Kyle
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A Protected Species Earthworm
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worm food - 2008/03/06 20:19
Im pumped!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My wife has a job at starbucks. Coffee grounds galore. Cool.
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gnosnhoj
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/06 20:40
Ummm, Kyle...Starbucks gives their grounds away to anyone who asks for them .
I've never bought a thing from 'em, let alone work there, and I get a trashbag full whenever I need it for the worms &/or yarden. The baristas call me "The Worm Guy".
Glad you're getting another paycheck into the household though !
Y'all have fun, whatever you're doing.
Gary
Hopkinsville, KY |
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squirminwormfarm
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A Protected Species Earthworm
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/06 20:51
Dont have a fancy Starbucks, but I cant go into our local coffee house with out hearing something about "the worm guy" either . When they get tired of worm guy then its... Compost Man!!!
Gary, does our club have t-shirts??? If'n it does I gotta get one
Dave Wallace
Squirmin' Worm Farm
Plymouth, WI
www.squirminwormfarm.com |
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gnosnhoj
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A Protected Species Earthworm
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/06 21:15
squirminwormfarm wrote:
...does our club have t-shirts??? If'n it does I gotta get one I think if we did they oughta look very much like one I've worn while working with the herd, with big black finger-shaped smudges all over it. Maybe "Worms did this!" or some such across the back.
Y'all have fun, whatever you're doing.
Gary
Hopkinsville, KY |
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Dean_W
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A Juvenile Earthworm
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/07 10:58
So coffee grounds are good worm food. Some one told me they have little benefit to the worms.
Dean
Post edited by: Dean_W, at: 2008/03/07 14:34
Dean
Cedar Park, TX |
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geordier
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A Juvenile Earthworm
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/07 12:54
No, just keep them up all night !
George
Co. Armagh
Northern Ireland
"we're Not Brasil....." |
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slim7309
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A Juvenile Earthworm
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/07 17:54
I was told worms don't eat coffee grounds but just like the feel of them on there skin.. the worms don't even eat them... Slim
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Dean_W
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A Juvenile Earthworm
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/07 18:20
slim,
so it's inclusive?
Dean
Cedar Park, TX |
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Kyle
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A Protected Species Earthworm
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/07 20:30
Yes anyone can get grounds from starbucks. I get the fresh ones lol. My wife dislikes the mess I make lol.
we moved into new house with huge backyard and garage.
Lots of worm growing room!!!!!!!!!
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gnosnhoj
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/07 21:09
Dean_W wrote:
So coffee grounds are good worm food. Some one told me they have little benefit to the worms."Some one" may have made that observation at some point.
What I see in my bins is all those little coffee ground edges providing a great growing medium for the microbes from which the worms get their nutrients.
They eat the microbe-covered grounds, extract what they need and cast the leavings, neutralizing it all in the process. The grounds disappear pretty dang quick.
UCGs are not near all I feed, but there are some in just about every chow intro. I think my worms like 'em.
we moved into new house with huge backyard and garage. Y'all have a great time making it your home, Kyle.
Y'all have fun, whatever you're doing.
Gary
Hopkinsville, KY |
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binner
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A Juvenile Earthworm
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/08 12:40
Here's what a popular worm lady on cape cod has to say about coffee. Some say feed them anything but yet when I go to some professional sites the first thing that I read is that they feed only top quality ing which means that something is not so top quality.
Can I use coffee grinds for composting?
Yes and NO. You can put coffee grinds in your compost bin but don't expect them to be useful in making castings (organic fertilizer). Coffee grinds go into worms as coffee grinds and comes out as coffee grinds. For more information on what worms eat - go to SOIL TILLERS EXPRESS [WHAT WORMS EAT]
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Dean_W
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A Juvenile Earthworm
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/08 13:15
gnosnhoj,
I'm a little lazy so I find my coffee grounds sitting around the garage for about a week or two. When I finally decide to dump them they are usally covered with the white fungus. So that is good.
binner, I'm still confused. Some people say yes others say No!
Dean
Dean
Cedar Park, TX |
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gnosnhoj
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/08 14:41
binner wrote:
Coffee grinds go into worms as coffee grinds and comes out as coffee grinds.Here's how I look at it:
UCGs are a great medium for growing the microbes the worms extract their nutritional requirements from in a bin...and they fit quite well into their little bitty mouths .
UCGs are a great soil amendment in that they help loosen heavy soils and provide a feeding ground for the resident microbes that maintain a healthy soil environment, also feeding any flora in that soil.
So...if a worm eats a microbe-covered coffee ground, absorbs the tasty bits it needs and casts whats left of it, that goes into the target soil as an integral part of the vc, feeding more microbes. And so on...
Y'all have fun, whatever you're doing.
Gary
Hopkinsville, KY |
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Kyle
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A Protected Species Earthworm
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/08 19:15
Binner I disagree. Coffe grounds like newsprint, corragated, manure. All things organic go thru a change when the worm ingests them. yes the worms eat the fungus, mold...
I have done tests just using coffee grounds.my herd flourished and the grounds were good castings. I will be using 40% coffee grounds balanced with carbon material.
Binner do you watch the ratio between carbon and nitrogen based worm medium?
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binner
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/10 10:53
Kile, thanks for posting the info about your tests. Did you use those castings derived from coffee grounds (only) on your vegetable garden and if so what were the results? Were they as good as results from castings derived from worms that were fed varied diet?
My worms are not eating a whole lot in my cold basement so I want to feed the best waste available that will help the worms produce best results. I don't know if the bacteria on the food actually eats the nutrients of the food or how it affects the worms when they eat the bacteria so the question in my mind becomes, is some waste food better than the other for the worms to create the best microbial action end result? Many of the professionals claim that they get the best casting because they feed only the best quality food. Coffee grounds are a good additive to the compost pile but I don't know if it's such a good additive to the worm bin as claimed by the cape cod worm farm even if it does go thru the worm's body. In another words if you could only feed the worm bin one thing would it be manure, leaf mold, compost or coffee grounds?
The vermigo site says it below a little better than I. Whether or not you agree I recommend browsing their site as they are a huge grower and provide some very interesting info. I also enjoy the discussion in this area.
http://www.vermigro.com/html/salton_sea.html
"Like any other living thing the quality of what is consumed equals the overall health of the being and with earthworms this directly impacts the amount of nutrients and natural growth hormone that is available in their castings. Without properly supplying this crucial first step no matter how well everything else is done the product won?t be of the highest quality. "
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Kyle
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/10 19:18
Thanks Binner for the detailed reply.
I have not noticed a big difference in casting power.
Most of my tests are between castings and chemical fertilzer. Wich castings are far superior.
Im no scientist. Just love helping my worms create somthing so cool.
One issue I have with salton Sea. I use no manure.
I have a fear of e coli. Living in the midwest. E coli outbreaks happen all too often.
This my personal prefrence.
Now onto the coffee grounds. When the worms are active in a bin. They seeem to disapear just fine. What is a coffee bean. A fruit is it not. I believe if you balance your bins. All is good.
Im also going to experiment with grass clippings.
prbaly a 70% ratio to newsprint.
I also can get all the corragated I need from work.
One opinion I have read is that corragated is the best feedstock. I have to admit it is great.
Binner thanks for provoking further thought on this very cool subject.
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gnosnhoj
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/10 20:54
I'm not pickin' at you, binner. I just don't think the microherd the worms need for their nutrition cares if the salad is arugula or iceberg, or if it comes from Che Bigmuckymuck Gourmet Foods or Walmart's dumpsters. No offense to any retailers here, but some of the folks that want you to buy their product can spin it as they see fit. For instance, on the vermigro site, I saw test results for the castings, but not for the marketed tea...nor did I see what they tout as their "best quality" worm chow...and a bunch of broken links.
...if you could only feed the worm bin one thing would it be manure, leaf mold, compost or coffee grounds?Manure, but that's not viable, for me at least, because some of my herd is in-house, and I'm also feeding my household waste and scrounged paper / cardboard / leaves. The ratio might shift as I expand a bit outside this year.
I'm a little lazy so I find my coffee grounds sitting around the garage for about a week or two.Dean, I have months-old bags out back. They're right fuzzy too.
Y'all have fun, whatever you're doing.
Gary
Hopkinsville, KY |
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binner
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A Juvenile Earthworm
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/11 10:26
hey Gary, I respect your opinions and open discussion or debate is a learning process for me. I don't know whether vermigro uses coffee feed as the only place that I have read where coffee may not be the greatest feed is on the cape cod site. She makes other claims that I don't particularly agree with. For example, she says that paper makes for slimy worms etc. The funny part is that she makes and sells her own bedding so what's up with that. That said I can't see any reason for her to downgrade coffee as worm feed other than what her tests have revealed. FYI, this is what vermigo uses for feed.
"The first step in developing top quality vermicompost is providing only the best feedstocks to the hungry worms. Our worms dine on only the best OMRI approved greenwaste, horse manure and fresh water fish. " I suppose greenwaste could include coffee.
Anyway, for my own purposes I have plenty of food choices for the worms this time of year so grounds are at the bottom of my list. I still have pumpkin left over from Halloween. Ironically I just quit drinking coffee 4 months ago. I use a substitute called teccino that is composed of chicory, carob, figs etc.and the worms are getting plenty of that. I can tell you flat out that I miss real coffee but then again I miss my smokes too.
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gnosnhoj
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/11 20:50
binner wrote:
hey Gary, I respect your opinions and open discussion or debate is a learning process for me. We're good, binner.
Might just be me, but I tend to be a bit leery when I see what I consider marketing spin, like, "Our worms dine on only the best OMRI approved greenwaste, horse manure and fresh water fish.". Hmm "Only the best..."; what makes it any better that the slimy brown lettuce in my fridge, the fresh manure I get within a mile of my bins and the inedible bits from my last fishing weekend? I just think it's spin to sell products that we can make ourselves, at home, using our leavings and readily available resources, better or at least just as good.
I don't like the idea of paying somebody for something I can do myself.
I suppose greenwaste could include coffee.But only the fru-fru stuff that I can't afford and don't like near as much as my Folgers Columbian, eh? Yeah, I'm a cheap date!
For example, she says that paper makes for slimy worms...Huh??!! That's a bad thing because...?
I still have pumpkin left over from Halloween.Me too; many frozen bags. My l'il fellas get punkin year-round.
Granted, everybody doesn't want to do the vermi thing, and that is the market they're targeting. Me, I'd rather set my neighbors up with bins and get 'em started than recommend somebody to buy the product from.
Y'all have fun, whatever you're doing.
Gary
Hopkinsville, KY |
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markc
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A Fertile Cocoon
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/21 09:58
Worm Food..
I collect leaves and grass clippings from the curbs and put them in a bin I constructed from 2X4 welded wire made in a circle. They will compost down into a light brown. After pre-composting the worms dig in, in a big way.
Some lawn care people will gladly give you all the lawn clippings you want just so they don't have to pay for disposal.
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wormwrangler
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/22 03:39
Worms are great! They will chow down coffee grounds, manure, paper, etc etc..
I never noticed a difference in casting quality unless I only feed paper. It is true that what goes in must come out, and if you feed less nutritional stuff, that is what comes out LOL.
My worms love fruit! They get into a big orgy everytime we feed fruit. They also love coffee grounds, and like it was said, it dont last long in the bins.
Worm Wrangler |
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jlance
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/22 08:48
wormwrangler
paper vs.?per square ft. at what ratio would you say the quality of castings is affected.like one cup of rabbit poop per sq.ft.?
heal the earth with worm farming.
John Lance Indain Valley,virginia |
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Kyle
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/22 10:40
Coffee grounds are? They start out as a fruit. I think they are similar to a cherry. Also another point.
I understand you have to watch lawn clippings. From someone elses lawn. Do they use chemical fertilizers,pestacides...?
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wormwrangler
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/24 04:23
Well I never really measure anything, except when piling on the food. I pile it up to about 3 inches, and bury anything that might attract flies or other little critters. The main ingredient we feed is horse manure. We do put all our newspaper, paper bags, food scraps, lawn clippings, and even the vacuum bags into the bins.
It all seems to come out lookin the same, and just as potent. But we did try just using newspaper only in one smaller bin to see if there would be any difference. It still looked the same, we mixed it in potting soil and compared the growth rates with the other castings on some spider plants in the greenhouse.
We found that spider plants with just newspaper castings didnt grow as fast as the ones grown with the everything added castings.
I used to worry about these things when we first started our worm farm, kinda like doting parents LOL. But now everything is on a much larger scale and it doesnt make sense to weigh everything out.
The main thing to remember is to not over feed, although newspaper doesnt qualify there cause you can pile it on and nothing bad happens as long as you keep it moist.
Worm Wrangler |
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Kyle
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Re:worm food - 2008/03/24 17:12
Good point wrangler. Im looking to produce the best castings consisently. Thankyou for your post.
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