Hell yes Tad Hussey just hit me up about work conducting business with the company I work for. Fucking love my job as I am also receiving aficionado estates genetic clones next week for my new tent gifted to my boss from seed breeder. Pancakez and GTR fucking GTR regular 20 pack of seeds are $600.
Have you run any gear from MendoTwenty20? Got half a room packed with their genetics we are harvesting now. Hoping they test out nicely. RD
Tad's the man. His podcasts are what got me into organic growing in the first place. Sounds like a fantastic place to work, man!
Hi guys, hope all is well. Just thought I'd share an observation I had today. As a few of you know, in addition to worms, I also manage a small mealworm bin as well (diy frass production). Part of my occasional maintenance involves picking out the dead beetles, larvae and pupae. Until yesterday I just tossed 'em in the garden, but curiosity got the best of me and I threw a handful of the dead bugs into my bin. Well... I'll be damned if the noodles didn't flip out! Definitely some kickin' microbial action going on. The lil guys were amassed around the dead bugs like they would with malted barley. Crazy stuff. I'm not a scientist nor did I even stay at a holiday Inn last night. Any guesses as to why dead and dried insects cause such a reaction?
Yeah, that's where my thoughts were going as well. I'm sure it's perfectly fine in a worm bin (obviously haha)... but now I'm starting to think there's not much reason why I should store the frass separately from my castings. I came across a product from TeaLab called TripppleCast, which is essentially 98% euro and red worm castings and 2% frass... I'm curious as to how they came to that ratio. Regardless, I think I have two upcoming experiments to explore... first one trying to create my own "trippplecast" recipe with my own castings and frass, and another to gauge the reaction of the worms with new bedding that has my frass already mixed into it. Similar to our amended bedding recipes with bark, kelp, rockdusts and whathaveyou, but with an additional input of frass. My guess is that it will jumpstart the chitin-degrading bacteria within the bedding and possibly accelerate the breakdown... but thats just a guess. Either options (castings+frass OR bedding+frass) I'm sure will have the same result... but it'll be interesting to see if there are any changes in the acceleration of casting development. I'm sure the nutrient and microbial diversity will ramp up. Hopefully the new bedding + frass idea won't kill my bin... but if the dead bug observation is any indicator I'm sure it'll be fine. I'm not a scientist, and I don't have any lab equipment so any changes I see will be strictly from my own (probably biased) observations fwiw. (Sorry for my rambling... I have the tendency to write out my thoughts)
I don't see how you could go wrong. You are just making for super efficient breakdown of materials. I love the idea of frass with castings. I almost suspect that the 2% is about two things. One, its just enough to claim that there is a decent amount in there, so its truly enough to be beneficial. Two, that frass is so much more expensive per weight than castings. I'm not trying to make it sound like they are cheap. I like the idea of mixing the two, a lot. cheers os
Oh, I'm sure it's mainly marketing that has the product touted the way it is. As we know, the castings are only as quality as what the worms are fed... so it wouldn't surprise me if "trippplecast" is made from cardboard fed worms and mealworms. From a bottom-line perspective, it makes sense. That said, the concept is sound... introduction of new/different microbiology and the product is more powerful than the sum of its parts. I wish I was intelligent enough to dive into the diffrent microbial colonies each offered, but I think we're still onto something I finished making my own version of "trippplecast" for my next aact brew attempt. 21 cups of my castings, 1/4 cup each of commercial mealworm frass, bsf frass, cricket frass and my homemade mealworm frass, all hydrated to field capacity with a weak molasses solution. I'm kind of taking a shotgun approach towards a diverse aact. I'm not sure how long I should let this batch "settle" before doing another aact run, or if it should be mixed before hand at all. Wish I had tim wilson on speed dial haha
He would probably be pretty interested. I swear he used to peruse the Organic Forum at one time. Microbeman maybe. cheers os
@Microbeman I'd LOVE to get your thoughts on the microbial possibilities of using frass in conjunction with castings in an aact brew. I know it's been touted to be a good fungal food source, but does the frass itself carry any significant microbial populations? (Last post was over two years ago... I know it's a long shot, but still worth a try)
I’m about to hit the Worm chapter (9) in Teaming With Microbes. I’ve heard him on the subject in lecture and podcast so I’m excited. His explanation of Arthropods in the Soil Web was pretty good too.
That's a great chapter, one of the more interesting ones in the first half. Admittedly the first half of the book is a tad too technical to hold much of my interest.. part 2 (the practical methods applied) are what really intrigued me. Currently rereading the compost tea section
It's being 7 months now and I still haven't quite filled my first trays. I do lose a bit out the bottom and it gets taken out and put on my plants. I also scoop up some with worms and put it back in the tray with the bedding.
I wanna start using greensand in my worm bins to get it to start breaking down quicker, I've had it in my soil for going on the 6th year. I have a couple of questions. How much should I use per cf of bedding? If I put it in my VC would I still have to reamend my soil with it every few years?