Worm farming question

How big of a worm set-up would I have to have to make 50/lbs of worm castings in a year?

I don't know much about worm farming, but a friend is doing it and I'm going to look at her setup.

I'm thinking 50/lbs is the minimum I would like to use for indoor growing and back yard vegetable gardening.

it all depends on how much you feed em

Contact some worm farms. Most are willing to tell you about anything you wanna know. I have spoken with and had many in depth discussions with Bernie @ Mr. Natural http://www.itsaulnatural.com/. Very knowledgeable and helpful folks right here. (Great products, too!!) No need to go into detail as to WHAT you are growing, if you have half a brain you'll figure it out.

my worm farm is a 35 gallon rubbermaid tub and it will produce far more than 50 pounds in a year. if the right food is used i can make 60 pounds in 4 months with that.

kane

Whoooa can we get pics of the rubbermaid??? How many worms are in there? I have to try this

+1-I wanna hear more about that Rubbermaid!

i will try and snap some pics when the sun comes back out tomorrow. i started with 1,000 worms but they start to breed pretty quickly, so who knows what the count is now. i fill it a bit over half full with veggy scraps (which takes 2 weeks or so) and 8 to 10 weeks later there are 6 to 8 inches of castings. mashing up the scraps or making smaller pieces will speed the process up a little.

kane

the first pic is what a half batch looks like before i sift out the castings with1/4 inch hardware cloth. that last pic is what it looks like with some leftover castings/bedding and a few days worth of veggie scraps tossed in. i mix it all up with a shovel every 7 to 10 days and fill it with food until it become difficult to mix up.

kane

grownbykane said:

View attachment 2313896View attachment 2313898
the first pic is what a half batch looks like before i sift out the castings with1/4 inch hardware cloth. that last pic is what it looks like with some leftover castings/bedding and a few days worth of veggie scraps tossed in. i mix it all up with a shovel every 7 to 10 days and fill it with food until it become difficult to mix up.

kane

Click to expand...

Does anything ever spoil?

i havent seen a worm bin like that lately. have you ever herd of like a double basket way to catch worm casting? its kind of like a double boil pan but with buckets and with holes in the bottom of the top one so when the worms poo it falls down the holes.

ive been thinking about getting a bokashi bin and than using already composted food to feed to the worms. would this work?

i have seen worm farm kits that have more than one "level" like you describe but most go for over $100. my rubbermaid was like 8 bucks and i think i paid $20 for 1000 worms. the rubbermaid bin ends up requiring a bit more labor but i dont mind, its all a labor of love!

kane

edit: im not sure about feeding them anything that is already composted, but i imagine the worms prefer food that is more on the fresh side. then again it all composts in the worm bin anyways... try it and let us know!

Looks good, I gotta make one. I figure you can make a cheap 2 level one right? With a little stoner intuition? Where did you buy your worms?

my worms came from amazon.com. they are red wigglers. im sure you could design a multi level without too much trouble, but in my situation it ain't broke so no sense in fixing it.

kane

PaulN'Chuck said:

Looks good, I gotta make one. I figure you can make a cheap 2 level one right? With a little stoner intuition? Where did you buy your worms?

Click to expand...

you can make one out of 5 gallon buckets. if you search 5 gallon worm bucket you should get some ideas. i plan on making some soon since i can get 5 gallon buckets for $1.50.

i cant seem to find the video i saw the other day. but i was thinking about using 2 buckets at first with one of the bucket having 1/4" holes so liquid created or that is extra can drip into the bottom bucket. once i want to use the castings in the bucket i will add another bucket with 1/4 holes and add food to that only until the worm make their way up to the new bucket.

it is good to mix in dirt/compost i believe. its like the home base for the little worms. some people add newspaper too

paper is good for them, and a pinch of sand is helpful also (worms do not have teeth instead they keep grains of sand in their gizards to break apart food). the amount of sand needed is tiny.

kane

worm farm tip... yesterday i went to the local hydro shop and the guy that runs it recommended that i try using a pinch of glacial rock dust instead of sand. this helps the worms eat as well as increases the amount of micro nutrients in the castings. im gonna give it shot and see if there is an impact i can notice.

kane

The Earth was a rock at one time Add a little h20 and, voila! plant life.

In the younger days, did you ever sit in your car in the driveway and break one up? I did. Seeds went out the window. Was always picking sprouts out of the gravel driveway to keep the motherly lady from becoming suspicious. This was a 20 year old driveway, with gravel compacted many times. No soil at least a foot down

Little food for thought as I'm new here. Not sure what's been said and hasn't

sm00thslp said:

The Earth was a rock at one time Add a little h20 and, voila! plant life.

In the younger days, did you ever sit in your car in the driveway and break one up? I did. Seeds went out the window. Was always picking sprouts out of the gravel driveway to keep the motherly lady from becoming suspicious. This was a 20 year old driveway, with gravel compacted many times. No soil at least a foot down

Little food for thought as I'm new here. Not sure what's been said and hasn't

Click to expand...

thanks for the input but this particular thread is about worm farming. that sounds like a statement for a different thread or section.

kane