Ground them up in the blender....did a good job.
I opened the Hotel to add the shells and saw this....
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Eggshells
Had the grill going today so I was able to toast the eggshells I had been saving.
Ground them up in the blender....did a good job.
9 eggshells pulverised in a magic bullet.
I opened the Hotel to add the shells and saw this....
which didn't seem like normal mating?
I didn't disturb them, just left 'em to it!
Ground them up in the blender....did a good job.
I opened the Hotel to add the shells and saw this....
Friday, April 29, 2011
REVIEW OF THE FIRST MONTH
Week 1
Set it up as below. The first night a lot tried to escape, but a light stopped that and pretty calm the rest of the time.
Day 3, I put some of their supplied food in. There had been some worms on the surface, so I thought I would give it a try. Just a handful spread on the RHS half a cm thick. I also put a soaked tabloid newspaper on the surface...fits nicely! After a day the edges of the food had started disappearing, after 2 days there were holes in the middle.
I had for sometime a coffee jar full of rotten tomatoes stood in the sun ( I was going to put this on the bulbs until I started the worm venture) So I poured off most of the liquid and spread the pulp on the LHS. 24 hrs later there was a mass frenzy on that side of the bin.
A good sign for the first week.
Week 2
Well there are always worms on the surface, so I tried lots of different tit bits..all mouldy of course.
Beetroot....OK
Banana.. whole one, black, rotten......didn't last long. (The skin had completely gone after week 3)
Cheese..Stilton with apricot, semi mouldy....so so.
lettuce....OK..(moved around overnight a lot!)
Peppers, red and yellow....very nice! second only to banana.
Pumpkin (cooked)...... tasty
These are all subjective opinions and I wish my camera had been working....Will promise to do better!!.
I discovered a rotten mango so that got thrown in.
I neglected to comment on a deformed 2 tailed worm that I noticed a couple of weeks ago, that didn't run away as normal when the paper was lifted up. That was until I realised what was going on!!
There were some other discoveries this week
Uncommonly, when I lifted the newspaper up, although getting chewed and tatty, It fell open somewhere in the middle to reveal dozens of juvenile worms and a large Tiger worm, all nestled in the middle of the tabloid and in no hurry to run away.
A nursery is all I could describe it as.....clearly it wasn't but it is a nice thought.
They stayed there for a couple of days and moved on
George Pilkington gives his worms Horse Manure as a treat, I think it is the equivalent of worm Viagra!
SHOCK HORROR!
The peppers were being eaten but the mouldy avocado was not touched nor the mouldy mango.....mmmm dangerous mould?
Then....mouldy worms!!
Oh NO! I killed them!!
My eyesight is not good for small things, so...macro on the camera.
There are mites crawling on the worm at the top left of the avo.
An explosion of mites, apparently this can happen under the right conditions. White ones are dominating , there are red ones as well.
By the end of the week the mites were worrying me, the worms were not touching the avo or the mango at all. I always saw worms on the surface and there were always a few if I poked around, but to satisfy my own curiosity I put on gloves and had a complete 'furtle'. through the whole of the box and right down to the paper on the bottom.
Although I hated disturbing them, I really needed to know what was there.
In their hundreds..all hiding away! Masses of them. Also the bedding was consistent all the way to the bottom.
put it back together with the stuff back on the top and resolved to let them settle down again.
It weighs 14kg now.
Week 4
Things have settled down after my assault last week.
I put in a soft pear on its last legs.
The temperature inside the tray has been nearly up to 20C from the sun in my kitchen, so I resolved this week to put it outside in the sun, to see what would happen.
It got up to 25C, which I think is OK, however..that night........................
The "teenagers" were having a Lionel Richie discotheque.... (Dancing on the ceiling)
there were dozens of juvenile, not babies, all over the sides and the roof. It was damp and at 20C.
They were not trying to escape and they were all the same size. whether they were exploring or playing in the moisture I don't know, but they tended to do it every night, as evidenced from all the castings on the sides and roof (lid).
By the end of the week I couldn't catch them at it anymore.
SUNSHINE AND SENTRY DUTY
Charlie is such a good lad. He takes a very special interest in the worms and makes sure that none escape........Well I haven't lost any yet! But he isn't very hungry lately?.......mmmm
Set it up as below. The first night a lot tried to escape, but a light stopped that and pretty calm the rest of the time.
Day 3, I put some of their supplied food in. There had been some worms on the surface, so I thought I would give it a try. Just a handful spread on the RHS half a cm thick. I also put a soaked tabloid newspaper on the surface...fits nicely! After a day the edges of the food had started disappearing, after 2 days there were holes in the middle.
A good sign for the first week.
Week 2
Well there are always worms on the surface, so I tried lots of different tit bits..all mouldy of course.
Beetroot....OK
Banana.. whole one, black, rotten......didn't last long. (The skin had completely gone after week 3)
Cheese..Stilton with apricot, semi mouldy....so so.
lettuce....OK..(moved around overnight a lot!)
Peppers, red and yellow....very nice! second only to banana.
Pumpkin (cooked)...... tasty
These are all subjective opinions and I wish my camera had been working....Will promise to do better!!.
At the end of the week a colleague from work brought me a couple of handfuls of well rotted horse manure from the stables next door. My desire for lots of bugs made this a ' no brainer'
I put half of it in in one corner and 24 hrs later I think they were fighting over it.
Week 3
Most stuff was disappearing so I added more of what I had...pepper and avocado.
There were also more cocoons than I had seen before..over half a dozen.
The newspaper was also being chewed up.
A day later the peppers and avocado had gone mouldy!
I discovered a rotten mango so that got thrown in.
I neglected to comment on a deformed 2 tailed worm that I noticed a couple of weeks ago, that didn't run away as normal when the paper was lifted up. That was until I realised what was going on!!
There were some other discoveries this week
Uncommonly, when I lifted the newspaper up, although getting chewed and tatty, It fell open somewhere in the middle to reveal dozens of juvenile worms and a large Tiger worm, all nestled in the middle of the tabloid and in no hurry to run away.
A nursery is all I could describe it as.....clearly it wasn't but it is a nice thought.
They stayed there for a couple of days and moved on
George Pilkington gives his worms Horse Manure as a treat, I think it is the equivalent of worm Viagra!
SHOCK HORROR!
The peppers were being eaten but the mouldy avocado was not touched nor the mouldy mango.....mmmm dangerous mould?
Then....mouldy worms!!
Oh NO! I killed them!!
My eyesight is not good for small things, so...macro on the camera.
An explosion of mites, apparently this can happen under the right conditions. White ones are dominating , there are red ones as well.
By the end of the week the mites were worrying me, the worms were not touching the avo or the mango at all. I always saw worms on the surface and there were always a few if I poked around, but to satisfy my own curiosity I put on gloves and had a complete 'furtle'. through the whole of the box and right down to the paper on the bottom.
Although I hated disturbing them, I really needed to know what was there.
In their hundreds..all hiding away! Masses of them. Also the bedding was consistent all the way to the bottom.
put it back together with the stuff back on the top and resolved to let them settle down again.
It weighs 14kg now.
Week 4
Things have settled down after my assault last week.
I put in a soft pear on its last legs.
The temperature inside the tray has been nearly up to 20C from the sun in my kitchen, so I resolved this week to put it outside in the sun, to see what would happen.
It got up to 25C, which I think is OK, however..that night........................
The "teenagers" were having a Lionel Richie discotheque.... (Dancing on the ceiling)
there were dozens of juvenile, not babies, all over the sides and the roof. It was damp and at 20C.
They were not trying to escape and they were all the same size. whether they were exploring or playing in the moisture I don't know, but they tended to do it every night, as evidenced from all the castings on the sides and roof (lid).
By the end of the week I couldn't catch them at it anymore.
SUNSHINE AND SENTRY DUTY
Charlie is such a good lad. He takes a very special interest in the worms and makes sure that none escape........Well I haven't lost any yet! But he isn't very hungry lately?.......mmmm
HEY..I'M WATCHING YOU
Only joking!
Charlie eats these
These are Morio Worms, they bite and are subject to another breeding programme I have.
A bit cleaner than Vermicomposting but orders of magnitude more difficult........Stop waffling Larry!
At the beginning of the week I put in half a cabbage, which had been in the fridge for 2 weeks...yuk. I boiled it put it in whole!
Not 12 hours and it was crawling with worms.
Not 12 hours and it was crawling with worms.
6 days and gone!
The pear has not been touched? ....strange.
I got sick of looking at soggy Avo shells and mites, so yesterday I chucked in the remains of the horse manure, into the halves and the rest onto the bed.
True to form,they have nearly demolished the manure on the bed, I await with baited breath for them to attack the Avo. ( and maybe the pear!)
Bottom left is used bran from the morio worms.
Somewhere in the digital labrynth of this PC are some interesting photos I took. Post them when I find them.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
More on set up
Before Ronnie starts screaming....It keeps it at a workable height for now. The second box down is actually the sump, but as nothing should in theory leak, if it is kept indoors, it should be OK, only time will tell. In a month not one has tried to exit yet through the bottom and it has a small amount of mould on it.
The other trays are useful for holding paper and cardboard for future use.
Also, if I am right, in the correct conditions nothing should leak out. It is about managing the environment. I have added water by spraying the top layer when the top layers of the newspaper dry out.
My house stays at 16 to 18 Celsius, so I keep it by the rear doors where it gets the afternoon sun, so that I can get the temperature up. It has peaked at 22C and cools down at night to 18c.
Hey ......it is only an experiment!!!
I have the time and enthusiasm to manage it. I would like to see how how productive it can be. I don't have a control in the shed, which would have been a useful comparison, maybe next time.
An Aside.........
I financed this whole escapade with an un-budgetted windfall of 126 Euro from work.
H.R. people being as they, are asked me what I was going to do with the cash?
When I delightedly explained that I had spent it on 400 worms, there was shock and horror. (Larry has really lost the plot this time)
"WHAT??!!!!!! Did you count them??!!!" the HR Manager asked
"Nope" I replied. " I had 500 names in mind and I have 100 left" :)
Friday, April 22, 2011
THE SET UP
Having read lots of posts on forums and read George's book, I went for a bought one. But I did do it somewhat differently.
supplied coir
wet cardboard
potting compost
ground cover leaf mould
very fine sand in the Dragons den
newspaper... middle/upper class
2 parts Coir...3kg
half a shovel of wild ground cover
2 handfuls of sand (very fine and sterile for use with lizards)
1 Kg potting compost
an egg tray( wetted )
Newspaper.... The times and Indo unless they dont perform then its page 3 of the Sun
Well it was rubber glove time
mixed sand, leafmold and compost
It has a millipede and other stuff in there
Ph 7
as far as conventional wisdom goes
The lads had arrived on wednesday, it was now sunday. I had put some moistened coir in their bag to try and get them used to it, no one had escaped, but I didn't think they were happy.
But I put them into their new home.
They quickly disappeared and went exploring.
For info the mass of the tray, plus sump, plus lid and everything else, is 10,4 Kg. I might weigh it in the future, but I am not doing a PhD on it. This will obviously vary because of moisture etc, but it is a fingerprint of sorts.
This was about lunchtime and they were checked on every hour by a doting patriarch until reality kicked in (only fools and horses on gold!).
Bedtime came and.....WHOOOAH..... just caught the blighters. They were all off somewhere, well the tigers not the dendras. Shoved them all back in, moved it under one of the kitchen lights, left the top off and went to bed.
All peaceful in the morning, put the lid back on.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
The Beginning
Hi there.
I have been in my house for 4 months now. It is the first time I could call something my own in over a decade. ( but that is an entirely different story).
I was an enthusiastic gardener and Koi breeder in South Africa, but being in Europe is a different experience, climate wise and plant wise.
Also space...The 3 bedroom house that I have......4 if you include the loft conversion, is less in area than my main bedroom from my last pad in RSA.
It has a small footprint and small gardens to front and rear. The rear one being larger. Both front and back are covered in ornamental stone......i.e. no grass, but some established plants ca. 3 yrs old, in the back, front and around the side. (the heathers on the side are particularly attractive)
I will post photographs soon.
The onset of some kind of spring in February, after a particularly harsh winter, made me want to get some colour into the place. I bought 2 planters and bulbs, used some other containers I had and set them on their way. I had to buy soil.... potting compost, because the stuff in the garden was quite frankly unusable...heavy clay, devoid of life, and difficult to dig.
75L of compost cost 5.00 euro, cheap I thought and manageable within my budget.
Then I got the bill for the bins..........110.00 euro to take the stuff away.(That is fixed cost). green bin free, brown bin free, black bin...12.00 euro a shot.
Bit of a shock, after the turbulence of moving in, because I had a skip and everything got dumped into that and taken away.
So I looked into the bins....I am very good at recycling.
Green bin..paper plastic etc
Brown bin.... carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, celery, oranges etc. etc
Black bin.. honey jars, a wine bottle, metal toilet roll holders, nuts screws and odd bits of metal .
some carpet....wrong bin!!!
12 bucks to have that taken away.
That would feed Charlie for nearly 2 weeks!
....Charlie is a bearded dragon whom I inherited from my mad Kiwi friend who is now in Dubai, earning mega bucks as a nurse, and quite probably finding an outlet for them just as quickly.
Way to go Kath
Love you to bits!! Hope the farm in NZ comes right. If I don't see you, best of luck honey.
I'm rambling aren't I?
The bulbs were a bit of an experiment, and they are thriving so far. If that works, they need to go into the ground, maybe at the end of the year, to come up next year. But...not in my soil!
That obviously led to the organic stuff in the brown bin, a compost heap was out of the question. Could I try and bury it? Will it produce soil? ................RESEARCH.....www.Internet.geek (or stupid questions to google in my case)
You obviously know where I ended up.............WORMS
It kind of satisfied the whole green ethos that I have and also looked like a source of inexpensive food for Charlie and my desire for bait (for fishing).
What follows will be my kind of scientific approach to the project. As best as I can do, with what I have.
It was George Pilkington's book that finally convinced me. Without that, I would have been quite frankly disillusioned from all the sniping on the net. ( from people wanting you to buy their stuff, most certainly not the Forums.)
I could have easily built one, but a windfall allowed me to purchase one (see later). This was also a desirable option because if it didn't work I would have blamed my design or something.
How I set it up is in the next post.
THE FIRST DAYS
An attempted mass exodus on night 1, was quelled, (mass exodus is an understatement it was a river of all the worms, they were like sheep I assume, one wanted to try and get out and the rest piggy-backed in a kind of rope, moving in the darkness, with some destination other than my carefully constructed environment.)
That was quickly sorted with a flick of the light switch.
Only on day three did I actually put wet newspaper on the top and some of their food.
12 hours later....lots of worms and lots of munching. Good sign I think.
Only one attempted escape.
And only one who did not escape the light....... He stayed on the surface, pulsating, struggling. Bulging in the upper part of his body, obviously in distress. He had the constriction in the middle that some bloggers have referred to as being "cut in 2". I watched him for a while...like 15 Min's. I did not know what to do, should have taken a photograph, well maybe not, I felt sorry for him! Taking a photo would have been more scientific.
I covered him up with the newspaper, put everyone to bed.
He was dead in the morning.
My first...visible loss.
He will be recycled.
He was an unnamed soldier in the circle of life.
And his death was not trivial.
Visit vermicomposters.com
I have been in my house for 4 months now. It is the first time I could call something my own in over a decade. ( but that is an entirely different story).
I was an enthusiastic gardener and Koi breeder in South Africa, but being in Europe is a different experience, climate wise and plant wise.
Also space...The 3 bedroom house that I have......4 if you include the loft conversion, is less in area than my main bedroom from my last pad in RSA.
It has a small footprint and small gardens to front and rear. The rear one being larger. Both front and back are covered in ornamental stone......i.e. no grass, but some established plants ca. 3 yrs old, in the back, front and around the side. (the heathers on the side are particularly attractive)
I will post photographs soon.
The onset of some kind of spring in February, after a particularly harsh winter, made me want to get some colour into the place. I bought 2 planters and bulbs, used some other containers I had and set them on their way. I had to buy soil.... potting compost, because the stuff in the garden was quite frankly unusable...heavy clay, devoid of life, and difficult to dig.
75L of compost cost 5.00 euro, cheap I thought and manageable within my budget.
Then I got the bill for the bins..........110.00 euro to take the stuff away.(That is fixed cost). green bin free, brown bin free, black bin...12.00 euro a shot.
Bit of a shock, after the turbulence of moving in, because I had a skip and everything got dumped into that and taken away.
So I looked into the bins....I am very good at recycling.
Green bin..paper plastic etc
Brown bin.... carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, celery, oranges etc. etc
Black bin.. honey jars, a wine bottle, metal toilet roll holders, nuts screws and odd bits of metal .
some carpet....wrong bin!!!
12 bucks to have that taken away.
That would feed Charlie for nearly 2 weeks!
....Charlie is a bearded dragon whom I inherited from my mad Kiwi friend who is now in Dubai, earning mega bucks as a nurse, and quite probably finding an outlet for them just as quickly.
Way to go Kath
Love you to bits!! Hope the farm in NZ comes right. If I don't see you, best of luck honey.
I'm rambling aren't I?
The bulbs were a bit of an experiment, and they are thriving so far. If that works, they need to go into the ground, maybe at the end of the year, to come up next year. But...not in my soil!
That obviously led to the organic stuff in the brown bin, a compost heap was out of the question. Could I try and bury it? Will it produce soil? ................RESEARCH.....www.Internet.geek (or stupid questions to google in my case)
You obviously know where I ended up.............WORMS
It kind of satisfied the whole green ethos that I have and also looked like a source of inexpensive food for Charlie and my desire for bait (for fishing).
What follows will be my kind of scientific approach to the project. As best as I can do, with what I have.
It was George Pilkington's book that finally convinced me. Without that, I would have been quite frankly disillusioned from all the sniping on the net. ( from people wanting you to buy their stuff, most certainly not the Forums.)
I could have easily built one, but a windfall allowed me to purchase one (see later). This was also a desirable option because if it didn't work I would have blamed my design or something.
How I set it up is in the next post.
THE FIRST DAYS
An attempted mass exodus on night 1, was quelled, (mass exodus is an understatement it was a river of all the worms, they were like sheep I assume, one wanted to try and get out and the rest piggy-backed in a kind of rope, moving in the darkness, with some destination other than my carefully constructed environment.)
That was quickly sorted with a flick of the light switch.
Only on day three did I actually put wet newspaper on the top and some of their food.
12 hours later....lots of worms and lots of munching. Good sign I think.
Only one attempted escape.
And only one who did not escape the light....... He stayed on the surface, pulsating, struggling. Bulging in the upper part of his body, obviously in distress. He had the constriction in the middle that some bloggers have referred to as being "cut in 2". I watched him for a while...like 15 Min's. I did not know what to do, should have taken a photograph, well maybe not, I felt sorry for him! Taking a photo would have been more scientific.
I covered him up with the newspaper, put everyone to bed.
He was dead in the morning.
My first...visible loss.
He will be recycled.
He was an unnamed soldier in the circle of life.
And his death was not trivial.
Visit vermicomposters.com
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