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wonderpets_gw

my worms love living in harvested vermicompost

wonderpets
12 years ago

I have a mesh metal basket in the corner of my bin holding sifted, harvested VC. That way, it stays moist until I have enough to use.

There are always several worms in there instead of the feeding parts of the bin. From granddaddy size to teens -- not just freshly hatched babies like you might expect.

I guess some worms prefer that to apples, cukes and grapes!

Gena

Comments (5)

  • kathmcd7
    12 years ago

    I think some worms might be a bit lazy! lol

  • beeing
    12 years ago

    Must not be over digested then, cause they can get kinda toxic when overdigested, like living in our own waste.
    I've pulled my worms from a bin when I thought it was done, and not harvested castings, then gone back and the eggs were hatched and mini worms were all over in there.
    I've never pulled the capsules out, not yet, but am concerned that I am wasting the babies by putting them into a hostile environment when I use the soil/vermipost and they hatch with little to eat.
    I will start harvesting the caps.

  • african
    12 years ago

    Whenever I start up a new farm, I find the quickest way to speed up the cycle and get the worms productive as soon as possible is to put in a few handfulls of fresh vermicompost into the new bin together with the worms. By adding the vermicompost I don't have to wait for the worms to settle in before adding food, but can put in a small amount of food scraps right away. The secret is that together with the fresh vermicompost you are introducing a substantial mass of active bacteria to speed up the decomposition process of the food to make it palatable to the worms. Of course you will also have the added bonus of a number of egg casings hidden in the compost to get the next generation going faster.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Setting up your worm farm

  • tobytub
    12 years ago

    Can anyone explain about "overdigesting" and related toxicity as mentioned by beeing

  • PeterK2
    12 years ago

    I've always heard about VC being toxic etc, but never found that myself. They seem to actually like it and I now add it on top of newly added food to get the worms there quicker.

    In theory if it was 'pure' VC the worms shouldn't have anything to eat and would starve. But I think for most of us it's not pure as we don't go through a real VC separation process. You see the big producers with their driers and separation drums etc., for us it's more scoop out black stuff and set it aside :P. That will have VC and regular black composted material.

    I now hold my harvested VC for months before checking for baby or eggs instead of at harvesting time. Much easier once they've grown some as opposed to picking out babies when you've harvested. They seem to have no problem finding food still and the harvested VC has just been processed some more ;)

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