Worm Tube for the SFG

sanderson wrote:Oh, man.  You're the kind of person who would love having worm tubes in beds.  It's so neat to sneak up and lift off the lid.  They bolt for the holes

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:Hahaha... so... I'm elbow deep in worm poop and smiling ear to ear and I realized - there's only one place I can tell people how cool it was and not have someone call the white coat people on me, LOL!

I needed to clean out my worm tubes today and each one (there are 5) were about 6-8 inches full of worm castings.  Lots of worms in them as well.  So I cleaned them out, put the castings to use and refilled their tubes with new food for my sweet pets.   

sanderson wrote:This Topic is almost 4 years old and has pages and pages of replies.  I'm hoping those who have successful worm tubes will fine tune my questions from their actual worm tube experience.  I bought my worms today, about 1/2 lb.  I have 4 tubes ready.  Now is when I get a little nervous.

I will put a handful of moist compost at the bottom of each tube and add 1/4 of the worms to each and cap the top.
Don't be nervous, they are quite forgiving.  I've had worm tubes.  Go ahead and moisten the compost layer, put in the worms, and put moistened food scraps on top.

1.  When do I feed them for the first time? Take a peek and see how fast the food is disappearing, in a week or so.  When you first put in the worms it may take them a couple weeks to settle in. After that initial period you'll probably see the need to add food more often.
2.  What should I feed them?  I see juicing residue, leafy greens as food.  Sure. What else? Potato peelings, mine loved moistened oatmeal, other cereal,  tea bags, old bread, crushed egg shells, too,  think of all your regular fruit and veggie compost items and feed your worms first. I have corn meal and I can get Starbuck's.  What about pieces of squash, banana peels, apples, melons? Yes to all of those.  Red worms are also called manure worms, so if you have access to  any aged herbivore animal manure, add that too. If you store up leaves and manure, those are some favorites, btw. Between that and food and veggie scraps you should get pretty massive worm herds in your tubes.  Worms are mostly little water bags. Be kind and mindful of this and keep things moist. See, iover all, it's pretty easy to add what you have on hand and moisten it. 
3.  How much should I feed?  One handful of mixed foods per week?  Try that and see. They will simply show you. Take a look. If the food has gone down or is missing, add more moist food.  And in general, try to keep a moist environment.
4.  White mold hyphae on the foods in the tube.  I got this stuff in my first tube last year.  Is this bad? Nope. Should I add any shredded news paper or paper towels.  Certainly.  But I wouldn't use paper towels that were used to wipe up any harsh chemicals, no.  And I wouldn't use slick shiny newspaper print either, just the black and white stuff. That will sometimes have color too but I use it with no problems.  Paper items....Wet them first or put them in dry? Wet.  Worms optimum environment is moist.   

I bought 25 worms a month or so ago and tried to keep them in the house.  I finally put the last 2 survivors in the old wet compost screenings (larger stuff that I screened out of my last batch of home made compost.

I do not want these new beauties to die!

sanderson wrote:LM,  Thank you for such a detailed reply.  I feel better (more confident).

sanderson wrote:Is wet fresh horse manure okay for composting worms.  I put little wet pieces in the worm tubes and the next day I saw more worms crawling around.  Do they really like coffee grounds that much?