I often talk about a Red Wigglers life. Basically, it’s just eat, reproduce, and poop….a LOT.
Red Wigglers have been chosen as the composting worm of choice because of these qualities. They compost 24/7/365!

After the worms have done their part, it is your job to harvest the castings. “Harvesting”, is simply the process of separating the worms from the finished bedding (Vermicompost). Usually, the Vermicompost is collected and applied to your garden or trees, and the worms are placed back in fresh bedding…. to continue doing what Red Wigglers do.

Now that we understand what harvesting is, we can talk about the multitude of ways to harvest.

There are LOTS of ways to harvest worms. Ranging from mechanical harvesters costing thousands of dollars, to picking worms singly out of piles of compost in your hand.

Before you harvest…always have fresh bedding prepared so the worms can continue the process for you. Here are some of the most common ways of harvesting:

Pile Method:
Lay out a tarp either on the ground, or on a table outside.
Bring over the processed bedding, worms and all.
Make some foot tall piles.
Go have a beverage, come back in an hour.
The worms will be at the bottom of the pile, trying to get away from the light.
Simply sweep off the castings, grab your worms, and put them back in some fresh bedding.

Follow the Food:
If your container is large, move all bedding to one side.
Stop feeding and watering the old bedding.
Put fresh soaked bedding and food in new bedding next to the old bedding.
Worms…like men….always follow the food!

Gravity Method:
Dump out your castings with worms on a tarp.
Put fresh bedding and food in your bin.
Lay a piece of cardboard full of pencil sized holes on top of the fresh bedding.
Dump the castings with worms back on top of the cardboard (Not too deep, as these are top feeding worms).
After a few days, most of your worms will gravitate to the food in the new bedding.

Reverse Gravity Method:
Opposite of Gravity Method. Worms migrate upwards instead of down.

Harvester Method:
Spend $3,000+ on a professional harvester.
Plug in, turn on, dump worms and bedding in one end.
Worms are automatically separated from the bedding, and dropped out the other end.

WHICHEVER method you choose. It’s almost always easier if you let your bedding go without water for a few days. Less soggy castings are always easier to work with.

After going through almost 1,000 emails, I can cluster almost all of them into two groups:

1. I tried raising Red Wigglers before and killed them. Can you help me?
2. Please tell me how to raise the Alabama Jumpers?

This evening, let’s talk about raising Alabama Jumpers.

Alabama Jumper Characteristics:
*Clay soil dwelling (Unlike Red Wigglers)
*Thick skinned
*Navigate through thick clay soil with ease
*Extremely powerful (Allows them to leap off the ground)
*Large extruding probiscus
*Adults grow as long and as fat as a pencil

How to prepare your garden for Alabama Jumpers:
*Collect all the leaves in your neighborhood and place them on top of your soil. Yes, you can be that crazy person that rakes all your neighbors lawns! A 12 inch layer or more would not be too much! If you do not have leaves, you can use a bale of straw, or compost. Any of these organic materials makes a perfect food source for your Jumpers. If you have heavy clay soil, amending with organic material on a regular basis is a very good practice. Remember, these are strong worms, not Jackhammers!

Drop the worms in one area containing the organic material and walk away! It’s that easy. When you start seeing baby jumpers, you know you are successful. Even the babies jump like crazy. They are very distinctive.

Here is the science behind the instruction:
Worms reproduce best when they can easily find each other. Instead of initially spreading the jumpers out, keep them together so they can do what worms do….

MATE! A LOT!

As the density of your squirm (Look it up, it’s a real word), increases, your worms will naturally start to spread out. As you get congested with worms, you can introduce some to other areas.

So when people ask you how to breed Alabama Jumpers? Tell them the truth…they breed themselves.

It’s been 3 days since the newspaper article was written, and I’ve never experienced ANYTHING like this. 300 emails per day! I’ve been going short sleep, but I realize this won’t last forever. I want to enjoy it while I can.

It’s amazing how powerful a newspaper article can be. I’ve received calls from every corner of the United States. Apparently, once a story hits the wire, out of area newspapers also run the story.

Google search the word: Worms

As of today, there are over 40 MILLION results. The Mercury News article on The Worm Dude is on PAGE 1. I have no idea what the value of something like that is, but considering how expensive it is to buy placement, I’d bet the value of front page placement is astronomical.

I’m sure by the end of the week things will settle back to normal.

But…..

You never know what tomorrow will bring!

Here is a picture of a typical vertical migration worm bin. Vertical Migration bins are produced under various brands, such as Gusanito Worm Factory, Wriggly Wranch, Can of Worms, etc. These bins all have slightly different shapes, but basically, they all work exactly the same.

Vertical Migration systems are the most commercially successful products ever made for worm composting. Their benefits are; Small footprint, Ease of Harvesting, Cute little spigot. They sell well, and they work. But, what if you have a large family, or just happen to eat a healthy diet consisting of large amounts of produce? In these cases, a single Vertical Migration bin is not likely what you need to accomplish your goal. What if you would rather spend your money on more worms, and not more bin? You have a few options:

Build a Wooden Worm Bin-Basically, just a wooden box with a lid. Just remember that surface area is more important than depth when raising worms. Your box does not need to be any deeper than 12 inches. Valuable information to know when you want to move your bin!

Buy a large rubbermaid tub-You can purchase these LARGE tubs for less than $20! More height than what is normally needed, but just fill halfway with bedding. I have converted to these exclusively for my composting. They are a great low cost option, and work very well if you have a large amount of kitchen scraps to recycle. I’m able to pull out 25 pounds or more of useable castings from each bin. Great for any serious gardener!

Just remember, the point of raising Redworms in a bin is that you are containing a large mass of worms in close confinement. This allows the worms to “Find each other” so that they reproduce quickly, and also allows them to rapidly process large amounts of food scraps. If you buy a large bin, but only introduce a pound of worms, you create two issues:

1. The worms will reproduce at a less than optimum rate, because they will spread out in the bin.

2. A large bin without a large amount of worms does not process food waste quickly. It just creates an anaerobic sewer!

Want to produce a lot of castings on the cheap? Buy a large bin, and introduce a relatively large population of worms. My recommendation: 1/2 pound of worms for each square foot to start. That’s 4-5 pounds of worms for a typical 4′ x 2′ rubbermaid tub.

The Bottom Line: For an investment of about $125.00, you can have a worm bin that can process the needs of almost any family, plus provide you with a LOT of castings to grow a better garden than you have ever imagined.

One of the first questions I am commonly asked is: How do you get the worms out of the bedding? This is called Harvesting Worms.

Psychology goes a long way here. Think about it, Fish, Ducks, Men….We share a common characteristic. We all FOLLOW THE FOOD! Worms are no different.

There are several methods of harvesting worms using this concept:

Vertical Migration: Common vessels are the Wriggly Wranch, Gusanito Worm Bin, Can of Worms. They all work the same. You raise your worms in a working tray. As soon as all the food and bedding are processed in that working tray, you add a new tray on top with fresh food, and fresh bedding. The Worms follow the Food!

Horizontal Migration: Works well in a larger, single layer worm bin. As soon as all the food and bedding are processed, you move EVERYTHING(Food, bedding, and worms) to one side, then add fresh food and bedding to the other side. The Worms follow the Food!

How is this concept applied to professional worm farming? When harvesting worms for sale, you don’t want to disrupt a thousand pounds of worms to harvest a hundred pounds. So…you put your feed on one side of the bin, and the worms will follow. Do you remember feeding bread to fish as a kid and watching the fish swarm? Same concept applies here. The worms all swarm to the food, turning a high density bed into a sea of red. You put your pitchfork into the mass, and easily pull out your worms!

One major caveat: If you dump fruits and vegetables on the top of your bedding, you are not only inviting your worms to come eat, but also any fruit flies that happen to be residing in your city. You’ve just solved one problem, and introduced another! The feed you see in the picture above is a grain based feed, that does not attract fruit flies.

If you are reading this blog, you probably are a worm lover, and think the pictures above are pretty cool. If you randomly found this website, you probably think you are in the middle of a NIGHTMARE.

Let’s take a look at some of the more common types of worms commercially available, and their purposes.

Only a few types of worms are recommended for composting. In my opinion, these are the three best types of worms for composting:

Red Wigglers
European Nightcrawlers
African Nightcrawlers

The reasons why these worms are great composters is because they share certain characteristics:
Top feeders
Voracious
Prolific in captivity

But, what if you want to raise worms for more than just composting?
Do you like to fish? Would you like NEVER to worry about whether or not the bait store has any worms left? Great Bait worms:

Canadian Nightcrawlers
European Nightcrawlers
Alabama Jumpers
African Nightcrawlers

The reasons why these worms are great bait worms is because they share certain characteristics:
Large size (Especially the Canadians)!

Want a great worm for your garden! Try Alabama Jumpers. I’ve never seen a stronger, more active worm. They are so distinctive, even the babies JUMP like crazy! Please understand, most commercially available worms are NOT suited to live in soil. Alabama Jumpers do well in heavy clay soil.

Always make sure you’re using the RIGHT worm for the Job!

Have a specific question? Ask the Worm Dude on my forum! Happy to help.

Are you dying to get castings, but don’t have months to wait?
Get the right firepower, and proper training for the job!

What you are looking at is 20 pounds of worms in a 24″ x 20″ unlidded tub. Normally, worms in these densities would love to run, creating a worm round up of legendary proportions!

No worries! With proper training from The Worm Dude, you too can raise 20,000 worms in a tiny space….allowing you to make castings in front of your eyes.

In all seriousness, I consider this to be an extreme density. It is just an example of ways to enhance your casting production.

Want to create castings 5X faster! My $89 Bulk Special will get you there.

Contact me for details: TheWormDude@Comcast.Net

Summer’s over. You can feel it in the air. Shorter days, cooler afternoons.

How many of you were able to produce enough worm castings to create a bountiful harvest this past year?

Bet you wish someone had given you a reminder to start composting with worms last fall, so you could have plenty of worm casts in the spring!

Here is your reminder to take action. Fall is the PERFECT time to begin composting! Granted, the worms slow down some, but they DEFINITELY continue to eat. Anything that eats, POOPS!

If you want to experience the benefits of worm castings on your 09 garden, make a plan to start NOW! You’ll thank me in the spring!

When we think of composting with Red Wiggler Worms, we typically think of getting rid of overripe fruits, vegetable skins, rotted produce, stuff like that.

I try and stay away from fast food, but was REALLY hungry on Sunday. So, I stopped where America goes for a quick bite…You got it, McDonald’s.

When I arrived home and it was time to empty my car, I walked through the garage looking for my garbage can to put away the remnants of lunch packaging.

It was then that I had an epiphany. Why waste a perfectly good paper bag that contained a few double cheeseburger buns (Atkins special)?

So, instead of dumping the packaging into the garbage can, I dropped my food bag into the worm bin.

Seems the worms like McDonald’s also!

“The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think—rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with the thoughts of other men.” ~Bill Beattie

Do you believe everything that you read? Imagine looking at scientific journals written as recently as 10 years ago. Do you think many of the articles published in well respected journals may no longer apply? Do the “Experts” know everything about science that there is to know?

There have been many challenges to my statements that plants can be grown in pure castings. Some well respected journals say that they cannot.

Do I have alterior motives for showing many plants successfully growing in pure castings?

Think about this. If my goal was to sell more castings, would I be promoting this so called “Wasteful” practice, or would I be bragging about, how a little goes a long way?

The pictures at the top of this article are all plants that have been grown in pure castings. In fact, the raised bed shown contains about an entire yard of castings. Do I expect everyone to automatically believe the pics? No, I’m smarter than that.

My hope is that you review the pictures, and consider the possibility that just maybe, not all the published articles, no matter the source, may not be accurate. After all, how do you explain conflicting scientific articles?

Make your own castings and see for yourself. Maybe, just maybe, will see some discrepancies to articles printed even in well respected publications.

“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” ~Albert Einstein

Challenge authority and think for yourself.