January 2012 Blog Posts (17)

I have 2 Worm Factory 360's loaded with red worms.  They are outside but the worms that made it to the pool did not escape from the WF360's.  Because of the swimming pool, most of our backyard is concrete.  We have a circular area that used to be a fire pit with volcanic rock. I took the rock out and made a garden, last year about this time, using lots of organic matter.  I added worms from my worm bin as I am in California and have discovered they can live here all year long or at least so…

I have been at this game for 6 months now, and I attempting to now streamline my operations and cut cost to bear minimums when allowed.  It is not that I am cheap, I just want to run my business as efficiently as I can. I have found that from time to time my Euro's like to make the midnight run.  Its not that I have lost a lot of my stock it is the thought of just one night with conditions not so right I might have a whole herd stampede. I use lights to discourage them and it works great,…

I've been using vermicastings (i.e. castings from worms) in my deep water culture bubbler system for a couple of weeks on an experimental basis. The 2 lbs of castings are stored in a paint strainer bag and submerged in 9 gallons of water. The castings are generated by 1 lb of European Nightcrawler worms that compost my kitchen scraps and a large amount of coconut coir used as bedding material. The "bubbling" comes from aquarium air stones and an inexpensive aquarium air pump that aerates the…

Eisenia fetida, known under various common names such as redworm, and red wigglers, Tiger worms. Theses species of compostworm worm are adapted to decaying organic material. These worms thrive in rotting vegetation, compost, and manure and cannot live in the earth without a good layer of rotten vegetation. A recent study by the North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, South Africa has found that a large percentage of what we thought were…

I have already seen my bin rebound quite well from lots of fungal activity when it was too wet. So I decided to experiment. I saved a bunch of worm food, mostly my tea leaf left overs along with the bread. That bread was so moldy that when I shook up the sealed bag, a cloud of spores was released. So I added all of it to my worm bin. I've seen either the worms and/or microbes eat lots of fungus before, so I'm not that worried. This should be fun to see if I get a mold bloom before things…

It's time for an update based on my experience with the EH's.  I'll be honest, I'm disappointed.

I have been composting with worms for almost 3 years in my home.  I started with 1 lb of eisenia foetida and in a two year period I grew that amount to more than 19 lbs. I supplemented my composting efforts with rabbit manure purchased locally from a rabbit farmer to help multiply my worm population faster. If you have lots of worms you also need lots of food for them :-)



After…

Who can teach me..tanks

Was looking for a filter bag for Homemade soymilk and ran across this site  McMaster-Carr The mesh filter bags would be perfect for VC Tea making.  They come in many different Mircron particle sizes and are quite inexpensive.  

After reading Carol Deppe's The Resilient  Gardener, I felt a need to defend the tomato, because it didn't make her short-list of must-grow vegetables (She liked squash, corn, beans, and potatoes; she is allergic to wheat products, but why she neglects tomatoes I do not know.)

So. Best ever tomato is Lemon Boy, translucent yellow, very high in sugars, does can safely (the idea of "low-acid" tomatoes is disproven; they taste low-acid b/c they have more sugar).…

That is, these are sources for seeds you can save from year to year, provided in the cases of corn and squash, that you haven't got other varieties right close by. (Peas, beans, and tomatoes are the easiest to save, because they mostly self-pollinate and thus don't trade genetic info with nearby alternate species.) Generally, pick several of your best, earliest fruits to save seed from. Separate seeds from pulp, rinse in a strainer, and lay out on a dry paper towel, labeling it in permanent…

OK, so this is only about a year late....

Last winter was amazingly tough in Illinois. Super cold and tons of snow. For as long as I could, I fed the outside pile, mostly right next to one of three warm spots that kept melting through the pile. 

Because I was feeding the pile, the warm spots traveled a…

Hey what's going on with you guys does your Bins get really wet or just really damp?

Well I have a EASY Simple Solution For you to to.  All you have to do is go to a store and get some Newspaper ( get the free stuff.  I always get liek 4 or 5 Bundles every time haha) and take the newspaper and tear it in strips and put it over your wet bin.  And when you do this the paper will retain all or most of the moisture in the bin.  It also helps out with druing it out.  It usually takes About…

So I'm 2 months into my E. fetida worm bin. I basically have a 35 gal (I think) rubbermaid style bin with decent holes for ventilation and drainage placed into another same type bin with milk cartons for support as a drain catch. So far so good. My first crisis was excess water causing the beginnings of an anaerobic environment which smells pretty bad btw. I tried other things, but ultimately it was adding extra cardboard that balanced things out again. I didn't have egg shells but decided…

Hi everyone.   Over the Christmas period, we made a video and have just got it up and running on our web-site.   I HATE looking and listening to myself - can't believe how much weight I've put on since I had my knee replacement - I've already lost 2kg because of this video.  I can't ride my wee horse while I'm this weight!    And I sound so POMPOUS, and ADAMANT!   Just the way I type lol.  I told L. - the WWOOFA - NOT to include people in the video (I hadn't even brushed my hair or put my…

ALL OF MY RED WORMS ARE DEAD OR GONE. I HAVE DUG ALL AROUND IN MY BIN AND NOTHING NOT ONE RED WORM. I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO. I THINK I SHOULD CLEAN OUT THE BIN AND WASH IT OUT GOOD AND START WITH FRESH BEDDING. THEN ORDER MORE WORMS I GUESS. MY WORMS WERE CLIMBING OUT AND THEY WERE STICKY. DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED. I ADDED SOME PEAT MOSS A FEW WEEKS BEFORE THIS STARTED. HAS ANYONE HAD A PROBLEM LIKE THIS?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5SD5z-p8z4Hey has anyone ever tried using Corn Cobs in their bins.  Well until now i am telling you that they are secret weapons to get the worms to breed.  The worms will breed on them and lay their cocoons in the wholes of the corn cob itself.  And it also provides a home for some worms like babies that will hatch out of the holes.  Any ways i just thought i would share this useful information with…