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🌱 Living Soil with Cherene
330 members • Free
6 contributions to 🌱 Living Soil with Cherene
9h •
Office hour chat
Thanks Cherene Rick and David for a lovely chat today will chat again next week Monday have a great week all
2 likes • 9h
It was Nice and very Informative. Hopefully I have time this week to figure a few things out this week and not be just "Lurking" next week. Thanks All.
1 like • 5h
@Cherene Packard Sent you an e mail through your web site.
11d •
My new toy!!
1st compost tea using my TeaLab Bubble Snake. Its a blend of compost, castings and a few organic ammendments along with some Rootwise microbial innoculants for my corn that is/has tasseled and is putting on ears. 18-20 hr brew and it'll be ready tomorrow morning just before sunrise 😁🌽😁
3 likes • 7h
@Jason Evans You can also find fine mesh bags with draw string closures in the produce dept of local supermarket at reasonable price. It is labelled "Produce Bag" for some reason. LOL A 1 gallon size is usually 2 or 3 dollars and are similar to paint straining bags. I have 4 that I have used for a few years now, and other than stained, are in as good of shape as when they were new.
2 likes • 6h
@Jason Evans Yes. That would work good.
12h •
What Experiments have You done, or want to do ?
Over the years, not going to age myself, my Worm Farming has been pretty run of the mill Feed and Harvest, and split bins when population max out for the bin. Of late I have begun to experiment with Breeder Bins, different feeding methods like Coffee only bin like AV does for 1 of his on his YouTube channel. My next experiment will be using a piece of Fiberglass window screen beneath the Bubble Wrap and Newsprint on the surface of a breeder bin. I have seen many state the cocoons seem to be in greater concentration near cardboard, seams or folds in their Pond Liner material, or on surface of Corn Cobs. The theory being the worms rub against them to help release the swollen clitellum so they can get back to business. I want to see if more cocoons show up on the surface of the bedding. I have done Breeder bin, precompost bedding, horizontal migration to harvest worms easier, foraging where near end of bin lifespan, food is placed into bin with out carbon so that worms consume the little bedding left, to make castings "Cleaner" and a few "Micro Bins". I used a plastic Folgers coffee container, a hand full of bedding, and 50 worms. I found out how long food lasts with 50 worms. A decent size strawberry top with some fruit on it has vanished in a day or 2, but greens stick around for a week or more. A light sprinkle of veggie powder or Worm Chow disappears overnight. What have You done or thought of doing ?
2 likes • 9h
@Cherene Packard OK I am familiar with SMS then. A word of caution. Check out "Worms With Rick" youtube channel. He tried 100% sms and had bad luck, lost all the worms in his small test bin. He reset it, used a hybrid mix and it seems to be going well now. I am doing an outdoor Bin, or pile rather that was about the size of a pick up truck in the fall but is now about 1/10th the size. Put in maybe 2 lbs of worms last week and will check back in a few weeks to see how it goes. I have 6 acres of bush around our home so do not want for leaves. 😁
2 likes • 8h
@Cherene Packard Unfortunately the soil where we live is Dirty Sand on top of Granite Bed Rock, I will never be able to make the amount of castings that I could use ! So I just do it for my own personal use. You know how it goes, you can always find room for another bin or 10.
5d •
Worm breeder bins for cocoon production
This is one of my red wiggler breeder bins, and run on a 21 day cycle. They are optimized for cocoon production, so there are a lot of cocoons that are left behind as well as the bedding turning into castings so quickly!
1 like • 13h
Not as Dramatic as some photos I have seen in this group, but this is 1 of my breeder bins in the past, just before I harvested it. Maybe 1/6th of the bin right after bubble wrap and newsprint peeled back. 4:30 am and I started before the Coffee Maker was done, hence the poor quality photo.😁 These were on the surface, there were plenty more throughout the bedding that was 2" deep.
0 likes • 10h
@Cherene Packard Thank You.
23h •
How do you check in on your worms?
This is one of my red wiggler mortar bins, and it’s just a grow out bin with worms or all ages. I’ve been using electric compost as bedding lately mixed with more cardboard if it’s too dense, and the worms have been loving it. I always make sure there is no standing water, and I like to fluff it up to make sure nothing is going anaerobic. It’s a good time to check on the healthy of the worms and also make sure the bedding is in good condition for them!
4 likes • 15h
With the exception of the Electric Compost, my routine is the same and done at feeding time every 10 - 14 days.
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