BrookeW
Small scale, desiring to expand. Bio: I’m a mother of 2, 3 including my beloved dog, 4 including my loving husband;). One kiddo is grown and out of the house, the other is a 16yr old young man. Around the time our youngest turned 9yrs I started expanding my garden as much as time allowed. We now have 22 tomato plants, countless green beans, lettuce, cucumbers and watermelon.
I learned about worm castings several years ago. I love that they are safe for my family & dog. In 2019 I started raising my own worms hoping to save money on castings and additional soil amendments. Worm tea, using my own castings, saved my tomatoes from blight & thrips, when others were struggling my plants were amazing! Each year all but 2 of my tomato plants get sprayed with worm tea. Every year those that weren’t sprayed either die from blight, get attacked by thrips and other bugs, and/or produce less than half what those treated with worm tea do, or they just die! This past year I decided to start breeding my worms so I could share with friends and neighbors. Before I only had enough castings for my own garden with very little left over to share. I also decided to share my “fishing secret” with a local bait shop by selling Euros and helping others raise them for their own bait.
I’m very small scale, just one small room that shares space with my sewing machines and loads of fabric along with a small corner in the basement with my “worm production bins” that need very little attention. The production bins are set up as another way to sell worms. It’s something I learned from Bentley Christie from Red Worm Composting. I took a couple courses of his and love how simple it is, lots of waiting though! Instead of selling by the pound, or count, the production bins are sold as a whole unit (without the bins) when they are done. It’s what Bentley calls a worm mix. So far people seem to prefer the idea of the worm mix over the weight or worm counts. Since the ENC’s are raised as bait worms they are kept in bus bins for breeding and growing larger, the reds and blues are mostly kept in production bins, but I do have a couple breeding bins set up to keep the population growing quickly.
Right now I have an average of 55x population growth in my breeding systems every 3 months, so definitely more than the “double population” growth that is stated on so many web sites. My goal is to reach 60 times population growth and feel I’m on my way there by experimenting with various temps, bedding, moisture levels, worm counts and food types.
One thing that I feels sets me apart from many people out there is the fact that enjoy reading scientific papers about worms and various other critters that help the composting process. Since I kept getting so much contradicting information online about raising worms I started to take what I read with a grain of salt and search for the scientific backing for claims. When I can’t find answers I’ll run my own experiments to figure things out. I don’t have a microscope and the worms are set up far from lab room quality, but I think it’s better than relying on what others say, that may not not be accurate. One day I’d love to get a microscope so I could see all the critters growing in the castings, but that will have to wait for some time.
My family is considering a move out of state and have been looking for a home where I can expand my worm farming by giving them there own space, hopefully a full heated out building. The goal is to continue raising the reds and blues in production bins, the ENC’s in both breeding bins and production bins and also to have a large CFT, using blues and reds, to sell castings and divert waste. Right now we have a small home in Colorado that cannot handle the growth I really want. If we don’t move out of state I’m hoping we can find a home with a little more room for the worm business.
I’ve learned a lot over the years and really enjoy sharing what I’ve learned with others (both successes & failures). I am always eager to learn more as there’s so much to learn!
My goal is to breed enough large worms to supply our local bait shop, share with family & friends and to sell worms locally to help others reap the benefits of worm composting. .