Do many of you have worm bins

<Grasshopper>

Active Member
I just picked up 2 5 gallon buckets of local fresh worm castings from a local farm. They had 2 grades 6 bucks or 12 for 5 gallon bucket and it was just the size of screen used to seperate. I bet I could have used the 6 dollar stuff just as well. He said there may be a few red worms in it and a few eggs that will hatch. Wonder if this will matter if the stuff is mixed in my supersoil and left for a few months to get to useing. I cant imagine the worms will like the hot supersoil....there should not be many but I have no idea about the eggs that will be hatching.

Grasshopper
 

snew

Well-Known Member
I us my own worm castings which always has a few worms and eggs in it. There are generally worms in the saucer under my plants. I add work castings when I mix my soil, when using the soil and as a tea. There are always live worms unless I have really dried the casting and then they've just dried also.
I don't believe that there are enough worms to make a significant difference as a living creature. As they die they will add to the soil also.
As for the smaller size screen it will just be cleaner. I use a 1/4" screen to sift mine. There is always uneaten material. I set this out to dry so I can separate it further, but I use thesedirty castings for teas from the start.
 
Worm-head here ^^

Had my bin for a year now. I also get live worms in my pots (noticed a few during last harvest) - think that means i ain't killing my plants :) - don't mind them nibbling on dead roots and whatever they find since they'll areate the soil a little bit. The worms i found when taking hte root ball apart went back to the bin. just to time consuming to seperate all the eggs from the castings
 

snew

Well-Known Member
I like the looks of those wormtopia bins. I'm using 2 big Rubbermaid Roughneck right now. There like 30 gallon each.
For those that are using wormtopia bins:
how long have you used the wormtopia bins
have you use other worm bins
if so what and how long
did you see an increase in productivity
Do you think it is worth the increased cost for the wormtopia having used them a while ($100 or more difference)?

Thanks
 

elduece

Active Member
I've been feeding these wormtopia bins since Sept 09 moderately. I've never used any other vermicomposting. Last month was the first time I started using castings from these bins for recycling used soil. I'm pretty sure I've could've harvested casting sooner or fed them more frequently but last year was bad year for me. Anyways the castings from them look really good pelleted, black and all. I think they're worth the money definitely. Only bought the bins and worms only once and I'm really sure you can get a lot more than I did from these staged bins. For bedding I used 1/3 cu ft of coco coir, eggshell dust via coffee grinder, tsp sweet lime with newspaper per bin. Instructions are really good. Save the roughnecks for recycling soil, mixes etc.
 

Auzzie07

Well-Known Member
I've been looking into getting into worms. I've heard they double their population in 90 days, which could lead to mass amounts of worms in a short time if you start with too many. Either way, anyone done a side-by-side with earth worm casting tea, and one without?
 
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