worms in aquaponics?

Jeff,

You missunderstood my rantings and they were not directed at you or anyone else on this forum in particular anyway, just venting into space when I shouldn't have, SORRY...no one here, especially me wants you to leave this site and I extend a heart felt apology if that is the impression you got.

I know all about veterans, my family history is full of them from WWI, WWII & Viet Nam right up to the present. Some never came back, some did with pieces missing (physically and mentally) and a couple are still there right now due to the STOP LOSS crap.

So please accept my apology and continue to keep me and the rest of the forum informed, questioned and on our toes to assist you in anyway we can.

[badflash]

Woa! Lets not do anything hasty! Jeff, PM me so we can be sure we aren't mis-understanding each other. We share far more common grounds than differences.

[jackalope]

My Grandpa was a farmer and he is long gone but we remember him saying to us "when man starts burning food then there is a problem". I often wondered what he meant since he died long before modern marvels.

Your Grandfather was a wise man. We harvested everything we could from our 5 1/2 acre "farm." It helped my step-parents raise 4 kids, while the neighbors let their land go to seed, or sold it off for housing developments .... the 360 acre filbert and apple orchard across the road was cut up and burned to make a housing development, it took away valuable food and jobs, and created problems that had to be handled by increased police activity ........ even back in the '50's!

There use to be allot of dairy farms here now all you see is mile after mile of corn fields along with massive tractors spraying ammonia and injecting it into the soil.
Worm do not react well to ammonia on it's skin. This is the soil that is down the road and blows across the land. This is the soil that we are digesting.

I knew that about the ammonia, Eastern Washington, which is all dry farming, has huge multi-million$ companies that do nothing but supply and spray/inject ammonia into the ground, because the ground is so depleted from overfarming. Maybe part of the reason for the depletion is that they've killed/driven away the earthworm which would/could restore the soil.

Jeff, I'm non-political when it comes to forums, stay here and don't worry about the politics, we all have our opinions. I served in the Army, consider myself a patriot, but rarely discuss politics on any of the forums I visit. Actually, the admins should probably break off the political discussion onto a different thread, rather than let this one be hijacked by politics I'd just prefer to discuss aquaponics .... and I'm interested in the redworms question. I've read that Black Soldier Flies are actually native to the US, so I would like to breed them (in captivity), and feed my compost to them, and then give their castings to the redworms, at least that's what has been promulgated on the Aussie forums I visit. It seems the BSF larvae only clean up the compost just so far, and their castings are further broken down by the worms, whose castings are the best for potting soil mixtures. Do you know if BSF are native to your area? I know they aren't here, because it is too cold in the winter. Any thoughts on this?

[badflash]

OK, back on topic.

I keep worms in a separate bin as I have yet to put in my grow beds. I posted details on my home brew filter. This makes it easy to remove the solids from your system, extract them in a minimum of water, let it settle, and pour off the extra liquid to your plants. The solids go to the worms, along with lots of other household waste, coffee grounds and spent grain.

If you've never tried a worm bin, I highly recommend it. If you have a back corner that is going unused it is perfect for worms. Amazingly, they don't smell and if fed right, you don't get flies or gnats.

Getting rid of the solids is critical for intensive tilapia operations. Most grow beds do best with minimal solids, or so most of the literature says so. As a result, worms in dirt will remain a part of my operation. My plans for this spring is to get my 20' X 40' greenhouse up & running and move the tilapia operation out there with a bunch of growbeds, worm bins, and black soldier fly bins. With a little luck I'll be able to turn local restaurant waste into tilapia via worms and grubs.

[jackalope]

With a little luck I'll be able to turn local restaurant waste into tilapia via worms and grubs.

Local restaurants, good idea, Thanks

Have you got a line on BSF? I think I ran across a couple of Scientific sites that sell them by the hundreds - after reading about them on the Aussie forums, I think they would be a great asset to aquaponicists. the fly only lives for 96 hours, it has no mouth, so it doesn't bite or eat off your plate, it lays lots of eggs so you have lots of larvae to feed to the fish, etc., etc. Screen material is cheap, it won't have to be too large, and the larvae stay where the food is until they are ready to be harvested. What more could you ask for?

[badflash]

They have narrow temperature requirements, so I'm holding off until I can support that. There is a local USA distributor or two. I'll post them later.

[mommyhen42]

OK, back on topic.

With a little luck I'll be able to turn local restaurant waste into tilapia via worms and grubs.

Wow, good luck with that one... Here in Southern Cali I understand it is actually Illegal for them to give the food waste to anyone but a licensed disposal contractor.... they are afraid some idiot would eat the stuff and get sick then sue!

But I am enlisting my neighbors one family at a time while I enlarge my worms and black soldier fly bins... At least their stuff won't make it to the landfills! I am also trying to get them to shred their junk mail and so forth for the worms and to use as a soil ammendment and mulch. Some people dont use "slicks" for their worms as it breaks down slower but I figure... hey at least it breaks down so I dont seperate the stuff, just shred. I don't even worry about those stupid plastic windows, they shred tiny enough that I dont feel that they are a problem in the final mix anyway.

I am all for free fish food, black soldier fly larvae, earthworms, I also feed plant roots and some outer leaves, I hang a fly zapper over the 280gal tub to zap buggies at night, looking for a solar one that I can disassemble the panel to take the panel outside, the zapper is inside a building... free food!!! gotta love it... the soldier fly grubs freeze well to making them available year round not just during the spring and summer. I also found plans for a great home made fly trap on ehow.com and will build that not only so that I can freeze and feed the flys but also harvest the maggots for my fish and chickens!

I can see worms doing well in a pebble riverbed system, but don't see them doing well in a classic flood and drain unless the drain cycles are scheduled to 3 or 4 times a day with a timer rather than autosiphons... seems the beds would remain too wet for the worms, they hate wet bedding so I just can't see them happy in a typical flood and drain type system... but I could be wrong

Stay safe everyone
Sheryl

[badflash]

I have kept worms alive underwater for weeks in a well oxygenated aquarium. Reports from folks in Austrailia using standard flood & drain with autosiphone cycling 3-4 times an hour reported they have plenty of worms in their beds. I haven't tried it myself, but what could it hurt? Put in a few handfulls and see how they do. In a F/D system water levels should stay a couple inches below the gravel, so the worms can climb out of the water if they want to.

[mommyhen42]

Wow, I had no idea they would survive... I know they hate wet beds
I will put some into an older f&d that I have that I had been considering taking down for cleaning....
You really have my curiosity up now
Sheryl

[JeffW]

My goldies keep dying...at this rate I might put the fish in my beds and the worms in the tank