My Lovely Worms

The worms are doing OK, and they say hello to one and all.

2011-07-23T15:46:00.003-04:00

I probably should have brought them inside during the heat but I didn't. I've been adding, as often as possible, bags of frozen wilted lettuce, mango peels, pineapple skins, apple cores, corn cobs, any old vegs and fruits. It seems to keep them cool enough, long enough. They produced a lot of castings this summer. I use it sparingly for reasons I can't fathom. A lot of it is sitting in a bucket right now out by my veg garden and I should just dump it around and water well. I think I'm hoarding it for new plants. I guess.

I harvested a nice pile of worm castings last week. I don't know what those other creatures are...the tan cocoons.

2010-09-12T21:41:00.004-04:00

I like the pretty vertical worm. She/he looks a little like a sea horse.

Fresh worm poop!

2010-08-14T10:58:00.004-04:00

I kept the worms outside on my deck much of the summer but it just got SO hot that I decided to bring them into the basement for some cooler temperatures. I've read that they prefer temps between about 60 and 85 and we've had an especially hot summer so I wondered how they fared. When I harvested these castings it appeared that I had a good number of worms but they were all large...many fewer small or medium worms. I wonder if only the strong and large could withstand the heat?

I love my worms even more now than I did before. They are so much more compliant than my bees. The amount of time I devote to both bees and worms is about the same, but the amount of time I spend worrying about the bees is way off the charts. A beekeeper in my general neighborhood lost her 8-yr-old hives when a tree fell on them in one of the recent storms. My hive is surrounded by big old trees just aching to fall down --- see http://pamela-j.blogspot.com/2010/08/more-tree-damage-from-yet-another-nasty.html.

Pretty and healthy and so productive.

2010-06-03T19:46:00.001-04:00

Worm humor.

2010-04-25T18:02:00.001-04:00

Source of worms in the DC area.

2010-02-09T00:13:00.004-05:00

Cycle Jerk asked "Do you know of any place local to buy worms? I too live in Silver Spring." Here's one young lady, she's about 11 or 12, who has a small business selling worms. If she's out of business, let me know and I'll give you some of my worms.

A birthday book from my sister!

2010-02-04T16:22:00.001-05:00

I'll let you know what happens in the story. I'm sure it has a twisted plot.

I feed my worms unprocessed food scraps--whole banana peels, etc. I make one exception--broccoli stems. They're tough & need to be chopped up.

2010-01-30T14:58:00.002-05:00

Starting a worm bin (for Sissy).

2010-01-29T16:25:00.014-05:00

This site is "full and explicit," which you wanted:
http://www.redwormcomposting.com/

These are my 1-6 instructions.
1. Buy 2 Tupperware-style containers and drill 1/8 inch holes all over the bottoms of each of them. Set each container on its lid.
2. Take a lot of newspapers--a big handful--and tear them into long shreds. Fill up each container with the shreds and add enough water to make it wet but not dripping wet. Fill it about half way up. Throw in a handful of soil from your yard, or use store-bought potting soil.
3. Buy 1 lb of worms through the mail. I used this company (about $24): http://triplegwormfarm.com/. You MUST use red worms, not earthworms from your garden.
4. Save up kitchen scraps so you have about a pound ready for when the worms arrive. Use banana and mango peels, apple cores, lettuce & other greens, coffee grounds, tea bags. Use nothing that came from an animal. Avoid oils and onions. I avoid citrus rind b/c it takes so long to break down. You'll need about 1/2 lb a day, more or less, to keep a pound of worms happy.
5. When the worms arrive in the mail make sure the newspaper in the bins is nice and moist. Add the worms gently in the middle of each bin. Add some of the kitchen scraps, cover with more of the wet shredded newspaper, stack the bins gently, put one lid on top and one lid on the bottom (to catch any liquid that may run out), and set the entire business in a low-light, out-of-the-way place. Leave them alone for a day or two. Then peek in and you should see them mingling in amongst the scraps. If they look too dry, sprinkle in some water. Cover and let them be.
6.In the beginning, the worms may take a while to get adjusted to their new home and to get through the first feeding.

Other thoughts:
If you want to avoid buying anything new here's an idea for a recycling bin:
"I have used a discarded 5 gallon bucket (available from restaurants, bakeries, other food establishments). You could also use 5 gallon buckets that had dry wall, etc., but the ones that had food items in them previously don't need to be decontaminated." (From GardenWeb.com.)

And the worms would be so happy if you let those kitchen scraps decay a bit while they are being shipped to you. Then when you give them their first meal, it will be in the perfect state for worms. They LOVE decayed anything.

[Top two photos are my guys today. Photo of bin is from redwormcomposting.com.]

Winter harvest. Long overdue. Beautiful castings but I fear my boys were a little hungry and thirsty.

2010-01-06T17:57:00.004-05:00

Fresh castings. Lovely. Ready for my veggie garden.

2009-10-31T17:34:00.000-04:00

I generally don't buy movies on DVD but this is one I will buy. Very excited.

2009-10-25T11:15:00.002-04:00

Here's the movie's website: http://www.dirtthemovie.org/news.

My lovely worms come into the kitchen for the winter.

2009-10-20T14:19:00.001-04:00

And they have a new floor to sit upon. Artist daughter had a one-word comment on the new floor: "outdated."

I put my two bins outside for the summer and inherited a lot of these guys. What are they?

2009-09-13T00:29:00.001-04:00

Horned caterpillar & frass. Too beautiful to kill. So he's living in a plastic ventilated box on my sunroom.

2009-09-06T21:26:00.004-04:00

He's been in captivity for only about 3 hours but already he's pooped up a storm. Lovely little greenish black blossom-pellets, called "frass." Remember that for your next game of Scrabble.

Harvesting day yesterday. I used the little-piles-of-poop method. Worms dig down to escape sun. Tops of piles become pure poop.

2009-07-24T21:14:00.002-04:00

A sad tale of a black snake in my new tomato bed.

2009-07-24T09:56:00.004-04:00

So sad. I discovered an adult black snake twisted in the netting I put around a tomato bed, netting to keep the deer out as long as possible. (The deer always win in the end.) One theory is that the snake crawled in through one little hole and then turned around later and tried to exit through another hole and found himself entangled. Or he came in through one hole, then ate something like a toad, and wasn't able to get back out because of the lump in his gullet. In either case, he was alive when I found him but possibly dying. Flies were gathering. My lovely son Greg did as much cutting of netting as he could do, but Mr. Snake had swelled so much that the netting was tight around his body. I should have taken a shovel and ended his life right there. But I just couldn't. And I didn't ask Greg to do it either. So I lifted him up with a long pole and tossed him into the woods next to the house. Vultures will get him. Maybe something else. I feel very sad about this because I know the snake was good for my garden. And he did no harm. He's creepy of course, but so are slugs. I may try to install some kind of snake guard along all of my fences that involve netting. A huge job, so maybe not. The end.

I love my worms but I don't love slugs. But I'm trying to feel neutral about them.

2009-07-24T09:48:00.003-04:00

They must have some redeeming qualities. They are sort of pretty, I think. Black and brown is a nice color combo.

I don't harvest often enough.

2009-07-22T11:17:00.002-04:00

This is one of my lower bins. Everyone looks healthy I'd say. But I could harvest castings more often than I currently do. So today I will! The worms make me feel especially sluggish and unproductive today: I overslept my yoga class. Seems really decadent. I have only one firm obligation each week and it's yoga. I want to be more like my worms. They don't oversleep. I guess. I wonder if anyone rally knows if worms sleep?

The Good Stuff.

2009-07-18T00:48:00.001-04:00

I inherited a new worm bin.

2009-06-09T18:03:00.004-04:00

I haven't started using it yet because I don't like the 2-3" layer of plastic packing peanuts between the lining and the bottom of the bin. I know why they're there, I guess. But I really hate those things. This bin was made by a semi-famous local girl, about 11 years old, who sells the bin and a supply of worms for a reasonable price, which I've forgotten. Isn't her hand-made label adorable?

Top, Eisenia foetida (redwiggler). Middle, Eisenia hortensis (European nightcrawler). Bottom, Lumbricus terrestris (Canadian nightcrawler).

2009-06-09T14:51:00.011-04:00

I can't see much if any difference. But every worm "expert" says never bring nightcrawlers, the worms found in your garden, into a closed vermicomposting system. I can't remember why. But will find out. Again.

Worm juice. The stuff of much controversy.

2009-05-27T23:31:00.002-04:00

I added this juice (I should think of a better word) to a watering can nearly full of water and sprinkled it over some of my plants. I do this from time to time. I have no idea if it helps the plants but I think it can't hurt them, especially considering how infrequently I do it. Compost tea is controversial. Much more interesting than whatever CNN decides is controversial.

My original vermicomposter system on the right; my inherited system on the left.

2009-05-23T15:26:00.003-04:00

The details of my inheritance can be found here.

About worm eggs (I found this on some forum somewhere and liked it):

"Worms lay eggs. You know that saddle in the middle of them that looks like they've been chopped in half and restitched together? That slides off their body and forms an egg sack (which looks like a tiny onion - or fertiliser pellet) which will eventually produce between 12-20 young un's. When you go through the bedding next time you should look for those too.

"So a population of 21 worms can multiple into many thousands if given a few good months.

"I teach highschool enviro. science and we breed worms in class - my students have turned 10 or so worms into hundreds in just weeks. They each count their own pet worms before making mini Coke bottle worm farms. We have a competition to see who has the most sexy worms."

Fresh castings.

2009-05-16T13:08:00.001-04:00

I'm on youtube! A friend gave me her worm composting setup and she recorded the moment of adoption. Go here.

Cleaned out my little pond. Not sure if these worms want to be submerged.

2009-04-24T18:15:00.004-04:00

I've been scooping them out every day and placing them on the ground. Next day I find more. When it got hot today (high 70s) they turned white.

Harvesting Day. Pictures are in no particular order.

2009-04-20T20:52:00.006-04:00

What, exactly, is in worm castings?

2009-04-13T23:53:00.004-04:00

This is one answer. It's not referenced, so I can't be sure it's totally accurate but it sounds right from what reading I've done so far.
From this site.
The bacterial population of a worm cast is much higher than the bacterial population of either worm’s gut or ingested soils.

One of the important components of worm cast is the humus, a complicated material formed during the breakdown of organic matter. The humic acid in humus provides many binding site for plant nutrients, such as iron, calcium, potassium, phosphorus and sulfur. These slow release nutrients are stored in the humic acid molecule in a form readily available to plants, and are released when they are needed by the plants.

Worm cast also contain worm mucus which will keeps the nutrients from washing away. These mucus acts as glue to agglomerate soil particles. It holds moisture better than plain soil. Worm cast can hold 2-3 times their weight in water. It will improve the water holding capacity of the soil. In other words, your soils will remain dampen for a longer period of time.

Worm cast are rich in microbial life which helps break down nutrient already present in the soil into plant available forms. It also enriching soil in micro-organisms, adding plant hormones such as auxins and gibberellic and adding enzymes such as phosphatase and cellulase.

Worm cast improve soil structure, porosity, aeration and water retention capabilities. The product can insulate plant roots from extreme temperatures, reduce erosion and control weeds. It is odorless and consists of 100% recycled materials.

Worm casting contains 5 times the available nitrogen, 7 times the available potassium and 1.5 times more calcium than found in 15cm of good top soil. It will contains all the necessary nutrients when the wastes fed is well balanced (e.g., fruit peels, vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, garden wastes, grains, breads, small amount of egg shells and bones, shredded newspapers and cardboards.)

Nice youtube. Worms rule!

2009-04-13T16:13:00.013-04:00

Excellent harvesting video here. He used some fancy avocado bridge technique that I might try too. (Oh...how could I forget Neil Young! He's there too. I'll bet he vermicomposts.)

Low-tech vs. high-tech worm composting. Will I try the jeans composter? How can I not?

2009-04-01T10:52:00.004-04:00

Here's the deal with the table. Food scraps go down a hole in the center of the table. Worm tea drips out the bottom and feeds the plants. Human can view the worms inside their home via a camera with a ultraviolet light that won't disturb the worms. They hate light you know. They have no brains but they have a nervous system. It runs down the length of their body and is exquisitely sensitive to light.

Social networking for the wormy set.

2009-03-29T11:18:00.003-04:00

I've joined vermicomposters.com. I'm now literally on a map with 800+ other worm fanatics. How can anyone not love worms?

Latest results in the castings vs. compost vs. clay experiment

2009-03-14T21:30:00.004-04:00

The tallest is the clay plant. The castings plant looks very healthy and there's a second lemon plant in the pot, along with some other sprouts (alfalfa?). The compost plant is the smallest of the three. Surprising. Clay on right, castings in the rear, compost on the left.

Fresh castings.

2009-03-11T15:59:00.001-04:00

Full moon soon. According to the Farmers Almanac, March's full moon is known as the Full Worm Moon.

2009-03-09T23:02:00.004-04:00

From here.

"At the time of this spring Moon, the ground begins to soften and earthworm casts reappear, inviting the return of robins. This is also known as the Sap Moon, as it marks the time when maple sap begins to flow and the annual tapping of maple trees begins."

A child, one of my own, asked me a simple question today: aren't worms considered insects? I didn't know the answer. But Wikipedia does.

2009-03-04T15:16:00.002-05:00

From Wikipedia:
There are hundreds of thousands of species [of worms] that live in a wide variety of habitats other than soil. Over time this broad definition narrowed to the modern definition, although this still includes several different animal groups. Phyla that include worms include:
* Acanthocephala (spiny-headed worms)
* Annelida (segmented worms)
* Chaetognatha (arrow worms)
* Gnathostomulid (jaw worms)
* Hemichordata (acorn/tongue worms)
* Nematoda (roundworms)
* Nematomorpha (horsehair worms)
* Nemertea (ribbonworms)
* Onychophora (velvet worms)
* Phoronida (horseshoe worms)
* Platyhelminthes (flatworms)
* Priapulida (phallus worms)
* Sipuncula (peanut worms)

The most common worm is the earthworm, a member of phylum Annelida. Earthworms in general have been around for 120 million years, and are theorized to have evolved during the time of the dinosaurs. ...They lack a brain but have nerve centers (called ganglia); they also lack eyes but can sense light with photoreceptors. Worms are hermaphrodites (both sexes in one animal) but can cross fertilize.

Other invertebrate groups may be called worms, especially colloquially. In particular, many unrelated insect larvae are called "worms", such as the railroad worm, woodworm, glowworm, bloodworm, inchworm, mealworm, or silkworm.

Worms may also be called helminths, particularly in medical terminology when referring to parasitic worms, especially the Nematoda (roundworms) and Cestoda (tapeworms). Hence "helminthology" is the study of parasitic worms. When an animal, such as a dog, is said to "have worms", it means that it is infested with parasitic worms, typically roundworms or tapeworms.

"Ringworm" is not a worm at all, but a skin fungus.

My wormy friends look happy.

2009-02-28T12:07:00.002-05:00

In just 2 weeks my lovely worms have made many burrows. Aren't they beautiful?

2009-02-13T10:30:00.004-05:00

An experiment.

2009-01-31T14:43:00.001-05:00

In his book about Vegetable Mould Darwin describes some of his techniques for studying the burrowing behavior of worms. I'm doing a similar experiment and you can see, just barely, some of the first burrows.

2009-01-13T22:50:00.000-05:00

Getting down to business.

2009-01-12T14:41:00.002-05:00

2009-01-10T13:30:00.001-05:00

I'm going to harvest today! Why do I enjoy this so much? Maternal behavior?

Darwin on Vegetable Mould.

2009-01-08T12:03:00.000-05:00

In the year 1837, a short paper was read by me before the
Geological Society of London, {2} "On the Formation of Mould," in
which it was shown that small fragments of burnt marl, cinders,
&c., which had been thickly strewed over the surface of several
meadows, were found after a few years lying at the depth of some
inches beneath the turf, but still forming a layer. This apparent
sinking of superficial bodies is due... to the large
quantity of fine earth continually brought up to the surface by
worms in the form of castings. These castings are sooner or later
spread out and cover up any object left on the surface. I was thus
led to conclude that all the vegetable mould over the whole country has passed many times through, and will again pass many times through, the intestinal canals of worms. Hence the term "animal mould" would be in some respects more appropriate than that commonly used of "vegetable mould."

...nowhere in England have I seen the
ground so thickly covered with castings as on commons, at a height of several hundred feet above the sea. In woods again, if the loose leaves in autumn are removed, the whole surface will be found strewed with castings.
From: http://www.darwin-literature.com/The_Formation_Of_Vegetable_Mould/0.html

Eau de worms.

2009-01-06T15:30:00.000-05:00

Someone on Amazon.com bought some red worms. He made this comment about his purchase.

Hesitant at first about mail-order worms, but extremely pleased with purchase. Flavor notes: Woodsy, slightly floral bouquet followed by a rich nuttiness and a slightly smoky, slightly salty finish. Fantastic with a sidecar of soy sauce and box of cheap merlot.

They LOVE cantaloupe.

2009-01-06T13:58:00.001-05:00

From my back yard. Don't know what they are. Earthworms, of course, but exactly what kind of earthworms.

2009-01-06T13:52:00.000-05:00

These are either red wigglers (Eisenia fetida) or red worms (Lumbricus rubellus).

2009-01-04T15:42:00.000-05:00

They're classified as epigeic worms, defined as those who live near the surface of the earth. Nightcrawlers (Lumbricus terrestria) are anecic, meaning they live deep in the ground. And then there are endogeic worms, which live in the roots of plants.