Vermicomposting basic questions

Definitely agree with every info that MrMeagadam provided. About the coffee grounds - if you think you've put too much, you can balance it off by adding more moist shredded paper. Some people likes to pre-compost the kitchen scraps before tossing it in their bins - this makes it easier for the worms to chop'em in and makes the composting faster!

There is a milllion internet resources for vermicomposting.... just dont over feed them..... I mean drastically.... did that years ago.... fuck....

Worms manage their numbers by the ammount of food they get. If you starve them, numbers go down, opposite happens when food is in abundance. Under optimal conditions there are 1000 worms pr. sq foot of surface are (IIRC)
At the moment i'm doing alternating sides in my bin. harvest from one side, feed to the other. I harvest around a half to a whole cup pr. day. When i reach the bottom, i put in fresh bedding and spent rootballs, add a little blended goods (things containing stuff the mj plants love - pumpkins seeds have high mag levels for instance) and then i move the top layer off the previous feeding side, to the new, and start harvesting from there instead. To lazy to do screening or dump 'n' sort.

I cut the stems of my mj plants into 1 inch pieces and add to the bin aswell to give the castings some structure - i plants in 100% VC atm, and it has a tendency to clump up and pretend it's concrete >.< I think of the stems as a VERY slow release nutrient (degrades slowly in pots due to microbial activity) and a structure agent.

When i feed i sprinkle a little sand in as well, to give the worms some grit (worms have gizzards), and over time the sand will be ground up and end up as minerals.

Eggshells are another good thing to add, since the worms use the calcium for reproduction and digestion (worm mucus is high in calcium bi-carbonate), and they add a nice ph buffer both in the bin and the end-product. Sterelize them by heating them for a while (also makes them more brittle and easier to crush) You can put them in a blender as well, but there are some precations. 1: dust - do not inhale. 2: if you add water, you don't get dust, but instead a complete mess. I blend it with some foodscraps and a little water untill everything has a consistency of toothpaste. Be careful with blended food, it can heat up and kill the little buggers.

On a final note (i think i can go on about worms for hours, i think i need a REAL woman in my life, not just mary jane), the leachate is NOT worm tea. The bottom of the bin often gets a bit soggy and anarobic, so the leachate might be full of phyto toxins. Either dump it back in the bin, the toilet or aerate the *intercourse* out of it. Trust your nose

aiwelaweka said:

If you have the space I would dump all the worms into the compost pile along with all your kitchen scraps and every plant animal stuff that you going throw away and just make some crip compost, because farming worm poop is just not worth it. Unless you just enjoy raising worms. If you do that your compost pile will be full of worm poop

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Optimally, you do both kinds. Worms die due to the freezing weather in winter, but the eggs survive
If the outside compost is hot enough in winter for them to survive, most likely it's to hot for them in the summer :-/

Also, no critters beside the worms, springtails and a few mites in an indoor bin - No way i'm ever gonna bring compost from the outside compost inside my appartment - I am adding worms to it though

MrMeagadam said:

to help your worms out dry everything out and grind it up. coffe grounds are amazing but it lowers the ph dramticly whenever you put in coffee grounds put in wased and crused eggshells as well this will help to balence out the ph. only put in organic stuff ie no meat products they will rot and smell like ass. the poop will only be as good as what you give to them so its healthy stuff from now on . no matter what you put in there rember to let it cure first. the cure involves putting it into anouther bin with all your worms and microbeastys that are already in the soil and putting only water in this way it will balence out the ph

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Another trick to make it easier for the worms is freezing the vegetable scraps (brakes down the cell walls) - thaw them up again in the top shelf of the fridge to conserve a little energy and then give the worms the sloppy, yummy goodness

Dr. VonDank said:

They love cereal boxes as well. We're in the process of having a commercial grinder made so we can just toss the whole rootball in and break down befor the worm gets to it. Reds love used coffee filters and grounds too.

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Good idea with the grinder, but i wouldn't add cereal boxes myself. Black ink is soy based, but colour ink is another thing - No glossy paper either. I doubt the worms are harmed, but the heavy metals will eventually end up in you and they'll stay there :-/

Another thing they love are corn-husks - for some reason they love laying their eggs in the dimples. - as well as in the tunnels of corrugated cardboard. Silly little critters