Every year in late winter I start my tomato, cucumbers and peppers from seeds in a small green house. A few years ago my neighbor noticed me setting two hundred round peat pots in the green house. I had filled each pot with top soil and a single seed.
He handed me a square peat pot and told me to put it next to the round ones and place one tomato seed in it. “Pay close attention to that and let me know what happens in a couple of weeks” were his last words as he disappeared around the corner of my house.
A week passed by and all the seeds pretty much sprouted the same day including my neighbors. Over the next two weeks the tomato in the square pot grew to be nearly three times the size of the others.
We have a great deal of competition in my town for bragging rights on the first red tomato of the year so I’m constantly looking for any slight advantage I can get.
I hustled over to my neighbor’s house to find out what he put in the peat pot to cause such rapid growth. “Worm casings,” was his reply. I’d never heard of such a thing so he took me down to his basement to show me what he was talking about.
A plastic bin measuring four feet by eight feet sat on a sturdy table. A naked fifteen watt bulb hanging directly above it provided us just enough light to see. The thirty inch deep bin was filled with what looked to me like very good top soil but was actually worm casings.
My neighbor suddenly thrust his hand into the nutrient rich soil and pulled out a fist full of worms. Red Wigglers to be exact. They eat most of his garbage and earn him extra money when he sells the casings to nurseries.
I’d seen enough and asked him how much he paid for the setup and was stunned when he told me it cost well over a thousand dollars. I couldn’t afford that much money so I did what I always do. I built my own.
I made my bin out of wood and lined the inside with plastic so the moisture wouldn’t damage it. I added equal amounts of shredded newspaper, cow manure, peat moss and several dozen red wigglers I bought from a local bait shop.
In addition to the aforementioned items the little chow hounds with their voracious appetites will also devour scrumptious garage such as egg shells, bread, coffee grounds, meat scraps, fruits and vegetables. Just toss the goodies on top of the bed. You’ll want to leave a fifteen watt light bulb on all the time. It’s just the right amount of light to keep the worms from climbing out of the bin and not bright enough to force them to stay under ground and not eat.
Within two months the worms will have more than doubled their numbers and started turning the contents of the bin into an earthy smelling fertilizer any gardener worth his salt will love. Other than plenty of food all they want in return is moist, eighty degree compost in a dark environment. Don’t give them more food than they can eat in a few hours and you’ll never have any problems with odor. You should be able to use your first batch in six months time. To start my seeds in peat pots I mix one third worm casings with two thirds top soil. You can also use the worm casings as a side dressing when you put your plants in the ground.
Thin the worms out every few months by sifting the soil through a screened box like the gold miners use. Keep the larger ones for fishing or sell them to a bait shop and let the smaller ones burrow back into the compost to continue with their uncomplicated lives.
Happy gardening!
