I recently received an emailed question from Steve:
[I] need info on setting up worm on industrial scale for [the] shire I work for please.
And I answered:
I’ve never set up an industrial scale worm farm.
You probably want to talk to these folks:
http://www.tat-g.com.au/
The folks at Tat-G Corp appear to have a number of industrial scale vermicomposting systems. They actually have a local partner, Waste Farmers out of Denver.
September 25th, 2010
I recently had a question from a reader, Laura:
I have enjoyed your newsletter for about three months. It has been very helpful, and now i am ready to get some of my own. I don’t know if this is the correct area for questions, but I would like to purchase my worms locally. Meaning, I don’t want them shipped. Do you have any ideas that I have overlooked? I am in Denver, Colorado. I can travel to Boulder, no problem. please let me know what my next step would be. I have a proper home ready, just want them local.
I responded:
I’m so glad that you’re ready to strike out on your own and try some worm composting. The first thing I would suggest is to go to your library and check out a copy of ‘Worms Eat My Garbage’ by Mary Appelhof. It was very helpful to me as I started my worm keeping. (Or you could buy it, if you wanted to.) Then, I’d go here [to a list of Colorado redworm vendors].
And call around to see which vendor has the best price and the easiest pick up for you. If you find one that you like, or one you don’t like, or one that is not on the list, please let me know so I can update the list!
The reader ended up deciding to go with John Anderson, the Colorado Worm Man, as she had met him a number of times. She was looking for a worm club in Denver, but I’ve not heard of any “worm support groups” down there.
Feel free to contact me with any questions you might have and I’ll do my best to answer them!
August 20th, 2010
I had a call from someone who read my blog a while ago; I’m sorry, I forgot to note her name.
Her child was using redworms for a school science experiment, and had finished the experiment up. They were looking for a good home for their redworms now. In particular, she was concerned about polluting the environment with her worms.
Though this is an issue in some environments, Colorado is not one of them. I counseled her to dump her worms in the compost bin. There, they’ll either thrive, if they get enough food and the conditions are damp enough, or die, and add their nitrogen to the compost.
August 10th, 2010
This article, from Boulder Organic, mentions giving worms for the holidays:
Downing says ellie’s also carries worm-composting bins that are about 14 inches square and two feet high. They range from $75 to $85.
The worms must be purchased separately, she says, but you can complement the gift with a copy of the book Worms Eat My Garbage by Mary Appelhof for $12.95.
This seems like an alright idea, but for maximum success of a worm bin, I feel it’d be better to wait until spring to give this gift. Then it’s more likely to have a happy place in a ‘in-between space’ like a garage or a basement. Also, one won’t be as tempted to overfeed it, since there’ll be a compost pile for organic waste (or at least, the weather will be better for creating one).
What do you think?
December 16th, 2009
Melissa, a reader, asks:
Could you tell me what the likelihood of mature vermicast containing plant diseases originating in leaves used as feedstock? I know that properly produced worm tea suppresses/fights plant diseases when applied to plants. However, I read on line that Australian standards for vermicast require some degree of pasteurization of feedstocks for mature vermicast. I appreciate any help you can give me with this.
Also, can worm coccoons drown in worm tea?
Thanks.
Melissa, thanks for writing in! I am afraid I don’t have any firm answers to either of your questions.
First off, as you know, worm composting does not reach the high temperatures that normal composting does. That heat is what kills plant diseases. While redworms have shown effectiveness in dealign with human pathogens, and vermicompost helped supress several plant diseases [PDF], I was unable to find anything directly attacking the problem you have: feedstock infected with a plant disease. If I were looking to sell the vermicompost, or use it on food plants that would come in contact with it, I would make some first and getit tested for the particular disease that was in the feedstock. Then, depending on that result, you could always start by hot composting the feedstock first. (As an aside, here’s an interesting abstract showing the finished product of worm composting and hot composting end up with dramatically different types of bacteria populations.)
Second, I’m not sure whether or not worm cocoons can drown. I found several references on the web to viable worm cocoons floating, but when I put a worm cocoon in water, it sank. I found other conflicting references. Again, in searching, I found some interesting facts (some worm cocoons can survive -8 degree celsius (-22 F) for 3 months, cocoons dehydrate at lower temperatures) but no authoritative studies on the survival characteristics of redworm cocoons. Here’s a forum post from the author of “Worms Eat My Garbage” which indicates that cocoons are not hurt by water:
I have put dozens of cocoons in Chinese takeout condiment containers with non-chlorinated water covering them (to keep them from drying out). I watch daily to see if any baby worms have hatched overnight.
The safest course would be to sift cocoons out before you make worm tea, or perhaps skim off the bottom layer periodically, since hatched worms are known to die in 100% water environments.
These are both fascinating questions experiments; please let me know if you end up experiementing around either one.
November 15th, 2009
Winter is coming, at least in the northern hemisphere, and that means that you need to spend some time thinking about your worm bin. I had a reader (Linda, my future mother in law) as about this.
Now, if your worm bin is inside, the only thing you need to do is make sure it can handle your food waste. If you have been splitting your feeding between an outside and inside worm bin, or an inside bin and a compost pile, then the inside worm bin probably doesn’t have the population to handle all your waste. Up the feeding slowly, and throw some of your food waste away.
If, like me, you have an outside worm bin, then you will want to do a couple of things.
- Clear out some of the vermicompost and castings. This is the perfect time to do so (or, maybe last month was). Your worms have been working hard all summer, and you’ve probably had the chance to give them a lot of food. You might have been so busy enjoying the summer that you let them fill up their bin. I took out about 18 gallons of worm castings and vermicompost (and I’m sure, a few worms and cocoons) from my worm bin, and put it in my garden for next summer. This will open up space for you to feed the worms for the winter.
- Make sure the worms have the ability to ‘go to ground’. If your compost bin is in contact with the ground, the worms can retreat into the ground if the bin starts to get cold. This is good advice for the summer as well. If you have an independent bin, you can bury it in the ground a bit. If you have your worm bins on a balcony, you might want to bring them inside, at least on any nights where it is going to be freezing for a long period of time.
- Make sure you can still feed your worms. Your worms can last for weeks without food, but not months. Also, the composting of the food can provide some warmth to counter balance the cold.
- You can provide them insulation (here’s an example of using straw to insulate against the Canadian winter), but make sure you can get in and feed them at least once every couple of weeks. I insulate them by making sure plenty of leaves are on top of their food. (Fall is also a great time to pick up leaves to provide bedding for your worms all next year.)
That said, I live in Boulder, Colorado, where we have some cold weeks and some warm weeks every winter. (We’re USDA zone 5.) And by warm, I mean ‘above freezing’. If you live in zone 8 or zone 9, you probably don’t have to worry at all. And if you live in zone 1 or 2 and want to keep worms outside, I’d suggest heavy insulation, or moving them to the garage.
November 5th, 2009
