Posts Tagged ‘worm juice’

Another Attempt

Gardening, Herb, Fruit and Vegetables, Worm Farm/Vermiculture | Posted by Dean
Jan 20 2008

Well today I found a number of very healthy looking Blackjack Zucchini seedlings. My head said walk away you know that is your nemesis plant. However, my heart said you can grow these. So I now have another lot of Blackjack Zucchini to try my hand at. I have decided that I will be potting them in some temporary pots tomorrow.

The temporary pots are recycled pots for larger plants in the garden. This will give the plants something to grow in and prevent getting root bound in the current seedling tray. It will also the easy transportation of the plants to Wollongong next week. Once in the Gong I will be performing another recycling tub conversion to a planter.

In order to make a few changes to this attempt I have bought a bag of Debco Organic potting mix. The reason for going with this alternative planting medium is that I wish to eliminate the RichGro Pro Mix from being a potential contributor to my previous disastrous attempts to grow this plant. This medium is coarser and does not contain the soil wetting agents or slow release fertiliser that the Rich Gro does, however given that I will have an abundance of worm juice and vermi compost that should not be a problem.

Why will I have an abundance of the worm produce? I will be deploying a second worm farm in Wollongong. In fact I am seriously considering going larger and marketing the worm juice and compost. That does need a considerable amount more investigation. However, a second farm is a certainty. The construction of that farm is yet to be decided. I am considering the Cheap Worm Farm Construction idea, but that is largely dependent on the above plans.

From this article there are two things that are certain:

  1. All attempts will be made to grow these plants successfully, I am sick of having a nemesis, especially one that I enjoy.
  2. I am yet again in need of more worms.

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The Ongoing Maggot War

Cat and Pest Control, Gardening, Worm Farm/Vermiculture | Posted by Dean
Jan 01 2008

Today I performed the horrid task of removing maggots from the worm farm. As mentioned in my Disaster in the Worm Farm post these horrid creatures invaded over Christmas and quickly became the dominant critter in the worm farm. As per the advice of a number of sites I placed milk soaked bread in the farm. This produced limited success. I though will try it again next week to hopefully remove the remaining pests.

I was thus expecting to turf an incredible amount of material, if not the lot. I was thus pleasantly surprised to see that the worms were launching a fight back. There seemed to be an abundance of worms, so I suspect they have managed to breed over Christmas which is great news. The worms had in fact almost taken over the top and bottom layers, thus banishing the majority of the maggots within the second layer.

The second layer stunk to high heaven, thankfully my nose was blocked and I could only get a hint of the stench. and was by far the most empty. This is due in no small part to the maggots physiology that is simply made to chomp through materials. Unfortunately, their produce is pretty useless in it own right, although the worms process that further. At any rate I spent an hour or so going through the semi-decayed materials and removing any maggots, or suspect materials (including a tetra pack that some put in there). I believe I have removed 80-85% of the infestation. Which is great news.

I have also reorganised the layers so that the bulk of the processed soil is once again on the bottom layer. The second layer has a considerable food source on offer and the top layer has some scatterings. I will be slowing the feeding down until I am confident the worms have managed to win the war against the horrible maggots.

I am though much more confident that the worms will endure and commence producing large volumes of compost and worm juice soon. I am in need of more worm tea as I have today exhausted my bottled supply. I felt it best to fertilise and water everything today due to the warmth of both yesterday and today. The spinach had wilted significantly during the day, however after the watering and fertilising is looking fantastic once more.

On the water front I am essentially out of rain water. The great weather of 2 to 3 weeks ago has ceased. I am hopeful though it shall return shortly. I thus have had to resort to mains supply today to water the plants. I am still watering from a watering can though to ensure that I do not overwater due to a never ending supply of water.

I will keep you up to date on how the worm farm tracks over the next week or so. I am confident that I have largely restored the balance to the ecosystem, however the war is not over. Not yet. I will also be posting a blog in the coming days of a fantastic fly control system that is available from the big kids toy shop that is both economic and environmentally friendly.


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Curfew Broken

Cat and Pest Control, Flowers and Decorative Plants, General, Herb, Fruit and Vegetables, Worm Farm/Vermiculture | Posted by Dean
Dec 24 2007

Over the past few days I have been suffering with a rather severe back ache. It is severely limiting my garden activity, as well as impacting the Christmas preparations. We are done in terms of gift shopping, but there is house and yard cleaning to be done. That activity is also impinging my garden time. That said I had to break my self enforced curfew today and visit the big kids toy shop Bunnings today for some supplies.

The primary reason is that the four bean seedlings that did not get trellis space at planting really need something to climb. So I managed to get two more pieces of downpipe trellis. I will be once again cable tieing these back to back and training the sprouts up the trellis. It will give the seedlings a good start. I do though have a concern that it will not be tall enough. I do though believe it would be possible to join more in a vertical position. This will require an anchor stake, something that may not be possible in a pot.

Also, we spotted some horrible little caterpillars attacking my newly fruiting beefsteak tomatoes. As such we knew that we needed to take some action immediately. Due to the nature of the holiday season, especially when hosting the family dinner, we have elected to take the easy way out. As such we purchased some chemical pyrethrum based spray to kill the pests dead. This also necessitated a garden pressure sprayer. All well and good and the tomatoes have now had the treatment. I though will be trying the suggestions from Rid Pest Control Services in the future.

We also picked up another three storage tubs to be converted into planter tubs. One, or two of these will hold the carrots, corn, and other vegetables that will be grown from seed. The others will be hosting some Australian wildflowers, gerberas, poppies, and sunflowers. These are aimed purely at attracting bees to the yard to ensure the vegetable are getting sufficient polenation. Also, they will add a splash of colour and vibrancy.

We also procured two more bags of the fantastic Rich Gro Pro Mix potting mix. This will be used for the above projects.

I will be taking a look in the worm farm soon after Christmas, as they have been busy with another litre of worm juice harvested last week. I am thus optimistic that there will also be some worm castings available to further enrich the potting mix. So I still have 5 litres available even after using it this week. Needless to say the worm juice will not go to waste and will certainly be put to good use.

Also, tonight we had a BBQ. Rump steak and sausages was the meat on offer, and it tasted great when washed down with Grolsch beer. I also managed to try the ebony fire chilli I harvested last week. Socko sliced the chillis up and licked her fingers. Socko is not a keen spice-a-holic and we could hear the effects upon her from 10 feet away after verifying that she was indeed fine I was prepared for the fire that was to come. I tried the chilli and it is definately up there in the heat steaks. The seeds had been removed for drying, and reuse next year. So I can only imagine the heat had the fire crackers been left in the chilli. I was also to try the mystery chilli, but after the ebony fire I thought better of it.

The salad that accompanied the barbecue was also nice. It contained some of the Ku Chai (garlic chives), the first time we have used it. It worked well within the simple garden salad. We also used more of the parsley, not that it looks like we have used any of the stuff, it is simply growing prolifically. No doubt it will get a hammering in the coming days across Christmas. The mint, that has gone nuts in a largish pot, will certainly be getting a hammering as Socko is going to prepare a Jamie Oliver Ezy Peezy Ginger Beer recipe. It will be good to taste, and good for the plant.

The worms are also living it up with a lot of egg shells being introduced to the general fare of salad greens and tea bags. The egg shells are coming courtesy of my mum that has moved into overdrive with preparing Christmas food. We must surely have a life times supply of short bread, rum balls and fruit mince pies in the fridge. Not to mention the White Christmas that I prepared last week. If anyone goes home hungry from our place on Christmas day then there will be something seriously amiss with them.


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Cheap Worm Farm Construction

Gardening, Worm Farm/Vermiculture | Posted by Dean
Dec 19 2007

Many of you no doubt have seen my recent Worm Farm and The Many Gifts of a Worm Farm articles. Also, as you may have read I am considering a second farm, however being budget aware I am not too keen to fork out for another Can’O'Worms. I have though found a nice way to build a worm farm that is both inexpensive and reuses one of the most common and hard to dispose of storage boxes, the polystyrene box.

The polystyrene box is great when moving breakables or shipping items that require insulations, such as tropical fish. However, once empty can become hard to dispose of and becomes nothing more than a nuisance. Even when broken up it consumes a large volume of space in the bin, and due to its inherent construction, it also consumes space in a landfill for years to come. As you can tell I am quite passionate about this as we have a number of these stored for the pending move and I know that once we have moved that we will have these things hanging around for months to come. I am thus quite looking forward to reusing these as a worm farm.

The idea has come from the Worm Farming article posted on the City of Ryde web site. The approach takes advantage of the longevity of polystyrene. The irony is that this is the facet that makes polystyrene a menace to the environment and is being used to assist the environment. By reusing these boxes we can improve our own gardens and reduce landfill. Surely that is a win all round.

Basically, the construction is simple. The steps are:

  1. Obtain 2 polystyrene boxes of the same width and length.
  2. Obtain 1 lid that will fit the boxes.
  3. Carefully pierce holes in the base of 1 of the polystyrene boxes.
  4. Place the pierced box on top of the other. The base box will collect the liquid fertiliser, or worm tea.
  5. Build up a 10-15cm bedding of shredded paper, leaves, and finished compost.
  6. Add 1000 worms. Check out “the big kids toy shop” (Bunnings), your local garden centre, or Google worm farm to find out who sell worms in packets suitable for worm farms.
  7. Cover the farm with damp hessian, paper, or carpet scraps. This locks in the heat and moistness, whilst blocking out the sun.
  8. Wait a few days, and then begin adding food scraps etc.

I would suggest that you could add more containers as needed, however given the dimensions of most polystyrene boxes that would be a lot of waste.

I am considering constructing one of these in the coming days. Especially since Hamper King delivered frozen hampers in polystyrene boxes on the weekend that are superflous to our needs, and the current stack of cardboard, we have a heap of food for the worms to process. If I proceed I will post pictures as a step by step guide.


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What I Have Learnt So Far

Cat and Pest Control, Gardening, Worm Farm/Vermiculture | Posted by Dean
Dec 19 2007

I thought that I would compose an article on what I have learnt about gardening to date. Of course this focuses on my experiences in my little urban patch. Here is the list and my thoughts behind each principle learnt.

Expect Failures
No matter how good and diligent you are, some plants will fail. For example I have a thriving Zucchini seedling out the back, yet two out the front planted in the same base material and receiving similar sun are struggling like the billy-o. I expect that they will soon be fed to the worms for reprocessing.

Expect Success Beyond Expectation
At the same time of expecting failures you also need to expect success beyond your wildest expectation. I am for example trying to work out what I will be doing with the plethora of chillis that are either here, or en route. For me I will be distributing that amongst family members and preserving the remaining crop.

Premium Potting Mix is Worth the Extra Coin
Premium potting mix is indeed worth the coin. Plants that are in the premium potting mixes such as the RichGro Pro Mix that is enriched with Seasol, Osmocote, and Ezi Wet are thriving. Those in the cheaper standard potting mix, such as that available from Coles, although for the most part are alive are not exactly thriving. Definately fork out the extra few dollars and get a premium mix.

Worm Farming is a Must
If you have the room a definate requirement is a worm farm. The farm produces a magnificent liquid fertiliser and a supreme compost. Both of which provide established plants a great boost or a kickstart for new arrivals. Also, it helps keep the costs down, as you can appreciate liquid fertiliser and rich compost purchased from the garden centre is expensive, and when you are worm farming is a completely unnecessary cost. Also as a real advantage your rubbish bin will not be as full or smelly.

I Need More Worms
Currently in my Can’O'Worms I have 1000 worms. I though now believe I require a considerable amount more. As a rough idea I have read that you should have 1000 worms per household member. Given Christmas is days away, and we are again hosting the family dinner, we will no doubt have stacks of peels, fruit and vegetable waste. As a direct result I will be adding at least 500 more, am considering perhaps adding 1000. I am also considering a second Can’O'Worms and utilising the stacks of cardboard that I currently have.

Recycling Rocks
Recycling our own waste is both good for us and the planet. Gardening offers a wealth of opportunities for reuse. For example, worms will eat our food scraps, paper waste, and cardboard. Also whilst on cardboard it is great as a pot liner to prevent water simply seeping straight out, further in the pot it provides a barrier for insects and other bugs climbing in. Finally, on paper I am about to embark on making my own jiffy pots using wet newspaper and the many seedling pots as a mould. Essentially its a paper mache jiffy pot.

Planning
Gardening, in particular gardening for cultivation, requires planning. It is silly to pick plant varieties that require deep roots or a need to achieve a tree size for growing in the urban environment within pots and tubs. Also, need to ensure that the chosen varieties needs are going to be met.

Dedication
Dedication is a must for any gardening project. Although many plants will survive a few days of neglect, few will sustain that for very long. Especially when contained to pots and tubs. The urban gardener needs to keep the water, nutrients, and defences up.

Keeping Felines Away is a Pain
For me I have learnt that keeping near wild cats away from the garden is a real pain in the keister meister. Cats like those currently next door are once removed from being feral. I do not want them anywhere near my garden, especially the producing plants. However, keepng them away is a real pain and requires its own commitment. I am looking forward to obtaining my CATWatch in the new year. Hopefully that will reduce the burden.

For now that is the end of my current learnings. No doubt this will expand over the coming days, weeks and months to come. As I have said before, I am a novice, but learning fast.


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