Hi Rick, I've pulled that stretchy glue after putting mailers in my bins, too. Looks like the worms found the food! They will enjoy the additional bedding. ~ Sandra
The fresh leaves will make a nice bedding. (doing a bit of that myself) 1/8 inch screen is about as fine as you can reasonably go. With this castings harvest, you're ready for the seed starting. 😃
Nice tip Joe, there are a couple of spider webs on my bins in the basement. I’m ok with it as long as it’s not a poisonous one 😂 since I started freezing my food scraps I typically don’t see any fruit flys or fungus gnats. But if there is something flying around the spiders can have them 😁🪱
I guess if the worms don't eat it, it doesn't belong in the garden. Nice castings, in my opinion, natural bedding yields a darker fluffier end product, do not think you can purchase castings like that anywhere. Downward migration is my personal go to for harvesting my castings. It is good you mentioned that you will wet the castings down, important to keep the microbiology and any cocoons that hatch out alive. When as the last time you harvested that bin? worked great! Stay Well my friend!!!! Feels like April in WI, thinking of planting some broccoli if this continues. OBTW, I would gladly check your castings under my microscope, All I need is a few pinches, about 1 ml each from different locations.
Thanks Brian, I agree the color difference between cardboard and paper vs leaves is huge. I like the horizontal for my totes, I guess watching Ann (plant obsessed) for all these years. The dryer castings helps with sifting. But next few I will probably use the 1/4”, I think the 1/8” would be good for seed starting but not really necessary for anything else. I definitely wanted to mention I would be adding water to hydrate the castings. I believe the last harvest was about 5-6 months ago for this bin. We been a little cooler than normal here. But we have received more snow than the last 4-5 years combined. Spring will be here before we know it. Have a great rest of your week Brian.
Pill bugs or Roly pollies haha there was a bunch of them. When I started the natural bedding I put a scoop of compost in the bin and probably added them.
Hi Rick 👋
I've added pulverized Elm leaves and they make great Castings 👍
🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂
That sounds good Peggy. Haven’t tried pulverizing the leaves yet. Just ones chopped through the mower.
Awesome castings Rick!!🪱🪱🪱
Thanks Patrick 😁
Hi Rick, I've pulled that stretchy glue after putting mailers in my bins, too. Looks like the worms found the food! They will enjoy the additional bedding.
~ Sandra
It surprised me. Yes they did a great job migrating to the other end of the bin.
Leaves do make good looking castings, also, good idea to freeze them to get rid of any critters you don't want in your bin.
I still haven’t tried freezing them. But if I remember it might not be a bad idea. 😁
The fresh leaves will make a nice bedding. (doing a bit of that myself) 1/8 inch screen is about as fine as you can reasonably go. With this castings harvest, you're ready for the seed starting. 😃
I don’t really see a need to go any smaller than an 1/8”. Looking forward to starting some seeds soon.
Organic fertilizer is very helpful for plants
Hi Petani ❤
Yes, worm castings do not contain a lot of nutrients but the biology in them really help the plants and the surrounding soil.
I add leaves to my bin. One time I found several spiders in it. From that point I’d freeze the leaves before adding them. Bug problem solved.
Nice tip Joe, there are a couple of spider webs on my bins in the basement. I’m ok with it as long as it’s not a poisonous one 😂 since I started freezing my food scraps I typically don’t see any fruit flys or fungus gnats. But if there is something flying around the spiders can have them 😁🪱
Looking good Rick. Guess I crashed early last night - was wondering where my worm fix was.
😁 haha that was me, I had it loaded before 9 pm just never hit publish 🤦♂️until about 11 pm
I guess if the worms don't eat it, it doesn't belong in the garden.
Nice castings, in my opinion, natural bedding yields a darker fluffier end product, do not think you can purchase castings like that anywhere.
Downward migration is my personal go to for harvesting my castings. It is good you mentioned that you will wet the castings down, important to keep the microbiology and any cocoons that hatch out alive.
When as the last time you harvested that bin? worked great!
Stay Well my friend!!!!
Feels like April in WI, thinking of planting some broccoli if this continues.
OBTW, I would gladly check your castings under my microscope, All I need is a few pinches, about 1 ml each from different locations.
Thanks Brian, I agree the color difference between cardboard and paper vs leaves is huge. I like the horizontal for my totes, I guess watching Ann (plant obsessed) for all these years. The dryer castings helps with sifting. But next few I will probably use the 1/4”, I think the 1/8” would be good for seed starting but not really necessary for anything else. I definitely wanted to mention I would be adding water to hydrate the castings.
I believe the last harvest was about 5-6 months ago for this bin. We been a little cooler than normal here. But we have received more snow than the last 4-5 years combined. Spring will be here before we know it. Have a great rest of your week Brian.
I do have some tiny baggies. It would be neat to see how the castings look under a microscope
What were the bugs inside of the bin?
Pill bugs or Roly pollies haha there was a bunch of them. When I started the natural bedding I put a scoop of compost in the bin and probably added them.