I have been an organic gardener for 30 some years, and have always composted
all veggie organic waste (and watered my plants with the water from my
aquariums and ponds).
A standard compost pile will turn organic waste into the best soil amendment
you can get in from 6 months to 2 years depending on the physical effort you
put into it. My experience with a natural worm bin is that it will
consume/transform the same amount of organic material in two months that a
conventional compost pile will consume/transform in a year.
A by-product is some really great fish food.
We enjoy a really moderate climate in western Washington that allows this
process to continue most of the year. In places where the climate is so
severe that the ground actually freezes to any depth, an earth submerged,
insulated box will prevent winter kill of your fungus and wormy friends.
Leave the bottom open.
It was my experience that the bin worked even better when it was seeded
continually with rabbit excretions. If you have children or bent toward
rabbit consumption, I recommend that you arrange your cages to vent on the
bin.
The worm bin method is the quickest and most effective method to turn
organic wastes into fresh vegetables. It also produces the best fish food
and fish bait you can get.
Tom
----- Original Message -----
From: "geoff and julie kimber" <gkimber2_at_earthlink.net>
To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2002 4:41 PM
Subject: Re: worm bins was Re: NANFA-- nightcrawlers: predators?
> no holes
> I used 50% shredded newspaper and 50% peat moss to start with. Soak the
> mixture until the peat moss is good and wet before you add the worms.
>
> Be careful to always cover the veggies or it will smell. If you use
fruit,
> you might draw fruit flies, which can be nasty (unless you capture and
kill
> them for fish food!)
>
> I last used a 15 gallon tote that has a 2 piece lid attached to it. I
went
> on line and ordered a pound of Eisinia foetida (sp?). The price was
pretty
> good.
>
>
> I used the worms as to supplement feeding for eight 4-6 inch sunfish and a
> 55 gallon tank full of darters.
> It would be pretty easy to scale up by adding several totes of worms if
you
> needed to do so.
>
> I have finally gotten around to restarting this project here in KY. I'm
> tired of buying blackworms in the mail.
>
> Geoff Kimber
> Lexington, ky
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Crail, Todd" <tcrail_at_northshores.com>
> To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2002 10:42 PM
> Subject: RE: worm bins was Re: NANFA-- nightcrawlers: predators?
>
>
> > Geoff,
> >
> > You just made my day. I can't stand throwing away all that prime worm
> food, all wrapped up in plastic so it doesn't degrade at the landfill,
just
> because Sarah didn't trust me. I was thinking too big. Now if it stinks,
> the worst thing that can happen is I just pick it up and take it out of
the
> house, and she was okay with that :)
> >
> > Did you drill the bins at all for aeration? And do you just use
newspaper
> as the base? What's your water volume?
> >
> > I'd take this off list, but I think this is an excellent way for NANFAns
> to practice conservation and make some fine fish food... Not to mention
all
> those wonderful castings for planting next spring!
> >
> > Thanks!!! :)
> > Todd
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: geoff and julie kimber
> > Sent: Tue 10/1/2002 9:29 PM
> > To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
> > Cc:
> > Subject: worm bins was Re: NANFA-- nightcrawlers: predators?
> >
> >
> >
> > Todd -
> >
> > I have had good results just using plastic totes for worm bins. I
usually
> > raise red worms as they don't need a tunnel system like nightcrawlers do
> and
> > they also chow down very quickly on veggie scraps from the kitchen.
> >
> > Geoff Kimber
> > Lexington,KY
> >
> > [demime 0.99d.1 removed an attachment of type application/ms-tnef which
> had a name of winmail.dat]
> --
> > /"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
> > / reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
> > / Association"
> > / This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes
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> http://www.nanfa.org
-- > /"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily > / reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes > / Association" > / This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association > / nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word > / subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to > / nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to > / nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead. > / For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org /----------------------------------------------------------------------------- /"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily / reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes / Association" / This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association / nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word / subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to / nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to / nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead. / For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org