Worm Tube for the SFG

This is a great thread. I was looking into this already. how many people here do this? Do you think the tube might get too hot here in Houston? I was thinking about putting in shorter tube in opposite corners and alternating feedings to help them migrate or split worms into each tube and feeding every few days. back to reread all the post

newstart, I have to agree with you. This thread is one of my favorites. I still haven't ordered any but as soon as the holidays are over, and things settle back down a bit, I will start getting more serious about getting my worms!

I. Want. Worms.

Since I can't have chickens, I really want worms. I'll have to see how much studying/learning I can do to see if I can get them for this Spring. For research, I figure I'll start with this thread and then the Wiggler Hilton thread, and see if I need anymore sources!

Feedback on my wide worm tubes made from plastic flower pots or coffee cans. I posted earlier in this thread about them.

I like them a lot. I can reach down to the bottom to grab old food and replace with fresh. I can also grab the castings when they pile up. They take a little more space than PVC pipe, but more than half of the square is still plantable.

So what is the # worms/amount of time/casting ratio?

Seeing as there are not many areas of the world that do not have earthworms that consume the products of rotting vegetation it is fairly easy to harvest worms and then transfer them to your worm tube in a SFG bed

When spring starts to warm up where you live if your like me and get into freezing conditions for a few weeks/ months at a time. Get hold of any animal droppings & bodily liquids that also has paper straw or wood chips/ shavings mixed in it and fill up a 2 foot square by 1 foot deep box/ container that is placed on the greenest grass in your property ( but not in a swamp ) "T hars worms in them thar roots ". Water the muck well and bung on a sort of lid to help the pile sweat and break down .

As in the SFG tube the worms native to the area will soon find the rotting down manure and start to lay eggs in it . Top up the frame a few times and always keep well watered , wear rubber kitchen gloves when picking the worms out the manure if it was horse muck based (due to the tenanus problems ).

Add what is left in the multiplier box along with some fresh cut up newspaper paper & fresh friut /veg bits and any green veg bits to the tubes in your SFG beds then carry on like Josh has already outlined.

You can also make small multiplier mounds of fresh manure and some lawn cuttings etc that are wet and covered with old carpet or tarp etc , wet them down every other day ,after two weeks or so you should find you have attracted some local worms to put in your tubes

One idea that has come to mind after reading the posts in this worm thread is that all you need for the worm tube is a length of rain water drain pipe open at both ends and fixed at a angle ( say 45 degrees into the bed with the bottom open end buried below the surface so it sits at the lowest point of Mel's Mix etc.

There is no need to make fancy holes in the tube or add caps , having the filler end of the tube angled to the outside of the bed means you don't have to lean over to fill the tube nor lean over to water it which is good if you're wrecked with a damaged back , knees etc.

Another worm and plant food enhancer is called " green manuring with green manures " is to sow mustard seeds etc. in early winter so they can germinate or early spring if you have clear beds over winter .
As soon as they reach 4 to 6 inches high turn/ dig them in to the growth medium , they will start to decompose quite quickly and the worms will have a decent start all over that bed for your new growing year.

Here is a picture of brandling worms ( red wrigglers ??? ) in the very very wet 200 tonne exceedingly long heap of horse muck with wood chips and shavings where I got my 11 x 1/2 tonne tailer loads of the manure from to give my 30 year old never culivated gardens an initial growth boost to see what would grow in them .



After the first year most of the brandlings had been replace with nice fat earthworms but wherever I added new rotting stuff with rotting new green veg etc the brandlings came back in that area as well .

I have also started a dedicated dalek ( lidded 4 foot high cone shaped plastic purpose made compost bin ) set on a draining concrete base just for brandling production , it gets fed with crosscut shredded black & white newspapers or our office paper shreddings , all kitchen preparation scraps & leavings ( no cooked food ) , dog hair brushings out, any garden waste less the roots if they have earth on them and the contents of the vacuum cleaner hopper. It gets wetted down with rain water and every now with some my rain water diluted 20:1 urine ( see other threads on this idea )

I've never put any sort of worm in this bin but lo and behold there are hundreds of brandlings munching away on the contents .

I can't say it any better than that.

I know I use the red wigglers and they do fine in the tube and sfg. The red wigglers are a surface worm and like the manure...rotting food left overs...and can take the heat better than a night crawler , so I've read. My sfg that has the worm tube in it, has worms in the tube and out in the garden area of it, so they move around and they don't just stay in the tube.

Thanks for the answer Josh. I will be incorporating this in my garden in the early spring.

martha wrote:So what is the # worms/amount of time/casting ratio?

Hey Josh, that question is for you; you're the scientist around here!

Martha I did a year long study off how many worms, how much I fed them, how much worm castings they made and how much newspaper for bedding I used, and I posted it somewhere here on the forum, maybe even to this post, but I can't find my report paper now so I can't tell you for sure....but I will keep looking for it. If you look for the post ...home made or store boughten worm bin I posted some results there about the worm bin I made recently. I'm using my phone to post. So let me answer later when I can use my computer.

Ok I found those results again. This is for the home made tote worm bin.



My worm results were for 10 months.

I started off with 500 red wiggler worms, (I hand counted them.)

I measured the newspapers in 12 inch X 12 inch size squares, and in the 10
months time, they used up 2,016-12 inch X 12 inch squares. (you can use any kind
of paper except the shinny coated kind)

I weighed all the food scraps,that I gave them.
They ate 63 lbs of scraps in the 10 months.

I measured the worm compost in gallon containers.
They made 27 gallons of worm compost in the 10 months.

1 pound of worms equal about 1000 red wiggler worms.
I kept 1/2 pound and sold all the the others.
In the 10 months, I had 10 lbs of red wiggler worms to sell.



Now if you compare that with the new worm bin I just started a couple
months ago, I'm getting about the same amount of worm compost.
worm bin

A good worm/garbage ratio is 2:1

1 lb of worms to 1/2 lb of garbage, daily.

I can't be sure what goes on out in the tube in the sfg, I just put food
in the tube and check it every couple of days and when it looks like
the food is gone or getting close to gone I put more in.

Back in some of the earlier posts from Josh in this thread are two links to follow for info on worms .. the first link is a commercial company " Wormgold " or something similar . They give their set of conversion ratios that your seeking but of course every wormery will be different according to what you feed the worms on ,how much temperatures and moisture content etc. etc. ......so many variables to play with .

The second link came up 404 for me

Josh,
I hope you realize that this is prime college admissions information. Even masters degree type information if you decide to record it.
j

Whenever my wife cleans out her "Worm Factory", she gives me the "wormy muck" she harvests! Every week or so she also gives me 2-3 cups of their "liquid" byproduct.
So, last week the "muck", replete with worms, was spread around in the bottom of a plastic tote, and covered with shredded newspaper, compost, and crushed egg cartons! Air holes were drilled in the tote's lid.
The mass was moistened and kitchen scraps tossed into a corner. A handful of her worms were moved in.
Will the worms live?
Will they process the muck and leave castings?
Will they reproduce?
Will the diluted "liquid" keep 'til Spring?
Will drying help the castings?

I'll definitely have to consider this for the coming season.

I just put my "kids" to bed in the greenhouse yesterday and hope they are all snug for the winter.

Will the worms live?
Will they process the muck and leave castings?
Will they reproduce?
Will the diluted "liquid" keep 'til Spring?
Will drying help the castings?

Yes they will live
yes they will process the muck and leave castings
yes they will reproduce
soak up the liquid with dry newspaper shreds for now, that will turn into more stuff for the worms to eat
Don't dry the castings out, that will kill the micro things that live in the castings, that's what makes it so good for the plants

Josh wrote:micro things that live in the castings, that's what makes it so good for the plants

My wife (Nana) swears she can hear the worms as they're feeding in her "Worm Factory"!

My wife (Nana) swears she can hear the worms as they're feeding in her "Worm Factory"!

You can...they make a chomppin sound!! I hear it too!!

IDK if this video is already posted somewhere in this thread, but I couldn't resist sharing it after the last two comments. It makes me want to start a worm bin, just so I can listen!

"It's the sound that's made by worms!"

trukrebrew,
Wait'll she sees this!

[quote="trukrebew"It's the sound that's made by worms!"quote]
Love it!
GG

I'm definitely doing the worm hotels in the four corners of my gardens. Let me know if you are doing that and think it is a mistake. Are the worms covering the whole box or should I put one in the center? How many worms do you think I should start with in a 4x8 garden?
_____________
|o................. o| o's are the worm hotels
|..........o.........|
o___________o|
Do you guys think it will work better like that or there is no point?

Josh wrote:...
Don't dry the castings out, that will kill the micro things that live in the castings, that's what makes it so good for the plants

Many thanks Josh. We now have 3-4 lbs of worm castings (maybe a bit dry though). Hope they'll keep 'til Spring in a covered container on the basement floor.
Lee

Some things you have to know about red wiggler worms:

They slow down below 40 degree F
They stress above 85 degrees F
They don't eat the food, they eat the bacteria and mold on the food. You don't want to be fresh, you want it be decaying. Pulverizing the food in a blender helps.
Too much food can cause too much heat, and cook them (less is more...worms!)

Reds mature in 8 weeks
In 6 mos 1 red can have a lineage of 96 worms
In 3-4 mos you should have twice as many worms as you started with
They like damp, not wet
shredded paper on top helps keep them cool. It will break down and be eaten, too

Did they crawl away? It could be several things:
They were raised in a different media than you are using (some sellers use newspaper exclusively, and dirt feels different.)
It's too wet
It's too dry
It's too hot (too much food or the weather)
A storm was coming

If your collection smells or is attracting bugs, something is wrong with your ratios. Add damp shredded paper and less food.

Want to force them to adjustment to your media? Expose them to light. They will hide in your media.

It's all about balance.

Since some of you have been using this idea for over a year, I was wondering if you still like the results?

Also, our temperatures are rather cool and a lot of our days are partly to totally cloudy. We have only a couple of weeks as a rule that the temperatures are 85 or more, with about 150+- days of sun yearly. Our winter temps also tend to be relatively mild, with normal night-time temps in the mid to low 30's, and only 30 days or so (not consecutive) of lower temps (30-38 degrees day 25 or less overnight).

So... my next question, based on this information is, would the black tubes be better suited to our temperatures? I'm thinking that black might absorb more of the available heat during the winter, keeping the interior and surrounding area a bit warmer than the surrounding area?

The last question is whether the best worm for my area would be the red worms or the night-crawlers? My beds are raised from the ground, with no fabric or blocking material under them.
Thanks