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Post by Alan on Dec 30, 2007 23:25:36 GMT -5
I have yet to try raising them outdoors yet, however if I get some money flow going on this year and next I'm more than willing to look at buying a tractor with a front end loader and possibly laying some concrete so as to start raising the worms in large win-rows and letting them migrate to the new stockpile of food every couple of months at which time I can just go in with the front end loader and harvest the whole heap to be spread by a manure spreader.
Big dreams, but I'm determined that one of these days that's how I'm going to do things.
My other idea is to buy another 20 X 48 greenhouse and throw a 2 sided tarp (black/silver) on it and install some homemade wooden bins complete with wench, metal bar, and screen in the bottom so that every couple of days I just harvest the bottom inch or so of worm castings and I can keep the greenhouse heated with a wood stove so as to keep the worms at their most productive period 12 months a year.
Once again, big ideas about self-sustainability.
We will see indeed.
-Alan
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Post by Alan on Jan 6, 2008 0:17:39 GMT -5
Hey Patrick, how are the worms doing friend? I hope they are doing well and doing what they are supposed to be doing. Mine here are going good, a little slowed down from the winter but still eating right along and making a great number of new castings. I suppose I will be harvesting again here in a couple of months right in time for spring planting in the greenhouse as well as outdoors, I suspect the fertilizer I gain from the harvest is going to be of an excellent quality which I will not be able to find elswhere, I hope you and Karen both have the same great results that I have had thus far.
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Post by hoosierheightsfarm on Jan 13, 2008 18:56:17 GMT -5
Tell me more about this moving their food from their bedding...
I've only put stuff in on top of what is already there.
Patrick
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Post by plantsnobin on Jan 13, 2008 20:04:28 GMT -5
Hi Patrick, how is the family liking the new pets? Hope all is going well with them, mine are really reproducing. They survived ok in the newspaper only bin, but didn't exactly thrive. I fed with a little bit of rabbit poo and they took off like crazy. Just don't tell my family that I brought bunny crap into the house. I just used a little bit, and it doesn't smell. Advice to anyone building wooden bins-I don't recommend OSB. I built one out of scrap, and lets just say it didn't work, may the worms rest in peace. Plywood has worked very well, but the OSB dessicated them. I feel really bad about that. There are a lot of mistakes to be made, but they are pretty tough. At least there are usually eggs that survive.
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Post by Alan on Jan 19, 2008 23:45:49 GMT -5
I flipped the bins in the wormhouse today and the worms are really doing great despite being exposed to such cold temperatures in the unheated cold frame/greenhouse. The appear to have slowed down eating and breeding a bit but still yet there appeared to be a nice new inch or two layer of new vermicompost that looked really nice.
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Post by Alan on Jan 28, 2008 18:51:57 GMT -5
I harvested another 10 bucketts of worm castings the past two days as I have decided to harvest a little bit of castings once a month instead of a ton of them every three months or so, I'll probably harvest at least another four times by planting time. The bins were a little frozen on the outside and they had freeze dried a bit, but I'm confident the worms will recover as they always do.
Anyhow, I just wanted to check up and see how HoosierHeights and Plantsnoobin were doing with their worm experiments? Hope all is going well.
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Post by Alan on Feb 7, 2008 20:03:03 GMT -5
Hey Patrick, any word on how your worms are doing?
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Post by hoosierheightsfarm on Feb 8, 2008 21:05:13 GMT -5
They are still doing what they do best. I haven't messed with them in several days.
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Post by Alan on Mar 3, 2008 0:15:06 GMT -5
With the nice weather the past two days the worms have really taken off and been doing a terrific job of making me some more fertilizer prior to the arrival of spring. They were all in the top couple of inches of bedding in their bins today and moving the plastic from the top of the bean revealed a writhing mass of "earth intestines" happy that the lull of winter is slowly starting to pass by and they can once again become the active critters that they strive to be.
Today while digging a posthole for the new security light behind the new greenhouse and the day before yesterday while digging a trench for the electricity in the new greenhouse I noticed that the red worms were slowly working their way back up to the top couple of inches of soil and become more active which is always a sure sign that spring is on it's way.
In a couple of weeks I'll be putting some of that vermicompost to work on the fields when I get ready to plant a lot of lettuce, mesclun, collards, kale, cabbage, turnips and other greens.
I have also been making some "tea" for the new seedlings and will put some of the other vermicompost to work this week while potting up the new tomato crop for spring.
It is good to be darn near self-sufficient for the first time in my life. Now, about that gas and those tractors..........?
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Post by hoosierheightsfarm on Nov 22, 2008 19:04:41 GMT -5
My worms are gone. I set their tote outside during a "big clean" during the summer (sometime??). I looked through it the other day and they are all gone. crawled out I guess...
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