Starting a worm bin

Cabbagelit

Active Member
I have a couple a of questions. I plan on getting the urban worm bag v2. I have of few questions

1. Worm bedding - should I just mix about 15 gallons with coco/compost 50/50 mix? Add any organic matter like aZomite maybe some kelp to the mix? Pitmoss? What do you suggest? How often do you wet the soil

2. Food- I was thinking of feeding them kelp/rock dust/and malted barley. Let me know what you guys feed and if it’s okay to feed my worms this. And how often am i feeding? Any what portions?

3. Any good articles links or threads you can refer me too?

Thanks guys
 

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
Just plain coco or spent soil is good for bedding. Shredded paper and/or sawdust works too. Add some perlite for aeration and something for grit like crushed oyster shell; maybe some rock dust but we are talking a pinch or two. If you want to preload some fertilizer greensand and/or alfalfa meal is good to add. Save the kelp for your mix. For hydration all you should do is wet some shredded newspaper and place it on top but they should get plenty of moisture from the foods you give them.
Feed them food.... Celery ends, lettuce, rotted fruit, carrot tops, coffee grounds, banana peels, eggshells, etc. Freezing any solid foods you provide will help them break it down super fast but don’t put anything frozen in with the worms; thaw it out first. Freezing breaks down the cell walls turning everything to mush, That’s how they like it. Feed them sparingly until the bin is well established.. say..3-6 months but once they are actively increasing population you can feed about every couple weeks. They can go a month without adding any new food so it’s easy to go away and forget about them. You’ll know after awhile how much to give them depending upon how fast it disappears but at first don’t try to dump lots of food on them. Give just a little and see how fast it’s gone.
 

JustBlazin

Well-Known Member
just got one of these myself a couple days ago, just put 1lb of worms in yesterday.
my bedding was just shredded cardboard, a bunch of dried canna leaves, couple hand fulls of peat in a couple layers and 1/2 cup crushed oyster shell. Then i added more of the bedding Ingredients plus some super thin stalks, 3/4 cup milled malted barley(after worms were in), tbs neem meal,2 tbs oyster shell flour and a tbs of dolomite lime, i just poured a small amounts of water on a few times and used my spray bottle to help get everything saturated, i only saw a very small amount of water come out the bottom(less than 100 ml) zipped it up and I've only saw 2 worms yesterday coming up the side(and that was right after i put the malted barley in there and it was all dry). After the worms had been in there I mushed up a banana and dug a hole and filled it with the mashed up banana and covered it up, put its peel in also
great info i this thread thanks everyone
 
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