6,000 lbs Of Food On 1/10th Acre – Urban Farm

20k worms at about 1000 per lb and will eat 50+% of their body weight daily….that’s about 10 lbs of food a day …hmmm something doesn’t add up with what you said. Either your worms are tiny or being starved to death. Try augmenting with some corn meal they will love it and you will get a lot more output :p

Hi Trader: Thanks for the reply. I really appreciate it,since down here on another continent I dont have many Vermi-Friends! Anyway I was joking a bit at “20k”, however your reply raises another point.

I will start with my “reality check” and that is that I assume that between my two “12-Pack” sized “tubs” (one plastic and one wood) that (ex-vermipost and “work in progress”) there might be 1.5 +/- lbs of “worms” (eg 1000-2000 as we have enjoyed a massive “baby boom” recently since I seem to have (suddenly) “gotten the reppoductive conditions/diet right” and those little featherweight newborns should be coming to the table in coming weeks with some appetite.

HOWEVER, the most interestnig point you raise is the very circulated “50% of Body Weight”

As I have pondered this number over the past 2 years, I think it is a bit confusing. First of all, I am certain that “environmental conditions” make a BIG difference in tha “maximum potential consumption” (hot, cold, wet, dry, size of raw material, composition of raw materian (Nitrogen versus Carbon) etc.). My worms (or more probably the fungi they feed on) dont like Peruvian, cold (50f degree) winters, for example,

AAAANYWAY, back to 50%: Unlike Horses or Humans we dont (generally!) eat our poop! However worms process, re-process-re-process and re-process the stuff in their “manger” until there is not “nutrition” left, and then a birth (or even population) decline occurs.

When I was a “newbie” I used to get depressed at my “TERRIBLY underperforming” bins when I could not add 300grams a day of “fresh food” for 600 grams of worms. I was lucky to add the equivalent of 10% of their weight.

However, I finally concluded that “eating 50%” was NOT the equivalent of being able to ADD 50% since decomposition and production of vermipost is a continuing process of converting scraps and sawdust into black vermipost, and not a “one time affair” of “eat then poop” like it is for “other” animals.

Comments?