Express Worm Feeding Tip

I have a few worm farms going and for the last month or so ive been putting my kitchen scraps in a container, freezing them, and then before feeding I give them a quick spray with EM1 (Bokashi solution available at Bunnings here in Australia). I have found this rapidly speeds up the feeding process. The worms get through the softer stuff in a couple of days and the harder stuff in around a week, roughly doubles the speed it breaks down I reckon. Would be even quicker if you blended your worm food, but I dont have a blender haha.

Just a handy tip for worm farmers out there wanting to be able to feed more to your worms.

Even if you dont want to spray EM1 simply freezing food will speed up decomposition.

I've found the KNF method for extract IMOs is just as good for creating a solution to speed up decomp, and far cheaper. Just extract some IMOs from an older tree's root ball using the KNF rice box method, make the IMO mollasses mixture that's commonly recommended everywhere, dilute that 1:100 with water, spray on your scraps, and throw it in your worm bin.

One thing you mentioned that I am curious about - what do you think the freezing is doing? I've never heard of that and I'm interested in what biological process it's actually aiding.

shadow_moose said:

I've found the KNF method for extract IMOs is just as good for creating a solution to speed up decomp, and far cheaper. Just extract some IMOs from an older tree's root ball using the KNF rice box method, make the IMO mollasses mixture that's commonly recommended everywhere, dilute that 1:100 with water, spray on your scraps, and throw it in your worm bin.

One thing you mentioned that I am curious about - what do you think the freezing is doing? I've never heard of that and I'm interested in what biological process it's actually aiding.

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it's commonplace for vermicomposters, the freezing explodes the cells when the water expands, then thawing out and mashing is essentially masticating the food for em

Thanks greasemonkey, that clears it up! Looks like my girlfriend's gonna be yelling at me tonight asking why there's compost in the meat freezer.

shadow_moose said:

Thanks greasemonkey, that clears it up! Looks like my girlfriend's gonna be yelling at me tonight asking why there's compost in the meat freezer.

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compost?
just get a good heavy duty plastic bag, and put the fruits or veggies in it, then take it out after a night and they are frozen solid, then defrost next to the wormbin for a day, then smash it with your hands (don't OPEN the bag, obviously) then dig a hole in the wormbin, plop it out, cover back up(crucial, unless you like gnats)
done deal
whole process in less than 24 hrs
but the compost itself ya don't want in the freezer, the microbes don't like super low temps

eastcoastLou said:

Why worry about it, seriously compost from start to finish is what 3 - 4 weeks just let nature take care of it rather then trying to speed up the process

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Not sure about a compost being able to start and finish in that amount of time man
3-4 months maybe, but not weeks, not unless you are doing external things to accelerate it, like bokashi or whatnot

greasemonkeymann said:

compost?
Not sure about a compost being able to start and finish in that amount of time man
3-4 months maybe, but not weeks, not unless you are doing external things to accelerate it, like bokashi or whatnot

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Yeah I agree with this. That being said, bokashi is really just fermentation prior to composting. It's a rip off if you're paying for the brand name bokashi grains and stuff, you can accomplish the same thing in a five gallon bucket with some of your own IMOs. Additionally, you're dealing with loads of anaerobic microbes from the fermentation process. Why the heck would you want those guys in your compost? It's exactly what you don't want. I think the freezing thing sounds like the best way to do it, based on my experience. Break that stuff up, cause those cells to blow up, let those worms and aerobic microbes do their thing. Don't bother with bokashi.

I've never seen finished compost in 3-4 weeks. My composters are pretty fast since I use lots of IMO concoctions and I have loads of worms, I still only finish compost at a minimum of 2-3 months, usually more on the three end of things.

shadow_moose said:

Thanks greasemonkey, that clears it up! Looks like my girlfriend's gonna be yelling at me tonight asking why there's compost in the meat freezer.

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Haha, a few weeks ago before a shopping trip there was virtually nothing left in our freezer but a bag of worm food scraps; ol lady was like wtf...we only have worm food and a half eaten pint of cherry Garcia.
In early fall we took the kids to an orchard to pick apples but ya know they don't really inspect them good enough (think some were on the ground already yuk) so we ended up with a fuckload of half rotted apples by the end of October. But even fully solid frozen apples will squish to a pulp once thawed; it like breaks down the cell structures making them into pulp at room temp. The wormies luv em and I get some nice high brix leacheate for my house plants

shadow_moose said:

Thanks greasemonkey, that clears it up! Looks like my girlfriend's gonna be yelling at me tonight asking why there's compost in the meat freezer.

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My wife has tried to put away groceries on a few occasions only to find herself face to face with a freezer full of juice pulp on more than a couple of occasions. Lol.

Richard Drysift said:

Haha, a few weeks ago before a shopping trip there was virtually nothing left in our freezer but a bag of worm food scraps; ol lady was like wtf...we only have worm food and a half eaten pint of cherry Garcia.
In early fall we took the kids to an orchard to pick apples but ya know they don't really inspect them good enough (think some were on the ground already yuk) so we ended up with a fuckload of half rotted apples by the end of October. But even fully solid frozen apples will squish to a pulp once thawed; it like breaks down the cell structures making them into pulp at room temp. The wormies luv em and I get some nice high brix leacheate for my house plants

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oh yeaa
if you have anybody you know with plum trees, or apple trees, those both drop their fruit so fast and almost all at once that people can't eat em fast enough, and maaaan do worms love them
I've found that my worms favorite food (judging on how fast they "swarm" to it) are pears, apples, plums, and avocados (just the insides)

My fruit trees are all too small still to have excess fruit but ive had alot of insect damaged strawberries lately and the worms love those.

BurnzAU said:

I have a few worm farms going and for the last month or so ive been putting my kitchen scraps in a container, freezing them, and then before feeding I give them a quick spray with EM1 (Bokashi solution available at Bunnings here in Australia). I have found this rapidly speeds up the feeding process. The worms get through the softer stuff in a couple of days and the harder stuff in around a week, roughly doubles the speed it breaks down I reckon. Would be even quicker if you blended your worm food, but I dont have a blender haha.

Just a handy tip for worm farmers out there wanting to be able to feed more to your worms.

Even if you dont want to spray EM1 simply freezing food will speed up decomposition.

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Thanks for the tip. Do you dilute em1 prior to spraying or spray worm food undiluted?

An old worm farmer told me to use chicken scratch to feed worms, he said the hormones caused the worm's to breed like crazy. And it's what the old man did for a living, but he wasn't doing what we do with it . Any thoughts?

I have read in a couple of places about a chicken feed mixture.

As for diluting the EM1, the solution I buy is in a "ready to use" bottle. Doesnt have ingredients on it rather than contains EM1 and says to spray into compost or bokashi bins. So I have no idea on dilution rates, you would have to play around I guess.

BurnzAU said:

I have read in a couple of places about a chicken feed mixture.

As for diluting the EM1, the solution I buy is in a "ready to use" bottle. Doesnt have ingredients on it rather than contains EM1 and says to spray into compost or bokashi bins. So I have no idea on dilution rates, you would have to play around I guess.

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Your EM1 can be 'extended' with molasses and water, @iHearAll is the guy with the know how on this subject tho, I don't know the measures off the top of my head

paraordnance said:

Thanks for the tip. Do you dilute em1 prior to spraying or spray worm food undiluted?

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Em1 is a mother culture.
Dechlorinate 1 liter of water, and mix in 2T of agricultural molasses and 2T of EM1. Seal it up in a 1 liter bottle and allow it to ferment for one week out of the sun at room temperature. This bottle is now called EMe or em extended. It is as concentrated as the bottle of EM1 but should NOT be cultured into another EMe but rather be cultured into bokashi, FPE, FFE, EM5, etc.

The dilution rate of EM in water for foliat or soil drench is 1:100 by volume. Add 1:100 agricultural grade molasses so your EMe has food for the week and apply both EMe amd molasses weekly or biweekly.

In almost all instances of turning EMe into fpe ffe etc, use one kilo of solids and one liter of nonchlorinated water with two tsp (10mL) eme and 10ml of molasses. Ferment solids for two or more weeks, strain, feed solids to worms, use liquids foliar or soil drench like syated before.

Anther rule of thumb is 2/3c each per 5gal of water. If you mix multiple liquid extracts do not double up on the molasses, let the bacteria sort out who gets what at that level.

Do you need fermented chicken feed recipes?

I made a,loaf of sour dough out of decarbed trim that is aboit to het soaked in eme and fed to the worms lol

shadow_moose said:

That being said, bokashi is really just fermentation prior to composting. It's a rip off if you're paying for the brand name bokashi grains and stuff, you can accomplish the same thing in a five gallon bucket with some of your own IMOs. Additionally, you're dealing with loads of anaerobic microbes from the fermentation process. Why the heck would you want those guys in your compost? It's exactly what you don't want. I think the freezing thing sounds like the best way to do it, based on my experience. Break that stuff up, cause those cells to blow up, let those worms and aerobic microbes do their thing. Don't bother with bokashi.

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exactly. I'll add gram+ = wonderland, gram- = mordor
because my dear kids... a zebrasus its the algebraic cross inbetween a zebra and a pegasus

and dont forget the lollipopins

platt said:

exactly. I'll add gram+ = wonderland, gram- = mordor
because my dear kids... a zebrasus its the algebraic cross inbetween a zebra and a pegasus

and dont forget the lollipopins

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I completely agree, sometimes,the stegosaurus gets angry and that's just waves man

Bareback said:

An old worm farmer told me to use chicken scratch to feed worms, he said the hormones caused the worm's to breed like crazy. And it's what the old man did for a living, but he wasn't doing what we do with it . Any thoughts?

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I've always heard laying mash and that's what I use. Seeing them side by side in open bins in the feed store, thae laying mash is a bit smaller and should break down faster, besides having a bit of Ca added for the eggshells. But really, both are just cracked/slightly ground corn with very little difference.

The only thing everyone agreed on was not to bury it or, it would sour. I'll mist it just enough to put a sheen on it and it will be gone in 2-3 days. This is just sprinkling a small amount on the surface of the bin.

A 50# bag lasts forever, even in a large operation, but only costs $10-$12. Smaller amounts are $1/lb, so it's worth getting something to store it in and many places don't sell under 50lb bags.

IDK about the breeding part, down here the mash is used to fatten up fishing worms and it does do that. Good stuff!

Wet

iHearAll said:

Em1 is a mother culture.
Dechlorinate 1 liter of water, and mix in 2T of agricultural molasses and 2T of EM1. Seal it up in a 1 liter bottle and allow it to ferment for one week out of the sun at room temperature. This bottle is now called EMe or em extended. It is as concentrated as the bottle of EM1 but should NOT be cultured into another EMe but rather be cultured into bokashi, FPE, FFE, EM5, etc.

The dilution rate of EM in water for foliat or soil drench is 1:100 by volume. Add 1:100 agricultural grade molasses so your EMe has food for the week and apply both EMe amd molasses weekly or biweekly.

In almost all instances of turning EMe into fpe ffe etc, use one kilo of solids and one liter of nonchlorinated water with two tsp (10mL) eme and 10ml of molasses. Ferment solids for two or more weeks, strain, feed solids to worms, use liquids foliar or soil drench like syated before.

Anther rule of thumb is 2/3c each per 5gal of water. If you mix multiple liquid extracts do not double up on the molasses, let the bacteria sort out who gets what at that level.

Do you need fermented chicken feed recipes?

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Thanks for that. I messed up 1/2 gallon of EMe with too much airspace under the airlock. Still have some EM1, but misplaced the ratios. Also have a 50lb bag of wheat bran for bokashi bran that should be done for next spring if my cheap labor (son), comes for a visit.

Funny, I love the dried bran, but could never really get into using the liquid.

Wet