Did I do this right? (New COW owner)

18 years ago

I just set up my new Cow today. As instructed by COW, I soaked the coir bedding, spread it out in the bottom tray over a piece of cardboard, then spread the worms over the coir. I left the lid off and the worms ran for cover pretty quickly.

Then I followed some directions I read on this forum and I put on the second level filled with about 2 inches of damp shredded newspaper. I also added a few handfuls of partially composted leaves for microbial action.

I put the lid on and now I'm all nervous. Is this okay? Should I put in some food scraps too?

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Comments (5)

username_5
18 years ago
I just set up my CoW a couple/few weeks ago. I did it the same way you did except I just covered the bedding with a couple sheets of damp newspaper, didn't shred it.

I also put the lid on right away and had a couple mass exodus events, then I left the lid off and light on and things began settling down.

I would say put some food in, yes. It needs time to rot before the worms will show strong interest. I actually put some food in 4-5 days before the worms arrived and they got to chomping as soon as they decided to stop trying to escape.

Good luck with your worming, I am enjoying my CoW so far. Really next to no work.
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sqh1
18 years ago
The first tray, where you put the coir and worms, should be the only tray on there right now. That is the "working" tray, where you will put food on top of the coir and top with shredded damp newspaper. The other trays are not added until the composted material is up just above those little notches inside the tray. At that point you would nest a new "working" tray, not feed the bottom one ever again and let the worms work their way up to the new food.
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Thanks Ann! So great to hear from you. I have LOTS of oak leaves, I chop 'em up with the mower and compost them or use them for mulch or start new beds with them over newspapers and cardboard all over the gardens. And with all the leaves I have I still get composted leaves from the city to mulch all my bed both spring and fall, I've got some coming this week. So you could say I'm a big fan of composted leaves, and so are my gardens! I've never given spireas their props, too many memories of suburbia in the 60s, but they truly are workhorses in the garden. I only have one "Lemon Princess" in amongst a foundation planting. They used to be the darlings of the gas stations and malls of middle America but I guess have been replaced with ornamental grasses and Knockout roses! BTW, the roses will have a backdrop of nandina, so I think the blooms will look great against that dark green foliage.
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swampboogiequeen
18 years ago
Hi potterhead and 5, if you have a COW, you need to pay serious heed to SQH1. She is truly the goddess of the COW. Let me explain...

I've got a stacking system as well...a 'wriggly ranch'. Now that I've gotten the hang of it (a year later), and have added 4 more bins to my collection (all rubbermaid containers...no more stacking systems) I have some perspective.

MOST IMPORTANT: you should only have 1 tray in at this time. All of my early mis-wormings came from adding a second bin too early. Another bad-worming-idea (BWI) came from thinking too early that the coconut coir was worm castings. It's beautiful, fluffy, and...not castings. Now that I don't use it, I realize how I misjudged this.

I remember at about a month into the worming, I thought I should add a second tray (thanks to the directions...I was also adding a cup of water a day...bad idea) This is where it all went bad for me. Do a search on me in this forum...see how I went wrong!

In conclusion, I have to say worm composting is so much fun and exciting, that it's really easy to get ahead of the process. You probably still can't help but checking them a couple times a day, and are worried about possibly 'murdering' one if your stacking bin may hit it.

Kelly told me early on, and I am JUST NOW understanding it (so give yourself a while...but remember) these worms are working for us, for the better good of landfills and mankind. In large numbers. Think about the larger picture and not worry about 1 worm.

This is just now sinking in with me. I wouldn't kill a worm on purpose, and would always save on from the floor...but I can now peek at my different levels, and be ok that if I kill one, it's to save many...and to keep my system going.

Longevity in this 'sport' requires some sacrifice...by the worms, the aliens, whatever.
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username_5
18 years ago
-- She is truly the goddess of the COW. --

Hmmm... goddess sounds hot. Goddess of the COW, not so much ;-)

It is funny about not wanting to kill any of the worms, it is true I check the worms every couple days and worry when replacing the tray that one gets crushed. That's funny.
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sqh1
18 years ago
Hmmm... goddess sounds hot. Goddess of the COW, not so much ;-)

::That's just how glamorous my life is::
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Did I do this right? (New COW owner)

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username_5

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