I will be away, yes, finally I will be out of town for the holidays.

I will be leaving on the 22nd and back late on the 27th.  I will leave 6lbs of worms ( bagged up in 1lb bags each)  in the bin by the front door on your left as you face it, before I go.

The house sitter will be in and out daily, but not taking phone orders.

For those of you who have been here before you know how to leave your payment.

To you who have not been here, it is simple.

Above the bin, which is on the left side of the front door as you face it are the worms, bagged up and ready to go.   Each of the bags has a lb of worms and a lb of their own bedding in it.   Above them are small brown envelopes.  That is what your payment goes into.  There is wooden box to the right of that with a slot for the envelope.   Just drop it in there.
Welcome to my world: the world of organic waste reduction through the team effort of red wiggler worms and YOU! Keeping worms is simple. I have clients in second grade, who do this for their science projects and then take it home and introduce it to their parents, grandparents and friends. What better use of our organic wastes, than to amend the soil that feeds us?  Either with either flowers, to feast the eyes and spirit or crops from your vegetable garden?  Worm binning will work for you as it has for countless others.  After 23 years of raising worms, I can say this: I was green when green was just a color!

I hope this helps you with your holiday shopping and that you all have a safe and wonderful holiday season.

I will see you back here in the New Year!

~Shel

The worms and ~Shel

It is very simple and easy.  Either call me or email me and I will have your worms ready for you.  For those of you, who have already been clients of Vermicoast, you know the way I handle things here.

For first time worm bin clients I will tell you how do order your worms.  You can email  me from this site and I will pick up the email and get back to you as soon as I can.  If  you call the house phone (760.434.4223 ) I will call you back ASAP.

If  on the off chance, you do know where I am located and Vermicoast is there are always worms bagged up and to the left of the front door as you face it.  You can take any bag without a post-it on it and above that bin is a wrought iron rack with envelopes in it.   There is a small rack with small envelopes on it.  Please put your payment in the envelope and then into the small wooden box to the right of it.  There is a slot for it to drop in on the top.

This system has worked since 1989.  I have never had a problem with it.  People, who are buying worms are the most honest people  I have ever met.  As you know,  I am available after 9am and before 5pm on the house phone.  I answer all worm related email between 9pm and 11pm. I can guarantee you that there is a great deal of  email!

I hope this will clear up the 24 hour notice I asked you to  give me in order  have your order ready when you are.

From now on there is NO 24 hour notice you need to give me.  Worms will always be there as long as I am here and not on a holiday.  If I do decide to take time off, I will post it here.

I urge you all to read through the posts here at Vermicoast, as many of your questions can be answered with in them.

I hope to hear from you!

Enjoy your beautiful gardens and this delightful fall time of year!

~Shel

Grey Water

One of my favorite topics is  water, it’s uses and the ways we can all work to conserve this precious resource. Consider, if you will, how many places on the planet  inhabitants spend most of their day walking to the daily ration of water and bringing it home again for use.  Here we turn on the tap or hose and think nothing of it. We should.

How many of you are currently using a grey water system?

Is there anyone who does know what grey water is?

I have done a grey water at my home and you can too. You can reuse water in ways you might not have thought possible in the past.

I have total turf reduction and have for many years. If you have been to my garden you would have seen how much mulch I do have almost everywhere. In most places, it is at least 6 to 12″ deep. I do not fancy ‘normal’ types of gardens, as they are too water thirsty.

The price of water is going up. We all know this fact. If you have extensive landscaping,  grey water will save you money. Due to my grey water usage, I utilize only 768 gallons or one unit of city water per month.     We can all hope for more rain in our Mediterranean climate, which is unlikely given our rainfall history, in Souther California. Another incentive to have a grey water system is the knowledge you are contributing to the preservation or wise use of our dwindling Earth’s resources.

Grey water. What is it? According to the Health and Safety Code, “grey-water” means untreated wastewater that has not been contaminated by any toilet discharge, has not been affected by infectious, contaminated, or unhealthy bodily wastes, and does not present a threat from contamination by unhealthful processing, manufacturing, or operating wastes.’ “Grey-water” includes, but is not limited to, wastewater from bathtubs, showers, bathroom washbasins, clothes washing machines, and laundry tubs, but does not include wastewater from kitchen sinks or dishwashers. Let me repeat this: “Grey-water” includes, but is not limited to, wastewater from bathtubs, showers, bathroom washbasins, clothes washing machines, and laundry tubs, but does not include wastewater from kitchen sinks or dishwashers

Greywater System is one which is designed  to collect greywater and transport it out of the structure for distribution in an Irrigation Field. A grey-water system may be as simple as the one in the power point presentation or as sophisticated as you want it to be.

An Irrigation Field can be any size to fit your landscape needs. It can be a small area of trees and shrubs or a small patch of lawn, or an entire garden, whether you grow flowers or vegetables.

Interestingly 90% of the beneficial bacteria, root hairs, and soil macro-fauna are in the top foot of the soil. Percolation in virtually all soils is much higher in this top zone than even two feet down, which is the typical minimum application depth for your grey water system. This extra percolation provides a generous extra margin of error.

I use mulch instead of gravel, because gravel basins do not to form a biomat. In fact, the tilling action of worms and all the other creatures in our soils is enhanced with the use of mulch. The worms here at Vermicoast have never had water other than grey-water used in their bins. The shredded and soaked paper is all soaked in it. This is for at least 24 to 48 hours, wrung out and placed into their bins.

Our state encourages our use of grey water, because it will percolate into the soils and be taken up by the root hairs of plants.

Mulch is organic waste material including but not limited to leaves, pruning’s, straw, pulled weeds and wood chips. Mulch needs be permeable enough to allow rapid infiltration of grey-water.

The Mulch Basin This is a type of irrigation or disposal field filled with mulch or other approved permeable material of sufficient depth, length and width to prevent ponding or standing water or runoff. A mulch basin may include a basin around a tree, a trough along a row of plants or any configuration necessary for irrigation or disposal. However, ideal conditions do not always prevail. Overall, I believe that a reasonable, highly conservative standard for shallow (6?9″) grey-water?fed dispersal would be an acceptance rate twice that for deep mulch leach-fields. These are what I have and use in my gardens.

What I use and have since 1994 is Clothing Washer System.

It is a grey-water system utilizing a single domestic clothes washing machine in a single-family dwelling. It was just in this past year; I started using the shower grey- water.

The grey-water usage for a single family is based on your water bills showing your water use for a month.  You will certainly see that you are reaping the benefits of your use of grey water reflected in the reduction of your water bills, as I have.

For a single family household the estimated water use for two people :

Showers, bathtubs and washbasins 25 Gallons per Day

Laundry 15 GPD /person. If required in your city notification should be provided to the Enforcing Agency regarding the proposed location and installation of a grey-water irrigation or disposal system. In Carlsbad, my city, this agency is Code Enforcement. They have never contacted me. If you want to start your own grey-water system, contacting your city to find out what their regulations are for you is a very good thing to do.

The grey-water should be contained on the site where it is generated.

The most enlightening  aspect I have learned is that not one person in our state has ever contracted any form of disease from grey water.

Greywater has approximately 1/2700th of the fecal matter that combined sewage has.

My fresh water capture system.

Upstairs outside grey-water pipes.

Hoses emerge from underground

Hoses from the washer going to grey-water for the worms.

Now is your chance to ask any questions you might have for me about this topic! ~Shel

OK, you might ask just how can I leave my worm bin and expect to come back to live worms?  After all I haven’t              trained my neighbors in their care– yet and I will be away for 2, 4 or 6 weeks! Will they all be dead when I get home  again?

I do get this question if I am speaking at a garden club, a school or a state fair. It seems like once a person  is emotionally invested in their worms they do worry about leaving them with out adequate care.  With my 90 bins  here I had been concerned the first few times I left, too.  Here is how I prepared them for my departure.  I planned to  give over all my time to the worms for the two weeks before I had to leave.  During that time I made sure that I systematically went through each bin, 1 through 90.  I made sure they has plenty or organic waste residuals to eat.  Then I placed at least 2 to 3 times the amount of shredded and pre-soaked paper bedding on top of their food.  Next a handful of inexpensive bird seed was scattered over the contents of the bin.  This would ensure that once the roots of the seeds had taken hold that the methane the worms can make and foul their bin with would escape during the exchange of the methane for oxygen.

I also made very sure that when I returned back home, I had blocked out as much time in the next 2 weeks, to re-check the bins in reverse order and make sure of a number of items.  Some bins had done very well.  The seeds had sprouted and the paper was just about all consumed.  Others had done exceedingly well.  In fact a population explosion had taken place and in order to keep the bin’s worms happy, I would either have to start a new bin or fill the orders for worms which had piled up while I was away.  Just a few of the bins appeared to remain stagnant, meaning that they has not consumed their food, the seeds had not sprouted and the population was about the same as when I left.  This was a poser to me.  How had the other bins done so well when a few had not?

I had the answer when I cleaned out the fridge and found small potatoes which had sprouted while I was away.  I looked at them and thought I could either plant them for a fall crop or I could experiment in the non preforming bins with them.  I did the latter.  To my relief I found the answer to my holiday woes of leaving the worms.  I simply buried half way into the top layer of the bin(s) the sprouting potatoes.  Massive, or so it appeared to me, roots ans sprouts from them were evident  in about 4 to 5 days.  This solved the problem for me, of the methane and oxygen exchange, providing that I had fed and papered the bins well before I left.

I do think this will work as well with just about anything you or I have in the fridge which has sprouted and  can’t use in cooking.  Into the worm bin it goes and stand back and watch it take off.  I have yet to even think I will eat any of the potatoes which are sprouting in the bins.  But, they do look pretty good.  I will include a photo or two here for you to see how it worked for me.

To Recap:

> Yes, you can safely  leave your worms for extended time periods

> You can also try other methods close to these listed here and see what works best for your worms

> As you know: worms are the most forgiving of all pets.  They will astonish you with their sturdiness time after time.

Until I am back again and I look forward to your questions here, as they are not only a challenge to keep up with, but keep me learning, too!

Enjoy your worms!

~Shel

I bet you thought I would never get to them, right?  There are so many, they may fill up this entire post.  There are first, second and third degree decomposers in your worm bin.  In fact,  it is almost a mirror image of your compost bin.  Did you know that?  No matter what size they are, they all have an ongoing and productive role to play in helping your worms digest their organic wastes you are feeding them.

There are many tiny microscopic  organisms living with each worm that we can’t see.  They are bacteria, actinomycetes, enzymes and protozoa and they aid in the worm’s digestion of it’s food.  They thrive by the hundreds of thousands within a single worm.  These organisms assist in preparing the nutrients to be absorbed and utilized by the worm.   These are the first degree decomposers of the worm bin.

The second degree decomposers are ones that we can just about see and others are very apparent.  The smallest ones are the spring-tails, beetle mites, mold mites, feather-wing beetle and molds.  Spring tails are readily seen in bins that are often too damp or moist.  They are small, white and will tend to mass together,  if there is standing water.  A quick cure for them, if they appear to be taking over the bin to the detriment of the worms, is to add more dry  and shredded paper or leave the bin top off during the bright sunlight.  Rarely have I ever had a spring tail issue here that didn’t resolve itself within two to three days.  Mites are another group that are fascinating.  They are either red or white in color.  I usually see them here when I have inadvertently put too much of a damp organic waste into a bin.  They thrive on dampness.  The sure cure for this is the same as the spring tail cure.  The red mites can and have tried to take over the bin and did pose a threat to the worms.  One trick I have learned over the years is to place old, stale bread into the bin and cover.  The next day the bread will be totally covered on both sides with the red mites.  You have two choices now with this mite encrusted bread: you can place it into a plastic bag and put it into the trash or, if you want to be risky, you can put the bread, buried deep, into your regular compost bin.  I do recommend wearing those Bluette gloves I have mentioned in the past, when you are working in the bin and attempting to fix an issue like mites.  White mites, at least for me, are part of the cycle of decomposition and I have not had a problem with them.  Of all the above my favorites are the molds as they seem arrive overnight and are those bright flashes of color all around the sides, top (or lid) of the bin.  Here they are yellow, green, red, white and purple.  So far I have not seen black.

There are many creatures you will see easily in your bin. They include these: ground beetles, rove beetles, centipedes, millipedes, sow bugs or rolly pollies (aka) sow bugs, snails and slugs.  All of these are normal inhabitants of your worm bin. I also have many types or kinds of spiders. My thinking on them is that if they don’t bother me,

I will leave them alone, too. The slugs here are simply astonishing.  They are up to three inches long and larger in circumference than my thumb!  They don’t ever bother the worms.  The snails are large, too.   I have a photo of their eggs I will include. That way you can identify them them when you see them in your bins.

All of these creatures are working in concert to make your organic wastes fit into that microscopic worm’s mouth. They all have a role to play. They will also teach you more about your bin and how it operates.

To Recap:

> many of the critters you have in the bin you can’t see, but they are there

> the critters you can see are just as helpful as the invisible ones

> the helpers in the bin are many and highly visible to you.

I hope this helps you understand the workings of your bins.

Until I am back again: I hope you are learning from your worms and enjoying them.

~Shel

This topic is another from my second and still unpublished book.  If your life is half as busy as mine it is hard to find the time to do the research, sit down and type.

Q: What should the correct amount of moisture be in the worm bin?

A:  The bedding, which is the shredded and soaked paper, should be 55 to 75% moist.  This means that after you have soaked the paper for 24 hours or more, once you have wrung it out, fluffed and pulled it apart, it should not be dripping at all.  Since worms breathe through their entire outer body they must have sufficient moisture to be able to breathe, slide by each other to mate and find their food.  Imagine this: if your lungs were on the outside of your body and you were in the sunlight, it would not take long before you were unable to breathe at all as the sun’s rays would remove all the moisture from you.  The same principle applies to the worm’s need for a damp, moist environment.  If you are at all concerned about not knowing if your bin is moist enough for the worms, you can always buy a moisture reading stick at your local gardening center.  This will give you an accurate reading of the bin’s moisture content.

Q:  How often do I add water to my worm bin?

A.  During dry, hot weather it may be necessary to add a few ounces of water to your bin every other day.  Checking to be sure the worms have enough moisture in the bin is essential in this type of weather.  An old, clean spray bottle of water can be kept handy by the bin so you can spray the top layer of the bedding if it has dried out. You may find it useful to label this worm bin water, so everyone in your household will know what it is for.

You may recall that all the organic waste residuals from the kitchen contain moisture, for the most part. All items like apple cores, lettuce leaves, coffee grounds, banana peels, etc, will all have a water content within them. When you are considering if the bin is damp enough, do take this added water content into consideration.  It is always a good idea to look at the overall health of the  bin when you are feeding the worms with the moisture of the bin in mind.

Q:  Would freezing food scraps for the worm bin be OK?

A:  Yes, it is a good idea for more than one reason.  When you freeze the  organic waste residuals they take up moisture from the act of freezing, just like water expands in the ice cube trays, so it does within those banana peels, etc.  When this happens the first real breakdown of the tough fibers in the organic waste residuals is loosened and when they are placed into the worm bin, are already on their way to be consumed at a more rapid rate.

If you plan on going away on a holiday for 2 weeks or a month freezing your   organic waste residuals is a exceptionally good  idea.  Over the time period you are away from your worm bin the frozen organic waste residuals will breakdown slowly and add essential moisture to your bin. Make sure that you have covered the organic waste residuals with plenty of soaked bedding, well wrung out, as this will also be consumed while you are away, along with the food waste. You can now leave your worms safely knowing that they are going to be on holiday from you, too.

Q:  I live in the desert and it is very dry year round.  How can I make sure the worm’s bin doesn’t dry out too much?

A :  Do check the bin frequently for moisture content, add water as you need to maintain the correct amount of dampness for the worms to function well.  There are several ways to make sure the worms will survive extremes in temperatures during a heat wave.  One is to place the bin in your garage.  The floor of the garage seldom will be too hot for the worm’s needs.  Another plan is to bury ice cubes into the bedding.  As they dissolve they will add the necessary wetness to the bin.

Q:  I have seen many worms around the garden after it rains on sides walks, the pool area and they are dead.  Why does this happen?

A:  The worms you are seeing are most likely the burrowing worms which are bothered by the rain filling their burrows.  They leave the burrows for higher ground to avoid drowning.  Once they are on flat ground and the sunlight comes into contact with their bodies, it sucks the moisture from them, they suffocate and die.

Q.  What about gray water?  I have a gray water system for my washing machine and I would like to use that water for the worms.  Can they tolerate it?

A. Yes, the worms can and will do well with gray water.  I have been using gray water from the washing machine exclusively for the worms I raise, since 1994 without any adverse effects to the worms at all.  The soaps I use in the washer are all for cold water and I have changed brands as new eco-friendly ones have become available.  The worms are very hardy and have tolerated all the types of soaps I have used without  causing them harm.  You will recall that the water the worms here:  do receive is via the soaked, fluffed and wrung bedding out paper.  The only other direct watering they will ever receive is from a spray bottle, should the weather conditions dry out.

To Recap:

> worms can tolerate fluctuations in the moisture in the bin.

>  it is best to be ahead of the curve of your temperature region weather wise and make sure the worm’s are moist enough to work well for you.

> a moisture reading stick is a good investment if you are concerned about your abilities to gauge the moisture content of the bin.

My next post will be about how to go away on vacation for more that two weeks and safely leave your worms for up to six weeks!

Until then, I hope you are enjoying your worms and will still be learning from them.

~Shel

OK, I know when to say I was wrong.  After visiting many sites and speaking to people that I know, who are aware about worm tea vs. leachate I have to say: I was wrong about using it.  That is not to let you think that I have not used it, without any ill effects to my garden plants or to me.  From now on, I will not use it except to pour it into my hot compost bin. The overwhelming evidence does show that it is toxic to plants and people, as it has within it inherent attributes which we should all not use.

To back track just a bit here I will go back to the basics of composting with worms. The various stages that are inherent in the process are below.

Composting with worms is a more controlled method of basic composting as well as it does speed up the process. Your bin is, I hope, maintained at a constant temperature, which enables the most active bacteria, Mesophilic to take over. The worms move through the organic matter helping to aerate the decaying matter, as well as making the smaller particles of the decaying matter smaller, this leaves more surface area for beneficial microbes to work on.

If the bin moisture content gets too high, (usually above 80%), the decaying matter becomes compacted, the same way the landfill does. This is when the worm bin can begin to change over, to those icky and nasty anaerobic organisms, which can be harmful to your worms and even begin killing them off.

Once the moisture content begins to rise even more, the decaying matter releases a liquid called leachate. You will read on many websites that refer to this as worm tea, which it is not.

You make worm tea by brewing worm castings, which are chock-full of aerobic microorganisms. This process is accomplished by aerating the worm castings, water and molasses, which has no sulfur in it,  for approximately 48 hours in order to explode the aerobic microbe population.

Leachate is usually the opposite, full of anaerobic organisms.

If you are getting a little leachate from your worm farm or worm bin, try adding several inches of dry shredded newspaper on top and place the lid on it. This will absorb a little of the moisture. If you are getting a lot of leachate, it might be time to remake the bedding for your worms. I also do leave the bin top off during the day light hours for perhaps three days in a row. Please be sure to cover them if you do this at night. All the predators in your neighborhood will be feasting on your worms otherwise.

Below is what I received from a fellow worm bin enthusiast:

By the way, do not believe it when you see people saying that the brown liquid that seeps out of worm bins and tray stacking systems etc is “great fertilizer” or “worm tea”. It is not great fertilizer, it is anaerobic, and should not go anywhere near growing plants or living soil – it should not even exist, all it means is that you have let your bin get too wet. Food wastes are about 90% water, and worm feed (including bedding or whatever) should not be more than about 75%
moist. Well-managed worm bins do not seep. You can add the brown liquid to an ordinary compost pile, or flush it down the toilet. Real worm tea really is a great fertilizer – put a couple of handfuls of worm casts in a bucket of water (preferably rainwater), plus a spoonful or two of molasses if you have it, stir, and leave overnight, preferably longer. Stir it often, or, better, use a fish tank aerator with an air-stone to oxygenate it, and stir it often as well. Use it quickly
or it will go rotten.

This information above is what I do and have written about before here. I like simple. The sock tied off in a pail and a stick to stir it works for me. I am sure it will work just as well for you when you make your first batch of worm tea. Do shake it up and use it within 24 to 48 hours. Shake before each use and uncap it, if you have capped it in a bottle, this will get those microbes moving and doing what they do best: help our gardens to flourish..

Now that you understand the process, you can probably understand why worm tea, or at least in some circles has received a bad reputation. Do not be persuaded to forgo using worm tea, as it is terrific in the garden and on your houseplants. I urge you to do the process the simple way, for your best results.

To recap:

• There is a right and a wrong way to make worm tea.
• Fix bin problems as soon as you notice them.
• Use the correct method of making and using your worm tea in a timely fashion.
• Enjoy your worms. They have much to teach you.
• ~Shel

This is from my yet unpublished second book.  This new one will cover all the questions I have been asked over the years.  Not all of these will relate directly to worms, but they will have a worm theme to them all.  My hope is that you will learn from them, ask more questions about them and they will illuminate the worms role in your gardens.

Q. I have a hard red clay lawn. What will happen to it if I add red worms to the lawn, will they improve the soil?
A. Unless you have a very good food source for the worms and well watered mulch to cover them the worms will perish. This is due to a variety of factors.  Predation by every bird, mole, vole, opossum and raccoon in your area will dine on your newly purchased worms.  If, on the other hand, you do have a source for mulch, which is finely ground to a particle size of 1/4″ to ½” and it can be well watered, you can safely add the worms you have at dusk.  Then be sure to rake more of that same mulch, with the same amount of moisture over them all.If you chose to do this with your worms, a food source will be a challenge, as red worms will require a constant food source from you to do their best work.
The above process is one that I used to rid myself of the lawns we had over 18 years ago.  It took many applications of mulch to finally be turf free, but it was well worth the results.

Q. Where do I get mulch from and what does it cost?
A. Almost all cities have crews out on a daily basis to cut the trees back from the power lines, branches overhanging onto our streets and lanes. Almost every one of these trucks I see has a chipper-shredder hitched as a trailer.  Most or many cities now use most all of the mulch they make this way. But, when they do run out of places to put the mulch, they like the rest of us with too much green waste, have to take it to the landfill site.  If you are fortunate enough to live in a city which has a composting site close to the landfill you can generally go and get a pick up load of mulch, either for free or a minimal charge.
The city where I live have so much tree pruning to do they have to resort to hiring out to private firms to get all the trimming and pruning done. When I see one of these private concerns with a six block radius of my home, I usually stop, say hello, introduce myself and ask the crew what they are going to do with the mulch when they are done for the day? More often than not it is headed for the landfill, will be their answer. It is then I have a pre-printed card with my name address and a map on how to locate my home on it. I ask if they would drop the mulch off at my home, as I have a clearly marked place for it and that is on the card, too. Almost every time they will bring the mulch to me for free. It serves them, too.  If they had to take the mulch to the landfill site, they will have to pay the tip fee for leaving it there, plus the gasoline and their own time to get it there.  It is a win-win for the crew and my garden.
Mulch is wonderful for any garden as it helps to keeps the weeds in check, the native plants will need or require even less water than ever and your paths will have a very neatly lined edge to them.

Q. What if I use just shredder newspaper as mulch in my vegetable garden as a soil amendment?
A. This is a  good idea. Recent studies have shown the soy content within the inks actually do add needed nutrients to the soil and improve it by using it as a top dress type mulch.

I hope this helps you expand your horizons in your garden and with your worms.  I look forward to your questions about all the posts I put here.

Enjoy your worms!

~Shel