Posts Tagged ‘worm castings’
Saturday, February 20th, 2010
Today while doing some Spring cleaning in the garage, I knocked off our Gusanito Worm Farm Bin from its shelf. This shelf is over four feet high! Actually four feet, five inches. As I walked around the other side (I won’t tell you what words were coming out of my mouth), I expected to see a mess of broken plastic, red worms and castings all over the place. To my surprise, what I saw instead was our five tray Gusanito standing upright! The only thing askew was the roof. It was lying on the floor.
This Gusanito dove head first into some boxes, did a loop, a full twist and landed on its feet three feet to the right. I think that it deserves a gold medal. Amazing…..the only damage that I could see was a slight turned up corner on the front left “foot” and the side next to the foot had a very slight bow to it. It is barely noticeable. I checked on the red worms. They acted as if nothing had even happened……maybe it was all just a daydream……..
Tags: African nightcrawler, European nightcrawler, Gusanito worm bin, red wigglers, Red worms, vermicompost, Vermicomposting, vermiculture, worm castings, worms
Posted in Walkabout, Worm Happenings | No Comments »
Friday, February 19th, 2010
We’ve added a new, fun product to our website that I’m sure you will agree is the easy way to compost with red worms (vermicomposting). It’s called The Worm Inn and it is really simple to use. What’s easy about it is that once you have it set up, all you have to do is add to the top and the castings come out the bottom. What could be easier than that?
The Worm Inn utilizes the “continuous flow” method of vermicomposting. What this means is that the worms constantly work upward as food is added all the while leaving behind their castings. These castings will settle toward the bottom of the breathable bag.
To get it all set up, all you have to do is this:
- Place bedding material in the bottom to absorb moisture
- Then a layer of food scraps
- Put in the rest of the food scraps
- Add a thick layer of more bedding
- Finally, spray down the whole system with water because the contents need to remain moist
Only add about 2-3 lbs. of food per week. The worms will eat their bedding material too. Be sure to cover any new food you add with existing or new bedding material. This will help to prevent attracting fruit flies.
As the system settles, the worms move upward, digesting the microbial waste of the food This results in the castings, a nutrient rich fertilizer. These castings are left below as the worms constantly move upward toward more food.
After several weeks, the castings are ready to be used and are collected from the bottom of the bag. To open the bottom of the bag, loosen the toggles. Make sure that you have placed a container below to catch the castings. Tighten the toggles when no more castings come out or when you start to see bedding material.
This “continuous flow” of regularly adding food scraps and bedding, and then harvesting the castings from the bottom makes indoor composting practical and fun for anyone.
You should try it…I think you’ll really like it!
Tags: European nightcrawler, red wigglers, Red worms, The Worm Inn, vermicompost, Vermicomposting, vermiculture, worm castings, worms
Posted in How to's, Worm Happenings | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
I recently read an article about First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign which was designed to help parents deal with and eliminate childhood obesity. In this article she talked about the organic garden she set up on the White House lawn and how important fresh fruits and vegetables are in our diets.
Back in August, actually on President Obama’s birthday, I happened to be in Washington, DC and I had the opportunity to visit the White House. (I didn’t get past the black wrought iron fence though. 
) I walked all the way around the grounds and I got a glimpse of this organic garden.
All of this got me to thinkin’ though, do they do any composting? If the garden is organic, what do they use for fertilizer? And what about all of their food scraps? Do you think that they throw them out?
I have a couple of great ideas for them…..they could buy a bunch of our Dual Drum or Original Compost tumblers and compost all of the garden waste, shrub prunings, grass clippings and fallen leaves. Then inside they could put a whole row of our Gusanito worm farm bins next to the bowling alley. All of their food scraps could be put in them for the red worms to eat.
If they did this, they would have all the organic compost and worms castings that they would need for their garden. They would also be diverting a bunch of “garbage” from going into a landfill.
So what do you think First Lady Obama? Red worms in the White House?
Tags: compost, compost tumbler, composting, dual drum tumbler, Gusanito worm bin, organic garden, original compost tumbler, Red worms, Vermicomposting, White House, worm castings
Posted in Hot composting, Organic Gardening, Walkabout | No Comments »
Sunday, December 27th, 2009
Santa, along with many other things, has been on my mind lately. It seems that wherever I go, I have seen him…..in airports, shopping malls and downtown at the Christmas parade. That guy sure does get around.
I figured that with nine reindeer and all those elves, he could probably use a bunch of red wigglers and/or European nightcrawlers to turn all that reindeer poop, straw from their stalls, and leftover household food scraps into nutrient-rich castings.
Since the North Pole is cold though, he would need to keep his red worms inside so that they wouldn’t freeze. He could start off with several Gusanito worm farm bins and keep them in his work shop. What do you think?
Santa Photo: Sherry LaVars/BayAreaNewsGroup
Reindeer Photo: weblogs.cltv.com/news/local/chicago/regina/
Tags: European nightcrawler, Gusanito worm bin, red wigglers, Red worms, worm castings
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Sunday, December 6th, 2009
Several months ago, we decided to put three different species of red worms together in our Gusanito worm farm bin and in a recycled plastic tote just to see what would happen. Would the worms get along? Would one species overtake the other? Would one group force another to move out and find a new home?
NO! None of that happened. The worms got along beautifully together and continue to do so. They are happily making castings and cocoons. The worms that we put in there are the red wigglers (Eisenia fetida or foetida), the European Nightcrawlers (Eisenia hortensis) and the African Nightcrawlers (Eudrilus eugeniae). The red worms in the photo from top to bottom are the African, European and Red Wiggler.
We also did this experiment for two other reasons:
1.) Because we wanted to see if the larger Euros or Africans would be able to migrate through the holes in the trays. I am happy to report that they had no problem at all. We have found all three red worm species traversing the trays.
2.) The plastic tote is the one that Dave takes to his demonstrations at schools and garden clubs. We wanted to show the kids and adults the different types of composting worms available.
Tags: African nightcrawler, European nightcrawler, Gusanito worm bin, red wigglers, Red worms, vermicompost, Vermicomposting, vermiculture, worm castings, worms
Posted in Experiments, How to's, Worm Happenings | 2 Comments »
Thursday, November 26th, 2009
We answer all sorts of vermiculture questions from our customers and I participate on vermi forums to try to help solve problems. Lately, there have been a lot of questions regarding how to get rid of fungus gnats.
Fungus gnats like to live and breed in moist environments. The big key is to maintain your bin so that you are not setting up a hospitable environment for them. Basically, you want to suppress or cut them off from the area that they like. How do you do this?
A few years ago, we had a problem with fungus gnats in our house plants. I covered the top of the dirt with sand. The sand still allowed for water to go through and some air, but the gnats couldn’t. This solved our problem. While this worked for our house plants, I don’t recommend this for your worm bin. There is an easier way to deal with this situation.
Our bins are open at the top. We cover them with burlap and an inch layer of dry shredded newspaper. Instead of burlap, you could use an old cotton t-shirt. This makes it very difficult for the fungus gnats to get to the moist castings and bedding. We also believe that the fungus gnats will “set up house” in moist cardboard. Leaving this on top of the bedding or exposed provides an ideal environment for the gnats.
Here is a comment from Erick, a fellow vermicomposter after he followed our advice:
“As it turns out it was an excellent tip. Just the t-shirt has stopped the current population from expanding and the few stragglers should be gone soon. Awesome results and in so very few days. Thanks again! Ha ha, having a swarm fly out of the bin made it pretty hard to promote the cause to people that have shown some cautious interest, but this definitely helped.”
Tags: European nightcrawler, Gusanito worm bin, Organic Pest Control, red wigglers, Red worms, vermicompost, Vermicomposting, vermiculture, worm castings, worms
Posted in How to's, Nature, Organic Pest Control | 2 Comments »
Monday, October 12th, 2009
Periodically we remove the castings from our worm bins. Our worm bins are black plastic cement mixing tubs and they measure 2’ x 3’ x 9”. We typically feed the worms once a week and only at one end of the tub. This forces the worms to move from one side to the other. When most of the worms are at one end, we remove the castings from the opposite end and put them on a table under a light. We then form a cone out of these castings. The worms will try to stay out of the light and will travel downward away from the light. After about 15 minutes, we remove a few inches of the castings from the top of the cone. We then reshape the castings to form a cone again and repeat the process until we are left with mostly worms. We then return these worms back to their bin where we have added new bedding material.
This process can be used for the Gusanito worm farm bin or any of the tray systems. In this case, what you would do when you are ready to harvest the castings from the bottom tray is to stop feeding in that tray and only put food in the trays above it. Wait about a week or so to allow most of the worms to travel upward. Then remove this tray and dump the contents on a table and follow the instructions from the paragraph that I wrote above.
Once the castings are harvested, we normally keep them in an extra bin and sift through them to look for cocoons and worms. Our girls enjoy doing this! These are removed and placed back in their original bin or tray. You can also bury a piece of watermelon or other worm food at one end to draw any stray worms.
Tags: fertilizer, worm castings
Posted in How to's, Worm Happenings | 2 Comments »
Sunday, September 27th, 2009
Dave represented Monster Worms and helped clean up along the river in downtown Antioch on September 19th. It was the 25th Annual Coastal Cleanup. 
He along with 230 volunteers ranging from girl and boy scouts to business people and residents helped to collect three tons of trash along the Delta. It was a very rewarding experience.
Monster Worms also donated 15 pounds of our castings for the raffle. We understand that they were won by a person with a garden that needs some TLC. Perfect!
Tags: Green Business, worm castings
Posted in Green Business, Walkabout | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
WOW!!. Look at this lovely organic fertilizer that Dave pulled out of our bins the other day. Worm Castings!!! The best fertilizer there is. Why do I say that? Because it’s true. Worm castings are rich in water-soluble plant nutrients. They are packed with minerals essential for plant growth that can be used by the plant immediately, unlike chemical fertilizers.
Earlier this year, we applied worm castings to our tomato plant that had leaves with yellow in them. That plant made a turn around and ended up looking better than the other tomato plants.
Castings can be used as a seed starter….it won’t burn the plants, as a fertilizer by top dressing or working into the soil surface, or it can be made into “worm tea” and sprayed onto plants or on the surface near their roots.
Tags: fertilizer, organic garden, tomatoes, vermicompost, worm castings
Posted in Experiments With Castings, Organic Gardening, Worm Happenings | 1 Comment »
Sunday, September 6th, 2009
The garden at Monster Worms is 100% organic. We do not use any pesticides or any chemicals in our garden. The only thing that is put in there is compost from our compost tumbler and homemade compost bin. Occasionally we will have a plant that 
has a problem and we will top dress the soil at the base of the plant with our worm castings. This always seems to make a big difference. Within a few weeks, the problem plant looks much better.
When I first bought this house 18 years ago the soil was lousy. It was hard and lifeless. About 16 years ago, I started to amend the soil with compost that I made. What a difference! We added old deck 
boards to make the garden beds raised and we kept on adding our compost inside these beds. We now have rich, crumbly black soil where there was once tan clay soil with no drainage.
When it is time to plant something in the garden, I 
normally only dig out the area where the roots will be. In this area, I put in the compost mixed with some crushed oyster shells to add in some extra calcium. This seems to work really well. These photos are of our cucumbers, beans, zucchini, and sunflowers. Look at how large the leaves of the plants are!!
Tags: compost tumbler, composting, organic garden, worm castings
Posted in Organic Gardening | 2 Comments »
Friday, August 21st, 2009
Dave was invited to educate some 1st Graders in Mrs. Amaro’s and Ms. Newton’s classes at Garin Elementary School in Brentwood, CA the other day about raising and using red worms for composting. He showed them some of our Red wigglers, European nightcrawlers and African nightcrawlers. The kids were shown how red composting worms can turn fruit and vegetable scraps into nutrient rich worm castings. 
Dave brought along one of our totes, made out of recycled plastic, to show the kids. Inside of it were the three types of red worms, moist bedding material for the redworms (we use moist shredded newspaper) and some vegetable scraps. The kids enjoyed looking inside the tote.
Most of the kids enjoyed holding the worms. A few were squeamish, but overcame their fears with a little help from their friends. Hopefully these kids will tell their parents about the benefits of composting….with or without worms.
Tags: African nightcrawler, composting, European nightcrawler, red wigglers, Red worms, vermiculture, worm castings
Posted in Educational Events, Walkabout | 2 Comments »
Saturday, August 15th, 2009
Red composting worms have many names. They go by red wigglers, red worms, tiger worms, brandling worms and lo and behold……manure worms. Yes, manure worms. If you have ever worked with horse manure that has been sitting on the ground for a little while, you have probably seen these little guys hard at work turning that manure into nutrient rich worm castings.
We collect this manure from a local horse stable. Carol B. is more than happy to give it to us! As she says, “Take as much as you want!”
Before we feed the horse manure to our red worms, we compost it first to get it past the heating stage. If we don’t do that, it could heat up in our bins and cause our worms to die. This “heat” is caused by 
beneficial bacteria starting the decaying process. These temps could reach as high as 150 F! If you only add very small amounts to your worm bin, you won’t have this heating issue, but we have a lot of worms to feed and therefore we need to add a lot of manure.
Our girls take horse back riding lessons at Someday Ranch in Knightsen, CA. The girls love to be around the horses and the manure doesn’t bother them at all. Good thing!!
Tags: horse manure, red wigglers, Red worms, worm castings
Posted in Kids Corner, Worm Happenings | 5 Comments »
Friday, July 31st, 2009
Every Friday Dave goes to Walnut Creek, CA to help with the Contra Costa Times community garden. He is recognized now as “The Worm Guy” and quite often spends time answering questions about red worms and vermiculture. This week he also brought along about 15 pounds of worm castings to be used on the garden. A few Master Gardeners very happily took the castings and top dressed plants with them.
This week the discussion was about having plants and flowers in your garden that attract beneficial insects and pollinators. We have been doing this in our own garden for quite some time. Not only does it look pretty, but it works! It was mentioned that Heirloom flowers and plants do a better job of attracting these insects. I hadn’t heard that before and I plan to find out more about it. If you have any information on that I would love to learn about it. You can comment here or you can email me at info@MonsterWorms.com. I love to learn!!
To learn more about the community garden go to www.contracostatimes.com/home-garden.
Tags: organic garden, Red worms, worm castings
Posted in Organic Gardening, Walkabout | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
Robin Bedell-Waite, Program Manager for the Contra Costa County – Green Business Program, brought our framed 
Green Business Certificate to us today so that we can proudly display it. She enjoyed seeing our red wiggler composting worms working away at transforming food wastes into nutrient rich castings.
She also saw first hand the difference in the lawn where we applied our 
compost a few weeks ago. Already, the lawn is noticeably greener and healthier looking.
Dave took her into the garden and she felt the same way that I do each time I walk in there. She said, “It’s like you are in your own little world.” The feeling comes from the big green leaves of our plants and the height of everything. Cucumbers, 
pole beans, tomatoes, corn, sunflowers and morning glories tower over you and you get to walk right in the middle of it all. The sunflowers are about 13’ tall!
She seemed impressed with our efforts to conserve, recycle and to use our resources wisely and with our efforts to educate other people about these techniques. For more information about becoming a Green Business or to find one near you, please go to www.greenbiz.ca.gov.
Tags: compost, red wigglers, worm castings
Posted in Green Business | No Comments »
Sunday, July 26th, 2009
On weekends, we try to make sure that we are all together as a family. It’s also the time that we normally feed the worms and harvest the worms for our orders for the week. We try to have the kids involved as much as possible because we want them to feel that they are part of the business too and that we value their help and input. As a result, they are always coming up with interesting ideas to “help” the business.
Today we had them tear up lettuce and put it into the bins. They also helped us to reconstitute our aged horse manure. Nothing bothers these kids!! Our youngest has the designation of “Chief Pod Picker”. We like to call our cocoons “pods”. She will sift through the castings and pick out baby worms and cocoons and put them back into their bins. Our oldest is the “Chief Worm Bag Maker”. She has a sewing machine and with guidance she helps us make bags to put our worms into. They really like having their own titles.
Well, you should have seen them…….castings under their fingernails, little dirt like smears on their skin and clothes and big smiles on their faces. They really like to help! In one bin, they found a bunch of baby worms on an almost eaten through watermelon rind.
Later that day, our oldest was a princess in a play. She loves to act…boy does she. She’s quite the dancer too. Prior to heading to the show, we had to wash off all the castings and other stuff, do her hair and do all of the other things that it takes to become a Princess.
She looked beautiful and performed magnificently. She was one of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses” in a Frank J. Ballesteros Production. For more information go to: www.antiochchildrenstheatre.com
Tags: worm castings, worms
Posted in Kids Corner, Worm Happenings | 2 Comments »
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
Our entire garden except for our tomato plants are planted by seeds. Our oldest child has always loved tomatoes. I remember one time when she was just a toddler standing next to a cherry tomato plant eating tomatoes. She had seeds and tomato juice all over her face and shirt. Our youngest has only recently started to like them. Finally, after all of the times we put them on her plate, she eats them and likes them!
This year we picked out three plants, one of which was an “early girl”. This plant never looked as good as the other two, but we thought that once it got into our soil, that is amended with compost, it would be fine. Well, we were wrong. It needed more help than that. Worm castings to the rescue!!!!
I applied worm castings around the base of the plant and worked a little into the soil. After a couple of weeks, the 
leaves started to get a darker, richer green color and they got larger too!
Look at some of our harvest! They taste great too.
Tags: organic garden, tomatoes, vermicompost, worm castings
Posted in Experiments With Castings, Organic Gardening | No Comments »
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
A local Daisy girl scout troop visited Monster Worms on May 19, 2009. Dave got out one of our worm bins to show the girls, and a few of their brothers, some worms. He showed them some of our European Nightcrawlers (Eisenia hortensis). Many of the 
girls had no problem at all handling the worms. It probably helped that our daughters, also girl scouts, were right there picking up worms and showing them to the girls. Dave explained how the worms turn paper and food scraps into nutrient rich castings. I think that if the girls realized that castings meant “worm poop” they probably would have run to the bathroom to wash their hands!!!! They also got to see baby worms and some cocoons. Each girl, that wanted too, was able to take home a worm. The girls and their parents were also given a tour of our garden. They got to see the other type of composting…composting without worms. They enjoyed seeing all of our vegetables growing too.
Tags: European nightcrawler, Red worms, worm castings
Posted in Educational Events | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
Dave spent a good portion of the day removing castings from the bins. The worms have been loving our warm weather and responding by eating lots of food and producing lots of castings. Since our kids have been out of school, they’ve been helping too. They love the worms!!
Tags: Red worms, worm castings
Posted in Worm Happenings | No Comments »
Saturday, June 13th, 2009
The Contra Costa Times together with Master Gardener Bethallyn Black have created a community garden in Walnut Creek, CA. Food grown in this garden will be donated to the Solano County food bank. Each Friday for the past month gardeners get together to learn and shares ideas about gardening. This week the topic of discussion was composting with worms! That’s right up our alley!! Dave represented Monster Worms and shared his knowledge of vermiculture and vermicomposting. He showed everyone how to make a simple worm bin made out of a plastic tote and he also demonstrated how to use a Gusanito Worm Farm Bin. We have three types of worms in our Gusanito Worm Farm Bin. Everyone got to see cocoons, babies, juveniles and adults of the red wiggler (Eisenia fetida), the European Nightcrawler (Eisenia hortensis), and the African Nightcrawler (Eudrilus Eugeniae). He also brought along worm castings to show and to donate to the garden.
Tags: African nightcrawler, European nightcrawler, Gusanito worm bin, Red worms, worm castings
Posted in Walkabout | No Comments »
