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applestar
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Are you doing cynthia_h's divide into 8 sections trick? My commercial bin is circular so I've divided the tray into pie-piece sections, and like she said, by the time I get all the way around, there are harvestable castings in Section 1 even when the entire tray is not completely digested. In fact, I used some for starting seeds yesterday. 8)

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rainbowgardener
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No, is there a link to that?

I bought two bins. The plan was that when I think (how do you tell?) there's enough worm castings in the bottom bin, I would drill a bunch of holes in the bottom of the second bin, put fresh bedding, food, leaves in the new one, set it right down on top of the leaves in the old one. Quit putting food in the bottom one and assume after awhile the worms will migrate into the new one.

Assuming that works and most of the worms migrate into the new bin, doesn't that leave you with a bunch of leaves and old soggy clumped up bedding in the old bin, with hopefully some worm castings mixed in?

In the meantime, I have discovered that along with onion skins and tops, my worms don't seem to like bread very much. There's a chunk of bread, now all moldy, that's been in there a long time, that I may just pull back out. But there was a post here somewhere (that I'm not going to look for right now) that listed things worms like and it included avocado shells. Since we had a big discussion here of how avocado shells don't break down in the compost pile, I tested a piece in the worm bin. As near as I can tell, it disappeared quite rapidly. So yay! My worms can have all the avocado shells they want, since my compost pile doesn't like them! :)

So here's a reason to have both a worm bin and a regular compost pile -- compost pile for the bread and onions, worm bin for the avocado shells! Anyway the worm bin is nice to have now in mid-winter, for the worm tea for my seedlings, since my compost pile is still frozen solid.

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applestar
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Ah ha! Found it! :()
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=115588#115588

Top Dollar posted his methods in the same thread.

Also she talks about what she puts in her worm bin vs. compost pile in this post later in the same thread: https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=116131#116131

grassroot
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Thanks for all the relevant information/posts everybody! I bought two 2 dozen containers for $6.51 this past Saturday at a local bait shop (sparing a few so they can be fruitful, multiply, and I can take their descendants out trout fishing eventually.. :lol: ) . I asked for red wigglers and the guy said they had to keep them in a threaded container (old plastic foldger's bin) because they liked to escape so I was pretty sure these were the right ones (upon google image search they DEFINITELY were!).

they appear to have a peat moss/soil mix in their container which I would think should be fine as I've read soil recipes with p.m. in it. if anything I'd think it would help with moisture control.. which in all honesty is fine by me until I take the training wheels off of my gardening experience-mobile.. these guys are ACTIVE, they keep trying to crawl out of the container even in full light, it's NUTS! I got a real kick out of watching them wriggle with such zest so I think I'm officially getting the gardening bug early (YAY!).

I just added ripped up banana peels and put ripped up damp napkins (pieces no bigger than 1"x1") in for starters. after I get everything ready (12 gallon tote with holes poked in it, corn meal on hand for nutritional backup, spray bottle for moisture control) I'll transfer them over. I'm keeping them out of the sun to be on the safe side, but we had a high of 35 degrees the other day (Minnesota heatwave) so I'm pretty sure I'll be safe :lol: . I get why people garden now, it's so fun to have a control group of natural processes just to watch.

The Helpful Gardener
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Tiny white bugs that hop a mile if you go to touch them? Springtails, another sapprophyte (like the pill bugs) and a good sign things are very biologically active. We used to get tons of springtails in the commercial bin I used to tend...

Glad to see GR and everyone else having such fun with the crawly critters; makes me long fora bin of my own again...I may have to start one soon...

HG

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rainbowgardener
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Hmmm .... I don't know if they jump, have to check next time I am inspecting. So far I've just seen them walking around, but I didn't try to touch them.

In the meantime, when you said " Springtails, another sapprophyte (like the pill bugs) " I thought gee, I would have called the pillbug a detritovore, I wonder if there's a difference, so I looked it up to try to educate myself.

I found this:

Saprophyte' (-phyte meaning 'plant') is a botanical term that is now considered obsolete. There are no real saprotrophic organisms that are embryophytes, and fungi and bacteria are no longer placed in the Plant Kingdom. Plants that were once considered saprophytes, such as non-photosynthetic orchids and monotropes, are now known to be parasites on fungi. These species are now termed myco-heterotrophs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detritivore

and this:

“Detritivores are decomposers. According to the ‘real’ knowledge, decomposers consist of detritivores and saprophytes. Saprophytes are what we usually consider when talking about decomposers but technically speaking, that is not specific to them only.

Detritivores are animal that consume that detritus but unlike saprophytes, they cannot decompose cellulose (like most animals). They are forced to excrete anything they cannot digest.

Saprophytes, on the other hand, are basically microbes such as bacteria that digest detritus completely (including cellulose). They usually do this by extracellular digestion.

In the soil, both of these work hand in hand. After the detrivores excrete the waste materials, the saprophytes decompose them further. The detrivores have helped in breaking down most of the detritus into smaller pieces, increasing the surface area for the bacteria to act on.â€

The Helpful Gardener
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Thanks for clearing that up. I had always lumped the breakdown process together and used the singular term for all. So shredders like soil mites and springtails are detrivores. Got it.

HG

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rainbowgardener
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Things worms don't like: onions, bread, apple cores. I would have thought the apple core would be a treat, but it's another thing that just sat in there until I pulled it back out. They ate grapes just fine, even with the skin still intact when they went in.

It's been a really fun experiment! :) Who knew that worms had taste preferences like this!? Why would worms like grapes and not apples?

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applestar
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:lol: This is great! You're much more attentive and observant about your worms than I am, so I'm learning a lot from your experience. :D

I think apple seeds have minute traces of cyanide in them. Do you suppose that's why?

Odd Duck
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Hmm, my worms do bread and apple cores just fine. I haven't put in any onion or citrus because of reading I've done. I know some people on the vermicomposting web sites will use citrus and onion in limited quantities, but I've got small bins and don't want to risk it.

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hendi_alex
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My site is very sandy and dry with few if any native red worms. Probably 20 years ago I ordered a big batch from a listing in Organic Gardening magazine. Since that time, we grab worms where ever we find them. I've tossed in red wiggler's left over from fishing. Snag night crawlers when we find them active somewhere. When visiting friends or family, if their yard is active with worms, I'll pick up a few dozen to import the into the yard. Now red worms and night crawlers can be found all over our large yard. I kept a worm bin for a couple of years, but let it go last year. Will build a new container this year and start that process over again. Easy to find worms now as they are in all of my beds, my pots, and in my compost bin.
Last edited by hendi_alex on Sat Feb 26, 2011 2:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

ruggr10
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I have red wigglers and I've noticed some likes and dislikes for them.

Loves: Honeydew Mellon, Watermellon, coffee grounds, green peppers
Likes: Lettuce and celery leaves, apple cores, carrots, squash, egg shells
Dislikes: potato skins, baked butternut squash skins, cabbage leaves

I thought they would love the leftovers from baking a butternut squash but they are avoiding it. I may take it out. Also, with the cabbage leaves, it may be that it's still very green.



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