Worm bedding. The bedding is the temporary home of the worms that also serves as their food. It should be prepared at least two weeks prior to actual purchase from a worm supplier. For more information on worm bedding, check out the following:
Composting Kitchen and Garden Waste Pre-composting High-protein Food Wastes Vermicomposting Using Rice Sacks As Worm Bin
The simplest way to make a worm bed is to layer different kinds of biodegradable household wastes with carbon rich materials (shredded paper, dried tree leaves, etc.) in an ordinary rice sack until three-fourths of the sack is filled up. If you're using a laminated rice sack, punch pinholes to allow water and air to flow freely. Cover the layer of biodegradable waste with soil or dried tree leaves. This will prevent bad odors from developing. Water to moisten the bedding. DO NOT drench the bedding!
When the the sack is three-fourths full, allow the materials to decompose for two weeks before buying worms. After two weeks, the bedding should have lost at least one-fourth of its original volume.
Check the sack for heat by deeply inserting a barbecue stick into the center of the bedding. Leave the stick for 15 minutes before pulling it out. Hold the tip of the stick. If the stick feels warm, allow the bedding one more week to cool off. Repeat this procedure before purchasing worms. Buy worms when the tip of the stick feels cool (ambient temperature) when touched.
Water the bedding to reach 80 - 90% moisture content before introducing earthworms into the bedding. Stop immediately when water starts seeping at the bottom of the sack.
Where to buy worms. Buy worms from the nearest worm supplier in your community to lessen risk of worms dying during transport. Buying earthworms from the nearest supplier also lessens the stress on the worms that leads to biomass loss. Also, buy earthworms from someone who is willing to teach you on how to propagate the worms.
Amount of worms to buy. Buy one-fourth kilo of African Nightcrawlers to start your backyard vermiculture project. Starting small saves on cost while learning to take care of earthworms.
Once you have successfully raised earthworms, purchasing additional earthworms should pose no problem.
Kind of worms to buy. The African Nightcrawler earthworm is suited to tropical conditions. Sourcing for this type of worm in the Philippines is not usually difficult since this is commonly raised by farmers and hobbyists.
Introducing worms to their bedding. After buying your earthworms, it is best to immediately introduce them to the prepared bedding. I scatter the worms around the sides of the bedding since this is the place that has the lowest temperature.
Check your worms the next day for signs of "migration". If the worms have stayed within the confines of their bedding, this is a good sign. If not, the bedding is still probably too hot for them. I have noticed that worms "escape" beddings that are not yet finished with the heating stage of composting. One way to deal with this is to collect the escaping worms and provide them with a cooler environment, like newspaper bedding with some soil in it. Place the newspaper bedding beside the original bedding prepared. The earthworms will eventually go to their original bedding after the temperature has gone down to less than thirty degrees centigrade.
The list above covers most of the issues first-time buyers of worms have to face.
After buying your initial stock of African Nightcrawler earthworms, other issues on worm management will surface. I suggest that you read an earlier post on vermiculture chores
If you're looking for an earthworm supplier in Metro Manila, please go here.
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