Earthwormponics

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Would the flood and drain method work with earthwormponics? Or would that be to wet for the worms.

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I made a top drip system with a air pump. Everything works good but the worms don't seam to be eating any of the food iv put in. I just put it right in the clay rock. What would be the best way to feed the worms? I started it 2 weeks ago. The plant is growing but no sign of the worms.

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Anyone have any ideas?

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Thanks for the help.

[Earthworm Willy]

Ha, I can see you've really gotten some good insight here huh Pacer. It could be that you are a pioneer when it comes to this. I've been looking at it and wanting to give it a shot but haven't gotten there yet. What are you feeding the worms? Is it mixed in or are you just adding in some at a time?

Educate me. What is the flood and drain method? Put in water til it's flowing over the top and then let it drain out on it's own? I would think this would be too wet. How did you create a drip with an air pump? I'd love to give you ideas I just don't have any. If you care to explain what you've done though i'd be happy to brainstorm with you and try some of it on my own here for us to compare.

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Look up Ebb and flow and it will tell you how flood and drain works. I'm feeding my worms chicken layer with some egg shells and I'm just adding it to it. It's not mixed in. I didn't creat a top drip system with a air pump I built one. If you look up a gh farm kit you will see what kind of top drip system I made. Instead of buying one I made one of my own. You can fiend videos of this on YouTube as well.

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So what do you think earthworm willy?

[Earthworm Willy]

First of all Pacer, what's the difference between creating and building something?.......

What do I think? I think I have a lot to learn about hydroponic systems themselves before I'll have any sort of knowledge on how to apply worms to them. So I guess the whole principle here is to use a top drip system to constantly feed the plant and that drips down throughout the worm's media in order to feed the water below? Other than the clay balls, what do you introduce in there to sustain the worms? I understand feeding them periodically but what exactly are they living in? With this set up are you still adding any supplements to feed the water or is the worm castings doing all of the feeding? I understand the air pump to provide oxygen to the water in order to support the roots. Are you using some sort of water pump to create your top drip?

You've really got me looking at all of the hydroponic stuff that is out there. I would think that the ebb and flow could possibly drown the worms but who know. There's only one way to find out.

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If I had created it I'd be the first person to build one but I'm not. I looked them up and seen how they were maid and how it worked and made one for myself. All of this is just an experiment. Had to start some where. I don't know much about hydroponics other than the idea of it. Growing plants without dirt. How you get your nutrients is the key. By putting the worms in the clay rock and feeding them they will produce castings and with the water passing through it will creat a worm tea. I'm not sure how my worms are doing in there but they did eat some food. The plants are doing good. Iv thought about trying a hydroponics set up with no worms but just worm tea. That would be another experiment. I'm just trying things to try it. If anyone has better ideas or can use my ideas then good.

[Benjy136]

Pacer;

It was my thought that the worms didn't get their sustainance from the food directly, but from the aerobic bacteria. That being said, perhaps your set-up may require the food to be broken down before introducing it to the worms. But then, what do I know. Just a thought. I have three buckets of poop and water being aereated for a week, now. Two of rabbit and one of horse. The horse is staying fairly neutral while the Rabbit is turning alkaline. I have added a couple tablespoons of molasses to all of them (unsulphured) to improve the bacteria count. The poop will be aereated in one bucket continually to see if the solids will be broken down to a slurry. I imagine it's going to take a while if it works. So far, there is no odor coming from the buckets. My plan is, if it does break down, to use some to feed the worms, and use the castings with plants and take some and feed it directly to my plants and keep photographic records lol

Benjy