Wonderful wormies work well !!!!

WORMIES

By Calibuzz - 30 year grower.

Ever heard of RED WORMS? No? Then you will want to read this.

"Red worms are the bomb," when one is an eco-concious indoor gardener; proud indoor growers who do their very best to make their indoor grow environments (IGE) much like,"the great outdoors": bright broad spectrum photon emissions, clean water delivered above and below, good fresh soil, and a clear, circulating, atmosphere - maintaining a benificial mean tempurature. In a great grow room, all of the above listed attributes are in balence - a hard job. Pat yourself on the back my indoor friends!

"Since you obviously care so much - shall we take the organic idea a step further?"

As a thirty year grower, I noticed how well outdoor plants do in great soil. If one has ever pulled up a naturally grown outdoor plant - in good soil - one often finds a little special friend in the root ball: THE WORM.

Worms move underground; they un-compact soil, and airate the soil. Worms move nutrients around, bringing new soil to the existing roots - where nutrients are inevitably depleated. Worms digest decaying organics and - in digestion - produce worm turds full of vital nutrients your roots will absorb. Worms even eat rotten roots on your plant, without harming the living parts (if you've accidentally over-watered your compacted soil...ooops!). Worms may cure root rot and more...and the wiggly critters are just fun to raise and to use.

The one natural vital farmer lacking in the indoor grow room is: "The Helpful Worm." The gardener's goal is creating a balenced ecosystem, and adding farm-raised Red Worms to your pots is another step in the grower's goal to mimic the harmonius balance found in nature.

It should be noted: indoor watering created soil compaction. Soil compaction is bad because compaction leads to water retention, difficulty in root production and growth, deleterious bacterial growth and molds and fungi, and even salt retention - which may bake cannibus plants roots, xylem, and floem - leading to illness and death.

It should be noted: A well fed plant that gets plenty of natural nutrients: grow better, quicker, healthier, and produce bigger better flowers. Nice.

RED WORM USE

1. Order Red Worms off the net. Gurneys Seed is a good place. The worms ship in lots, like 500. http://gurneys.com/default.asp?eid=081506&sid=506238&gclid=CNDx-tW236sCFQoZQgodymx6Nw
2. When they arrive (the cool months) have a compost bucket set up.
3. Add 3-4 worms to 1 gallon plants; Add 10-15 worms to five gallon plants; Add 25-30 worms to a 10 gallon pot.
4. Put the rest in the compost bucket for later.
5. Your done. They will do the rest.

You have now added value to your growing environmnet. Your plants will be happier. Balance is furthered. Make sure - when you harvest - to collect your bigger and multiplied wormies for the next batch.

Find out more on the net!

Peace Be With You Always,

calibuzz

Yay, I've been dying to ask someone with wormies how it's going!

Question - your worm bucket, how much compostable material are they going through in a week? I want to get some, but I worry that I can't provide them with enough edibles and they'll starve.

Sarenna said:

Yay, I've been dying to ask someone with wormies how it's going!

Question - your worm bucket, how much compostable material are they going through in a week? I want to get some, but I worry that I can't provide them with enough edibles and they'll starve.

Click to expand...

Hi!

Not a problem. 500 worms don't eat much. If you make salads in your home, toss the off cuts in the worm bin every other week. They will come to the top to feed when its dark. Don't add meat, bones, or oils. Stick to vegetables - even coffee grounds. The likelyhood is that you will have much more in you daily trash than they will ever need in a month.

A Worm bin is simply a good sized bucket or container that promeotes composting. Uncolored newspaper on the bottom, a layer of soil, a layer of compost, more soil and more compost on top. Keep the compost bin as moist as you keep your plant's soil. They will be fine.

Worms are real low maintenence. I keep my indoor wormie bucket in my grow space. When I transplant to larger pots, I dig in, grab a bunch and put 'em on top when I'm done. The will dive right in. You won't see them again till you harvest, but know they are hard at work keeping your pot soil nice and healthy.

Have Fun!

Peace,

calibuzz

I'm just starting a vermipost system. I'm about a week into flowering, and have clones of my favorites. My next grow, I am definitely going to perform a direct comparison using the clones and adding worms to half the total. Looking forward to seeing if I can observe any differences.

Thanks for the post.

Drake S said:

I'm just starting a vermipost system. I'm about a week into flowering, and have clones of my favorites. My next grow, I am definitely going to perform a direct comparison using the clones and adding worms to half the total. Looking forward to seeing if I can observe any differences.

Thanks for the post.

Click to expand...

Good science! Experimental and control group.

i'm sure you shall be pleased with your investment.

peace

calibuzz

That sounds doable - we're already soil growing and composting but I wanted something to keep inside for when my outdoor compost is frozen. Thanks for the advice!

I have had this idea in the past, it seemed pretty genius. But what happens when it rains (for potted plants outside) or when you water your plants? When it rains, worms go to the top of the soil for air. Won't they come to the top of the soil when you water and potentially escape the pot and end up all over the place?

Sarenna said:

Yay, I've been dying to ask someone with wormies how it's going!

Question - your worm bucket, how much compostable material are they going through in a week? I want to get some, but I worry that I can't provide them with enough edibles and they'll starve.

Click to expand...

Not to worry. Most worm noobs over feed and over water, just like with the plants.

BTW, worms don't actually 'eat' anything. Mainly they just slurp up the slime (bacteria) on rotting food. This is what gets turned into worm poop. It might take a couple of weeks for whatever you've added to break down enough for the worms to ingest.

Like CB says, worms are very low maintenance. I feed mine perhaps once/week, sometimes not that often. I mist the beds very seldom. After the initial wetting, the addition of food usually keeps it pretty moist.

CB is on the money with his tips.

Wet

Vapekush said:

I have had this idea in the past, it seemed pretty genius. But what happens when it rains (for potted plants outside) or when you water your plants? When it rains, worms go to the top of the soil for air. Won't they come to the top of the soil when you water and potentially escape the pot and end up all over the place?

Click to expand...

Hi Vapekush!

Thank you for your questions. If I may give you some positive feedback?

I am providing an indoor solution; however, it works just as well outdoors - though if you put your pots on the ground and do not take care of your soil conditions, they tend to migrate out of your pots and into natural earth.

But happy wormies stay.

Rest assured, worms can deal with any amount of periodic watering, they are made for that. If its wet, they seek the dry area; if its dry, they seek the wet area. Normal three to four day watering cycle indoors is no problem. The worms know what to do if its too wet. And if you have worms, the goal is that: when the worms do their job, your pots won't be too wet. That's their job!

No. I have never ever experience a wet condition where they flee. Worst case scenerio is that they overbreed and there is not enough food, as one has not transplanted to a bigger pot, so they die and become part of the compost. But that is typically longer than the standard 9 to 18 week growing cycle.

GREEN NOTES:

Yesterday I did a transplant from a quart container - for a well developed clone - to a 5 gallon pot. Sure enough, on the bottom of the dry quart pot ( I dry out my soil before transplanting to make sure the soil stays intact) there were the cute little wormies on the bottom - where the soil was wetter. Wiggling about, and diving back up into the root ball to escape the light and air. When I transplanted, I added 10 more wormies from my compost bucket.

I like to use a product called Supersoil: water retention in my own special potting mix. Why? Because it has a lot of wood chips (that retain water), and these chips compost during the cycle and give the worms both food to eat, and a moist environment condusive to worm heath. Lots of food for them to eat, where ever they go. In my transplants, I mix 50% super soil to 50% palm and cactus soil, and fill the pot 2/3s to the top. The top 1/3 is reserved for a mixture of pre-fertilized starter topper coconut soil and mirical grow planting mix and perlite - allowing filtered release of natural nutrients.

The worms Don't seem to mind, no complaints yet; "Just lush plants."

Peace, have fun with your wormies!!!!

calibuzz

PS: If you have added that much water then you have over watered.

Wetdog said:

Not to worry. Most worm noobs over feed and over water, just like with the plants.

BTW, worms don't actually 'eat' anything. Mainly they just slurp up the slime (bacteria) on rotting food. This is what gets turned into worm poop. It might take a couple of weeks for whatever you've added to break down enough for the worms to ingest.

Like CB says, worms are very low maintenance. I feed mine perhaps once/week, sometimes not that often. I mist the beds very seldom. After the initial wetting, the addition of food usually keeps it pretty moist.

CB is on the money with his tips.

Wet

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Hi wetdog!

Very nice notes and feed back! Thank you.

How long have you been adding worms wetdog?

Adding worms to the plant containers? I don't, but get more than enough from the eggs in the worm castings.

Wet

Wetdog said:

Adding worms to the plant containers? I don't, but get more than enough from the eggs in the worm castings.

Wet

Click to expand...

Slick. Nice dude.

Wetdog said:

Not to worry. Most worm noobs over feed and over water, just like with the plants.

BTW, worms don't actually 'eat' anything. Mainly they just slurp up the slime (bacteria) on rotting food. This is what gets turned into worm poop. It might take a couple of weeks for whatever you've added to break down enough for the worms to ingest.

Like CB says, worms are very low maintenance. I feed mine perhaps once/week, sometimes not that often. I mist the beds very seldom. After the initial wetting, the addition of food usually keeps it pretty moist.

CB is on the money with his tips.

Wet

Click to expand...

You are right. The wet veggies like: lettus bits, tomatos, squash, coffegrounds, etc., help keeo the environment moist. I hand stir it up a wee little bit too - when I mist occasionally, and check in on them, by digging in carefully, and pulling out a hand full of compost.