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desertwormman

Alfalfa meal

17 years ago

I have a bin with "super red worms" from Uncle Jim's worm farm. They told me they love Alfalfa meal. Has anyone had any experience with feeding worms Alfalfa meal?

The bag I bought has an ingredient to retard bacterial growth. I think it is the Sodium Bentonite or Propionic Acid. As a precaution, I mixed a small amount of the alfalfa with a large amount of water. I filtered out the alfalfa debris from the solution hoping any chemicals might have dissolved in the water.

Can anyone offer any insight? Do worms really like alfalfa? Do you think my food preparations will be safe?

Thank you anyone,

Jon

Comments (8)

  • 17 years ago

    I think the worms will like that as food. I like your idea to soak it in water first. I would soak it over night and drain it the next day. I had a rabbit last year until it died of old age and the worms love the rabbit poo and it was all from alfalfa. Even the rabbit poop was just like rolled up alfalfa balls. SOme how the rabbit got it nutrients from it but it was never digested and still little pieces of cut alfalfa grass. I would beak them up for the worms because some of it would stay in little balls too long and they could eat on it faster if it was smashed up. ( well I am telling too much now ) I read once that worms like what they were born in to eat so if that is what they fed their worms, yours will like it too. But the new eggs laid will love and eat what ever you feed them so be sure and give them fruit and mellons and good stuff like that too. Bye Bill

  • 17 years ago

    Oh I think that was a bit educational. I learned something new today!
    Now if you really want an ick I will tell you a story from my childhood.
    I too had rabbits as a kid and when I was about 7 or 8 forgot how old I was but young. My Dad said one day to me as we were out by the rabbins, look at all those smart pills and I said where, he said under that rabbits cage. I said those are not smart pills, he said yes they are try one. So I ate one and told him, THAT WAS RABBIT POOP! he said see your getting smarter already!
    My Dad told that to everyone who came to our house. I think he forgot about it when I was 18 because I did have to hear him say it much more, maybe he just did tell it around me. He was a wonderful Dad who built me rabbit cages, pigoen cages and a green house because I loved animals and plants. Really he was a great Dad and I truely wish he was still alive. Died of cancer 7 years ago. But he loved that story and for some reason it did not bother me as a kid or now as an adult. Bill C

  • 17 years ago

    Sounds like my dad. Only he also called deer poop smart pills. On every hunting trip we went on he tried to get someone to try one never got us to eat it. And then there was the story about the fancy city slickers who brought a toaster on a camping trip because they had heard that there were current bushes in the area.

    For folks out there washing their rabbit poop for the worms.

    Dad broke his back when i was a kid after he recovered he added a 1/4 inch inclined wire screen under the rabbit cages. The rabbit poop would roll off the wire into piles behind the cages. The pee would go on through. After a while we put cardboard boxes under the edges of the wire to catch to poop. It was nice dry stuff. Easy to spread in the garden.

  • 17 years ago

    Rabbit poop and Alfalfa are both great fertilizers. I would try to avoid purchasing a form of alfalfa that you have to soak precompost. One of the major reasons that Alfalfa makes such a good fertilizer is that it contains an alcohol called Triacontanol (sp?) which is a great plant growth stimulant. The process of soaking the alfalfa will remove a good portion of triaco. What you are doing when you soak the Alfalfa is basically the same way you can make an Alfalfa fertilizer tea; soaking the alfalfa in a sock for 24-48 hours this tea is a great natural addition to any other garden fertilizers you may e using. Your worms will love the alfalfa and in return your plants will love the triaco in the castings.

  • 17 years ago

    I have a question about using the alfalfa meal. I heard that it contains a high percentage of nitrogen, and if I use it directly into the vegetable bed, some vegetables such as beans or cucumbers may grow leaves only and bear no "fruits". My question is, if I feed the worms with alfalfa meal or pellets, will they produce balanced compost which I can use on ANY vegetables? Anyone has tried it before?
    Thank you.

  • 17 years ago

    Be careful using Alfalfa without enough 'brown' material. One of the benefits of vermicomposting over aerobic composting is the higher retention of nitrogen. When adding alfalfa or other high nitrogen material, your whole bin can 'kick off' and become extremely hot.

  • 5 years ago

    I like to spread the alfalfa leftoverafter soaking on top of the worm bins. A thin layer on top doesn't seem to heat anything up and the water is used in watering seedlings (because they are next to my worm barn). Works well for me.

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