May 16, 2013 written by Jane Falde
Rachel Singletary, the Worm lady—only person in Lee County who sells composting worms.
No better recycler than worms – Florida does have native worms if you mulch. For worm bins you have to use composing worms like red wigglers. Rachel has used file cabinets as a bin; you can use an old bathtub. Colored tubs (not clear) (30 to 45 gallon) from Walmart, etc. work well. To encourage native worms in your garden, you can bury 3 inch PVC pipes 12 to 18 in deep in 4 corners of your garden. Put kitchen scraps in the pipes (cover the top with screening). Native worms come up from the bottom. (When using city water to moisten things, let it sit for awhile to get rid of chemicals)
If you get ants, use baits not sprays. Use a garden trowel to dig in the bin not a shovel; a cut worm is a dead worm.
Anything soft they eat fast—you can put in blender or put food in the freezer (it will be mushy when you take it out)
Watermelon cantaloupe pumpkin… just cut and turn upside down for the worms to eat
Castings can be used year around in Lee County. Castings are 0-1-5; it is the billions of organisms that are so beneficial.
Castings and worm tea have to be fresh to be effective.
A worm bin is a great place to start seeds that are hard to germinate.
Books mentioned: Worms Eat My Garbage by Mary Appelhof and Teaming with Microbesby Wayne Lewis
Pine Forest Fruit and Flower Farm
North Fort Myers, Florida
239-543-9910
1. Bedding can be shredded newspaper (no glossy ads), shredded cardboard (corrugated is great), shredded paper from your shredder at home or work and Canadian peat moss. The Canadian peat moss needs to be soaked well a few days before adding it to the bin. Keep the bedding damp somewhat like a wet sponge. The bedding should be fluffy; the worms need moisture to breathe so error on the side of wetness. Only occasionally should you have to add water once the bin is started. Use a watering can or better yet recycle a used milk jug with holes punched in the lid and top with an ice pick. Pick the bedding up with your fist and squeeze to see if you can elicit five or so drops of water. Too much water can be soaked up by adding more paper to the corners of the bin. Use a layer of cardboard as the bin cover. (Have a two inch opening from the cardboard to sides of bin. Place on bedding, not on top of plastic bin). The bedding should be 10 to 12 inches deep. The cardboard cover keeps the bin dark and moist.
2. Optimum temperature is 65 to 90 degrees. Heat is not a problem but DO NOT keep your worm bin in direct sunlight or you will bake your worms. The garage, lanai or shed is ideal for your worm bin. You may keep it outside but once birds, raccoons or opossums find the bin they will feast on the worms. If the bin is outside it must be sheltered from rain to prevent filling the bin and drowning your worms. The bin does not smell so it can be kept inside without a problem. Remember to bury your scraps when feeding the worms to not attract ants or roaches!! The bin should be protected from cold below 45 degrees. Throw a blanket under and over the bin during the coldest hours. Error on the side of warmth to keep your worms from cold.
3. Bury kitchen scraps two to three times a week. Make sure the previous feeding is gone or almost gone before feeding again. Also, feed in small amounts in five to seven different spots in the bin so the worms do not have to congregate in a few areas and compete for food. Raw or cooked fruits and vegetables are ideal. Egg shells, bread products, tea bags, coffee grounds with the filter can all be fed to the worms. The foods do not have to be cut into small pieces. No jalapenos or other spicy foods should be added. Melons of all types with the rinds on and pumpkin & rind are the worm’s favorite foods!! Foods with high water content, cooked foods and smaller pieces of food can be consumed easier by the worms. They have no teeth and microscopic beneficial creatures in the bin as well as the roly-polys, spring tails and mites will digest the foods for the worms first. These are beneficial to the bin but ants and roaches are not. Cut back on feeding if you notice roaches and make sure the food is being buried. Call for advice in the unlikely event of ant or roach problems. No meat, no dairy, no bones, no fat, no glass nor plastic.
4. Harvest the castings every three to six months when the bin contents become like coffee grounds on top and like a mud pie lower down. Mound portions of the bin, bedding and worms on top of an old plastic tablecloth or visqueen. You can harvest outside in the sun or turn on an overhead lamp near the small mounds. With children assisting make sure the lamps are turned off and moved away before starting to separate the worms from the bedding In a classroom setting, with the mounds sitting in the sunlight for 15 minutes or so, the children can easily separate the worms as they congregate at the plastic bottom. Put these worms into a newly prepared bin with fresh bedding. You should have tripled the worm population in three to four months! Look for egg capsules and babies. If the babies are too small postpone your harvest for a few weeks until the babies are larger and easy to separate from the bedding.
5. Castings are an organic valuable fertilizer and soil additive. Use them sparingly as they are valuable though they will not burn your plants if you put on a large amount. A tablespoon per vegetable or flower monthly, a cup per fruit tree monthly, one half cup per rose bush is a good amount to use. Your may use more if you are starting out with poor sandy soil as a growing medium. There are millions of beneficial organisms in the castings that combat bad nematodes, bad bacteria, etc in the soil. Keep castings in an open container in the shade for long term storage or better yet go ahead and use them in the garden and they will be used time released per the plants needs.
6. Refer to The Wiggly World of Worms for class projects with the worms.
7. If you no longer want your bin of worms call for pick-up rather than releasing non-native worms into native soil. Bury kitchen scraps in the outside garden to attract native worms.
8. Questions? Comments? Call Rachel Singletary at 239-543-9910 or SINGL2630@aol.com
floridanativeplantseeds.com
