gunDriller
19th May 2010, 12:51 PM
About 2 years ago I took a composting class, and we had group projects. Our group project was "Vermiculture" - that's where you let worms eat food scraps or manure, and then use the castings in your garden. One of the other students gave me a bunch of redworms, and I took them home, and put them in a bucket, and they were fruitful and multiplied.
http://lifestyle.resourcesforattorneys.com/fishing/images/red-worm-fishing.jpg
Then, i gave them too many food scraps, and not enough dry leaf material. And they died.
So I saw the instructor and he straightened me about not using all food scraps. So I started adding dry leaves to their food mix.
Then I wondered, why aren't they all fruitful & multiplying like my first experiment ?
And I realized, DUH, I'm keeping them in an un-heated room where it's going down to 35 degrees F at night.
So I was thinking about buying some more redworms to get the project going, and talked to the owner of a local worm company.
She was nice enough to tell me - if you build a compost pile in the winter, the kind that heats up (hot compost), when it cools off, worms tend to crawl into it. And those worms are redworms - the same kind as when you pay $50 for 2 pounds of worms including shipping.
So when I was spreading out this year's compost pile, I noticed that some parts had a LOT of worms. I loaded up a 5 gallon bucket and took them home.
http://www.aquarticles.com/images/S.Redworms/Redworms%201.JPG
So, in the vein of Learn by Doing, I learned worms & vermiculture. Basically, it's easy to do, but it's also easy to have a population of worms completely die off, leaving you scratching your head.
http://lifestyle.resourcesforattorneys.com/fishing/images/red-worm-fishing.jpg
Then, i gave them too many food scraps, and not enough dry leaf material. And they died.
So I saw the instructor and he straightened me about not using all food scraps. So I started adding dry leaves to their food mix.
Then I wondered, why aren't they all fruitful & multiplying like my first experiment ?
And I realized, DUH, I'm keeping them in an un-heated room where it's going down to 35 degrees F at night.
So I was thinking about buying some more redworms to get the project going, and talked to the owner of a local worm company.
She was nice enough to tell me - if you build a compost pile in the winter, the kind that heats up (hot compost), when it cools off, worms tend to crawl into it. And those worms are redworms - the same kind as when you pay $50 for 2 pounds of worms including shipping.
So when I was spreading out this year's compost pile, I noticed that some parts had a LOT of worms. I loaded up a 5 gallon bucket and took them home.
http://www.aquarticles.com/images/S.Redworms/Redworms%201.JPG
So, in the vein of Learn by Doing, I learned worms & vermiculture. Basically, it's easy to do, but it's also easy to have a population of worms completely die off, leaving you scratching your head.