Flylo Farms

Worms

I have WORMS, and darn proud of it!

As part of my Master Composting course, we were treated to a discussion about earthworm composting. Fascinating stuff! I never knew worms are asexual, bisexual and unisexual, depending on their 'mood'. I've never looked closely to determine which of my earthworms are pregnant, and what the eggs look like in my compost. I never contemplated the huge differences between the different earthworm types, either. Apparently, my garden variety are ok, but there is a 'super earthworm', called a brown nosed composting worm. And, no, the 'Red Wigglers' you buy for fishing aren't suited at all to garden climates. (A clue is the bait shop keeps them in the refrigerator.)

Worms are best utilized in the compost bins, and in permanent plantings that you're not likely to rototill them into emulsion. Worms aerate the soil, and eat organic matter, turning it into 'castings', or manure. Worms enjoy nothing more than wormy company. They cluster in well, clusters, and if you have one happy earthworm, you probably have a whole colony mining your soil and fertilizing as they go.

People who raise rabbits should not discount the benefits of a worm bed underneath the rabbit hutches. It's a symbiotic relationship that is hard to beat. Besides breaking down the urine and droppings, earthworms will also ingest the spent pelleted feeds and any dropped fresh groceries or roughage the rabbits spill.

Occasionally, you'll want to use all this black gold the worms have created out of the rabbit bins. The best method is to wait for a bright sunny day and scoop or shovel the manure, worms and all onto a drop cloth or tarp. Let them languish in the sun for a little while, and the worms will scuffle to get away from the top of the pile. You can then rake or shovel the composted material wherever you want, leaving a thin layer of earthworms and compost to replenish your bins. You do have to keep an eye on the exposed worms while you're waiting on them to evacuate the mound surface. If you leave them too long they'll figure out how to crawl off the tarp and out into your lawn, or wherever you have the project laid out.

One of an earthworm's favorite snackie food is paper. They seem to relish the cellulose in paper pulp and break down newsprint, paper bags, and even cardboard very rapidly. At the office, we frequently shred documents and large, handwritten meeting notes. An interesting (and scary) aside is that when I bring my worms a feast of shredded paper, they'll actually turn toes up and die or leave town if it's over 50% laser print documents. Newsprint today utilizes soy-based inks, but whatever the ink source for printers and copiers, it's bad news for garden beneficials.

Ok, so you want to grow your own earthworm castings but don't have a compost bin set up yet, and aren't willing to raise rabbits just to benefit your worms. One of the neatest ideas I've seen in a long time is the worm bin itself. Get a large rubber container such as the Rubbermaid storage containers, and drill a QUAZILLION tiny holes in the sides and bottom(*). Make sure the top fits securely, and drill another quaz here, too. Fill it about half full with regular garden soil and then go beg some worms from someone. This can be an indoor project, if you only drill the holes in the cover and top 1/3 of your container. Otherwise, look for something to set your project on to protect your floor.

Later note: Those plastic storage boxes work just as well without having the holes drilled. Apparently, enough air leaks in around the top that it's not necessary to provide extra breathing vents. Using butter tubs, coffee cans, etc., however, you would want to put some holes in the containers.

Yellow Rose Crossroads School set up an experimental system that seems to work quite well. They took clean 25 gallon molasses cattle feed tubs and cut the bottoms out of them. They dug holes for the tubs to bury them in the soil, leaving about 4" lip exposed. They drilled a few holes in the lids, but since the systems were buried and had the bottoms removed, no holes were drilled in the sides of the tubs. Each system was fed a different form of trash to give a wider test range of how well the worm residents fared in each. All were allowed shredded paper, which became especially important during heavy rains when the worms needed to migrate to the soil surface for oxygen when their homes became saturated.

An interesting indoor home project can be easily created out of a large butter tub or something plastic you don't mind poking holes in. Using a small nail, drill your quazillion holes in the lid and top 1/3 of the container. Put a couple of handfuls of yard dirt and your prized earthworms inside. Feed them irregular feedings of coffeegrounds, fruit peelings, a little shredded paper, etc. Make sure you have enough dirt in the container that you can bury kitchen wastes thoroughly to avoid decaying smells and 'unmentionables' hatching in it. Check your worms often, and mist the soil surface with water if it seems too dry. If the worms are hanging out throughout the container, it's probably within their comfort zone. If they're balled up at the bottom in a hibernating huddle, you probably have them in too cool a location If they try to crawl out, they're too warm. This size container makes a nice experiment, what will decompose rapidly, what the earthworms seem most inclined to eat first, etc.

When they become overcrowded, either 'repot' to a larger container or take 1/2 the worms and the castings to your compost bin and add fresh material to those who remain.

1999 Update

John says I shouldn't tell this to anyone but I think it's neat! For Christmas, he got me a paper shredder and 2 more Rubbermaid tubs for the worms! They had gotten very crowded in the original box, ate up the kitchen waste extremely fast, and were starting to stay constantly wet which was not good for them.

I divided up the original bed of worms into one of the new ones, and added shredded newspaper to both bins. I'd stacked up some egg shells and stuffed them into a corner of the first bin, and when I pulled the shells apart to crush them, each layer was a mass of earthworms! (Earthworm Condos?) (I didn't crush the shells, decided to see how long it takes the worms to compost them out.) I added the shredded paper to one end of each box. Waited a few days and looked in. Both bins still had the earthworms in the original soil, and some brave souls had gradually crawled over to the paper side. Only the first inch of contact with the earthworm castings had any worms in it, however.

Earthworms can't see, and can't mate unless they blunder into each other. It takes two of the same length to match up, so after a large disturbance like dividing the boxes, I expect it will be awhile before they locate each other and begin to breed again. Cornmeal in the container is an attractant to them, and though it probably doesn't entice them to breed quicker, it does allow more earthworms to mingle and search out their partners.

I already have several pounds of rich earthworm castings to use, and as soon as the temperature warms up outside, I'll remove the worms from one bin and add their fertilizer to some of my greenhouse plants.(Used as 'manure tea', this stuff really works well to perk up winter-tired container plants.) Replacing the worms into fresh 'goodies' will disturb them farther, but by then, the second bin should be going strong.