With no clitellum and no cocoons it sounds like the adults all died and the cocoons hatched and the worms were not yet adult. Welcome. Looking forward to your posts. 67 pages is like vermicomposting overload.

Well...I didn`t read ALL the posts. There are only so many times a person can read all-my-worms-died or just-got-my-worms-how-do-I-make-a-bin or can-I-feed-worms-watermelon. Good questions but as I found out, reading older posts will give you the answers you need.

I guess it doesn`t matter why my worms are childless and immature...as long as they get busy and make a new generation and one after that and another after that then it`ll be okay.

I know immature people who have children...maybe it is best the worms are waiting.

This message decided to post itself unbeknownst to me before I posted the same thing.....below.

cb2

This post was edited by chuckiebtoo on Sun, Jan 12, 14 at 11:02

You seem to be very successful with worms when not expanding your own personal "herd".

One of the great things about worming is the attraction kids almost always have with them. If you can keep the bins going until your children are old enough to "help" you with them, you got it made.

Sometimes I've gotten groups of kids interested in our hobby at presentations at schools and with neighborhood "pods" of potential juvenal delinquents.....they almost always get INTO it.

Hang in there till your own rugrats are ready to dig in.

Chuckiebtoo

anitasplace I see reading all of those posts has maybe blessed you with a bit of the "I don't want to write one of those boring posts, ittus too." Sometimes I feel like replying... "Never feed your worms watermelon. The worms will immediately all start looking for ways to escape the bin and you will wake to find them all on your ceiling." To which shaul would reply that is his secret harvesting method. To which mendopete would reply...

(Names randomly selected upon who posted last.)

This post was edited by equinoxequinox on Sun, Jan 12, 14 at 11:28

Regarding don't ask don't tell...I found a second hand 55 gallon aquarium, filter, tubes, stand, the works for just a bit more than the filter would cost new. Recently, my 30 gallon cracked so I have 4 loaches and 3 black skirt tetras living in a 5 gallon bucket THAT my cats like to drink the water from. So...do I ask my husband, who doesn't like fish, or do I just go pick it up? (Look! Husband fixed the question mark!)

We are going to be making seed bombs with the first harvest of VC, to throw around in the space behind our house. Also thinking of planting raspberry canes and some willow. Lilac and goose berry bushes. I can get all of these for free and why not grow food/bee nectar/wood where space is wasted. Sometimes I cut some of the long native grasses/clovers to mulch my veggies. City doesn't even mow! Wish I could have a goat to make all that grass into milk for the kids.

Back to the new bin. Already I can tell it is processing food faster than my RM. I'm keeping the RB (don't tell my lovely husband) and keeping my bedding in it. I'm mixing leaves, cardboard, coffee grounds and a bit of vermicompost with sugar/aquarium water to make it all damp. Hoping to begin the breakdown/any heating done before it gets in the bin.

I've begun freezing then thawing then blending all the scraps I feed them. Use to do that to make baby food. Didn't like it then and I don't now. I don't want to keep it up but I do want some VC to *fall out the bottom about the same time I want to use it in the garden. Look at me...trying to hurry the worms!

Oh, I do have a question. The cardboard I used on the bottom is dry. I think I should have just used newspaper. How do you think would be the best method to get the cardboard wet because when I water the bin it runs right off the cardboard without it getting wet.

Yes, Thomas has posted more than a normal spammer would. This may be a face palming moment that I'll cherish later this evening.

*with the understanding that the VC is NOT going to just fall through, thanks E2 for all your detailed post regarding the none flowing of the flow through.

I'm back after an extended absence. As my screen name implies I live in AZ. East of Kingman to be exact. I am in the process of building a flow through bin so the thread interested me. The biggest hurdle here in Northern AZ is the absolute lack of humidity. Many will tell you NOT to use plastic bins for a worm bin since they hold moisture. DUH! That was just what I needed. I have 3 bins right now with screened holes all over for air and need to add a bit of water every couple of days. One thing that I learned was to put the food on top (I feed mostly cow manure since it's here and free) but not too thick. This way when I add water it all gets moist but not soaking wet as it would if I tried to wet 4 or 5 inches of bedding. My flow through bin will be a 30 gallon bin which should accomidate all the worms in the 3 smaller bins I have now. My goal is to have enough bins to harvest about a pound of castings every week. My garden area consists of 7 rows 5 feet wide and total 222 feet in length. That's just over 1100 sq. ft. of pure growing area so a bunch of compost tea (actually AACT) will be needed in quantity. I have new (kinda) neighbors that want to sun dry persimmons for sale to health food stores. Actually they were doing it in CA but want to do it here with their own trees. I will be doing some batches of AACT with larger amounts of Fungi to help their small but growing orchard. Other than all that I'm still here to learn more if I can.

This post was edited by arizona_wormer on Mon, Jan 13, 14 at 0:50

Anitasplace,
I believe you have me confused with another spelling of Thomas.