About a year ago I set up a worm composting system using the Worm Factory. I was pretty excited about it at the time, and I decided to name it Phil (each individual worm is also named Phil). Because I’ve read that vermicomposting can take a while to really get going, I was careful not to overfeed Phil during the first few months. I don’t think I even added a second tray until two or three months had passed.

When July rolled around, the creator of the Worm Factory offered to let me try their new model, and I happily agreed to trial it.

The new Worm Factory is designed to allow better air to flow through the system. The bottom tray now sits on a booster that creates an air gap all the way around the bottom of the tray, and the lid now sits above the top tray rather than inside of it. I was told I could simply take the old trays and stack them in the new system, but I wanted the tray colors to match.

Transferring Phil into his new digs was also a good opportunity to check on the composting process. Aside from a few paper scraps and minor food chunks like eggshells, the bottom tray was ready to harvest (note to self: do a better job of crushing eggshells before feeding them to Phil). I kept the tray going, though, mostly because I was too lazy to empty it out right then.

Fast forward to January 2010, when I finally got around to harvesting some worm castings (I’m skipping a few months where Phil developed a fruit fly problem, and I left him alone for a while – I now make sure to microwave the scraps I feed him to kill any fruit fly eggs).

I moved the bottom tray to the top of the system and left the lid off. I also stirred the castings and kept the light on to encourage the worms to migrate down to the tray below. I left it like that for about a day or so, hoping that the castings might dry out a bit before I took them out to store them. They were still quite moist when I transferred them to a big bowl, though.

We’ll probably mix the castings with potting soil and use the mix for our indoor potted plants, most of which are in dire need of transplanting at the moment.

Phil’s fly problem has cleared up, and he seems to be chugging along just fine for the time being. I think this year I’ll make it a goal to ramp up production and really put Phil to work.

Funnel Collector

Japanese Beetles On A Grape Leaf

Japanese beetles only became a pest in my garden four years ago. When they first appeared their numbers were so overwhelming that I pretty much had no choice but to let them go unchecked. They nearly defoliated my raspberries, but I still got an okay harvest. They loved the asparagus fronds, but they did not seem to be doing severe damage there. Their favorite food was the leaves of the wild grapes that grow all over my property, especially along the fence lines. Many grape leaves were skeletonized, but the vines survived the onslaught.

Three years ago, I saw that the beetles also were doing damage to the raspberry fruit. I decided to fight back. I knew that hand-picking against some insects can be effective, and since, as an organic grower, I either had to hand pick, cover the crops (very unlikely with the berries or the asparagus); or use inoculants like a Bt or milky spore. I read that inoculants, as well as traps, were of limited success, so I decided killing the little buggers with my bare hands would be the best approach.

I’ve been able to do an effective control for asparagus beetles by hand picking. I’ve also been able to keep potato beetles in check and kill off squash vine borers. Hand picking doesn’t work for everything, though. I’ve had no good luck with cabbage moths and their cabbage looper caterpillar. I now totally cover my cole crops with ag fabric to keep the moths off. Cucumber beetles and squash bugs are very difficult to control, as well.

Beetles on An Asparagus Frond

The Japanese beetle is easy to see and slow. Its usual defense is to just let go of whatever it is hanging onto and drop down. The typical hand picking methods cited in gardening literature are to grab the bug with your fingers and squash it, or drop it into a dish of soapy water, where the surfactant properties of the soap drown the bug very quickly; or hold the dish under the beetle(s) and let them drop to their deaths in the soapy water.

I was employing both the pick and squash method and the drop into soapy water method with only limited success. In trying to grab the beetles, they often drop before you can get to them. They react to even a shadow of movement, or, if it’s quite warm, they just fly away. Like houseflies and many other insects, the beetles have much better reflexes when its hot. They are difficult to pick in the heat of the day. That’s why I wait until the sun is no longer overhead and heating up their wings before I do most of my picking. The morning is not good as the plants are usually still wet with dew.

While the drop-into-soapy-water method was delivering a higher success rate than direct picking, it was extremely difficult to use in the asparagus. Trying to slide a bowl, or even a yogurt cup of water under a beetle in the dense fronds was almost impossible. Very often the fronds would fall into the water and a half dozen not-yet-drowned beetles would be clinging to them when I pulled the cup back. I’m not sure what turned on the light, but I realized there had to be a better way, and there was.

I now give the beetles a funnel ride to their deaths with a very simple, cheap, and extremely effective home made device. My material list is a plastic funnel – I’m using one that is about 7″ across the top and with about a half inch opening at the bottom, a gallon plastic juice jug with a screw on top - I’m sure a milk jug would work, and masking tape.

Funnel Taped to Screw-on Cap

When I first put the contraption together, I just taped the funnel to the top of the jug, but I’ve since drilled a 1 1/4″ hole into the screw top and pushed the funnel firmly into the hole and taped it up tightly. This allows me to unscrew the funnel to clean out the bugs rather than having to un-tape the funnel every time the bottle needs to be cleaned out. It also makes the funnel much more stable. I’ve had no problem with it working loose.

Several Days Kill

To say this thing works well is an understatement. My kill ratio versus the hand pick and soapy water methods, has way more than doubled. It is easier and faster. In most instances I just position the funnel under the enemy, wave my hand above the beetle and let it fall. I’ll still hand pick them when they don’t want to let go. But then it’s just a matter of coaxing them to their final ride. I could put some soapy water in the jug, but I don’t. The bugs have never flown back out. I’ll run a little water into the jug when I’m ready to clean it out. I dump the mass of dead bodies into the compost pile and give the jug a good rinsing.

I’m not saying I’ve solved the Japanese beetle problem, but I know I’ve reduced their populations significantly in both the asparagus and the raspberries, as well in my domestic grapes. Those are my only crops where they do damage. The beetles swarm, and if you leave them alone they develop huge masses and will clean the leaves bare. You have to pick just about daily to prevent the swarming from occurring. I don’t know how long the season will last. I’m still picking the plants clean each day, but the funnel trap certainly has made the job a lot easier.

A couple days ago I blogged about flowering edibles in the garden. It was quite hot when I was taking the pictures which included some shots of the multitude of pollinators that collect around the flowers. I commented on how hard it was to photograph the bumblebees because they would not stay still long enough for me to get a good shot.

Yesterday and today have been very cold. A high of about 66 both days. For the middle of July, it is not normal. I came home from a trip to Minneapolis late yesterday afternoon and noticed bumblebees working the coneflowers by the driveway. They were moving quite slowly, and working the flowers very deliberately. I thought it would be easy to get some pictures. It was. The flowers are well past their sell by date, but they still have excellent color and obviously enough pollen to keep the bumblebees interested.

As I was finishing up shooting, I came upon a dying bee. I had already found a dead one. I don’t know if the cold weather was killing them or if they were just running out of gas after their natural life cycle, but I was able to put the camera right up on the bee without any worry about having it get mad at me.

I started pepper seeds yesterday. Here’s the list: Hot peppers: Orange Fogo - source - Renee’s Garden; Red Demon - source – Renee’s Garden; Unknown 1 1/2″ long short fat tapered hot, and Unknown 2 1/2″ long fat tapered hot - source – saved seed from plants given to me by my neighbor Sheryl Jarlsberg; Feherozon Paprika – source – Fedco; Anaheim – source – Fedco; Pasilla Bajio – source – Baker Creek; Bulgarian Carrot Chile – source – Fedco; Ancho 101 – source – Fedco; Hungarian Hot Wax – source – Fedco

Sweet Peppers: Golden Cal Wonder – source – Baker Creek; Corno Rosso – source – Franchi; Sunset Orange – source – Seeds of Change; Red Rocoto – source – Seed Savers; Golden Treasure – source – Baker Creek; King of the North – source – Fedco; Red Belgian – source – Baker Creek.

I have two seed packs missing in action. I bought a Cayenne and a Jimmy Nardello from a vendor selling Seed Savers seeds at the Madison Garden Expo, but I can’t remember where I put them, so if I find them in time, they will be added to the flat. I’ll fill the flat up with eggplant and tomato seedlings, but those aren’t as time critical as the peppers.

This is a new set up. The propagating mat I’ve had for years, likewise the flats, which I keep repairing and making new as needed. But the lighting is brand new, purchased at the Chicago Flower & Garden Show. It’s an LED grow light panel being sold at the show by an Illinois company called Sunshine Systems. The panels look a lot like the toys called Lite Brite my kids played with years ago, but the advantage for growers include almost no heat output, super energy efficiency, and extreme bulb longevity. The red/blue light they put out looks like it belongs in a night club, but it is a light spectrum ideally suited for plant growth. If the lighting works as well as Larry Schack, the owner of Sunshine Systems, assured me, we may be selling these on our website.

I’ve stuck the whole system in an unused part of the basement. I cover the seedlings with newspaper to hold in the moisture and I monitor the soil temperature. Peppers like it very warm for germination, 85º is not too hot. If the seedling cups get too warm I insert some flat wood pieces between the heat mat and the bottom of the flats. Being too cold has never been an issue.

I’ll be able to get four flats on the mat at a time. As the seeds sprout and develop a little leaf and strength, I’ll move them to natural light in the south facing sunroom. From there, they’ll get potted off, hardened and into the garden. If all goes well, I’ll have 17 (or more) varieties of peppers to enjoy later in the season.

I’ve wanted a worm bin for a while, but it was never an urgent issue. It’s not as though we don’t have a compost pile. For as long as I can remember, we’ve composted all of our food scraps. In fact, when I was a kid, I didn’t know what a garbage disposal was. I distinctly remember visiting a friend’s house and asking where they kept the compost bucket. The way I understood it, throwing food into the kitchen sink was a BAD thing. Imagine my surprise when she flipped a switch, and the sink ATE the table scraps! At the time, I probably thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I’ve since gotten over it.

College was a different story. No one composted in the dorms. There were no places for compost piles at any of the various apartments I rented. I was vaguely aware of worm composting as an option, but I really didn’t think much about it. I was too busy making sure I got to band practice on time. Yes, I was a band geek.

Then I moved to Austin, Texas, where my brother and I shared an apartment for three years. Geoff kept a community garden plot, but there was no place in the apartment complex to keep a compost pile. Geoff decided to try worm composting, and he had some degree of success using five gallon plastic buckets that he kept out on our balcony. He also made me read Worms Eat My Garbage, by Mary Appelhof. It was a very informative book and a pretty good read, but still I didn’t really pay much attention to Geoff’s worms or his garden plot. I was too busy working two jobs.

When I started working for CobraHead, my interest in worms began to grow. I attended garden shows and Green Festivals, and I would see stackable worm composting systems like the Worm Factory and the Can-O-Worms. I thought they were great products, but by then I was back at my parents house. We didn’t need a worm bin – we had a compost pile (several, actually).

But then, it happened.

My best friend got a worm bin. And the worm bin was cool.

When I visited, I would ask Kelly how the worms were doing. “Can I feed them? Can we call them Squiggly?” Yes, I named her worms Squiggly. All of them. It’s not like we were going to try to keep track of individual worms, so the whole bin became Squiggly. I was so fond of Kelly’s worms that I regarded them as another pet. And I wanted my own.

I finally got around to ordering my worm bin a little while ago, and Kelly was kind enough to give me some of her worms. I decided I’d better come up with a name other than Squiggly, and Squiggly II seemed a bit unimaginative. It’s been a few weeks, and I’ve finally settled on name.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Phil.