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hvaldez_gw

Earthworms?

hvaldez
14 years ago

I am experimenting with this whole worm composting thing that I have heard so much about. Only thing is, I put worms from my garden in the bin. Will these worms work? If so how many should I get? I didn't see the need to go out and buy them when I have a whole garden full of worms. What do you think?

Comments (5)

  • sbryce_gw
    14 years ago

    There are three types of worms. One type digs deep burrows in soil. Another digs horizontal burrows in soil. The third lives in the layer of litter above the soil. What you found in your garden is probably one of the first two types. What you want is the third. The worms you have will probably not work out in a worm bin.

  • 11otis
    14 years ago

    From what I have read sofar, the 3rd kind you can find in aged horse manure piles. Get the ones with the yellow tip on the tail. (the worms, not the horse, lol)

  • brdldystlu
    14 years ago

    I am also very new to using worms, now have a nice active worm bin. We were remoding the bathroom at our country house. One thing we pulled out first was the old bathtub. It is baby blue in color. We were trying to figure out what to do with the old bathtub and I said hey why not a worm bin. Like you I didn't want to buy worms when there are thousands in my garden at our city house. So where I had my compost tumbler is a very rich area that always has thousands of worms. All close to the surface of the soil. So I took about 3 or 4 shovels full down to the country house, maybe a couple hundred worms along with some nice rich compost to get them started. I also got lots of shredded paper and it is working out great. Husband had to create a screen type thing to keep the drain from getting clogged. About once a month I can pile everything to one side of the tub and fill the empty side with new paper and food. I did that this weekend. There were several thousand worms in there. A few were used to fish this weekend also, that is how I sold the idea to the hubby. It shocks me every time I turn the contents of the tub over to find huge balls of worms. I have no clue as to what they are, I figured as long as they are eating the compost in my veggie garden they must be good to eat kitchen waste down at the country house. I wish I would of take photos this weekend of it, I keep thinking I need to. We put wood planks on the top of it and now it looks like a bench. The only thing I don't like about it is I have it sitting on the ground so I can't collect the drippings. I hope to change that some day.
    Sandy

  • acenjason
    14 years ago

    wow brdldystlu what big cool wormbin, nice repurpose of old tub!!

  • 11otis
    14 years ago

    brdldystlu,
    don't worry about the leachate. It is just excess liquid from the feedings and whatever water get into the bin. You've got the jack-pot. The castings and the worms.

    I freeze the worm food because of the fruit fly eggs, I know this is not a problem for an outside worm bin. When I defrost the food, I squeezed out as much liquid as I could.
    BTW, this liquid is part of what leachate consist of. And if you have a cover for the tub to prevent water getting in when it rains, you should have no or minimal leachate. You can absorb it by adding more newspaper and/or cardboard which eventually will become castings.

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