My home grown panfish meal

[Fatman]

Nice I tried doing that back when I was a kid and lost about 1500 at one time the MOM was not pleased with the stink

Fatman

[crappieseeker]

If you have not already, and you want to take the time and effort, maybe you could do a tutorial with pics on the process and instructions to put in the archives. I made the mistake of using an old wash tub when I was a kid. I bet I had about 10,000 worms in it and when it got real hot one day it fried them all. You talk about a stink. Like Fatman said, mom was not to happy.

[fish_4_all]

I can do that, red wigglers are not hard at all, or at least they were not hard for me. This is for Red Wigglers only, I am going to be getting Africans and they are raised differently from everything I have read and been told.

I do recommend you start with a 10 gallon or larger bin, I don;t have that klind of room or I would be using one. 10-14 inches deep uis plenty deep for red wigglers, too much deeper is hard to work as you need to turn the bedding and worms once in a while to prevent it from starting to rot instead of composting.

Shredded newspaper enough to fill bucket 3/4 full
Vegetable scraps, limit tomatoes and acidic fruit
No meat or dairy or eggs
I kept mine in my bedroom at between 70-74F and they thrived
Limit coffee ground
Add crushed powderecd eggs shells either from raw eggs or hard boiled, dried out well before crushing/powdering with every feeding if possible.
Keep just wet enough that it feels wet to the touch, but you can not ring out more than a drop or two when squeezed.
I drilled a LOT of 1/16 inch holes in the bottom, about 2 inches up from the bottom and on the top as well as cutting out almost oll of the lid and replacing it with window sreen, the finest screen you can find to keep out flies and gnats. I am acually going to add holes to mine to aid in better circulation and letting any accidental run off get out easier.

My bin I think is an 8 gallon rubber maid container, I use an aluminum turkey roaster pan under if to catch all the run off. Again, I did not use the stacking method, I think it is actually going to work better to produce compost and might work really well for growing fishing worms but I think the single bin methods will produce more worms, imo.

Here is what I fed mine:
carrots, lettuce, celery, egg plant, cucumber, zucchini, cabbage, and anything else I could get for free from the local farmers market.
I did feed coffee grounds and tomatoes once or twice a month, just a little bit each time to prevent the pH from getting to low. Egg shells help to maintain the pH.
I shredded everything I put in the for the worms. If I had extra I froze it. Shredding and freezing breaks it down so the worms can eat it faster.

I have heard that you can feed them on a grain recipe that will make them fattter and grow faster. I have not had success with this yet but I will let you know if I do. It is a simple recipe:
2 cups oatmeal
1 cup corn meal
1 dozen egg shells
Crush it all in a blender or whatever to as fine a powder as possible and feed small amount making sure it is eaten every day or two, don't let it mold or ferment.

pH and moisture are the most important, a neutral pH range, 6.6 to 7.4 is fine for them. A pH tester helps but egg shells will maintain it and if you have a tester lime works to raise the pH. Regular old lime not hydrated lime.

I am currently experimenting with a new method for red wigglers. I am using coconut coir fiber in my small bin to see how it works. I will also be trying peat moss for African nightcrawlers and possibly European nightcrawlers.

They reproduce fast, 200 can become 10,000 in a year. My totals went from about 100 to well over 1,000 in less than 4 months.

[shipahoy41]

Excellent post. I have been raising mine the way G-3 does for a few years now. Keep the newspaper damp and feed them fine yellow cornmeal. Nice job!

I also place my extras in my tomato and pepper garden.

[fish_4_all]

I wish I could get my red worms to eat corn meal or gerain mixtures but they won't, yet. Maybe if I start them out on the mixture and don't give and scraps they will eat it. Anything is worth trying to put some bulk on them.

[midnight_f150]

thats sweet. I bet the panfish eat tear them up.

[fish_4_all]

Hopefully I will get to use them sooner or later. Has been non stop rain for too long and no end in site. Guess the state is living up to the name Evergreen state.

[OKSTATEjiggy]

Gross... Nice!

[CJ21]

Nice looking worms.

[fish_4_all]

My worms are finally eating the grian mix so it iwll be easier to feed them and keep any and all odors down to a minimum. I am hoping to be able to go fishing really soon because my bins are way over populated. Need to thin them out so they will produce faster and grow bigger.