According to the E.P.A. and Yahoo news the average American family throws away 4.5 lbs of table scraps everyday. Most of which could be eliminated if they had a few red worms. 57% of the trash America puts into landfills is red worm food. 12.7% food, 13.2% yard trimmings, and a whopping 31% paper. Not only could landfill space be greatly reduced, but think of the $ that could be saved if you started composting and red worming. It’s fun, easy, and great for your yard, plants, and pocket book.
More than half of U.S. trash could be fed to Red Worms.
20 OctOutdoor Red Worm Farm
12 OctRed Worm farming is fun, easy, and helps you convert food wastes into rich natural fertilizer for your yard, plants, and garden. Red worms are prolific and with time a handful of worms will grow exponentially. I have build worm beds, pits, containers of all shapes and sizes and this weekend tried something new. We had an old chicken coop that I converted into an outdoor bed.
This old chicken coop is a great spot for a worm bed. Protected from direct sun and wind with a sandy soil base that will ensure good drainage. I tilled up an area of about 10′ X 10′ and added a few loads of aged cow and horse manure to about 6″ depth. Next, I ran a soaker hose over the bed and wet down the manure. Last, I added about 2lbs. of bed run worms to start.
Things to consider when preparing a worm bed:
Protection from sun and extreme temperatures – (tin roof and three sided wall, and at least 6 inches of bedding)
Moisture – Add depth of bedding and provide adequate watering. (6″ of aged manure and soaker hose, can cover with old carpet, plywood, or tarp)
Drainage – (sandy soil or sand base will keep water from collecting and drowning worms)
Bedding and Food- (partially broken down compost and aged manure are excellent for red worms)
Compost tea benefits: Get rid of termites, fleas, ticks, chiggers, and more naturally.
10 Oct
This weekend I took a visit to East Texas to work on some of our worm beds. While loading manure from some piles to start a new worm bed, I noticed some termites in some fence posts, as well as, some fire ant mounds. I have had success with compost tea applications before in controlling ants, grubs, and fleas. So I started a small batch of tea with finished compost and some redworm castings. I also did a little research to see if anyone had had any experience with termites and found this article. Microbes like nematodes and bacteria can be amplified with a quality finished compost and brewed into actively aerated compost tea. Beneficial predators that can control and eliminate many pests. So if you have a roach, ant, flea, tick, grub, cigger, termite or other problem chances are actively aerated compost tea can come to the rescue.
Compost “Sweet” Tea
1 OctI started brewing a batch yesterday afternoon of actively aerated red worm compost tea (red worm castings, unsulphured molasses, and rain water).
I have collected about 15-20 gallons of rain water to use over the last month or so. Rain water, well water, or water from other natural sources are the best choices to be used in your compost tea. Tap water should be left out in the sun for a day or so to eliminate Chlorine. Next, I harvested some castings from my worms. I use a mesh laundry bag for my tea bag. Compost can be added to the water or steeped with a bag. The tea bag eliminates the need to strain before putting in your sprayer.
Aeration- I’ve got a pond aerator pumping into the brew to supply plenty of O2 supporting beneficial microbial growth.
To make is “sweet” compost tea, I’ve added some unsulphured molasses to feed the beneficial bacteria.
This batch will be ready this afternoon. I’ll put the finished product into a pump sprayer and apply to my plants. It’s that easy to add beneficial microbes and add “life” to plants and soil. Compost tea applications will reduce water consumption by plants, and add balance back to your yard and plants. Beneficial microbes (bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and nematodes) can eliminate the need to aerate your lawn, the use of pesticides, and commercial fertilizer.
I will need about 5 gallons or a third for my use, and will be glad to share the rest. I’ll be giving a gallon away with any worm purchase this weekend. First come first serve.
Fish, Chicken, and Red Wigglers
15 Sep
The main attraction for red worms is composting. Red worms are also popular as bait for fishing, and as food for your pets. Yes, feeding your cichlids (aquarium fish), bearded dragons, and other reptiles can benefit from your red wigglers. They are prolific and can save pet lovers frequent trips to the pet store to buy food for pets.
A red worm farm is a natural choice to compliment your chicken farm. Worms will flourish with the chicken litter and everyone knows chicken love to eat worms. Feed prices are going through the roof, and supplementing red worms in your egg layers’ diet can benefit your birds and pocket.
Red worm reproduction.
8 Sep
A happy and healthy worm bin produces lots and lots of worms. Red worms can reproduce quickly laying an egg sac or cocoon every 7-8 days. Each egg sac can produce 3-20 hatchlings who reach sexual maturity in two months with a lifespan of up to 15 years! A healthy red worm population can double in a hurry.
Keeping a happy worm bin means the right amount of food (not overfeeding). The right amount of moisture– moist but not wet (wrung out sponge). The right temperature, and the right pH. If your bin is too acidic add some crushed egg shells to balance.
Raising red worms is a fun and easy way to recycle, compost food waste. With a little practice and seeing how your worms respond, you will be raising lots of red worms in no time.
Compost tea results
16 Aug
I had mentioned in my previous post that positive indicator for my compost tea application was to rid a section of our hay patch of ants. The spot of concern has been infested for a few years with “town ants” or Texas leaf cutter ants. Town ant hills were sprinkled throughout a 20 yard X 20 yard area. The operative word being “were” because two weeks later the ant hills are vacant.
Beneficial microbes in compost tea are parasites to ants, fire ants, fleas, ticks, and chiggers. I had had success in my lawn in getting rid of some of these pests with compost tea, but never on this scale. This alone is encouragement enough for us to continue compost tea applications, and we’re looking forward to the next batch.
Compost Tea Party part 3
11 AugWe ended up with two batches. In both we used @80 lbs of finished compost (40lbs in each of 2 mesh laundry bags that we purchased for $1.87 at Wal-Mart). Both batches we used 500 gallons of well water, and aerated with our 1600 gallon rated Aquascape 4 pond aerator. Where we tinkered a little was on the food source (molasses + brown sugar) and brewing time. 1st batch we used two jars of unsulphured molasses and 1 lb of brown sugar and 24 hours of brewing time. The color was light brown and the smell was pretty much neutral with a hint of earthiness to it. Batch #2 was brewed for 36 hours and was fed 4 jars of molasses and 1 lb of brown sugar. The smell on batch #2 was the same faint earthy tone with a hint of sweetness from the molasses. The color was a shade darker brown than batch #1.
One thing we will be judging the success of the compost tea application on is in the reduction of ant hills. We don’t have a big fire ant problem, but one hay patch has several ant hills in an area. Adding beneficial microbes began for me as a way to control fire ants, grubs, and other pests in my yard, and have had some terrific results. We’ll keep you posted.
Why are all my worms at the top of the bin?
10 AugI had someone ask the other day about why there worms were lined up at the top of their bin?
Worms should be dispersed throughout your bin when conditions are right. So chances are there might be an issue with your bin if you see this. Red worms like it moist, but don’t drown them. If the bin is outdoors make sure the soil is well draining, and that rain will not collect. Temperature is the other big factor in my experience. See The right temperature for worms for more info.
For an in depth look at the 3 rights of worm farming check out this link.
10 minute Red Worm Setup
28 Jul
We had some local customers ask me to come help set up their worm bed. I delivered the worms and helped them set up their own worm bed in about 10 minutes. We found a nice spot in one of their flower beds, grabbed a plastic pot, some post hole diggers, and went to work. I dug a hole large enough to bury the pot, placed the pot inside with the bottom cut out, put the worms in with bedding and food, and placed the lid on top. This took about ten minutes and now Dave and Patty have their own TexasWormFarm.com worm bed.
Texas Jumpers 
