I would'nt put red worms on top of the soil. The worms are already in the soil. With the paper and mulch down and enough moisture the worms will do their work underneath. They will not come to the surface to eat the scraps. Better to dig a hole for the scraps and cover. Dig the holes in the pathways. You can put any type of vegie scraps and egg shells in the hole. Worm love newspaper.

after reading several posts in this and other forums in the gardenweb arena I was left with tons of questions. Maybe its just me and the way i over complicate things. I was hoping to hear from some of the more knowledgeable growers. Let me first start out by saying thank you for the soil advice. I usually grow outdoors in a garden with pretty good soil amended annually with compost and wood chips and sometimes leaves - I didn't know if that was kosher to use or not. I read several posts on lighting and they seem to bounce from one wall to the next. One post says 6500K day-lighters are the only way to go and another says 3000k shop lights are the perfect thing. Some people say a ceiling mounted light if fine, others say to get the light as close to the plants as possible (generally this recommendation falls between the 3 and 6 inch range)in order for more light to hit the plants presumingly. Also on the subject of lighting, most people use two bulb fixtures it seems, however it also seems that the "more is better" attitude it prevalent. Therefore - although I have multiple fixtures available to me I am only doing two maybe three trays of 72 at a time. any more than that and I don't think i could keep up with it come transplanting time. As such, I was curious as to whether I should spend 12$ on four bulbs, or 6$ on two. As a Question directed at more experienced growers, would they recommended growing in a semi heated shed, or a semi cool basement? This question arises from my own concerns over temperature and natural daylight in conjunction with artificial. I have read that cold temperatures produce a thicker stemmed stockier plant. In this arena I have to wonder if the plant retains it's compact status or if it grows out to a normal size once transplanted. If The plants were in the shed, and on a 16/8 timer (as suggested as to not stress the plant) would it be best to leave the 8 hours off at night or during the day? My rational being that natural light coming in while the artificial is off may provide additional stimulus. The counter of which would be that lights being on at night may provide a little extra heat and night time growing time. Once again I have never done this before so my head is a bit jumbled with everything I've read and my own inexperienced interpretations. Worse case scenario I guess I could do both and see which works better.

The reason I put food in in chunks of whole is first off it is the worms job to do the work not mine. Second the moisture is released slowly into the bedding. This should let the right microbes grow just as needed. It is not the thorns of the pineapple that is the issue but putting a lot of it in the bin reminds one that pineapple is a meat tenderizer. How tender do you like your worms? Given enough bedding and an area to escape to non massive amounts of pineapple should be fine.

Sue, I’m so very sorry for your loss. Lemonbasil, your little birds are very sweet. Do you string them together to make the garland? As for the stash busting - the Propellor quilt I just finished was made totally from my stash, mostly scraps. I’m now working on a quilt that uses the leftover toile from a quilt I finished in December. Because the blocks were cut on the bias, I had a ton of scrap pieces.