Over feeding?

9 years ago

Okay, so I think I went a little overboard with feeding. I added a new tray about a week ago because most of my feed from tray one was gone. Lots of bedding left, but it looked like it was pretty worked-over.

Now my new tray had a fair number of worms in it by 48 hours and I had an abundance of watermelon and tea bags. I loaded 2 corners with maybe 3 rind pieces (maybe 2-3 inches long each) and 4 tea bags in each. I sprinkled a little cornmeal and egg shells but now I can't find a single worm in this tray.

Should I stop feeding? Should I remove some feeding? I peeked on the lower tray and they are alive and active. Just seems weird that they left this tray. It did seem a bit dry yesterday and I misted it, but I am curious as to your opinions on my next step.

Thanks in advance!

Featured Answer

otcay

9 years ago

last modified: 9 years ago

When I wash the vegetables or fruits for the kitchen, I use a large metal mixing bowl to catch all the water. Melons in the summer generate a lot of rind and the chopped scraps are placed back into that watery bowl to soak overnight before they are fed to the worms. This way the dry outer rinds like those of cantaloupes can be quickly tackled by the worms. The remaining liquid is then poured into the garden to water the plants. The wash water is then used 3 times: to wash, to moisten the worm food, and then water the plants. This is my latest batch, a colorful "soup" with scraps of tonight's dinner: tomato, basil sandwich (cheese omitted) and a chilled Tuscan melon dessert .

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Comments (8)

theparsley
9 years ago
They probably moved out of that tray when it got too dry. No matter how tasty the food is, worms will make tracks in a big hurry when the environment is too dry, because if their skins aren't kept moist enough they can't breathe. No lungs.

Yes, I know, one minute everyone's nagging you not to let the bin get too wet, next it's don't let it get too dry. But it's surprising things should get dry with watermelon rinds on the premises.
Emily Leuba thanked theparsley
Emily Leuba
Original Author
9 years ago
It's dry in my house and getting hot outside. Air conditioning running constantly. That might be a factor?
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matthewprazak
9 years ago
I just put a bin together and I am careful about overfeeding. It seems to be one of the big offenders in causing problems in a bin. I am grinding the scraps up in a blender and just putting a few tablespoons in the bedding every couple of days. It has been about a week since I started this bin. Any idea when I can start to ramp up feeding? 18 gallon plastic tub with 2000 worms.
Emily Leuba
Original Author
9 years ago
From my little experience (I am pretty new to this as well)... it seems like after a month or so it picked up and now at the 2 month mark even more. Just patience and time. Judge the feeding on whether or not the previous one is complete to avoid overfeeding.
otcay
9 years ago
A few tablespoons sound very modest for 2000 worms. I started out with 250 worms and 1 month later I added a 2nd tray. I agree that the best way to assess is to look at the last batch of food and see what was left. If I see a writhing and wiggling clump of worms around the food then I'll add more, knowing that they are thriving. Being in Southern California, I believe the warmer weather made the worms more active as well so mine seems to eat very well.
armoured
9 years ago
@mwtthew: take your time and don't rush. You can probably put a half litre tun of scraps in at a time. But more important is to not feel you have to feed frequently. To start add some and just wait until the worms adopt their new home. The problem with a few tablespoons o not that it's too much or not enough but that you may not be able to tell when it's gone.
hummersteve
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
One thing we need to keep in mind when feeding worms. Bacteria has to break down the food before the worms can eat it no matter how much of a slurry we might make of it. Melon might be a little different as it is mostly water.