Going green: Composting with worms

Some time ago I already had a few rants about the benefits of using worm compost. It is a bit odd really, that so little people use it.
It would be a bit over the top, but did you know what a wormbin 2 by 3 foot would compost all the human waste a 4 people household produces.

Worm compost or vermicompost is the perfect fertilizer with loads of extras. Worms eat garbage, or bio-waste from anything green, or that used to be green. The best worms for the job are not the normal ones, but you should get manure worms or Eisenia Fetida. They eat manure, preferably horse manure, but anything else rotting will do as well. All our kitchen waste is fed to worms, red wriggler worms or compost worms or simply redworms, and they love it, even coffee grounds, tea bags, cardboard, grass clippings or flowers they love.

And you know what? A worm bin smells like the forest, I love it !

It is faster than the normal compost bin, even faster than a tumbler composter and gives less to no greenhouse gases such as Methane. Both can be combined, if you just add some worms to the bin, or tumbler. You can find the right worms at shops that sell worm bins, or you can find them in old manure.

left plants in home-made root riot cube with worm compost- right in normal potting soil

Worm compost makes the soil rich with micro-organisms; adding enzymes such as phosphatase and cellulose. The microbial activity in worm castings is 10 to 20 times higher than in the soil and bio-waste the worm ingests.
For your plants it enhances germination excels plant growth and crop yield, improves root growth and structure. The micro-organisms are adding plant hormones such as auxins and gibberellic acid to your potting soil, and the best part, aphids and bugs hate the smell of plants grown in soil with 5-10% worm compost added.

Wormcompost is 100% free of pathogens it is even tested and proven that worms can clean a layer of sewage waste in a matter of 7 days. . .
Now don't think you will catch me defecating on a bucket now.
Then again, some time ago I had the chance to visit a friend in Finland, now that was a vacation ! I have seen soo much on the travel, it was an eyeopener really. In Finland we were invited to stay over a couple of days at my friends summer house. Now I didn't know what to expect, but this summer house is where they have their vacations or weekends fishing, boating and camping out. But let me tell you this really was a house where I would love to live, close to the sea, but odd enough now without electricity or sewer.
The first part I loved, seeing all the oil lamps, but he second part did worry me a bit. I have never seen an out house, let alone did a big one on it. I can't remember playing with poo, so not knowing what to expect I got a great explanation.
If you add some grass and a handful sawdust every time, the ammonia is neutralized by the silicic acid in the grass and the sawdust takes up the moisture. And really that is all to not make it stink. After the bucket is full, leave it for a week and feed it to the worms.
Feed it to the worms was to bury it slightly in a composting spot, spreading it and covering it just a bit. The worms eat it in a matter of days, and after they are done it is the cleanest compost you will ever see.

Sorry, I got carried away a bit. Now I will have to do condense writing. . . .

What you need is 2 stackable plastic tubs 30x45 Cm (1 by 1 1/2 feet), 3 small bricks, half a kg ( 1 pound ) some dried eggshells and about 5 litre ( a gallon ) of fresh compost.

Make 25 mm holes ( 1 Inch ) in the bottom of one bin, and cover with a thin polyester filter cloth. This will see to ventilation from the bottom up. Put the 3 small brick in the bottom of the other, to keep the second one up a bit.

Cover the filter cloth with the compost

put in the worms

add a little ground egg shells

Leave em for 14 days, before you start adding more compostable greens. Now worms don't like: Citrus, onion unless boiled a bit. The wife will not like cabbage off any kind, as that will make the bin smell like mad.
Worms need egg shell every 14 days, they use it in their crops to grind their food, So if the bin slows down, add a teaspoon of crushed or ground dried egg shell.

Take a look at times if the bottom bin is filled with moisture, you can use it as a fertilizer too. The bin should neither be soaking wet, nor to dry, just moist. Give it a try, you will love it, reduce your green wast by 90%, and your plants will love it !!

Yours sincerely,

Bart J. Meijer

Pruning and making cuttings from chillies

If you prune a chilli plant, or if a branch breaks off, nothing has got to go to waste.
You can eat the leaves, stir fry the leaves, or boil them like spinach.

But that, my good readers is what we are not going to do. No we are not going to waste a good part that can be used to make a new plant or clone if you like. A lot of readers would ask why on earth would you take a clone from a plant that is being regarded as a annual plant. It is soo much easier to seed is spring and not bother with cuttings, rooting medium and rooting hormone.
Then again, if you have a plant that is great, is pure, and tastes like heaven. .
But the plant is 1 meter high, your wife could say yes to a cutting and no to half a rainforest.

Now how to go about things. There is rooting hormone available, good and pricey, and works like a charm. It is also said that Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) works like a charm, and the answer is no, it helps the plant not to mould. Honey diluted in boiling water, and cooled would work too, and again the answer is no. Both honey and aspirin are antiseptic, so they keep the cutting from moulding and rotting, and this might result in the cutting to be healthy enough for time to get it to grow roots by its own. Chopped willow leaf is told to be a great rooting hormone, and again it is not, as even willow leaves do not grow roots. Even worse, leaves do have a hormone in them, to keep roots from growing and get roots to accumulate sugar for fall.

What does work as a charm are willow branches, they root like crazy in nature, and that is not strange.
Salix (Willow, Osier and Sallow) Salix Alba (White Willow) Weeping willow, or any willow that shoots a root easy, ones not to use are the goat willow (Salix caprea and Salix caprea pendula) and peachleaf willow (Salix amygdaloides). These are the varieties that are grafted normally.
The branches have Salicylic acid (natural Aspirin) with the antiseptic properties, and the growing ends of the branches have Auxins in it. The Auxin in this case is Indole-3-acetic acid, a hormone promoting rooting, which is an ingredient of the store bought rooting powder. Taa and the circle is round again. Now chew a piece of this years willow branch against the headache from reading this last bit and chop the rest up in small pieces. Soak the chopped branches without leaves for several days and you got brilliant rooting agent. The longer you leave the branches in, the better it works, up to 9 days. If you want to be faster, poor boiling water over fine chopped branches including the very fine ends of the branches. Do it this way that the chopped willow branches are just about covered. Let it cool over night and you can use it within 24 hours. Both "tea's" can be stored in an air tight container 2 months if cooled and dark in the fridge.
For those of you that like using dried coco peat or coir, you can soak it with this tea, and you won't have to bother dipping the cuttings. Just plunk them in the coir !

So how to go about making cuttings? Get yourself a good cutting or crafting knife. As you can see I have 2, one from carbon steel to do woody stems and one stainless for if they are soft or medium.
If you have a broken branch, of if you have pruned your chilli plant, you can put the branches in this willow root hormone, as you in the second picture. The will already get some of the hormone and will not dry out.
Then make cuttings from a piece of stem and at least one node with a leaf. Cut a fine strip from the bark and stem lengthwise down, and make a sort of wedge at the end..

Now you can soak them in the willow root hormone again. In my case I still had store bought root hormone powder, so I dipped them in that. Need to finish that stuff, or it is a waste of money.

Now you might notice, I cut one of the leaves off, and left the leaf stem. Now that I do, in order to keep the cutting from drying out. Plus it is a good way to see if the cutting is picking up. If it is doing well and getting roots, it will drop that stem from the cut leaf.

Now as I work with a double tray, a bottom and a rootcell plate, I fill a bit of water in the bottom for I will keep it on a heated spot. This water will keep the cuttings from drying out.

For the picture I took off the cover.

Now the warm place I use is the computer. I have the rooting propagator on top of my workstation. And as it rather early for cuttings, they need a warm place and some good light. So I have a 8 Watt 6500 Kelviin daylight fluorescent light above it for 14 hours. And that works like a charm! Keep the cover on for 14 days at least ! After signs of rooting you can take it off.

You can use this method with all kinds of plants and bushes, even with pot plants and cannabis!
No go out to get some willow !

Yours sincerely,

Bart J. Meijer