Hi all, I was going to post a qestion about the effects of all this rain here in the northeast. At the time of this post it is raining again. Most plants seem stunted and light green, which got me reading the books (Rodale). It seems that the rain may have washed most if not all nitrogen out. Calcium and magnesium also leach away. Pulverized lime is cheap today yet so I dusted every plant late in the day. I mean all including potatoes, lettus, amaranth, cabbage, brocoli, peppers, peas, beans, onions, ect.. Everything took a leap in appearance for the better. Greener and just plain better looking. As urine is endorsed here, I saved a milk jug of the liguid, cut it 50.50 with saved rain water and tried it on the brocoli. Success, so saved up some more, you can easily get 1 gal. a day, and donated it to the the balance of the plants. It works. Dear other does not know. In short try a dusting of lime followed a day or so later with some nitrogen whatever the source. You add the lime first I am told by some farmers. Anyway it works. Best regards to all.

Well, the carnage has continued, although there is not much left to chew on. I've been checking every night, sometimes twice a night. I've found out that sow bugs are much more active around dusk and early night...but still no evidence that they are doing the damage, I haven't found any more up on a plant. And I'm slowly but surely depopulating them from my garden boxes. This evil being finally got to the squash and the best plant now has a skeleton of 8 stems with little diomond shaped tufts of leftover leaves at the end of each stem. But I have not seen anything on the plants and I've been checking for 6 nights now. The damage seems to be done after I look and since many times I've looked at 2-3am I'm beginning to think it's happening in the morning when I've asleep. That leads me to suspect a bird. But a bird can't climb out on the stems of a squash plant, and they won't support it (unless it's a tiny bird). And the squash leaves were 5-8 inches above the ground, not to mention the bean leaves as much as 12-18 inches up. So a tiny bird couldn't get to the squash leaves unless it can hover and eat at the same time...is this possible? Are there nocturnal humming birds that like squash leaves?? I'm trying two more tricks...cayenne pepper powder on the remaining leaves, and some rat traps baited with pumpkin seeds. I just read that birds aren't bothered by the cayenne unless it gets up in the air as a dust. So what can I sprinkle on leaves that would repel a bird? Apparently the aptly named methyl anthranilate is unpalatable to birds and can be sprayed on plants. Has anyone tried this?

Yes, expectations, will always give way to the reality of actual life. The worm sellers, are always a bit overly discriptive, when stating the facts. How much they eat, in a given day, depends on their maturity, and habitat activity. New worm's, just like new people, need to settle into a new home, it takes time, and making reasonable judgements, as to what we can expect. I don't wish to burst your bubble, stomp on your expectations, but, everything being relative, as to how many worms did you receive, sellers like to use the number, 1,000 worm's to a pound. This would be a varity of worm's, in all stages, from hatchlings, through, adults. Also, the selection of worm's, by the grower, can vary considerably. Where in his batch/ colony, did he extract the worms from, mostly adult, or did he invade a nursery area, where there were more egg layers, than active, food consuming adults. The in between age groups, are probably the most consuming group of worm's. as they are too young to reproduce, yet they are growing at a rapid pace, for worm's, that is. The hatchlings, and juveniles, are the finishers, of the food group, just like nursing young humans, they are happy with smaller items, and not prone to attack large food items. Pulp in otherword.s, the (teenagers)junior's, are always hungry, and moving around, in search of food, the larve, or, hatchlings, tend to stay put a little longer. All of this is subject, to some speculation, of course. I haven't tried, to keep exact notes on the worm's activity, especially since they don't like light, ( I have resorted, to using a blue light, for feeding times)so when you open the top, they tend to scurry away, and this can really slow down the whole process too. All I can tell you is, that the results, are great, assuming you like eating fresh vegetables, from your very own garden, ie, by your very own effort. Keeping your eye, on the prize, is the only way to suceed at this venture. The sucess of your worm colony, will also depend greatly, as to what you feed them, and this is very important, stick with basic greens and shredded papers, avoid all acidic foods, citrus, tomato scraps, yeast (breads),egg shells need to be well crushed, maybe a little fresh grass cuttings, but, sparingly so. Two basic items, good air flow, and light moisture, I use a spritz type of spray bottle (like gentle rain). Even the type of water, like hard water, sulfer laiden water, can make a difference, plus the smell. By the way, if, your bin smells very strong, this would indictate improper feed mixtures, never add meat products, unless you don't mind some smell, because this will come with the meat by-products, and it doesn't really make the castings, all that much better, trust me on this. Bins containing meats, or, manure, will smell. If, you keep this out in the garage, or, some out of the way place, then its OK. However garages and sheds, tend to be too hot, and slow the worms down greatly. All of this sounds rather picky, but, from experience, I can tell you this, OK? The best growing enviornment, is the stacking bins, if, you don't already have these. Keep in cool and dark area's, max temp 70-75 degree's, and no lower than 60-65 degrees, at 50 degrees, or lower, all activity will cease, for the most part.covering with newsprint is ok, But, punch holes, for air flow. In the bottom tray, water colection area, put shredded paper, to fill the space. Worm's are somewhat clumsy, and they wiil fall into the space, adults can climb back up, but, junior's have trouble with this. If they are going to the water tray too much, this maybe a sign of needing water, or more air. They can drown quite easily, and they need to breathe air, they will also move down, to escape over heating. I have soil thermometers placed in my bins, too keep track of any heat buildup Many chapters, could be written, about all of this, but, if I can say this, patience is everything. By my own experience, starting up a new colony, with about 2,000 worm's, it took approximately one year, before the whole thing became really established, and consumed about one, to one and half pounds of food per day. At the one year stage, I guesstimate, I had about 8-10,000 worm's, in all stages of growth. Now, three years later, I have two stacks of bins, and consumption is quite brisk. How many worm's now?? Hard to know for sure, they don't exactly apply for green cards. At the moment I have about 50 lbs of castings in storage, for the new growing season. I use all of my product, minus any given, to my friends, for the making of hydroponic tea, as application for my garden plants. But, keep in mind, this three years later. Lest I forget, I haven't mentioned all of my Rose's, strawberry plants, friends flowers and gardens, that I tend to all summer. Its a toil of love, and I will never get rich in terms of money, from it, but, I have uddles of great picture's and fond memories, an, yes, maybe I will be missed someday, when I shuffle off this earth, that's nice too. All of my castings, are allowed to rest, before actual use, I have found, from time to time, several worms, who managed to survive on their own, and I take them from the stored castings, and put them into the established colonies. I never store my castings, in air tight containers, and there is always, a certain amount of undigested food, still in the mix. No doubt, these survivers, were just hatchlings, when the castings were removed from the colony. Wow, I know this a lot to take in, when first starting out, but, if you stick with it, you too, will learn all of these things. I'm always glad to converse, about this, and other gardening items. Like?? MY garden has no soil, in it, its a raised bed, yet, all of my plants go nuts, over it. Yes, I have a water collection tray (very large)under the rasied bed. My oldest bed is now eight years old, and still going storng. Its covered with vinyl siding, to match the house, and is kept covered in winter, plus a heat tape system, runs all through the compost.(Thanks to solar panels and a large battery storage system) Not biult all at once either, but, over time, and money available. That same battery system, has also been called on, during power outages, backed up by a (donated)garden tractor (stripped of its junk mower pan, It now sports a snow plow, and rear scraper) with built-in altenator(old truck part, bought at flea market, runs off of the old mower pan pulley) How about collecting rain water, and using it, instaed of tap water, OH YEA, baby, the results, tell the whole story. Besides, my indoor worm bins, I have a high population, of Earthworms, also. Higher the worm count, per cubic foot of material, makes for a fanastic garden yield, too. over the past ten years, I've probably added 500 Canadian crawlers to my lawn and garden box, plus another 500, cheap garden variety crawlers, as well. My lawn never browns, even in the hottest months, very little in the way of commerical chemiclas added. Very sharp blades, a grass hight of 3 1/2 inches, less mowing during July, August, even into September, sometimes. Adding Random bean plants into my garden box, not so much for eating, but, to add natural nutients to the soil. Thats an old farmers trick, sowing beans among the corn stocks. Resting a field, for one whole year from corn, and planting soy, for a plow down crop, yep, it works. Yep, a lot of talking, I know, but, if you love flowers and grass, like I do, there is never an end, of things to say. Enjoy spring and summer?? Its coming soon !

There is a third cheaper alternative for pet waste. I used to have a homemade el-cheapo dogie-doo disposal system. Its was a direct feed method. It will directly feed ornamental plants. And if your using only kitchen waste you can use it in the veggie garden too. Use a perforated PVC pipe. And worms. I used this method for a few years before my last move. With a pipe hidden in the shrubbery you can put your pet poop into the pipe and feed the plants at the same time. No need to worry about harvesting extra icky compost. I watched a demo video on the net back when i first installed my dogie-doo setup. i looked for it but couldn't find it. So please forgive my long winded explanation. You will need a large diameter PVC pipe at least 6 inches accost ( 8 is better ) and at least 2 feet long. And an end cap to fit the top of the pipe. Only around 4-6 inches NEEDS to stick out of the ground. A loose fitting cap is best. I had to sand down the pipe a little. Helps when taking the cap off a lot. I had only one dog he was a 35 pounder so i didn't have a ton of poo to get rid of. I used a 2 foot long pipe, you can make 5 potty holes out of one stick of pipe and distribute them around the yard. Making it a short walk to any one of them. It also helps in not overfeeding any one hole. If you only want to use one hole the pipe will have to be wider at least a foot, so it will hold more. A PVC pipe that big gets very expensive. SO, if you want a cheap bigger hole a five gallon plastic bucket with the bottom cut out or drilled full of large holes works wonders. Its a lot easer to fill and add browns to. Just don't step on it. The how too; Drill a lot of 1/2 holes in the bottom 8 to 10 inches of the pipe, then a couple rows of 1/4 inch holes around the top just below where the top cap will sit. You want holes as big as you can make them on the bottom so the worms can go in and out, more air flow too. The top holes will be a couple inches above ground to keep your vent holes clear of any storm runoff. Dig a hole 2 to 3 times as wide as the pipe and and around 2 feet deep. You will need to put gravel 6 to 8 inches deep into the bottom of the hole. The pipe will need to sit elevated that far above the soil at the bottom. In non-pores soils make the hole deeper and add more gravel. Leaving room for water to pool before draining away. Stand the pipe up on top of the gravel and fill in around the outside of the pipe with gravel until it covers 2 inches above the holes you drilled into bottom of the pipe. Finish up by filling the rest of the hole with garden soil mound the soil up a little above ground level. The mounding keeps rain water from filling the hole. Add worms into the pipe, you can start it like a new worm bin but i added some active worm filled compost from my bins to get things going quick. I started one pipe at a time as i didn't have enough worms to start them all at one time. I never did worry too much about browns and greens going into the holes after that. I kind of let the worms fend for themselves. In any case some fall leaves always managed to get in with the poop. I think the worms were coming up and eating the fallen leaves from under the bushes anyway. I do have the "bad" gardening habit of sweeping the leaves under the bushes. I considered them mulch. Anyway this was my el-cheapo dogie-doo disposal system.