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Thursday, September 24, 2009

Worm Disaster

I don't know how people manage to get worm pee. I never get much of it. My wormies like fruit peel (pear and apple), and this diet doesn't seem to make the wormies pee very much. Every week, I examine the worm condominium to see if I can harvest pee, but aside from a few drops... Sigh!

I've been so busy and distracted by work that the worms have been neglected. I used to toss their bedding every day. Now, it's when I remember. There are fewer worms. There used to be this super long one the length of 2 handspans. It's gone. I can't find it. I plunged both my hands into the gooey soft worm shit and searched and searched in the squelchy mass. Nothing!

I grieved for the passing of my favourite wormie.

Then, in trying to clumsily transfer the worms from their old bedding of worm shit, to their new bedding of damp newspaper, I cut one slightly. It started bleeding something yellow and thrashed about irrationally. I say it was irrational because this wormie squirmed towards the sunlight. Wormies hate sunlight. Oh... it's been a veritable worm disaster today, even though I managed to harvest a considerable amount of worm shit that have been now duly distributed amongst my pots of edible plants - the lady fingers, the brinjals, the kedongdong, the various basils, the dandelions...

I look forward to more yummy produce from the garden.

9 comments:

Ivana said...

I know that this is all good... but ewwww!!!! I love reading your posts = )

Blur Ting said...

Actually I also wonder about the worm pee or tea. I never seem to get any as well. And my big worms have disappeared. I only managed to find few small ones. Therefore my vegetable waste never really get chomped up and composted quickly and completely.

You seem to be a much better worm keeper than I am!

Barefoot said...

Hi! I was going to ask about your worm condo. Is it a lot of work to maintain it? Where in the house do you put it?

Petunia Lee said...

Ting - I'm not sure yours are the right ones. I was gonna pass you half of mine when mine double in population.

Wait a bit. I'll double 'em and pass you. Then you can sell worm houses to the preschoolers. I can just imagine what joy you'll bring to the little boys!!

Petunia Lee said...

Leah - No trouble at all! I keep the worm condo outside under my bamboo. My helper takes off the lid every morning and puts it back on every night or when it rains. I feed them blended veggies and fruit peels. They reproduce faster that way. I actually had got them reproducing real good but have been so busy that I let them swim in their shit and didn't replace the newspaper. There must have been a lack of air in the gooey shit? I dunno.

Petunia Lee said...

Ivana - Keep reading. You should blog too. I would love to read about Belle's exploits.

Barefoot said...

Thanks! A couple more questions: The bins must always be in the shade? What are the newspaper for? Food for the worms?

Petunia Lee said...

The bins need to be in shade. Cooler temperatures encourage worm reproduction.The newspapers form a bedding with air pockets and dampness. Worms breathe through their damp skin, but they drown when the media is too wet. As the newspaper breaks down, the worms eat that too. The worms hide in the air pockets within the newspapers and they also lay eggs there. I tape black masking tape all over the translucent plastic box to make cut out light as much as possible.

Barefoot said...

Thanks very much for the helpful information! Been thinking about setting up worm bins for ages...