My neighbor works for Ball International Nursery. They grew some of Yves Piaget's seeds in a 45% composted pine fines, peat moss, vermiculite, perlite, and gypsum. the pot was 1/2 gallon, but the rose had at least a dozen blooms, very impressive. That's the same way when I bought a gallon-rose from Home Depot. I pulled that rose out, and the soil was coarse pine barks mixed with peat moss, and osmocote fertilizer. There was at least a dozen blooms on that rose bush, way more blooms than leaves. The growing medium has an effect on flowering. The Russian Grower Gerda who posted the most-blooms roses in HMF told me she applied humus. Pine Fines break down into humus, and roses love that stuff. In my garden, there's a poor drainage clay spot, so I put tons of fresh pine mulch... the two roses Firefighter and Romantica Sweet Promise, both gave me 80 to 90 blooms as 1st year gallon-own-root. There's another spot which I fixed clay with peatmoss, thinking that would hold more moisture. However, Sonia Rykiel and Crimson Glory did bad, despite tons of rain, like 5 blooms for 1st year. I dug those up and found the soil was rock-hard like cement. Pine mulch (pH 4.5) works better than peat moss (pH 4) because it's a larger particle, which aerated my heavy clay. Roots need oxygen. Both Sonia Rykiel and Crimson glory were yellowish, due to soil compaction and less oxygen with dense peatmoss glue-up with clay. In contrast, peat moss worked great for Columbus Rose Park in Ohio ... they fixed their sandy soil with peat moss, with tons of blooms on Graham Thomas & others. Here's a horticulture research entitled "Rose-cultivation with coco-soil versus pumice". Here's the result: "As far as flower production was concerned, more flowers were harvested from plants grown on coco-soil than on pumice, independently of the planting density. On the other hand, stem length and weight were the same in rose flowers produced on both substrates. " See link below: Here is a link that might be useful: Comparative study of coco-coil vs. pumice soil This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Mon, Nov 25, 13 at 17:33

Congratulations on a good start. I'd put some food in for them now so it can start decomposing and will become appealing to "Wormy." Everyone's situation is different, but I almost never need to add liquid to my two bins. The food provides enough. However, my bins are started with peat moss, not as yours are started. I find I need to feed more often in the summer as the whole process goes much faster in the warm weather. We had a few freezing nights here in CA last month, and the worms seem to be ok. You will know if you are overfeeding because it will start to smell. I don't think it is necessary to stir your bins, but I do it occasionally just to see what's going on, and they don't seem to be any worse for the wear! LOL! Your grandson is a lucky boy to be able to participate in a project like this. You don't say how old he is, but there is kind of a cute book called Diary of a Worm which he might like. Also, more for adults but very helpful, is Mary Appelhof's Book Worms Eat My Garbage. Have fun!!!

Lynn: There is petroleum in all newspaper inks that I'm aware of. The soy based inks use paraffin to set the ink. Paraffin and mineral oil are petroleum based and are common machine lubes in the food industry and very commonly found on food as a coating to prevent moisture from being gained or lost with the environment, as well as in home canning (directly in contact with food). Mineral oil is also a common baby laxative. I don't suggest that newspaper ink is printed with any food-grade petroleum products, but rather suggest that the air you are breathing contains more petroleum products per ounce than compost made with newspapers. Also note that if you spray anything on your plants that can be described as horticultural oil or soap... you're almost certainly applying petroleum products directly to your food. Islandschool: Orange peels may break down slowly by default because they come from from a tropical environment where biology is in overdrive. They have a natural waxy coating to seal the fruit from drying quickly and are filled with a harsh oil to help prevent being eaten before the seeds develop. They are high in the antioxidant vitamin-C which guards them against cellular damage that could be capitalized upon by rot organisms. Store-bought oranges often are coated with additional BHT or paraffin wax to extend their moisture retention. I have not experimented with orange peels to find out a way to quickly rot them as I live in zone 5 and they are not plentiful here. If I had to guess how to compost them, I would think to mix them with things that are good at absorbing oil, such as paper and cardboard. Grinding them will expose more oil to be absorbed away, and heat will help liquify the oils and waxes. The acidity could be negated with dolomite lime (which seems to be good for plants and worms anyway) or even water that had ashes soaking in it... I searched for how to compost orange peels and came up with a thread on it for you. Here is a link that might be useful: Orange peels - composting.

Thanks for the input. We sure hope he can make it another year. We can definitely tell he is aging although no bluebird can outwork him yet. We feed mealworms, on the ground, in the air, out of our hands,... anywhere. Blueboy knows and trusts us completely. We used to attempt to 'tame' his offspring as well via feeding but we quit that a few years ago out of fear of them becoming too people friendly. We never leave a supplied bowl or dish of mealworms for them as the Mockingbirds, Sparrows, and Robins would monopolize the worms. All feedings are thus limited and are 'hand delivered' by us with no leftovers for the other birds. FYI - if Blueboy wants aerial feeding he goes to a specific perch and begs, if he wants them on the ground, he likewise goes to a specific spot. For his more skitish family we always toss them out on the porch/ground, etc.