The Project - Feeding

Waited a full week for the worms to settle down in their new bed before adding stuff to it. A little chopped up watermelon and honeydew rind, which by all accounts are loved by the wormies. Also the shells of 3 eggs that was used to make dinner.

Hope all is well with them, cause I can't see them in the bedding. I tried lifting a few shreds of the newspaper bedding, but I don't see them. I am resisting the urge to disturb the bed (which means disturbing the worms), just to satisfy my curiosity and anxiousness. Patience..... success comes to those who wait.....

Perionyx Excavatus (Malaysian Blue Worm)

The Perionyx Excavatus is what I think I have in my backyard, and is what I have harvested for my wormy condo. It is an epigeic earthworm species. This means that they are found in the upper topsoil layer, which is rich in organic matter. Unlike anecic (upper and lower soil layers) and endogeic (lower soil layer) worms, they do not have permanent burrows, and therefore are most suitable for vermicomposting. They feed primarily on decaying organic matter, and not on soil or mineral matter.


Actually the Perionyx Excavatus is quite beautifully coloured (but I still maintain in an icky wormy sort of way) with an iridescent bluish-purplish sheen. Especially with bright light shining at certain angles. I know that many (especially North American) sites list them as small worms, but at least the ones I've seen can go up to 3 inches. By most accounts, they are capable of fast growth, and very fast reproductive rates. Some sites claim that their reproductive rates are highest among epigeic earthworms suitable for worm farms. By all accounts, they thrive in warmer climates, and become far more temperamental in cooler ones.


Some statistics:

• Ideal temperature range : 21°C to 28°C
• Reproduction rate under ideal conditions: ~ 19-20 young per week
• Time to sexual maturity under ideal conditions: ~ 30-55 days   

The Project - Denuded Backyard

Hahaha, I just happened to look at the patch of soil in my backyard where I had "harvested" my worms for my wormy condo. I didn't realize what a good job I did on removing the earthworms in that patch, cause after the evening/night rain, I can see a good number of mini-humus piles besides worm holes in the soil throughout my backyard, but the patch of soil which I had denuded of earthworms have a smooth, unpock-marked surface. Lesson to learn: One should not be too efficient in removing earthworms out of a single patch of soil. Harvesting should occur more haphazardly over a larger piece of land. Now, I just have to wait for the earthworms to realize that there is unclaimed territory and that they should invade it and make it their own.

More worms

Too much rain, and rescued more worms again this morning. They conveniently went into my fledgeling worm farm.....

The Project - Bedding and those who go to bed

I took one full copy of Today newspaper, tore it into strips like so:

Soaked them into a pail of water (which conveniently came from my dehumidifier, so it is chlorine-less), put them into a colander and dripped dry. Checked on it 5 minutes later, when all dripping ceased, but decided that it was still too wet, so proceeded to hand wring-dry the newspaper instead. Then discovered that wet, wrung dried newspaper is a lot lesser than originally thought, so shredded another copy of Today, and literally rinsed and repeat. So this is what I got:

Since the newspaper was hand-wrung, I had to separate the strips and "fluff" them up to make the bedding comfortable.

Now that it is all ready, who is going to lie on the bed? Hmmm.....

Having been a rescuer of worms, I decided to try getting my own worms out of my garden, instead of buying them from a supplier. Firstly, in the interests of cost, secondly, having seen the size of some of the worms I had rescued, I am convinced that somehow, my backyard seem to have a good solid colony of worms. Further research seems to indicate that I have Perionyx Excavatus (Malaysian Blues). They have a fascinating purplish-bluish sheen (in a icky-yucky sort of way) under a beam of light that fits the description, and are epigeic, as they seem to only like occupying the top 3 inches of my backyard soil. Anyway, I figure that if I got it wrong, and the worms don't work out, I can always go buy "real" worms later.

Anyway, here is what I dug out:

Since in theory, worm populations double every month under ideal conditions, I figured that I would not need to depopulate my backyard in an attempt to fill my worm farm. I got about 30-40 worms, and decided that that will do for starters.

The Project - Drilling

I had bought 6 of the stackable containers. With all the research I did on the internet, good ventilation was a requirement, not to mention having enough holes for the worms to pass through from one container to the next. So... I drilled, and drilled and drilled... 9x6 holes per container plus 2 superlarge holes at the ends... plus one hole for a tap... that adds up to 225 holes at one go. Wow. Lucky I did not calculate this at the start, cause its actually more daunting when I am writing this than when I only had The Project in my head.

Anyways, this is what is looks like:

The 2 round net-like things at the end is an improvisation. I could not find the white round, plastic ventilation discs that are frequently found at the back of shoe cabinets, so I got sink drainers instead, and siliconed then onto the container.

This is a closer look at it:

And here it everything nicely stacked up:

The Project - Hunting

Hunting for the ideal container for The Project proved a little tougher than I had anticipated. I had thought that a simple trip down to Ikea would provide lots of choice, but little did I know.....

My requirement for a cost effective, stackable container which is worm (escape artist) proof, proved challenging. My hunt went through a spectrum of shops as diverse as Ikea to mom-and-pop sundry shops to hypermarkets, and finally ended up in Toa Payoh Industrial Park, at the Toyogo outlet.

Finally:

Tada!

Birth of The Project

I have been toying with the idea of vermicomposting for a long time, but hadn't cooked up enough courage to deal with worms until recently. But after my experience as a (reluctant) worm rescuer, the idea of a vermi-compost bin grew and gnawed (now why did I use this word) within me. I had read and seen of home-made compost bins (too small) and commercial compost bins (too expensive). I toyed with getting semi-commercial ones. You know, the ones that are designed and modified at home, but sold with a profit margin. Somehow I could not get used to the idea of sticking my hands into the bottom of a rubbish bin full of compost, not knowing whether any worms are going to fall onto my hands. I tried to sell myself the idea, even consulting members of GCS who have bought that design, but could not get over the goosebumps. Days grew into weeks, weeks into months. And somehow, it all resulted in The Project.

Worms

With the huge amount of rain that we have been getting here in the central-north area, my earthworms are literally getting washed out of the ground and planters. In the mornings I see them hiding below my garden slippers and in leftover wet patches on the ground. Having seen their predecessors in dried format (coming back after work), I was moved to "rescue" them. With trowels in both hands, I try to gently pick them up and drop them back to soil safety. After much trial and error (and half-shrieks, hops, skips and goose-pimples on my side; not to mention lots of dodging, speed crawling, wriggling, writhing, and the occasional mash-up on the worms' side), I now am semi-comfortable with them. Semi. Really.