I started this blog to document my OSCR bin but I neglected to say anything about who we are and what we’re doing. I start out by introducing myself. My name is Mike Wellik. I live in New Castle County, Delaware. For many years I have been growing and testing gourmet strawberries. A few years ago I started selling the seeds and plants. As the business progressed, we started an ecommerce site and incorporated a business named The Strawberry Store, LLC.
So, what do strawberries and worms have in common? The story about worms started about 4 years ago. My wife, Maureen, was watching a “green” tv show. One segment was about an ex NFL football player in Michigan. He was raising worms and harvesting the castings to grow organic transplants in his greenhouse. She coaxed me into watching the recording.
I’m a bit slow in taking a hint most of the time. I resisted her urgings to start producing our own fertilizer. She thought we could save a lot of money on buying fertilizer. After some time, I gave in and bought a pound of what I thought were the most expensive worms on earth, red wigglers.
I did some online research and put together a “rubbermaid bin”. I followed the directions and fed our household waste, shredded newspaper and cardboard. The worms were neglected because I was a busy guy. When I’d check them it seemed that the bin was wet. A lot of the worms were on the under side of the lid and on the sides. I guessed that they wanted to “fly to coup”. None of these expensive worms were getting away. I started to do more online research and did what I could to dry out the bin.
I tried a number of different types of bins. I have to admit here that this money saving endeavor was not saving us money – it was costing big bucks! One of the first bins I bought was a wooden stacking system from Canada. Within weeks I hated it and put it on eBay and sold it at a loss. I tried different sized tubs. I found what I call a mortar tray at a big box store. It was about 6″ deep. Here’s a picture.
I still use it. An old piece of carpeting keeps some moisture in but allows it to breath. The worms don’t try to escape as long as I keep it moist but adding water occasionally when needed.
About the same time as I was in this testing phase with vermicomposting, I received the largest wholesale order for plants that I had received to date, a thousand plants. Wow, was I excited. As usual, I checked the customers email address to see if I could find any info on their business. The customer was a landscaper from upstate NY.
The short story is that I contacted him after seeing on his website that he was making and selling compost tea to his lawncare customers. He said he was brewing it in 55 gallon batches and that he had customers waiting in line to buy his expensive tea. I couldn’t imagine what they wanted it for. More research.
One of the things I discovered in my research was that compost and especially vermicompost teas had been shown to suppress insect and disease populations. About this time I was battling fungus gnats and soil diseases like pythium and rizoctonia in my strawberry seedlings. Being and entomologist, I found it difficult to believe that vermicompost tea could have an effect, but these were desperate times with some major pest pressures.
I didn’t have any vermicompost from my pitiful worm farm so I bought some. It wasn’t that expensive to have it delivered. I chose a company that provided a kit on how to brew a tea from the vermicompost. When the kit arrived I followed the directions and brewed a 2 gallon batch – pitiful compared to my customer. Once brewed, I drenched a tray of strawberry seedlings. It was a “desperation drench”. I was very frustrated with the fungus gnat populations and they were winning. Stay tuned for the “rest of the story” ….. until then, promote global worming!!