Worm Digest - Re:one year and not doing so well

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1) General Earthworm Discussion Forum

Kori
User

A Juvenile Earthworm

Posts: 72

one year and not doing so well - 2008/10/28 14:30 It has been one year now that my husband and I decided to try worming. We now have less worms than we started with.

I don't know if it is because I don't feed them enough or what.

At least we still have worms and I am going to keep trying.

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wellsworms

User

A Protected Species Earthworm

Posts: 624

Re:one year and not doing so well - 2008/10/28 17:05

Hi I have been at this for three years and just figured out what I was doing wrong I previously kept the bin on the dry side and fed cornmeal sprinkled with water in a bedding mix of grass clippings and shredded paper like I thought others were doing But I have been given 3 -5 gallon pails of pear and crabapple drops mostly in beginning stages of rotting. The worms are going crazy over them when I feed I just feed in a different spot so I can tell when the food is ready to replaced last year I frequented the no label dented can bin at the local food store made some educated guesses and came up with pumpkin pie filling yum, yum. They have doubled in quantity In a short time or at least they now are all in the same location.

FEED IT TO THE WORMS
WELLS,vermont
jerry walker 2008

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Kori
User

A Juvenile Earthworm

Posts: 72

Re:one year and not doing so well - 2008/11/04 10:55 Yeah, I think I am not feeding enough. I know they love watermelon. I will try the pumpkin. I did give them some last year. I had some in my freezer that had been there a few years. Seems it did go pretty fast.

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Larry C
User

A Mature Breeder Earthworm

Posts: 96

Re:one year and not doing so well - 2008/11/04 13:16 Kori,

What temp are you keeping your worms at? They are much more active around 75 degrees and reproduce much faster.

Larry

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Kori
User

A Juvenile Earthworm

Posts: 72

Re:one year and not doing so well - 2008/11/04 13:59 They are reproducing. I have a lot of young and eggs, but don't seem to have any fat mature ones. But I haven't really taken the temp of the bins. In the winter they are in a spare room where the temps are not real favorable for them. The summer I am sure a bit warmer than it should be, but have not really checked.

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wormwrangler

User

A Juvenile Earthworm

Posts: 40

Re:one year and not doing so well - 2008/11/04 14:36 Hi Kori

I started waaaaay back in 96 with about 5 lbs, and after a year I had 2 4x8x2 bins. One of the hardest things for me was leaving them alone at first, but soon learned to keep the top moist and my fingers out of the bin lol.

Had to learn the feeding part, but learned not to add food until I seen hardly any trace of food left on top. If you put to much it can get pretty ugly in the bin. So like all things in life moderation is the key.

Dig around, feed and water in moderation and the bin will thrive.

Worm Wrangler

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jasdip
User

A Juvenile Earthworm

Posts: 43

Re:one year and not doing so well - 2008/11/04 20:12 This is my second time around doing vermi. I was successful a few years ago, but the marriage broke up, house got sold and worms had to go.

I am doing it now in my apartment, with marvelous results. However, most of my first pound that I purchased this past spring met with an untimely death. I fed some cooked rice, and it overheated my bin. I opened the lid, the rice was in clumps and the whole bin was steaming!!!

I rescued my surviving worms and supplemented their numbers with more worms. Everyone has been doing great.

One suggestion for Kori, is to make their living quarters a lot smaller, since the number of worms are small. I did this in one of my bins and it made a big difference. I also felt I was underfeeding. I kicked up the feeding and they are really happy. Like Wormwrangler, I feed when there is very little distinguishable food where I fed them. But I do love lifting the bedding and seeing them all squirm and a thriving mass all over the food. Southwestern Ont.
Canada

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Kori
User

A Juvenile Earthworm

Posts: 72

Re:one year and not doing so well - 2008/11/06 12:08 Thanks everyone, I think that my problem is underfeeding. And maybe not keeping enough fresh paper shred in the bins too. They eat through the paper so fast (probabaly because no other food) and are left in the castings. Always have worms, but they are always small. I think I leave them alone too much

. It is a learning experience for sure!!
Thanks again for your advice.

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doman50
User

A Fertile Cocoon

Posts: 5

Re:one year and not doing so well - 2008/11/07 09:22 worms do best when they have no human supervision!!

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lanbro
User

A Hatchling Earthworm

Posts: 20

Re:one year and not doing so well - 2008/12/01 14:39 I started back in May of this year and things have been doing well. we began with 3 10gallon tubs.
now I have 30/10gallon tubs each with at least
3 pounds of worms in each one. I'm harvesting about
75-100pounds of castings every two weeks. and hatching out several hundered every 12 weeks...things have been going cool . our biggest problem here is the cold in the winter time we insulated the worm room(a dark cleaned out room in the barn. installed some insul
board and a couple of heat lamps keeps them from freezing but don't heat much above say 45-50 when it's
30 out side. That's my biggest concern. Our food is a mixture of home compost from cow manure, goat manure [b]I got worms how bout u!

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timnbama
User

A Protected Species Earthworm

Posts: 167

Re:one year and not doing so well - 2008/12/01 21:25 lanbro, if you're running a couple of heat lamps why not go with one of the small electric heaters such as one of the "milk house" heaters. I'm sure that it would use less electricity than 2 of those energy drainers. Every time I have to put one in my pump house I can see the light meter wheel speeding like crazy. A heater don't crank the wheel near as bad.

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lanbro
User

A Hatchling Earthworm

Posts: 20

Re:one year and not doing so well - 2008/12/01 22:16 I agree 100% the problem is convincing my wife,
with the room we have a good "milk house" heater
would work beautiful. the room is about 8X16
and insulated fairly well. So I do believe a
elec. heater would be a much better investment and be able to keep them warmer. thus producing even better than they are already.
thanks. [b]I got worms how bout u!

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jvolpert
User

A Fertile Cocoon

Posts: 8

Re:one year and not doing so well - 2008/12/16 22:41 I'm about nine months in also. I feel that my worms are not eating/multiplying enough also as I still throw away food scraps. I try to leave them alone a feed only when the have eaten the food but it just seems that don't eat that much. The idea of half the body weight in food a day is not working out for me anyway.

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jamesgang
User

A Juvenile Earthworm

Posts: 39

Re:one year and not doing so well - 2008/12/19 08:41 I had a problem with my herd multiplying when I first started. After reading many forum and articles, I was terrified that I would overfeed or keep the moisture levels too high. Well, I did my own little experiment and found that I was not feeding nearly enough and was keeping my bins too dry. If I stated how wet my bins are now or how much I feed my worms now, I'm sure someone would chime in and say I was going to kill the herd. Its been two years and all my worms are doing well and have had no fatalities. Jim
Norwalk, Ohio

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binner
User

A Juvenile Earthworm

Posts: 49

Re:one year and not doing so well - 2008/12/19 17:08 wellsworm

I got a couple big halloween pumpkins from my neighbor. I cut them each into a few large pieces and then they froze and thawed a couple of times. The skin became very stiff or was still frozen and I was able to scrape the mush out quite easily into about (15)of the 16 oz deli containers. This is the real stuff and no doubt the worms love it. I threw the skins into my compost pile.

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