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  • From: Stephen Sherman <spsherm@msn.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Was "moldy compost"
  • Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:19:39 -0600

Here in the Colorado Rockies at 8400' red wigglers survive the winters just fine outdoors (-20F most years), perhaps too well...

I added red wigglers to my compost pile some years back. While they no doubt do help decompose the scraps in the pile, I have found them to be quite aggressive in their search for food. They will eat living plants in the garden, both roots and up above ground (I still find small ones inside cabbage, must have moved in when the head was forming). They aren't a terrible problem, just a nuisance; especially in the cabbage.

Perhaps I have a more aggressive strain, or maybe there is a better way to manage the compost heap so that the worms do not find their way to the garden with the finished compost. But if I had it to do over, I'd skip the red wigglers.

Steve




mIEKAL aND wrote:
Here in SW Wisc the red wigglers make it thru the winter in the
compost piles, I'm assuming they burrow down below the frost line...
Gets -30F here.

~mIEKAL







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