wfike, are you adding wood shavings to improve the texture of the casts or to help aerate the bedding? I've read, and surmise, that wood shavings take a long time to break down, so I'm assuming you aren't adding them as feedstock, am I figuring this correctly? I've also read, from several older vermi books (and the Vermiculture_FarmersManual), that horse manure by itself is not the best feed, but that cattle manure is good. Do you mix the 2 as feedstock and bedding? I guess what I'm trying to understand is whether you use horse manure as feedstock and feel it is an adequate feed by itself. I added soaked, torn corrugated cardboard to the horse manure because I'd read that it has excellent nutrition due to the high-protein glue that is used to hold the layers together. Another advantage that corrugated cb has is it's water absorbancy, so the 2 (horse manure and corrugated cb) mixed together make a good bedding and a good feedstock. But, you know, you can find all sorts of contradictions when comparing books, websites, and opinions...so I'm interested in what you find to be true, based on your experience. Cheryl, I have been freezing the food waste lately. It does seem to speed things up a bit, but there is still the issue of varying amounts of water being released, mold/fungus, and odors if you use too much or have strong smelling foods to vermicompost. I've found that as much as I want to keep food waste from the landfills, it's a lot of aggravation (too much water, mold, fruit flies, fungus gnats, march flies, houseflies, odors..etc), inconvenience (both of my freezers are half full of food waste for the worms, leaving only half for my own food), and guess-work involved in feeding food waste to the worms. Now, if I didn't have access to horse manure and corrugated cardboard, I would still use primarily food waste. But since I do have access to those materials, I much prefer using them. I have encountered very few issues/problems using horse manure and corrugated cb. So, I ease my conscious by reminding myself that these 2 items would have been dumped in a landfill somewhere, had I not taken them. I still plan on freezing some food waste to use as trench feedings in my raised beds. This practice has eliminated all issues/problems with using food waste because it is buried 4-6" under the soil, and I have many worms in my raised beds who process this food quickly (and thank me for the cold stuff when it's hot outside). The junk mail I use are advertisements for credit cards, various insurance, and a hodgepodge of solicitations. I just remove them from the envelope and tear into strips that could be used as bedding (I put them in the compost crate, so they will be partially composted by the time the worms get to it). I don't use glossy papers, not because they are bad for the worms, but because they take forever to break down and I don't like the look of them in the compost. The Vermiculture FarmersManual recommends shredding cardboard that has a waxed coating, so I assume wax is safe to use if shredded or had the wax seal broken in some other fashion . I've read that oils are not good for worms (I assume oil would smother them since they breath thru their skin), but I wouldn't think a small amount would be harmful. The boxes that you have should be fine. Most of the corrugated cardboard that I use has colored printing on it and I haven't noticed any problems with it (the majority of people say that most inks are soy based now). I also use shredded office paper in the indoor bin I just created, and to absorb water from the barrel bins outside when rain has been heavy, and that paper has been thru laser printers. I haven't seen any ill effects from any of the paper products I have used. Welcome to the thread, Cheryl. I look forward to reading about your experiences in the vermi-world.

I've never actually used it, but I would mix it with some corrugated cardboard (box material) and maybe run sume water through it before I used it. I think it would be fine but just to be safe I would probably let it age for a month or so. It does have some salt in it, but that is a result of the manure used to make it. Here is a link that might be helpful if you wanted to read a little more about it: Here is a link that might be useful: musroom spawn

Peppers? We should talk. -G- Worms. Right. By all means, post a photoÂI couldnÂt identify a worm species by sight if my life depended on it, but there are lots of folks here who can. (Me, I mostly lurk. But IÂm an Austinite, so your post title caught my eye.) If you have L. rubellus, they might do fairly well in a raised bed if given copious amounts of organic matter; they tend to be more soil-dwelling than EF, though still less so than earthworms. If you have EF, theyÂre much better off in a bin than a garden, raised or otherwise. EF are very poor colonizers in our area; no fear theyÂll out-compete natives, but they donÂt do heat, and though soil temps are cooler than air in summer, in Austin... Some folks do a modified bin-in-bed; check out http://www.compostguy.com/worm-composting/the-sandbox-self-fertilizing-garden/ for a decent example. But if next summerÂs like this one, you may end up with baked bin-worms in your bed. For that matter, European nightcrawlers (E. hortensis) wonÂt do too well here, either; the heatÂs an issue. [quote] "Earthworms species from northern latitudes (e.g., European lumbricids and some Asian megascolecids) are poor colonizers in tropical or subtropical climates (except in localized temperate situations), and vice versa. For example, despite continued and widespread introduction throughout the United States, Eisenia fetida, the lumbricid 'manure worm' commonly used in vermicomposting, is not often found in natural habitats in the southern United States." [end quote] per Hendrix and Bohlen (Hendrix, P. F. and P. J. Bohlen. 2002. Exotic Earthworm Invasions in North America: Ecological and Policy Implications. BioScience V. 52, no. 9, pp. 801-811) Of course, some European nightcrawlers have reportedly adapted quite well to Australia, so "poor" is a judgment call. Anyway, thereÂs no point around here; L. terrestris is well established, more likely to thrive, and cheaper locally. African Nightcrawlers (Eudrilus eugeniae) might well thrive, but itÂs better to go with native or at least naturalized species where possible. Too, L. terrestris is less vulnerable to our periodic freezes. Like last nightÂs. Both the African and Asian nightcrawlers are highly susceptible to cold. Unfortunately, winter means slow season for earthworm retailers no matter the breed, but come spring, you can find L. terrestris for sale at bait shops, every natural garden center in town, and even the farmerÂs market. Organically raised and everything. Hope some of that tides you over until the experts find your post! DSF big garden dreams, small garden spaces, and no room for a compost bin. But I have buckets! Here is a link that might be useful: Bokashislope

Hmmmm.... I don't want to scare you off of worms, not ever. In fact I even just erased a paragraph, worried that it was too skewed toward my personal experience and failings which isn't relevant to your experience. For me, relying on worms alone wouldn't work. But I have a family and am very busy; I spend hardly any time nurturing my worms. Sometimes I go weeks without feeding them. Sometimes I generate 15 litres of scraps in a day. I don't myself have a steady enough set of habits to keep enough worms happy ( the population will grow or shrink to match your needs, but the change isn't automatic of course) -- my kitchen habits can vary sufficiently that the worm population may not easily incorporate spikes in volume. That sort of thing. I deal with it by having two compost piles; worms and one that I completely ignore (I even toss occasional meat scraps in there; I just don't mind the wildlife we attract but don't tell my neighbors. Thing is, they're attracting vermin too, just in different ways). Plus I suppose there are additional ones going for yard waste. We live in SoCal so it's a year-round proposition. Bazillions of folks maintain worms year round in freezing climates too but this may take a tad more attention perhaps. Again, I don't want to scare you away and I could be wrong. IME, composting with worms is flat-dead simple and rewarding and useful; basically a free lunch personified. I can think of no reason not to use them. However, I would personally want a secondary system as well. This is an arena that lends itself beautifully to the sort of OCD types all around this TKO forum. Worm folks can focus thousands of words on minutiae of bedding humidity and thickness and type. There are people out there who process their scraps for the worms. There are people who vermicompost huge horse-farms' worth of refuse. It's pretty amazing what a working ecosystem can process. And -- trust me on this -- it can be 100% odorless and ickless as well. Please sign up for the yahoogroup the_worm_bin [crimeny: I just tried to post the link and was blocked by GW complaining that this is a source of spam; dunno -- but this info should be able to get you there. Contact me offlist if not please]. I haven't really paid attention to the forum for a while; it seems to be less active than formerly. However I'm sure you could find from the folks still left there where everyone went. I vaguely recall unhappiness with the yahoo server a while back and an en masse decampment. That will all be archived there. Let me know if you can't find them from the yahoogroup; I'll look through my archived messages.