"If it's microbes you want, add fertilizer and compost. The resukts of a study indicated that compost contained more microbes than compost tea, and that fertilizer increased the microbe level more than compost tea. Here is a link that might be useful: Compost tea soil microbes" You used a blog as a peer reviewed reference? Where's the rigourous data collection in that? Gardenweb is rife with misinformation regarding compost tea, from brewing times, ingredients, to purpose and use. And now, apparently petrochemical fertilizers are promoting soil microbe diversity..... microbeorganics.com Tim does sell products through that website, but I don't think anyone buys them hehe and it's more of a resource than anything. I enjoyed reading the site, he participates on many organic forums and instead of throwing the onus on other people to prove him wrong, performs research from independent sources. I think he even owns a microscope, a great tool for rigourous data collection and methodology. Compost tea is best used to promote rapid soil recovery, to innoculate potting soil or raised beds, and to develope a healthy microbe-sphere, for want of an actual term, on plant surfaces when used as a foliar. It isn't a nutrient regime, it's one tool in a box.

Molasses is one of the best microbial foods you can use. I don't know that you need to use the molasses in the middle of the process though. Remember, after you turn in all the compost you will have created plenty air spaces for the water to move around. After you are finished mix 2T of molasses to a gallon of water. The water will take the molasses down to where the microbes are. Just be sure to water deep so the water can penetrate. It is usually best to water a little bit at first and then the next day increase the amount of water. Water moves faster, and more efficiently through soil that is already moist. A 1/2 " on Monday, 3/4" on Tuesday, and then a really good soaking on Wednesday. You can also add fish emulsion or fish Hydrolizate to the molasses water as well. Fish Hydrolizate is very good for fungi. Letting the soil alone after you turn it is good for the fungi. While bacteria are so small that they can handle the turning of the soil much better; fungi are not so tolerant of turning. They are really large, in comparison, and turning the soil really puts the hurt on them. If you have a compost pile and have seen long white threads going all through the pile, that is fungi. One other thing molasses does is it provides the microbes their own food source. Microbes need energy in order to break down and digest the organic material in the soil. If they do not have an energy source they will use the fertilzer that is in the soil for their food. So adding some molasses gives the microbes a good shot of the carbon bonds they need and helps reduce their need to compet with the plants for the fertilizer as an energy source. As you continue to add more organic material on top of the soil and then water it in well you will make sure the level of organic life in the soil remains high. It is the micribrobial life (bacteria and fungi) that are getting in between the clay particles that prevents the clay from sticking together. In addition to loosening up the soil, bacteria is also a worm attractant because the bacteria are worm food. Worms do not have teeth. Worms do not eat leaves, sawdust, or vegetable scraps, etc. they eat the microbes in the soil. As long as you keep the garden area moist the worms will hang around and do even more great things for the soil - like tunnel holes and leave their castings in the soil. When I double digged my garden I took out a full shovel full of soil and laid it to the side. I then looseded up another shovel full of soil in the trench. I then added a whole bunch of compost at this point. I then put back the first shovel of soil and again mixed another good amount of compost with this. Always moving from the trench I just dug to the new hard soil. That way I was not trampling all over my freshly dug trenches. You don't have to do a trench either. You can dig out a 3x3 square area and to the same thing moving from sauare to sauare. I found this worked great on my second bed. As far as the person who said that all you will do is create a hole for the water to accumulate, the idea is not to make individual holes. The idea is to do the entire bed. By doing the entire bed you allow the water to move from the high spots to the low spots and hopefully this will allow enough time for the water to drain. But you would be right if you only did individual holes, you would get little wells where the water collect - not a good thing. The important thing here is that it is the microbes in the soil that loosens up hardpan soil - not the tilling. The tilling/turning is only the mechanism that is used to get the organic matter down deep, fast. It is the microbes that provide a food source for the worms. And it is the microbes in the soil that break down the fertilizer and put it in a form the plants can use (I am talking organic fertilizers here, not chemical fertilizers). Plants also break down fertilizer by mixing CO2 with the water in the soil. This makes an acid that disolves the fertilzer which allows the plant to then take it up. Just mix in lots of compost and you will be set. Tom

I use brown paper bags by throwing my wet kitchen waste into them. Then they sit in a bucket for a few weeks. The whole bag of food, rolled like a burrito, goes into the bin and goes away! Pete

Can you just put two or three red wigglers per hook? This might deplete the bin some but 16 year olds need as many good years as they can get fishing before other things take them away from fishing. A local school yard after a rain has nightcrawlers free. Use a flashlight to spot them outside of the light. Then snap them up. Or so I've heard this is the way. No need to purchase this way. There should always be babies and cocoons in the bin. So even if you harvest every adult one summer to meet your son's fishing needs there should still be some worms that will fill in soon. If you start feeding them more also start giving them more bedding to keep their balance. Keeping a youngen fishing I think is a good use of worms. Maybe he would like a bin of his own to experiment with with a bit of starter worms from your bin. I'm into low or zero cost so any container would work. Maybe he will even catch some extra nightcrawlers and have some to sell to those fishing who have run out. I've read stories where big fish are caught with tiny bait. There are also lots of Youtubes about how to capture worms.