Worm Harvest

Last month, we upgraded the worm farm. It now has a catchment box, tap, better-fitting mesh-filter and a hessian covering. While relocating the worms, we thought we would harvest some vermicast as well.

WORM PILES

The worms have only really been thriving for the past 2 months. From what research I've done, most people think harvesting should be done around the 4-6 month mark.

I have put what little vermicast I could find in the worm piles as food for some container plants. Will see if this makes much difference to their growth!

VERMICAST

In relocating the worms, we tried to save as many worm capsules as possible. But worm capsules are tiny semi-transparent yellow things which proved very hard to find. So I'm not sure if the worms aren't producing a lot of capsules yet, or we just couldn't find them to begin with.

GARDEN WORM

Generally the worms in the worm farm are smaller than the ones found in our backyard. I wonder if that's because the local worms have acclimatised to the type of soil in our area.. or maybe they're just different species of worms. The worms I'm farming are Red Wigglers, Indian Blues, Tigers and Gardener's Friends. The last species supposedly grow to quite a length and is the best for soil aeration - hence the name.

Heartbreaks

Still no change in the worm situation. I have emailed the supplier to see what other advice/tips they can offer.

The worms are hardly eating the food. As it is quite warm here, I am not sure whether the foodscraps in the container is breaking down due to the weather and moisture. I have also poked my fingers around the container in the hopes of finding worms, but there are no signs of them. I don't want to keep poking, as it may stress the worms. Imagine if you're in your house and a big hand comes crashing through the roof trying to see where you are!

Another sad thing is the state of the veggie garden at the moment. My brassica bed has been under attack by small green caterpillars (Cabbage moth). These green grubs have eaten their way through my Chinese cabbage, buk choy and are now chewing through the cucumbers and bananas!

I have looked up several organic options for killing them, and apparently chilli and garlic spray seems to do the trick - provided the caterpillars are in the early stages. But there is also a bio-organic control, called BT. Bacillus Thuringiensis is derived from naturally-occuring soil bacteria. It works by paralysing the caterpillar's digestive tract, and they die from starvation. Bad for the caterpillar, but good for plants and other helpful creatures like bees, ladybirds and earthworms as BT doesn't affect them. Will be applying this onto any caterpillar-infected plants soon. Watch out!

BT is effective on caterpillars such as TOBACCO HORNWORM (Manduca Sexta)

The two cucumber plants in the large bed have also shrivelled into yellow-nothingness. I'm not 100% sure whether this is due to the hot weather, the mealybugs (which are ALL over the plants) or the caterpillars. Maybe a combination of all.. but apparently cucumber plants only grow in the cooler months of the Dry. They were still fruiting up to about a month ago. The lone cucumber in the middle bed is struggling on. It's still fruiting sporadically and producing some huge female babies! I have never seen the female buds this big before, probably because the plant knows the game is almost up. I haven't fed them anything else that's for sure.

My lemongrass has also fallen victim to its home relocation. It was moved to a different spot, along with only half of its roots. The other half are probably still in the ground from where they made their way out of the container and got ripped up.

Still.. the zucchini is doing well. (Except I've learnt not to plant them in beds anymore - they just take over!) So is the basil, pumpkin, Ceylon spinach (not that we eat it!), most of the chillies, and the marigold. I now have golden moss in a hanging basket. The cosmos have also bloomed! And our "watermelon" is thriving. Turns out it is a chilli plant! My boyfriend still has no idea how it got into the pot where he was growing a watermelon seed.

Worms!

The compost worms I'd ordered finally arrived. Two thousand of them.. in the form of 'worm bombs'. Apparently there will be an "explosion" of worms once they get settled and feed and... hopefully, mate with each other!

We decided to use a polystyrene container with holes punched in the bottom (for drainage). Recycled shadecloth as lining (so worms don't escape). The most important thing was the bedding, as this is where the worms will breathe, eat and (hopefully!) live.

I had done a bit of initial research on appropriate worm bedding, but different sources say different things. Some said to use shredded paper, others said soil, but the instructions which came with the worms said to use compost and well-matured manure. A friend of mine whose dad once had a worm farm said he used lawn clippings.

So in the end, we decided to go with a mixture of shredded paper, compost, grass clippings and a bit of soil. After moistening it and mixing it all in together, we let the worms free!

We left the worms to settle in overnight. The next morning, we fed them a handful of chopped up cucumber, buk choy, banana skin, carrot and potato peel and even a teabag! When we checked later that night, unfortunately none of it had been touched. The instructions did say to leave them to settle for a day or so before feeding, as they may take time to get comfortable after their big trip.

Checked again this morning and still no joy... no food eaten and no signs of worms. I sprayed the entire surface to keep the bedding nice and moist. Worms have no way of controlling their body temperature and rely completely on their surroundings to keep them within the right temperature range.

Will write more once there's something to report....