Mama's Worm Composting

Time to Get Planting: Your Fall Vegetable Garden

My family is moving... TOMORROW... to a home with a nice little backyard. Already my eyes are bigger than my stomach as I start to plan an enormous fall garden. But where will the kids play? :-)

There is no time like the present to get started planting and using your worm composting vermicompost as your fertilizer. Those of you who have been around here for a while will remember my winter veggie garden last year at Saaba's house; this time let's hope the house doesn't burn down! Check out that garden HERE.

Please visit THIS SITE to learn about which vegetables are suited to fall planting in your area (scroll down to find your first frost date). If you're in the SF Bay Area, remember that I am now selling vermicompost, a rich combo of pure castings and partially processed horse manure that is FULL of baby worms and cocoons (perfect for aerating your garden). 

In coastal California we have the luxury of being able to plant most anything year-round. Those of you in the colder states may need to get crafty with your greenhouse plans to make your winter vegetable dreams a reality. Check out free plans for greenhouses HERE. 

Thanks for visiting Mama's Worm Composting. Good worming!

Still Alive!

Well, surgery recovery was hell (though the first two days of drugs were kind of nice). I'm pretty much back in action, though I must ask that anyone watching this blog be patient with my lack of posts. Remember, I have two psychotic children full time during the day, and by evening it's all I can do to drag my butt up to go harvest worms! 

Thanks for hanging around Mama's Worm Composting to check in. I promise that someday in the future I will harness my worm-wit once more and hopefully provide some level of entertainment. :-)

Jen

Patience is a Virtue

Tomorrow I will be going under the knife where my tonsils will be unceremoniously sliced from my throat. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Sadly, the Brady Bunch recovery from a tonsillectomy was sort of a lie, and REALLY a lie when dealing with an adult's recovery from such a procedure. I will be in bed for a week and then home for another week.

For any new worm orders placed between now and August 30 you can expect shipment on August 30. In exchange for your patience I will be happy to add an additional 50% of worms to your order. 

Thanks for your interest in Mama's Worm Composting, and wish me luck!    

How to Kill Fruit Flies: Foolproof Worm Composting Bug Control

It's taken me quite some time to finally figure out how to keep fruit flies and fungus gnats out of my worm composting bins, but after much exploration and failure I have finally discovered the secret. It is as simple as a large cotton (or other breathable) sheet draped over the entire worm composting system. 

Fruit flies and fungus gnats breed either in the air while flying or on surfaces outside of the "nest" (aka: your worm composting bin). While it's almost impossible to prevent the incoming larvae that may exist on the skins of fruits in your worm composting bin, the addition of the thin fabric sheet prevents them from escaping once mature to continue the breeding cycle. When you lift up the sheet to feed or check on your little squirming buddies you may notice a few flies fly out; this is ok as long as you put the sheet back on when you're done so they can't get back in to lay their eggs!

At long last, I finally have an indoor worm composting bin without a fly problem, and I owe it all to the extra bedsheet I had lying around. Want even more fly protection? Tape up a couple of fly strips along the interior sides of your bin to catch any newly hatched monsters as they crawl up the sides of your worm composting bin. 

Good worming! Thanks for visiting Mama's Worm Composting!

Link Up Now and Get 10% Off

Hello fellow wormers! I am offering a new promotion to past/present/future customers. Any of you who have a website or a blog can now link to Mama's Worm Composting and receive 10% off your entire order! This includes composting worms, worm composting bins, compost tumblers and anything else you may find on this site. Here are the rules:

 

• Your site or blog must be current and active. If it's a business website then a simple link on your links page will be great. If you have a blog, please place the link in your sidebar (most blogs I've seen have a list of links displayed in the sidebar vs. a links page, and this is preferable to me). 
• After you have inserted the link to Mama's Worm Composting (http://www.mamaswormcomposting.com), place your order for any products from my site.
• EMAIL ME. Please send me a link to your blog and let me know where the link to Mama's Worm Composting can be found. 
• After I view your link I will refund you 10% of your purchase price through paypal. 
• This offer is good for one order per customer, so choose wisely!

 

Thanks for visiting Mama's Worm Composting! 

Worm Bin Critters

Mama's Worm Composting - What to expect when you buy worms for the first time, and how to deal with other bugs in your worm composting bin.

One benefit, or at least unexpected experience, of having a worm composting bin is the introduction of a variety of critters into your life. When I first started worm composting it never occurred to me that I might be dealing with more than just worms in my bin. The first time I saw a helper mite I was horrified, not understanding whether the critter would eat my new red babies alive or simply hang out. Of course, at the beginning of one's first worm composting project the simple process of food breaking down is completely disgusting and sort of horrifying, so the thought of other bugs being part of that process can sort of turn your brain to mush. Over time, however, dealing with a variety of bugs may still make me scream, but they are also good indicators about the health of my system. 

Now don't freak out by this next little part; these are critters I see over 700 square feet of worms in a warehouse and may not represent your personal little worm bin at home. 

Slugs, for example, are gross and trouble-causing as they can actually eat the small worms, but they indicate a healthy system for worms. White mites as well. Rolly polly bugs indicate a healthy, but overly dry, system. Maggots mean I've got some dead worms that are being feasted on by housefly larvae, a problem. Spiders are just inevitable. Mold usually occurs when the food source (usually fresh food) isn't buried appropriately; the worms don't go for it fast enough because it's on the surface and then it starts to mold. Fruit flies or fungus gnats, sadly, mean a healthy system (though I hate them with every fiber of my being and try to kill them at every opportunity). Ants mean the bedding is too dry. 

All of these monstrous critters I've seen and squealed my surprise at over my worm farming ventures. So take a look at the article here, which shows images of a variety of worm bin critters, to familiarize yourself with the possibilities. That way when you someday see an innocent helper mite you won't freak out and dump the whole bin. 

You know, all this time that I've been doing this now, I still yell and scream when I see a spider in the house. And guess who gets called on to kill it? My loving husband. I guess I'll never be TOTALLY desensitized. 

Good worming!

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Bokashi and Your Worm Composting Bin

I've been interested in learning more about using the microorganism Bokashi to aid in worm composting for some time. Of course, when you have a worm composting bin you can't feed the worms absolutely anything. Worms prefer a diet rich in fruits and veggies, and hold the onions and citrus, please. So what do you do if you produce a lot of onion, citrus, bread and dairy waste? You can use a Bokashi bucket to pre-compost these materials, and then feed them to the worms. In fact, most sites claim that you can also compost fish and meat products using Bokashi without attracting vermin. According to this article, after you add the finished Bokashi materials into your worm composting bin, the worms will steer clear of the materials for a couple of days and then come around and munch it all up. So it appears we have found a way to include some previously unwanted materials into our worm composting bins without hurting our worms. And all of this, of course, can be done during the winter months and indoors without bad smells.

One thing I have noticed is that many Bokashi start-up systems are quite pricey, though the Bokashi materials themselves are not too expensive. In addition, the use of two Bokashi bins is recommended so that the first one can ferment totally while the second one is still being filled. Cha-ching! Here are a couple of links for setting up your own homemade Bokashi bin. 

Homemade Bokashi Bin

Another Bin

Interesting stuff! I'll be setting one of these up in coming weeks, so stay tuned!

Good worming!

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Worm Compost Harvester

As the neverending quest for the perfect worm compost harvester continues, I thought I would give an update about a small bit of progress. This weekend my little munchkin, Evan, and I built a cheap and easy worm compost harvester. It's a shaker screen made with 1/4" mesh from the hardware store (we were able to have them cut it for us) and four 2' boards that were precut (I ain't so handy with a saw...). Since the boards were precut, this worm compost harvester cost a whopping $10. However, I'm sure some of you folks out there with more time and mental stamina could make it for close to free.

So here's how it works. You pile a bunch of worms and worm compost materials onto the screen. Lay down a tarp. Then do a shimmy and a shake and watch as the worm compost falls through onto the floor. Voila! You can further screen the worm compost to get pure castings by using a 1/8" screen after you collect the first round if you really want pure worm castings. 

Now, of course, I've been using this thing all morning and my back is killing me (the search continues). But for the average Joe or Jane this harvester works great (really the best method I've tried). If you're harvesting compost, you're golden with this. If you're harvesting worms you will still have some work to do by hand to remove the additional uncomposted materials from the pile. 

Onward to perfection!

Good worming!

WHERE TO BUY RED WIGGLERS

WHERE TO BUY EUROPEAN NIGHTCRAWLERS

CHECK OUT MY COMPOST TUMBLERS HERE

AND THIS URBAN COMPOST TUMBLER

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Worm Compost Challenge: How Many Worms Update

We have babies! One of my worm compost challenges has been to put two worms together in a cup to see how many times over they reproduce themselves within one year. In my tiny little worm compost cup I've seen about 5 or 6 cocoons and at least ten baby worms at this point (so cute!). I'm going to let them hang out in their little cup for a while longer, but once the baby worms start to get a little bigger I will move the whole family to a slightly larger worm compost. For now, I want them to stay close together so that they don't forget to breed! :-)

So that makes us two months into the Worm Compost Challenge, and two worms have reproduced themselves 10 times, and soon 50 times over. 

Once they are big enough to see with my camera, I will have pictures of my growing brood. Stay tuned!

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WHERE TO BUY EUROPEAN NIGHTCRAWLERS

CHECK OUT MY COMPOST TUMBLERS HERE

AND THIS URBAN COMPOST TUMBLER

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Worm Compost Challenge: Seedlings

Several weeks back I planted six seeds, two in pure worm castings, two in vermicompost or worm compost as I call it (in my case, part manure, part castings), and two in off-the-shelf potting soil. Now, it should be noted that I have a notoriously brown thumb, but in this case I really did make an effort to check on the seedlings daily to make sure they had enough water, enough light, no cats eating them, and enough room to grow.

Initially all six seeds sprouted and seemed to be growing well. At the beginning the two seeds that were planted in pure worm castings were far outgrowing the other four, especially as far as how high they were growing. The seeds planted in the worm compost mix were growing steadily. The seeds planted in the potting soil were growing slowly. After another week, though, I was surprised to find that the seeds planted in the worm castings were looking a little frail. This was promptly followed by one of them dying. Shortly after, one of the seedlings in the potting soil died. 

Now, a week later, the other seedling in the pure worm castings has perished. However, the two seedlings that are in the worm compost mix are thriving and much bigger and fuller than any of the other seedlings became (before they croaked). I know I don't have comparison pictures, but you'll just have to trust me on this. 

When this worm compost experiment started I was relatively certain that the seeds planted in the worm castings would be the biggest and healthiest of the lot. Live and learn. It appears that it is unwise to plant directly into pure worm castings, and that it is best to mix castings or worm compost in with whatever soil you are using. In the case of the thriving seedlings, the mixture was about half worm castings half manure and soil. 

Pictured you can see all six attempts, with the two worm compost mixture seedlings in the center. The second picture is a direct comparison (the only surviving ones) between worm compost and potting soil. The worm compost seedling is huge by comparison and obviously much healthier.

Good worming!

Where to buy red wigglers? Buy worms HERE

Where to buy european nightcrawlers? Buy worms HERE

• Comment on DIY Gardening: How to Build a Worm Compost Bin by linda ... - Impressed, surprized & tickled pink! This is my 1st visit & won’t be my last! Joyous thanks to all.