lets talk worms! Bins, castings, techniques etc

I apologize if there is a current thread like this!

I wanted a spot for everyone to share there bins, techniques, feed etc. Just get it going!

I currently am working 2 bins I just got up and going again. 6lb euros in one and 5lb reds in the other. Feed is a mix of the ammendments I use in my coots mix from BAS or down to earth. Neem/karanja, kelp, malted barley, crab meal, all minrals etc.

I'm also planning to get 5-10lbs of african nightcrawlers as well in next 1-3 weeks as I prefer there work rate and castings given temps are right!

I put the reds in a 27 gallon tote with coast of maine lobster compost (3" at bottom) and ground up some biolive and kelp and crab just to get it going. Euros are in a urban worm bin with same mix. Reds have already started to make quick work of the 3" in the bin with a good portion already looking like pure castings in 3 days. Euros a little slower by looks but they are in about 1cf compost not 3" like the reds in tote so I'd expect that anyway. Every 5-7 days I'll add 1-3" compost and feed if needed. I find reds are faster when given less compost and they seem to turn it over faster.

I have had to use just malibu compost last few runs and damn can I tell the difference in comparison to worms working the same malibu compost over before it goes to my bed. Amazing little buggers! I'll get some pics up soon when I'm near my bins!

Now enough with me... let's talk worms! Happy growing!

I'm always up for discussing worms! I love what your doing with your bins. That feed should give you terrific castings!

Here's my thread with pics about the bin i built

The highlights:
6ft x 3ft x 2ft deep continuous flow through bin
started with a cardboard floor, then shredded cardboard, then several inches of compost
Seeded the bin with 5000 red wigglers, 500 super reds, rove beetles, springtails, hypoaspis mile mites, soldier fly larvae and SF nematodes

I feed weekly with 50% rabbit poop that has been rinsed and sat for at least a week 50% used amended soil (sphagnum, ewc's, biolive, rock dust, rice hulls, insect frass, neem, oyster shell). On top of that, i sprinkle about a gallon of a mix i made up that has alfalfa, crustacean meal, oyster shell, azomite and biolive. I then sprinkle a gallon of malted barley powder and water it all in. I put any stalks or prunings from my plants through a shredder then set them to compost. Once theyve gone through their exothermic phase, they will go into the mix. I'm about to plant comfrey for my worm bin as well. It will likely replace the alfalfa, crustacean meal and biolive in the purchased amendment mix i use. Right now, I'm thinking i'll continue the oyster shell and azomite for grit and minerals once i transition to the comfrey. Our families kitchen compost goes in as well, but it ends up being a very small contribution.

I started my worm bin mid July and i'm thinking i'll start using the castings in November. In the meantime, i'm tiding myself over with ewc's purchased from build a soil

Heres a thread from @Deadhead13 on starting his bin

I’ve no freakin idea what happened in my post above.

I'm kinda bummed that the OKC/Houston game canceled, so I'm a little short on words lol... 4ft wide, 12ft long, 2ft high and they hold about 550 gallons.


I shot myself in the foot and talked about getting produce from grocery stores too much and now I cannot find anymore. People have been stealing my idea...

Diesel0889 said:

I put the reds in a 27 gallon tote with coast of maine lobster compost (3" at bottom) and ground up some biolive and kelp and crab just to get it going.

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If you want to get that chitin(crab and lobster) broken down, you should use things that make chitinase like barley and Grokashi. Grokashi has a streptomyces culture from beet juice and it's what creates that fluffy cotton look, it produces chitinase. When I topdress my SIPs I will mix crab, barley, and Grokashi together a few days before I cover it with compost. I was also making 10gal of grokashi at a time too. I need to get back on that...

Deadhead13 said:

great worm farm and thread. I’m hoping to build a bigger one at some point.

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I thought that I was going to make a full on worm farm, but the produce went dry on me. It sucks because everything is in season right now and I wanted to stock up on the good produce... The city compost facility also dried up on me, people in OKC are going nuts on the first outdoor grow season.

MustangStudFarm said:

I thought that I was going to make a full on worm farm, but the produce went dry on me. It sucks because everything is in season right now and I wanted to stock up on the good produce... The city compost facility also dried up on me, people in OKC are going nuts on the first outdoor grow season.

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Dang that sucks man, hope you can find some materials as I am excited to follow along your journey.

I used to have the produce guys box me up all the stuff they would throw out when I worked at whole foods from time to time. I'm on a much smaller scale, so could only use so much at a time. Also used to get spent grain anytime I wanted too, big 55 gallon drums at a time, from a family member who worked at a craft brewery. Again, I never really had space to actually take advantage of these things.

Not sure if you have any craft breweries nearby, but could be an option for some free feed possibly. The worms really seemed to enjoy it. Also, I scored a bunch of free pumpkins from all over the place last year in the fall, maybe you get in contact with some people early and arrange to have first dibs on those this year.

Wish you the best sir and hope to see some updates along the way.

loco41 said:

Dang that sucks man, hope you can find some materials as I am excited to follow along your journey.

I used to have the produce guys box me up all the stuff they would throw out when I worked at whole foods from time to time. I'm on a much smaller scale, so could only use so much at a time. Also used to get spent grain anytime I wanted too, big 55 gallon drums at a time, from a family member who worked at a craft brewery. Again, I never really had space to actually take advantage of these things.

Not sure if you have any craft breweries nearby, but could be an option for some free feed possibly. The worms really seemed to enjoy it. Also, I scored a bunch of free pumpkins from all over the place last year in the fall, maybe you get in contact with some people early and arrange to have first dibs on those this year.

Wish you the best sir and hope to see some updates along the way.

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Pumpkin FPJ was on my list of things to do, but I didn't get around to it. I don't have that many compost options, so I'm probably going to do it this time. Fill that blue trailer with pumpkins and do this again! Here is some plants that I have growing in my EWC from that trailer of produce. 100gal pots with 7ft tall post(for reference).



This one didn't get diluted with promix and it stayed a lot greener, but it's not budding as big too. However, they are different seeds from the same seed pack, so it's not the best experiment. I'm just saying that EWC work pretty well even full strength. I just ran out of pots and promix, but had plenty of castings left.

You can kinda see the box that I built for it compared to the fabric pots. It stayed dark green compared to the others and it looks really healthy. It made me 2nd think using promix and fabric pots...

rkmcdon said:

I'm always up for discussing worms! I love what your doing with your bins. That feed should give you terrific castings!

Here's my thread with pics about the bin i built

Finally building a flow through worm bin! Pics and a question on getting started

Hey all. I finally started my worm bin this weekend and should finish it today. I decided to post pics and I have a question on getting started The bin is 6’x3’ and approximately 4’ tall. The worm box is 25” tall. The bottom will be lined with solid cardboard to make a floor with shredded...

rollitup.org

The highlights:
6ft x 3ft x 2ft deep continuous flow through bin
started with a cardboard floor, then shredded cardboard, then several inches of compost
Seeded the bin with 5000 red wigglers, 500 super reds, rove beetles, springtails, hypoaspis mile mites, soldier fly larvae and SF nematodes

I feed weekly with 50% rabbit poop that has been rinsed and sat for at least a week 50% used amended soil (sphagnum, ewc's, biolive, rock dust, rice hulls, insect frass, neem, oyster shell). On top of that, i sprinkle about a gallon of a mix i made up that has alfalfa, crustacean meal, oyster shell, azomite and biolive. I then sprinkle a gallon of malted barley powder and water it all in. I put any stalks or prunings from my plants through a shredder then set them to compost. Once theyve gone through their exothermic phase, they will go into the mix. I'm about to plant comfrey for my worm bin as well. It will likely replace the alfalfa, crustacean meal and biolive in the purchased amendment mix i use. Right now, I'm thinking i'll continue the oyster shell and azomite for grit and minerals once i transition to the comfrey. Our families kitchen compost goes in as well, but it ends up being a very small contribution.

I started my worm bin mid July and i'm thinking i'll start using the castings in November. In the meantime, i'm tiding myself over with ewc's purchased from build a soil

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You should start making some leaf mold on the side. It don't need to be in a special container, just a tarp. It looks like you have some acreage, so gathering leaves shouldn't be a big deal. Your worm bin will be a bacterial dominate compost to where pure leaf mould would be a fungal dominate compost. I'm not trying to be bossy, I just wish that someone would have laid it out for me years ago...

MustangStudFarm said:

I thought that I was going to make a full on worm farm, but the produce went dry on me. It sucks because everything is in season right now and I wanted to stock up on the good produce... The city compost facility also dried up on me, people in OKC are going nuts on the first outdoor grow season.

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I'm sorry to hear that. Those bins look great. Have you considered looking for a source of manure in your area? chicken and rabbit are usually pretty easy to collect. Even horse can be. Some places have their horses trained to stalls which are then cleaned out making collection of the manure fairly simple. I asked around at work and found a coworker who raises rabbits and they give me a pretty good volume of rabbit poop every month or so now. Might be worth a check if you haven't already
You might also consider growing your own comfrey to feed your bins. Its supposed to grow easily in oklahoma and you can get 6 crown cuttings shipped for $30 from Strictly medicinal seeds. It establishes quickly, you cut it off at the ground and it grows back quickly.
Just some thoughts. I hate to see all your hard work go to waste

MustangStudFarm said:

You should start making some leaf mold on the side. It don't need to be in a special container, just a tarp. It looks like you have some acreage, so gathering leaves shouldn't be a big deal. Your worm bin will be a bacterial dominate compost to where pure leaf mould would be a fungal dominate compost. I'm not trying to be bossy, I just wish that someone would have laid it out for me years ago...

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Lol, well i guess that's one more thing i need to research! Thanks for the advise. I'll start looking into it. I had avoided it thus due to my lack of patients and how long it takes to establish good leaf mold!

rkmcdon said:

I'm sorry to hear that. Those bins look great. Have you considered looking for a source of manure in your area? chicken and rabbit are usually pretty easy to collect. Even horse can be. Some places have their horses trained to stalls which are then cleaned out making collection of the manure fairly simple. I asked around at work and found a coworker who raises rabbits and they give me a pretty good volume of rabbit poop every month or so now. Might be worth a check if you haven't already
You might also consider growing your own comfrey to feed your bins. Its supposed to grow easily in oklahoma and you can get 6 crown cuttings shipped for $30 from Strictly medicinal seeds. It establishes quickly, you cut it off at the ground and it grows back quickly.
Just some thoughts. I hate to see all your hard work go to waste


Lol, well i guess that's one more thing i need to research! Thanks for the advise. I'll start looking into it. I had avoided it thus due to my lack of patients and how long it takes to establish good leaf mold!

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Yeah, I got my companion plants going. There is a native species here that has worked well for me called Lambsquarter. I get my soil tested and it's always low in Mn and Lambsquarter is high in Mn, it's one of the few plants that have an abundance of it. I feel like I got very lucky there because I was reading about it and told my wife that we needed to plant some, but she walked out in the yard and found it all over the place! So, we have comfrey, borage, and lambsquarter now and we will be adding to the list. I own rabbits mostly for the compost, but I'm able to feed them an above average diet and give them straw and alfalfa hay for bedding. The straw catches all of the urine and helps it decompose... Don't get too overwhelmed by the leaf mould, just get some started and maybe turn it every other month and make sure it stays moist. I usually let it compost half way and add it to the worm bin.

Here is my plastic pallet worm bin(My first). These leaves are about a year old when I added them to the worm bin. The 5gal bucket is homemade grokashi and it really helps to keep the bin warm in the winter. Plus, the worms LOVED it and they had a population explosion after I used it. Also in the picture is greensand, basalt, and OSF in the silver bowl and alfalfa meal in the bag.

Man I gotta pat myself on the back for starting this thread! Place we can all really geek out lol.

@MustangStudFarm don't worry man I got me a 50# bag of malted barley from build a soil and its a HUGE part of there diet! My worms only see compost and a very powdered version of any and all ammendment i use un my soil, that is it. (Kelp, neem, karanja, malted barley, crustacean meal, and a equal amount of the rock dust(s) and oyster shell). Expensive but takes your game to another level. Ill wet it down with a light dose of water when I feed with em1 and photosynthesis plus (small amount) to help decomp along for the worms.

My bins have no drain hole etc. I see no water on the bottom, moist moist castings worst case. This is also the reason I dont care to feed produce scraps/2nds in my bin. I may if I start a couple 4x8' bins to breed in to cut cost but my "high end" bins will never see that.

My african NC arrived today (5lb) and are in the bin. They are cold and sluggish a bit. Was about 65F when they arrived and they enjoy 75-85F before they will really put in work. I put them im a 27 gallon tote with 1/2" holes all over the lid. I put fiberglass window screen between the lid and bin when shutting it to prevent escape, less light during the day etc. I found it to give a shade effect.

I put them on a seedling heat mat to help them warm up, I may add a 2nd. Ill give them a day or 2 then decide. I didn't have much time. Its off to football practice for me lol!

I am more than excited to see what i can get done plant wise when I'm able to harvest somthing high end like this... Thanks to all who are contributing to this thread, I appreciate it and the fact I'm not the only organic/worm loving guy here!

P.s. 40 sheets of sheetrock in the am... wish me luck!

Happy growing!

I’m looking forward to seeing the results of castings as well but it will be a while. I’ve got to figure out a way to store and save them. I’m going to be well into Fall before storage becomes a desire tho.

Deadhead13 said:

I’m looking forward to seeing the results of castings as well but it will be a while. I’ve got to figure out a way to store and save them. I’m going to be well into Fall before storage becomes a desire tho.

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A simple tote will work, also the sand bags found at home depot or lowes are about 1-1.5cf and work well. Just a thought!

Diesel0889 said:

I got me a 50# bag of malted barley from build a soil

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The shipping on BAS products is so high though. Do you have a beer brewing store close by? I spent $25 on my 40lb bag and I have a choice of getting 2 row or 4 row. I was doing some reading and 4 row pilsner is supposed to have the most enzymes and it only costed $7 more per bag compared to the 2 row generic stuff(which I have now because they were out). Clackamas Coots said that 2 row stuff is fine, but I think he meant as a bare min...

Deadhead13 said:

I’m looking forward to seeing the results of castings as well but it will be a while. I’ve got to figure out a way to store and save them. I’m going to be well into Fall before storage becomes a desire tho.

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I've been mixing my castings 50/50 with promix for my seedlings and clones, nothing better! Last seed run I had 33 for 36 germination rate on seeds and my clones were popping! 3x seed packs here...

Diesel0889 said:

Man I gotta pat myself on the back for starting this thread! Place we can all really geek out lol.

@MustangStudFarm don't worry man I got me a 50# bag of malted barley from build a soil and its a HUGE part of there diet! My worms only see compost and a very powdered version of any and all ammendment i use un my soil, that is it. (Kelp, neem, karanja, malted barley, crustacean meal, and a equal amount of the rock dust(s) and oyster shell). Expensive but takes your game to another level. Ill wet it down with a light dose of water when I feed with em1 and photosynthesis plus (small amount) to help decomp along for the worms.

My bins have no drain hole etc. I see no water on the bottom, moist moist castings worst case. This is also the reason I dont care to feed produce scraps/2nds in my bin. I may if I start a couple 4x8' bins to breed in to cut cost but my "high end" bins will never see that.

My african NC arrived today (5lb) and are in the bin. They are cold and sluggish a bit. Was about 65F when they arrived and they enjoy 75-85F before they will really put in work. I put them im a 27 gallon tote with 1/2" holes all over the lid. I put fiberglass window screen between the lid and bin when shutting it to prevent escape, less light during the day etc. I found it to give a shade effect.

I put them on a seedling heat mat to help them warm up, I may add a 2nd. Ill give them a day or 2 then decide. I didn't have much time. Its off to football practice for me lol!

I am more than excited to see what i can get done plant wise when I'm able to harvest somthing high end like this... Thanks to all who are contributing to this thread, I appreciate it and the fact I'm not the only organic/worm loving guy here!

P.s. 40 sheets of sheetrock in the am... wish me luck!

Happy growing!

Click to expand...

I'm not trying to come across as a "Know it all" I'm just passionate about soil, probably more so than actually growing...