compost

The “Mini” Worm Composting Bin

As promised, I have put together a video outlining how to make a smaller version of the “Bait-O-Matic 6000“. I actually created the “Mini” system long before the BOM-6000 was even a goofy daydream in my brain – about a year and a half ago, to be specific. As I explain in the video, I decided to make it so I could sell it to local worm customers. I didn’t have any sort of “worm bin” for sale at the time, and people often wanted to get started with some sort of “kit” – rather than having to figure out how to create their own system etc.

I did eventually stop offering these bins in favor of helping people make their own systems (via videos like this one) – when it comes down to it, I would just rather spend my time playing with worms and writing about it on the site, rather than building worm bins!>>Read more »

The Bait-O-Matic 6000

Every so often, there comes along a product SO original, SO ingenious, SO revolutionary, SO HUGE…that it completely changes the way we live our lives FOREVER! (and ever!)…

:-)

Oh, and if you want to learn more (after watching the video of course) be sure to go >>HERE<<

Hope everyone (in the U.S.) is enjoying their Thanksgiving weekend!

The Jumbo Food Scrap Holder

In my winter windrow post, I mentioned a “new food scrap storage approach” – the one I’ve adopted specifically for this winter composting experiment. >>Read more »

Parasitic Worm Bin Mites?


Along for the ride, or causing harm? Tiny mites hold on tight as this beetle scuttles about


This is a topic I have been meaning to write about for quite some time – what stinks is that I definitely had more photos to include but now can’t seem to find them at all.>>Read more »

Winter Worm Composting Windrow

Winter Worm Windrow
Phase I of my new winter worm composting project


In the most recent issue of the newsletter I wrote about my success with rounding up a bunch of fall leaves last week (most of them – more than twenty bags worth – came from one neighbor). It was really cool, and also provided me with a valuable lesson in the importance of ’stepping outside your comfort zone’! Next fall I’m definitely going to make more of an effort to let people know what I’m doing, thus (hopefully) helping me to collect even more of these sorts of materials from my nearby neighbors!>>Read more »

50 Cocoon Challenge Wrap-Up


Everything looking pretty well processed in original ‘50 Cocoon Challenge’ Bin


We are getting pretty close to the 6 month mark of the original ‘50 Cocoon Challenge’ (oh how time flies) so I thought it was as good a time as any to start wrapping things up – well at least as far as ‘phase I’ of the challenges goes. As mentioned in other posts, there are at least a couple of other 50 cocoon systems I want to test out (namely cardboard-only and straw-only).>>Read more »

Tina’s Outdoor Worm Bin Experiment

By Tina Ligon (Coal Creek Canyon, Colorado)


Our old refrigerator, we had the freon removed and stripped it of all parts


Background – This outdoor worm bin is located at ~7800’ in the foothills west of the Denver/Boulder area of Colorado (40 degrees latitude). >>Read more »

Controlling Mites in a Worm Bin

I recently came across this video over on YouTube and was VERY impressed – the creator, Christy Ruffner (from ‘Worm Bin Composting‘) summarized very effectively a piece of advice I have actually been giving people as of late, relating to the often asked question “How do I get rid of worm bin mites?”. I know I tend to be ‘Mr Mellow’ about this stuff – but I have come to realize that there are indeed situations where some sort of mite intervention needs to take place in order to optimize conditions once again for vermicomposting.

Apart from the awesome info and effective visuals (now THATS what I call a mite infestation – YIKES!), I appreciated the fact that Christy took the time to inform people that the “spider mites” are not the same ones considered to be plant pests (as some people mistakenly assume), and moreover that they won’t really do all that well even if they do start crawling out of your bin!>>Read more »

Controlling Mites in a Worm Bin

I recently came across this video over on YouTube and was VERY impressed – the creator, Christy Ruffner (from ‘Worm Bin Composting‘) summarized very effectively a piece of advice I have actually been giving people as of late, relating to the often asked question “How do I get rid of worm bin mites?”. I know I tend to be ‘Mr Mellow’ about this stuff – but I have come to realize that there are indeed situations where some sort of mite intervention needs to take place in order to optimize conditions once again for vermicomposting.

Apart from the awesome info and effective visuals (now THATS what I call a mite infestation – YIKES!), I appreciated the fact that Christy took the time to inform people that the “spider mites” are not the same ones considered to be plant pests (as some people mistakenly assume), and moreover that they won’t really do all that well even if they do start crawling out of your bin!>>Read more »

A ‘Wormy Gifts’ Update

Earlier in the month I wrote a post called “Interesting Gift Ideas for Worm Fanatics” that talked about some cool worm-related products created by two talented Dutch artists (although as mentioned, one of them lives in Norway now).

Well, I recently received an email from one of our readers, Jillian, pointing me in the direction of some interesting wormy gift ideas from US-based artists.

I thought I would post this follow-up just in case people are trying to find worm-related gifts for those hard-to-shop-for creative vermicomposting types!
:lol:

Joking aside, these are definitely pretty cool! (Thanks again, Jillian)

Copulating Earthworm Necklace >>Read more »

Some Worm Composting Photos

Hi Everyone,
I just thought I would share some recent photos!


Gob of Red Worms
Picture from a few months ago. I think their air got cut off and it was time to leave and I don’t think they had any food left.


What the OSCR bin looks like today.

Fat Red Worm
This is Marvin (Letty says he is the leader) :-)

Mark’s OSCR Videos – Part III

Here is the final installment in Mark’s OSCR video series. This one is REALLY interesting so be sure to check it out. Mark shows the upper zone of his worm composting bed and explains how he feeds and waters the system. Speaking of which, I LOVE the water sprayer – that is an awesome idea. I think I’m going to get me one of those. (obviously it goes without saying that you should buy one of these NOT reuse one used for spraying other stuff!)
8)

This is another long one (19:57), but I think a lot of people will enjoy the content.

You’ll likely notice that I’ve used a slightly different video player this time around – this one includes links to the other two videos (which show up once the video ends) – so if you happened to miss those ones you can easily check them out as well.>>Read more »

Winter Worm Garden

A long (but really interesting) email question from Michael:>>Read more »

Mark’s OSCR Videos – Part II

Here is ‘Part II’ of Mark’s OSCR video series, which features a short tour of Mark’s harvesting chamber.
It is only 3:32, but it’s really interesting to see the system from below. I appreciated the fact that Mark didn’t mind getting crawling around and getting dirty for our benefit!
8)

Tomorrow, as mentioned, Mark is going to take us on a tour of the upper zone of his OSCR bin, and show us how he feeds the system.

Stay tuned!
8)

Mark’s OSCR Videos – Part I

As a follow-up to the hugely popular post “Mark and his OSCR Worm Bin“, our roving Red Worm reporter, ‘Mark from Kansas’, has been kind enough to put together a three part video series featuring his OSCR worm bin. A couple of these videos are close to 20 minutes each so I’ve decided to bring them to you one at a time (Part II will be tomorrow, and Part III on Thursday).

This first video (which runs 18:26) features Mark talking about his OSCR system. He brings up some of the topics of discussion from the comments section of the post mentioned above, and also runs through his journal entries written since the post was published.

I have included these journal entries here so you can refer to them as well.

10/19/09

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