Worm Farms

[Bidadisndat]

"Beentheredonethat"   Ah, yes, but did you get the T-shirt? lol.
I think time to devote to one particuler thing is something that most homesteaders seem to have little of: There's always something else that needs one's urgent attention isn't there? If you do get a small system up and running, please give us some progress reports.
(And though I don't pretend to know all the answers, I really don't mind the typing if I can help you with any specific information or advice.)

Bid

 

[beentheredonethat]

Dame, sorry I wasn't the one who mentioned books, but most of my learning came from the internet. Just search "vermiculture", worm compost, worm castings, etc and you will get more than enough info. The only book I bought was Earthworms for Ecology & Profit by Ronald E Gaddie, Sr. and Donald E. Douglas. Lots of good info.

[darwinslair]

We get to -30 F at some point most winters and have plenty of worms.  They just dig deep enough to get below the frost line in the soil until it thaws in spring.  If you have a compost pile I assume they will stay shallower beneath it and might stay active in it if it is staying warm enough for them.  My compost pile never freezes and I add to it all winter.  I do stop turning it at a point (where I dont want to stand outside and pitchfork compost) but in the spring when I am back out there again, there are the worms all in the compost, long before the ground surrounding has thawed out.  We have regular leaf worms, nightcrawlers and earthworms.  All of them like the compost pile.

[The Future]

Has anyone composted "in place" to bring the full benefit of the worms direct to the garden?  I place my kitchen scraps in garden aisles and cover them with cardboard r shredded paper as needed to keep it somewhat aestheic.  Some permaculture folks advocate this for many reasons.  I love David Blume's assesment of the usefulness of aisles.

1. As a means to access plants
2. As a swale to collect water
3. As a location for compost
4. As a place for worms to gather
5. As a place for worms to retreat from when it rains (burrowing holes into beds)
6. As a place for worms to come back to when the rains stop (burrowing hole into beds)
7. As a place for compost material to act as a path to avoid muddy soil when walking in the garden after rains

I am sure we could think of more uses but aisles needless to ay are not wasted space!

Moving on, was it on this website that I was referred to Harnessing The Earthworm; A Practical Inquiry Into Soil-Building, Soil-Conditioning And Plant Nutrition Through The Action Of Earthworms?  in any case I have it and am halfway through it.  A way to get regular earthworms to multiply rapidly and put them to work in the garden (rather than the compost heap).

[darwinslair]

I do "fall composting" on top of the garden beds.  I do not rake my leaves, instead I mow the leaves and collect them in the mower bag. Then I layer them over the garden beds, cover the leaves up with the potting soil as I empty the containers from the potted peppers and herbs, and turn it all under in the spring.  To this I add the compost from the compost bin which is all of our wet garbage and dog recycling.  It does quite well.

tom

[The Future]

Sounds good except the dog recycling.  If that is what I think it is...dog and cat poop apparently have some nasties that we should keep away from areas where we are growing foods.  So I've read.

[Lady Lilya]

Yeah.  Especially cat poop and pregnant women don't mix.