I know this has been discussed before but I have several questions.

I have a few compost heaps now and the very first one I introduced some
worms.

An old schoolmate has only just started composting and he has worms already
without introducing. How can that be?

I tipped my dalek type compost bin over in Nov. and spreaded the compost on
top of the soil where my spuds are going to be 2012 with thousands of
stripey worms. I have huge earthworms even now when I dig down. I am
wondering what happened to the stripeys(origional worms), have they been
eaten? Have they transformed into earthworms?

Baz

On Sun, 11 Dec 2011 13:21:24 GMT, Baz wrote:

I know this has been discussed before but I have several questions.

I have a few compost heaps now and the very first one I introduced some
worms.

An old schoolmate has only just started composting and he has worms already
without introducing. How can that be?

I tipped my dalek type compost bin over in Nov. and spreaded the compost on
top of the soil where my spuds are going to be 2012 with thousands of
stripey worms. I have huge earthworms even now when I dig down. I am
wondering what happened to the stripeys(origional worms), have they been
eaten? Have they transformed into earthworms?

Baz

There's worms and worms, Baz.

If conditions are right to get the stuff composting, worms will move
up from the soil so clearly your mate has filled his compost heap or
bin with the right combination of stuff (starting a bin by mixing some
compost into the vegetable matter helps) - earthworms won't relocate
to a pile of plant matter - they need something similar to earth,
hence mixing in the compost to encourage them.

Tiger worms, if that's what you mean by the stripeys, are not
earthworms. They need a different environment, either a wormery or a
compost heap constructed like a wormery - they eat upwards as it were.
So when they finish consuming the food at one level, they move up to
the next. They won't move back down and certainly won't move into
soil. So if you spread them out over the surface of the soil, they
will die as there is nothing for them to move up into. Earthworms
will, of course, happily migrate downwards into the soil.

The chances are that most of the worms were in the top bit of the
dalek. If you try this again, the next time you turn the bin out,
separate the top section of compost (dig down with a trowel before
tipping out and find the level where there are few worms) and return
that to the compost bin (i.e. at the bottom) then as you add stuff
they will work their way up again (and multiply even more!).

As a general rule, it will also help if, about every 6 inches of dalek
height, you add an inch of compost mixed with a lot of shredded,
rather than torn up, newspaper. They love this little treat - for
them it's like lounging in an overflowing bath with a Cadbury's Flake


Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling (after the first frost) from
the dryer (east) end of Swansea Bay.

Jake Nospam@invalid wrote in
:

There's worms and worms, Baz.

If conditions are right to get the stuff composting, worms will move
up from the soil so clearly your mate has filled his compost heap or
bin with the right combination of stuff (starting a bin by mixing some
compost into the vegetable matter helps) - earthworms won't relocate
to a pile of plant matter - they need something similar to earth,
hence mixing in the compost to encourage them.

Tiger worms, if that's what you mean by the stripeys, are not
earthworms. They need a different environment, either a wormery or a
compost heap constructed like a wormery - they eat upwards as it were.
So when they finish consuming the food at one level, they move up to
the next. They won't move back down and certainly won't move into
soil. So if you spread them out over the surface of the soil, they
will die as there is nothing for them to move up into. Earthworms
will, of course, happily migrate downwards into the soil.

The chances are that most of the worms were in the top bit of the
dalek. If you try this again, the next time you turn the bin out,
separate the top section of compost (dig down with a trowel before
tipping out and find the level where there are few worms) and return
that to the compost bin (i.e. at the bottom) then as you add stuff
they will work their way up again (and multiply even more!).

As a general rule, it will also help if, about every 6 inches of dalek
height, you add an inch of compost mixed with a lot of shredded,
rather than torn up, newspaper. They love this little treat - for
them it's like lounging in an overflowing bath with a Cadbury's Flake


Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling (after the first frost) from
the dryer (east) end of Swansea Bay.


Thanks,
Just what I wanted to hear Jake

Baz

On Sun, 11 Dec 2011 14:35:09 GMT, Baz wrote:

Jake Nospam@invalid wrote in
:

There's worms and worms, Baz.

If conditions are right to get the stuff composting, worms will move
up from the soil so clearly your mate has filled his compost heap or
bin with the right combination of stuff (starting a bin by mixing some
compost into the vegetable matter helps) - earthworms won't relocate
to a pile of plant matter - they need something similar to earth,
hence mixing in the compost to encourage them.

Tiger worms, if that's what you mean by the stripeys, are not
earthworms. They need a different environment, either a wormery or a
compost heap constructed like a wormery - they eat upwards as it were.
So when they finish consuming the food at one level, they move up to
the next. They won't move back down and certainly won't move into
soil. So if you spread them out over the surface of the soil, they
will die as there is nothing for them to move up into. Earthworms
will, of course, happily migrate downwards into the soil.

The chances are that most of the worms were in the top bit of the
dalek. If you try this again, the next time you turn the bin out,
separate the top section of compost (dig down with a trowel before
tipping out and find the level where there are few worms) and return
that to the compost bin (i.e. at the bottom) then as you add stuff
they will work their way up again (and multiply even more!).

As a general rule, it will also help if, about every 6 inches of dalek
height, you add an inch of compost mixed with a lot of shredded,
rather than torn up, newspaper. They love this little treat - for
them it's like lounging in an overflowing bath with a Cadbury's Flake


Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling (after the first frost) from
the dryer (east) end of Swansea Bay.


Thanks,
Just what I wanted to hear Jake

Baz

Sorry Baz! Sometimes the truth hurts. It's not easy because those tiny
little tiger worms, when fed right, will grow to the size of lovely
fat earthworms. If what you turned out were thousands of tiny little
things, it may be that they were actually a form of little maggot or,
if they were tigers, they would not have survived through the winter
in the dalek anyway. Tigers need a10 degrees C to be active and will
die if the temp falls below about 1 degree C.


Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling (after the first frost) from
the dryer (east) end of Swansea Bay.

Jake Nospam@invalid wrote:
Tigers need a10 degrees C to be active and will
die if the temp falls below about 1 degree C.

I would expect the inside of a dalek to stay above freezing if it's filled
with sensible compostibles

On 11 Dec 2011 18:51:43 GMT, wrote:

Jake Nospam@invalid wrote:
Tigers need a10 degrees C to be active and will
die if the temp falls below about 1 degree C.

I would expect the inside of a dalek to stay above freezing if it's filled
with sensible compostibles

I think the issue would be the amount of air amongst the compostibles.
I don't know about you but whilst I tend to compress the stuff thrown
on the open heap, if only by turning it in, I just chuck stuff into my
daleks and don't press it down.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling (after the first frost) from
the dryer (east) end of Swansea Bay.

Tiger worms are earthworms (at least to a biologist they are). There are very many species of earthworm across the world. The big fat normal "earthworms" are genus Lumbricus, the tiger worms genus Eisenia. Both are native to Europe but thrive in different conditions, the tiger worms preferring very high levels of humus.

The tiger worms can breed fast, and there's enough of them around for them to colonise your heap if they can gain access to it - they'll then breed very rapidly and you'll end up with great handfuls of them. And they'll disappear equally rapidly when conditions are no longer right.

In article , Jake
writes
The chances are that most of the worms were in the top bit of the
dalek

Yeah - with both my compost and wormery, I take the view that the
compost isn't really ready to go out until the worms have migrated to a
different part of the mixture

--
regards andyw

Jake Nospam@invalid wrote in
:

On Sun, 11 Dec 2011 13:21:24 GMT, Baz wrote:

I know this has been discussed before but I have several questions.

I have a few compost heaps now and the very first one I introduced
some worms.

An old schoolmate has only just started composting and he has worms
already without introducing. How can that be?

I tipped my dalek type compost bin over in Nov. and spreaded the
compost on top of the soil where my spuds are going to be 2012 with
thousands of stripey worms. I have huge earthworms even now when I dig
down. I am wondering what happened to the stripeys(origional worms),
have they been eaten? Have they transformed into earthworms?

Baz

There's worms and worms, Baz.

If conditions are right to get the stuff composting, worms will move
up from the soil so clearly your mate has filled his compost heap or
bin with the right combination of stuff (starting a bin by mixing some
compost into the vegetable matter helps) - earthworms won't relocate
to a pile of plant matter - they need something similar to earth,
hence mixing in the compost to encourage them.

Tiger worms, if that's what you mean by the stripeys, are not
earthworms. They need a different environment, either a wormery or a
compost heap constructed like a wormery - they eat upwards as it were.
So when they finish consuming the food at one level, they move up to
the next. They won't move back down and certainly won't move into
soil. So if you spread them out over the surface of the soil, they
will die as there is nothing for them to move up into. Earthworms
will, of course, happily migrate downwards into the soil.

The chances are that most of the worms were in the top bit of the
dalek. If you try this again, the next time you turn the bin out,
separate the top section of compost (dig down with a trowel before
tipping out and find the level where there are few worms) and return
that to the compost bin (i.e. at the bottom) then as you add stuff
they will work their way up again (and multiply even more!).

As a general rule, it will also help if, about every 6 inches of dalek
height, you add an inch of compost mixed with a lot of shredded,
rather than torn up, newspaper. They love this little treat - for
them it's like lounging in an overflowing bath with a Cadbury's Flake


Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling (after the first frost) from
the dryer (east) end of Swansea Bay.


I learn every day.

Thanks, jake.
Baz