I had lots of worms in my beds last summer/fall. When I turned in some compost a couple of weeks ago, I didn't see a one. Do I need to buy some more from WalMart or are they just sleeping?

Wasn't sure which forum to post this in but since tomatoes are mainly what I can't grow - and wanna grow - thought I'd start here.

They might have run away from home because you didn't feed them. Dig a hole and put in some green kitchen waste, shredded newspaper or shredded brown grocery bags and coffee grounds. Sprinkle a bit of that dried lasses if you have any left. Sugar will do if you don't. Wet everything down and cover that hole back up and they should come back home. Keep hole composting in that area you want to grow in so that they stay around.

I agree with Jayne. Way back in the day when I had a worm farm we used to feed the worms coffee grounds and cornmeal along with kitchen vegetable scraps.

If the compost is still hot they will retreat until the temps come back to their comfort zone.

You can also use shredded leaves in the hole in place of the shredded paper. Worms love leaves. If you need some Mary I raked up 6 bags of them behind the Sprouts store over by me. I will be glad to drop off a bag on my way to the school Monday afternoon.

Thanks jayne, leaves I've got.

Do you want to split another big bag of molasses? I was thinking about that the other day. We can meet at the feed store again and portion it out. LMK and I'll call them to order.

Thanks Mickey Pea but I am using EM right now, have a quart to finish up. Might be interested come fall though.

Butch turned one of the beds for me today and said there are at least 15 million worms in there! They came baaaaacckkk.

Happy days are here again!

FWIW, I read in the Ronniger's Potato catalog an interesting tidbit... To paraphrase: the sugar in molasses is a good way to enhance the health of potatoes and the soil by feeding and multiplying the beneficial soil microbes. Put 1 cup of molasses (liquid) in 5 gallons of water. Stir occasionally and let it work for a day or two. Then apply the liquid so that it soaks to the root zone of the potatoes. You can do this 1-4 times during the growing season. It is said to help prevent scab as the beneficial microbes compete against the harmful soil fungus that causes it.

I'm sure you could water other things with it as well to help the soil?

Kelly, I got that catalog, too. Very interesting stuff there. However, after the potato debacle of '08 (or was it '07?), I'm not sure I'll try those again here. I do have some sprouted spuds, though....

I'm slacking on planting my taters - lol. Got sprouts about to leaf out if I don't get them in the ground. Ran out of time today - hopefully tomorrow.

That catalog has great info!

I felt like an idiot all last year when I would sneak out in to the garden at six thirty to bury my week's worth of coffee grounds and banana peels. But this time last year there weren't many earthworms in the garden. This year they are plentiful. I was afraid I was just attracting bad company; but is sounds like I got a reward worth the effort. Worms. I guess I gotta take up that task again.

Because it gets so hot here can I grown worms in a bin in my backyard. I have a young garden, 1 yr. old. I have added a lot of various organic ammendments and as of yet I have not seen a single worm. I even purchased some from WalMart but after two days they were gone even though I had plenty of kitchen scraps in the ground. Now I would like to grow some in a bin, confined, but I don't want them to roast in the bin when it gets hot here. Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks

Glad you've found us, RoseAnne, welcome.
I have a compost pile (only about 6 months old) where I add kitchen scraps and leaves. I have worms at the moment. I moved this pile from anther location in my yard that seemed to be conducive to worms in summer. Few, but they were apparent. That location was on the east side of a north / south facing block wall with lots and lots of shade and needed moisture. What sort of exposure do you have? It might have something to do with whether you can keep the worms active. If not, I'll tell you we've had this conversation before and it appears that the worms do migrate *somewhere* and reappear during cooler weather. I think it might depend on the exposure of you pile, however.
Maybe some others will drop in and add more wisdom; Kelly, Jayne, Jill, Dete, Dan etc.

I have not had a lot of success with sustaining a year round worm population in my raised beds either. Having said that, it is only fair to mention that outside of introducing a few containers of fishing worms to the beds I have not given much effort towards that goal.
It's quite possible that birds and lizards got most of them when they surface after a heavy watering or rain.

Long ago I had a number of worm bins on my property in N Cal. They were 4'x8' and about 15" deep. I would water them lightly about once a week and feed them corn meal and coffee grounds as well as kitchen scrap. When I started there were several thousand worms in each bed. After 2 years when I sold a couple the estimated population was around 20/25 thousand per bed.

That project didn't pan out finanically so I dumped the remaining worm bins (10) out and created a 40' by 80' vegetable garden on that spot. For the next 25 years I had an incredible vegetable garden!

Bag of Molasses? I thought Molasses came in a jar. That's the only way I've ever bought it???

Alan, you can buy dried molasses by the bag at feed stores.

The only way I have been able to keep worms around is to feed them weekly by hole composting kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, etc directly in my garden beds.

There is a guy in Mesa who has outside worm bins year around. When I get more time I will post more about him. Interesting guy...interesting property...I just took a tour of his place two weeks ago.

So you put the dried molasses in your soil? Sorry, I'm missing something here.

Alan

http://www.phoenixpermaculture...
Vermicomposting video

ropegro keep an eye on the Permaculture Guild for vermicomposting classes. They cover how to do the bins outside.
Also watch for tours of the Bee Oasis in Mesa. The Bee Oasis is the house with the outside worm bins.

Alan, dried molasses is an organic strategy for feeding microbes. Microbes increase the health of the soil and worms consume microbes. Worms don't actually eat the burried food rather the microbes that break down the burried food. Yes, I use dried molasses in my soil...just a little desert for my microbes...sweetens them up for my worms.


Check out the romaine lettuce the worms helped me produce. I am fixin to go out and pick some of that for dinner tonight.