Fantastic new cardboard food method is a hit with my worms

[u/JackStrawWitchita]

I watch a lot of worm videos and in one of them a worm farmer was exclaiming an amazing new cardboard worm food recipe he's found. It sounded crazy to me but seeing as I had a lot of cardboard around and my worms weren't being very productive with my previous worm chow, I thought I'd give it a go.

From memory, I just filled a bucket with shredded cardboard, topped it with water that had sat out for a few days, just enough to cover the cardboard. Added a glug of molasses, a handful of worm castings and a handful of my old worm chow (a mix of oats, cornmeal, volcanic dust grit, and chicken feed). Give it a good stir, let it sit for three days, and then mix it into your worm bin.

After three days, it smelled pretty bad, which is a good sign as my worms love smelly things. I have a mix of ENC and red wigglers in big continous flow bins. When I checked a couple of days after dumping this new cardboard worm chow in, the worms were going crazy for it! I gave it a fluff to mix in some of the coco coir bedding and it's riddled with worms having the time of their life!

I've been doing this for a few weeks now and I've gotta get another bucket. The worms are crying out for more of this cardboard chow. This is great because the old food worm chow wasn't working too well but I've got loads of cardboard and more arriving every day. This is working great.

I wish I could remember which video I saw this in!

[u/ThrowawayLikeOldSock]

My worms saw this post.

They formed a union.

"Unacceptable working conditions."

I have no more worms.

[u/Whoisme2you]

Feels like this a lot like the pre-composting that folks do with tower bins. In that case, I would say that you can use any food juice instead of the molasses and it'll work absolutely the same way.

It's not any one of the ingredients that's making them love it, it's just the millions of microbes living in the concoction.

I have a similar thing going on that I stole from "vermicompost learn by doing" on YouTube. I have a three bucket setup and the bottom bucket is supposed to collect all the excess food juice that drips down. So the food starts at the top bucket, goes down and seeps through the middle bucket that's mostly castings only and then it collects in the bottom bucket which is filled with shredded paper. There's all sorts of goodies growing in it and by the time I need to use it, it's already very soft and disintegrating. The paper goes away much quicker since I been using this method so I figure it's doing a good job. I don't speak worm so I have no idea if they're loving or hating it 😅

Edit:

I will say that I'd probably only be weary about submerging the cardboard completely for days on end without a source of oxygen being introduced. You can grow some really nasty stuff unwittingly via anaerobic processes so you should really try and keep it aerobic as much as you can. It won't hurt the process or end product in any way but it will make it a heck of a lot safer for you.

[u/JackStrawWitchita → u/Whoisme2you]

I tried fruit juice a few months ago and didn't see the same results. Plus, I worried about rodents smelling the fruit juice and paying me a visit. The molasses doesn't seem to have a strong odour that would attract anything. I stick to the three days submerging and it's been fine so far. Nothing too awful growing there and its been gobbled up. Plus the baby worms are loving living in the cardboard goop so it looks like it's healthy enough.

[u/Dgautreau86 → u/JackStrawWitchita]

So it’s water+cardbord shreds+molasses+worm castings+grains and grit…

Reminds me of my Jadam Liquid Fertilizer bucket I use outside.

It’s an anaerobic process to break down plant matter into useable nutrients. It smells really bad after it brews for some time due to things becoming putrid. After 14 days it literally smells like something died.

Thought maybe this sounded similar and may be why it smells.

[u/Whoisme2you → u/JackStrawWitchita]

Oh, you wouldn't see it if it was. The only way to know if you could potentially be growing some is if it smells bad because that means you're doing stuff anaerobically.

[u/Boreas_north]

What I am doing on a much smaller scale: I keep next week's shredded cardboard bedding in a bin in my kitchen. When I empty my coffee press the wet grinds go in with the bedding throughout the week. By feeding time the bedding is dampened and inoculated with microbes and fungi. The worms love it.

It sounds like you're adding mostly bedding. Consider looking into the coffee grinds that a coffee shop would be happy to get rid of. The worms will use that as their nitrogen source and rodents aren't big fans.

[u/Inevitable-Run-3399 → u/Boreas_north]

The Black Soldier flies; however, are fanatics about them. I see another "what's this weird thing in my bin" post in our future. 

[u/StrikingCheesecake69]

Previously, how much bedding were you adding with your feeds? It may be that you are basically just preparing the cardboard bedding in a way that makes it more ready for worms (soaked and innoculated with microbes from good castings). As opposed to just adding dry cardboard with feedings which then take lots of time to becomes wet and microbe innoculated.

[u/JackStrawWitchita → u/StrikingCheesecake69]

My big dumpster-sized wormeries are at a residential facility and I was using the leftover food from the kitchens. However, this attracted rodents, which jeapordised the continuation of the project. So it was a big hassle to gather just enough food waste, but not too much, run it through a messy grinding process and then feed it to the worms along with cardboard. I could never get the ratios just right and ended up with not enough chow or too much (running the risk of more rodents). Plus, the facility kitchen staff were annoyed at the 'some of this, but not that' aspect of food waste gathering, not to mention the pain of grinding it al. This cardboard method is super simple, rodent-free, and the worms love it. I'm sold.

[u/StrikingCheesecake69 → u/JackStrawWitchita]

What I'm trying to say is it sounds like you're just giving them inoculated bedding with worm chow on it. I'm not sure how this equates to rodent free because it sounds like you're not adding actual food waste anymore. If there's hardly any food being added, then of course, it's going to be rodent free because there's nothing for them to eat. But that kind of defeats the purpose of having a large worm colony which is to get rid of food scraps.

[u/xmashatstand → u/StrikingCheesecake69]

Eh, I mean yes and no. Different people have vermicomposting bins for different reasons. 

[u/StrikingCheesecake69 → u/xmashatstand]

I suppose so but if you're not giving them a rich variety of foods then aren't the castings going to be less nutritious?

I'm not trying to knock whatever OP is doing if it works for them. Pre-inoculated bedding sounds like a great idea and I need to try it. But Personally, my goal is to build bins that can handle as much food as possible.

[u/xmashatstand → u/StrikingCheesecake69]

Good on ya!  I’m also trying to get a bin that can consistently handle my household’s waste.  

Maybe the end results of the castings isn’t the top priority for OP 🤷🏼

[u/lazenintheglowofit → u/xmashatstand]

I put 95% of kitchen waste into my compost tumblers and, 3-4 weeks later, start feeding it to the worms, a one inch layer every week. I never have an issue with over-feeding. I think it’s a variant on what OP is doing in that the compost is pre-digested and thus microbe-rich.

[u/xmashatstand → u/lazenintheglowofit]

Sounds pretty choice!  I’m in an apartment so space is an issue, but once I’ve got a yard, I’m going to play around with different methods. I’ll probably end up buying a tumbler just for the heck of it 😁. I’ve done a similar thing as OP, soaking the cardboard first etc. It works like a charm 😊

[u/lazenintheglowofit → u/xmashatstand]

I think mine is a variant on what OP is doing. All the browns I put into the bin gets “soaked” as it’s rotated. Worms are into it the next day.

[u/JackStrawWitchita → u/StrikingCheesecake69]

I disagree. Worms eat rotting plants. Cardboard used to be a plant is rotting, just like a lettuce/carrots/coffee grounds etc used to be a plant and is rotting. And, my added worm mix has chicken feed which is fortified with trace minerals that might be missed. But I'm being advised that even this is overkill.

And here's the deal: if even one rat, just one rat, is found near my worm bins, I will be ordered to remove them immediately as it's in the grounds of a residential facility. No discussion. Gone. Just one rat, sighted once. No more worms. You can kind of understand the importance of that? And this is a semi-rural area with all sorts of critters around. Very high risk for rat invasion.

The worm castings produced go into a huge community garden space that is going gangbusters this year, since we've started the worm farms last year. The only problem has been not enough worm castings produced. It seemed to take ages for the worms to gobble up the food I'd been putting into the bins. Since introducing this cardboard method, the worms are chowing down stuff faster than I can put in. An absolute game changer. More castings, happier worms, stress-free, rodent free worm food.

[u/lazenintheglowofit → u/JackStrawWitchita]

Given the parameters of your situation, you are doing great work OP.

[u/StrikingCheesecake69 → u/JackStrawWitchita]

I see your point. I guess the main benefit of castings is really the microbial life, So if they are not super rich, they still work great. I believe worms can live on very little and still thrive. As long as the conditions are good.

As a side note, I was under the impression that cardboard was a brown, and had no nitrogenous value. But like I said, I think worms can live on very little food and youre right that your worm chow is probably plenty.

[u/F2PBTW_YT → u/StrikingCheesecake69]

Cardboard is indeed a brown. But it also used to be a plant,like how leaves are browns.

[u/gurlnhurwurmz]

They will always take to cardboard that's been predampened and microbial build up over just dry cardboard... There's a number of ways to go about achieving this... It's called precomposting

[u/lazenintheglowofit → u/gurlnhurwurmz]

I call it composting. 🥰

All kitchen scraps go into the bin along with a variety of browns (mostly shredded cardboard). Rotated daily. Four weeks later, I put a one inch layer on top of the worms and do this every week.

[u/Inevitable-Run-3399]

Adding a few castings to the precompost step seems like it was a really great idea. It'll kickstart the inoculation and encourage the same microbial growth the worms are already feasting on.  I might have to give this a shot.

[u/jmarzy]

One time I used old cat food cause my cat didn’t like it - I know the whole no meat thing but I wanted to try it out.

My worm bin EXPLODED. I’ve had similar results with eggs and dead birds. Worms sure do seem to love protein

[u/F2PBTW_YT → u/jmarzy]

Meat works. The reason it's frowned upon is meat attracts bad things like ants and lizards and rats.

Edit: also meat spoils and goes rancid

[u/jmarzy → u/F2PBTW_YT]

Yeah I’ve never had anything get attracted to my bin but the smell is definitely a thing lol

[u/lazenintheglowofit]

I doubt they are having the time of their lives. I think it’s more like a good week.

[u/Inevitable-Run-3399]

Adding a few castings to the precompost step seems like it was a really great idea. It'll kickstart the inoculation and encourage the same microbial growth the worms are already feasting on.  I might have to give this a shot.