to keep the whole system pretty damp by spraying it down. I live in Colorado and need to do this almost everyday since it is so dry here. One time I over watered and liquid did seep through the bottom. No big deal - I keep my Bag on a laundry hamper stand and I have that in a bin. It's just what I have - but to set a pan underneath is good just to catch anything that escapes, water, castings, etc. Other than the little bit of liquid, nothing really comes out. Like Bentley mentioned in his post on his site, you actually have to use your hands or something to coax the castings out.
Hope this helps!
Robyn
- At 7:51pm on April 8, 2009,
Robyn said…
- Hi Amy,
Thanks so much for your questions and interest! I have been absent here for awhile and had been wanting to start posting again - so thanks for the prompt.
I think the The Worm Inn would suit you perfectly -- and I'm not just saying that! :)
My situation is similar to yours in terms of waste produced. I have hung my bag by bungee cords on shelves, but for the last several months I've used a laundry hamper stand. I have not received any customer reviews but the Worm Inn has been reviewed by folks who find it on the web in very random ways. If you click on the Worm Inn Blogtalk on my blog you can see a list of these. These are folks who think it's nifty and write something about that.
I have used mine for a year now and am happy to say it has worked really well. I only had one fruit fly infestation where I had to cut back on depositing food, but other than that I have not tossed any scraps out at all during the last year. On The Worm Inn site I have an "Updates" page where I log any adjustments I've made. There are also dimensions on the Complete Line page. I'd say the bag is about 35-40lbs at maximum capacity.
please see my blog at http://nomadneedles.wordpress.com for the WI blogtalk link.
Also http://theworminn.com for the official site.
These are also available on my Etsy site - http://nomadneedles.etsy.com
(I'm not familiar with how the Worm Factory works as I've never used it, so I cannot speak to the differences there).
Do let me know if you still have questions.
Thanks again!
Robyn
Profile Information
- When did you start composting with worms?
- May 30, 2005
- How were you introduced to vermicomposting?
- I can't remember!
- What do your worms like to eat?
- Watermelon rind and my falling apart cotton underwear
- What kinds of worms do you have?
- red wigglers
- What worm bins do you use?
- I tried my own (Rubbermaid) but had problems so I plan to try a tiered Worm Factory
- How many pounds of garbage do your worms recycle each week?
- I've never weighed it
- About Me:
- when i was little, i had no fear when it came time to pop a worm on a hook for fishing. now, worms are my pets! i'm a lutheran pastor in minneapolis who is utterly thrilled to feed kitchen scraps and old clothes to hungry worms instead of the plastic garbage bag.
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