Desert dwellers worm bin

Obepawn

Obepawn

Well-Known Member
How’s everyone doing? More and more, I’ve been wanting to start a worm bin, but I live in the desert and I fear my efforts would be in vain due to the extreme heat this time of the year. Will the excess heat kill any worms in a bin? Any growers out there in desert climates, such as Palm Springs, Arizona, Las Vegas etc...that have successful worm bins? If so, explain your set up so that I might have a road map in starting my own.

Thanks in advance to any helpful information given.
 
Richard Drysift

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
I think any worm bin left outside during a typical summer would have problems with heat. Of course the worms can live outside in the summer but in nature they can also borrow deeper to cooler temps and under say a layer of wet leaves, grass, or compost.
Is it at all possible you can keep the bin in a cool dark place like a basement? That's where I keep mine year round and they are thriving. If it is warm you can place a layer of wet newspaper on top of them to help keep them happy which breaks down fairly quickly but in a desert this would dry up fast. They don't like hot or very cold temps. They like it just right; room temps.
 
Obepawn

Obepawn

Well-Known Member
California bro, no basements with earthquakes and stuff, and my garage is hotter than the devil’s front porch, so that’s not an option. I was afraid this would be the case. I do use a pretty good brand of EWC, recommended by the Rev, Gardener & Bloome Worm Grow. It’s pretty good but I know it doesn’t compare to the real deal. Thanks for the reply, man.
 
hyroot

hyroot

Well-Known Member
Obepawn said:
How’s everyone doing? More and more, I’ve been wanting to start a worm bin, but I live in the desert and I fear my efforts would be in vain due to the extreme heat this time of the year. Will the excess heat kill any worms in a bin? Any growers out there in desert climates, such as Palm Springs, Arizona, Las Vegas etc...that have successful worm bins? If so, explain your set up so that I might have a road map in starting my own.

Thanks in advance to any helpful information given.
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Worms can't survive temps above 90 degrees. If it is 90 outside then its hotter inside the bin if the wom bin is outsode too.


I'm also in the desert. Temps are over 110 during the day. I keep my bins indoors. I made tower style bins with 10 gallon rubbermaids. I keep them and my ferments in the spare bathroom on the stone tile floor. It stays nice and cool in there year round They dont take up much space either. I have 2 towers with 3 levels of bins on each one.I'm pulling 3 cubic feet every month. I only use 1 - 1 1/2 cu/ft every 2 months. I sell the rest for $30 a cu/ft.
 
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Obepawn

Obepawn

Well-Known Member
hyroot said:
Worms can't survive temps above 90 degrees. Of its 90 outside its hotter in the bin if its outsode too.


I'm also in the desert. Temps are over 110 during the day. I keep my bins indoors. I made tower style bins with 10 gallon runnermaids. I keep them and my ferments in t ig re spare bathroom on the stone tile floor. It stays nice and cool in there year round
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Man, my wife would be trippin. I could hear it now....” hey babe, ima start a worm bin in the house, since it’s too hot outside “. Wife: “Are you fucken crazy. I don’t want those things crawling out of that container...you’re going to far with this shit”. Lol Guess I’ll stick to Gardener & Bloome Worm Gro.
 
hyroot

hyroot

Well-Known Member
Obepawn said:
Man, my wife would trippin. I could hear it now....” hey babe, ima start a worm bin in the house, since it’s too hot outside “. Wife: “Are you fucken crazy. I don’t want those things crawling out of that container...you’re going to far with this shit”. Lol Guess I’ll stick to Gardener & Bloome Worm Gro.
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You shine a light over it for the first few days to keep the worms from jumping ship. They hate light. Then you add a dry mulch layer and a lid. They wont go through the dry mulch. As long as everything is balanced it won't smell at all and they won't jump ship. If conditions are too wet or too dry they will jump ship.

You just explain how much castings cost and how much money you will save. Also how much of a lower quality the best store bought castings are compared to homemade castinga. The nutrient value depends on what they get fed. I feed mine all kinds of veggie scraps, amendments, egg shells, malted barley, and bokashi. The bedding is dry leaves and peat moss. Store bought castings, the worms are usually only fed cardboard.
 
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Kushash

Kushash

Well-Known Member
I have the worm factory 360 in my garage in Vegas that I started in October.
This is my 1st summer with them.
Temps outside are just heating up after a mild summer.
When it hit 109 a few days ago my garage hit 96.
So far my population is excellent with a ton of baby worms.
I give them two frozen bottles of water every day laying them on top layer.
I hose off the bottles after use and throw 3 in a gallon Ziploc and put them in the spare freezer that I just loaded up with a years supply of apricots. Someone mentioned that I should be careful not to give them to much fruit, I haven't had a chance to research it yet and give them 3 or 4 apricots with a mix of veggies when I feed them.
I will know in another month or two how things went and how the temps affected my worms.

Nice to have you back @Richard Drysift!
 
hillbill

hillbill

Well-Known Member
Not in a desert but in the South so hot/humid all summer but keep a 5drawer bin in the AC in utility room corner. Never any odor or mess.

Many worm dealers will not ship in summer heat.
 
Obepawn

Obepawn

Well-Known Member
Kushash said:
I have the worm factory 360 in my garage in Vegas that I started in October.
This is my 1st summer with them.
Temps outside are just heating up after a mild summer.
When it hit 109 a few days ago my garage hit 96.
So far my population is excellent with a ton of baby worms.
I give them two frozen bottles of water every day laying them on top layer.
I hose off the bottles after use and throw 3 in a gallon Ziploc and put them in the spare freezer that I just loaded up with a years supply of apricots. Someone mentioned that I should be careful not to give them to much fruit, I haven't had a chance to research it yet and give them 3 or 4 apricots with a mix of veggies when I feed them.
I will know in another month or two how things went and how the temps affected my worms.

Nice to have you back @Richard Drysift!
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I’m in the Coachella Valley, Palm Springs area. Last weekend it hit 115, 115 on Saturday and Sunday and 117 on Monday. I had a grow experiment in heat stress tolerance with three Nirvana Blue Mystic Autos that just finished last week. From June til the grow ended in July last week, my tent temp lows averaged about 92 degrees and highs about 104. The highest was 109. Small yields, nute burn due to over respiration (Super soil grow) and nanners of course. The runt struggled and couldn’t hack it, one yielded 10 grams and the other 15 grams. Never growing in the summer again without ac. The respiration nutrient burn was the most interesting thing I’ve learned during prolonged heat stress.
 
hyroot

hyroot

Well-Known Member
Obepawn said:
I’m in the Coachella Valley, Palm Springs area. Last weekend it hit 115, 115 on Saturday and Sunday and 117 on Monday. I had a grow experiment in heat stress tolerance with three Nirvana Blue Mystic Autos that just finished last week. From June til the grow ended in July last week, my tent temp lows averaged about 92 degrees and highs about 104. The highest was 109. Small yields, nute burn due to over respiration (Super soil grow) and nanners of course. The runt struggled and couldn’t hack it, one yielded 10 grams and the other 15 grams. Never growing in the summer again without ac. The respiration nutrient burn was the most interesting thing I’ve learned during prolonged heat stress.
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You have to have large well established plants with at least a 5 gallon size root ball for them to survive between july and october in the Coachella valley heat. Sips wrapped in white polyfilm would be the best containers to grow in during the summer. I always wait til october to start my outdoor.
 
W

waktoo

Well-Known Member
Look into worm towers. Basically in-ground tubes for worm housing instead of above ground boxes.

May/may not work for your situation, as I don't remember most of the details involved with their functionality...
 
Obepawn

Obepawn

Well-Known Member
hyroot said:
You have to have large well established plants with at least a 5 gallon size root ball for them to survive between july and october in the Coachella valley heat. Sips wrapped in white polyfilm would be the best containers to grow in during the summer. I always wait til october to start my outdoor.
Click to expand...
I’d have to study up on sips, don’t know a thing about it.
 
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