vermicomposters.com

Vermicomposting, worm bin, composting with worms community and forums

Andrew
  • Male
  • Berkeley, CA
  • United States
Online Now
Share 

Andrew's Friends

Andrew's Discussions

African Nightcrawlers

Welcome to the forum! Sorry I don't have any tips on the African Nightcrawlers. Have you checked out this sub-group yet? eudrillus eugeniea wormers I envy the weather you're enjoying. Good luck wit...

Replied 7 hours ago

Banana peels Good or Bad

My sister looked up this list to help her decide which produce to buy "organic": What Types of Produce Have the Highest and Lowest Levels of Pesticide Residues? Looks like you'd have to worry mor...

Replied Dec 5

My New Flow Through Bin (With Pictures!)

I noticed this discussion & the subsequent formation of the Flow Through group just passed its 6th month anniversary. I wondered if we could get updates from people who started a FT this year. ...

Replied Nov 29

Effects of marijuana on worms?

Totally irrelevant to worms, but I was wondering... 1. why would a pot head dump all his leaves into a worm bin? feds on his tail? trying to break the habit? 2. would PETA get on your case if they ...

Replied Nov 20

 

Andrew's Page

Latest Activity

7 hours ago
Welcome to the forum! Sorry I don't have any tips on the African Nightcrawlers. Have you checked out this sub-group yet? eudrillus eugeniea wormers I envy the weather you're enjoying. Good luck with the big worms.
7 hours ago
Eve, I shiver just thinking about those temps. 65F is tropical in comparison and I'm sure the worms would be grateful if they only knew. I'm also going to increase the amount of rice I add to my feedings. I've mostly been using bread crumbs, but I...
7 hours ago
7 hours ago
Looks good, Nic. This is the first time I've seen an 18 gal. storage bin converted into a flow through. It has good square footage for ~13-14 gal. capacity (volume above rope). One thing you will need to adjust for is its relatively shallow depth ...
8 hours ago
What was the temp in the bin? I'm not sure about just putting bread crumbs on top. Maybe wait until your next feeding and mix the bread in then?
8 hours ago
18 hours ago
The temperature of the material in the bin itself will be higher than air temps, so the worms are probably fine. Obviously they will be more active if you can keep them warmer. Random suggestions: -dig a hole in the ground big enough to embed one ...
yesterday
on Saturday
on Saturday
My sister looked up this list to help her decide which produce to buy "organic": What Types of Produce Have the Highest and Lowest Levels of Pesticide Residues? Looks like you'd have to worry more about pesticides on strawberries, spinach, cucum...
on Saturday
on Saturday
on Saturday
on Saturday
Andrew and Beth & Dave are now friends
on Saturday
on Friday

Profile Information

When did you start composting with worms?
January 1, 1999
How were you introduced to vermicomposting?
I forget. It was a long time ago. :-/
What do your worms like to eat?
melons, avocado...but really they eat most soft, squishy stuff
What kinds of worms do you have?
red worms
What worm bins do you use?
DIY flow through, styrofoam cooler, garden trench
How many pounds of garbage do your worms recycle each week?
~5 lbs.
My Vermicomposters.com Map Entry URL:
http://vermicomposters.com/wormbin?id=1330
Website:
http://vermicomposters.ning.com/profile/AndrewBear

Andrew's Photos

Loading…

Andrew's Blog

Andrew

Flow Through Bin: week 7 update

Since the volume of compost in my flow through was so slow to increase, I decided to incorporate half the contents of my static (no vent or drain holes) styrofoam bin. This was about 3 gallons of material and worms. I also added more worms from the regular compost bin. I want to increase the population density to 1 lb. per ft2. Since the FT has 2.3 sq. ft of surface area, I need ~ 2.3 lbs. of worms.

Today I did a quick & dirty pile-method worm harvest from half of the FT to a depth of ~4".… Continue

Posted on November 21, 2009 at 11:49pm — 17 Comments

Andrew

BSFL bin - 2 week update

It's only been 2 weeks, but so far neither excessive moisture or smell has been a problem. Since I regularly add coffee grounds, the predominant smell is coffee-ish. It doesn't smell like worm compost, but there's nothing close to offensive about the smell...so far. :-)

I'm on the 3rd version of my DIY BSFL bin. I've modified it to a bin-within-a-bin design. The smaller bin houses the feeding area. This 5 gal. bin always has condensation on the walls. The mature grubs easily crawl up the vertic… Continue

Posted on October 24, 2009 at 4:35pm — 10 Comments

Andrew

BSFL experiment: The grubs have arrived!

My curiosity about BSFL was too great to wait until next year to seed my own local colony. So I cheated and bought a "BSF multi-stage starter kit" from Jerry at blacksoldierflyblog.com. The kit includes hundreds of juvenile & mature grubs along with a "hatchery" that contains a few clutches of eggs (hopefully another 2,000 juvenile grubs in a few weeks) and the baby grubs born in the 2 days it took to get to CA from GA.

Here's an unpacking video that shows the grubs & my mini-bin. Pleas… Continue

Posted on October 12, 2009 at 11:30pm — 15 Comments

Andrew

My life as a vermicomposter: a short history

About 10 yrs. ago (maybe longer), I bought a county-subsidized Wriggly Wranch Worm system (WWW) and stocked it with a pound of worms. Despite (I'm ashamed to say) mostly neglect, the worm herd survived through the years. Several months ago the WWW was knocked over by an animal (dog, raccoon or possum). I didn't notice this in time and the herd was no more.

My sister, who is involved with her kids' school food recycling efforts, asked me for my now empty worm bins. I figured she'd be a better st… Continue

Posted on October 6, 2009 at 9:00pm — 4 Comments

Comment Wall (31 comments)

You need to be a member of vermicomposters.com to add comments!

Join this Ning Network

At 11:05am on December 7, 2009, Beth & Dave said…
Hi Andrew,
Enjoying the cold? Brrr! Have you seen the snow? I thought we lived in CA? Our worms are in our garage. The door in insulated and at times we turn a heater on to keep them warm so that they will continue to "work". Gotta keep them happy! All of our worms enjoy our warm summers and produce more castings and babies then. They slow down a bit when it gets cooler. They all seem to like it best when the temps in the garage are around 70 to 90 F. Right now it's in the mid 60's with help from the heater. We'll need to see if we can find a solar space heater ;) We started with about 20 lbs. of each worm. The African and Euro in the photo were stretched out because they were trying to get away. The red was dazed and confused and not moving much. That is why it looks a lot smaller.
Beth
At 11:43pm on December 6, 2009, Beth & Dave said…
Hey Andrew,
I finally got that blog post done on the mixing of red worm species. Here is the link: http://blog.monsterworms.com/2009/12/06/mixing-red-worm-species-in-vermicomposting-bins/
Let me know what you think.
Beth
At 6:22pm on December 4, 2009, Beth & Dave said…
Great minds think alike Andrew because I was planning on putting on a post about mixing of the three worms. I'm past due to put one out. I try to add one about every three days or so and I'm behind right now. Yes...too many things to do. (the worms is a second job and my other one requires me to be out of town....a lot.) I will probably add that one on tomorrow. I'll let you know. Did you subscribe to our RSS feed so that you get updates to our posts?
At 5:13pm on December 4, 2009, Beth & Dave said…
Andrew,
I have no idea where I wrote that. I can't find it anywhere. Maybe it was a comment to someone. If I ever run across it, I'll let you know.
Beth
At 4:55pm on December 4, 2009, Beth & Dave said…
Hi Andrew,
The only mention of the three worms together that I could find on the blog was when Dave took a tote of worms to an elementary school. Here is the link: http://blog.monsterworms.com/2009/08/21/garin-elementary-hosts-monster-worms/ I think that I commented about mixing the worms in one of the California groups. I'll go check it out and get back to you.
Beth
At 5:46pm on November 30, 2009, Nic said…
thanks, i'll have to look after homework......
At 10:23am on November 29, 2009, Beth & Dave said…
Hi Andrew,
Yes, we have been thinking about putting in a solar lighting system like what you are talking about. That would fit in perfectly with our green business/home concept. We'd like to find something that has a magnet on the back so that we can attach it to the metal racks.
Beth
At 5:31pm on November 28, 2009, Nic said…
i put duct tape on the lid and sides because the blue bin wasnt totally opaque and alot of light still shown through. i dont know if i will get fresh or aged horse manure. i will be calling one of my mom's friends to see if i can have some. i am actually hoping to find and take home some free redworms(:. since this is almost as cold as it gets in florida, to me it is cold!!!!
At 2:34pm on November 28, 2009, Beth & Dave said…
Hi Andrew,
We have solar panels on our roof to produce electricity. Unfortunately the system is set up to send power to the grid and then we in turn receive power from the grid. In other words...if there is a black out, even during the day time, we are without power. This happened during the summer, right after we had been feeding and harvesting. This always causes unrest and the worms tend to wander. We grabbed all of our solar powered landscape lights and stuck them in the bins! It worked! I even wrote a blog post about it.
Beth
At 11:19am on November 28, 2009, Beth & Dave said…
Hi Andrew,
Bit windy today?!?! Brrrr. I forgot to mention two things. 1. Yes we do keep a light on.....fluorescent of course...lol. 2. Bear is VERY cute.
Beth
 
 

About

Steven Chow Steven Chow created this Ning Network.

Badge

Loading…
 

© 2009   Created by Steven Chow on Ning.   Create a Ning Network!

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Privacy  |  Terms of Service