One of our readers emailed us inquiring about adding Miracle-Gro peat moss to some of the red fishing worms he had recently purchased. He wanted to know if they would grow and reproduce. Red fishing worms or red wigglers as they are commonly referred to, are often used in composting. If these worms are taken care of properly, they will grow and reproduce.
Just like our reader, many people try to add peat moss as bedding for their worms. Some will even add Miracle-Gro peat moss to the bedding. This is not exactly the best route to go. Worms need organic matter to thrive and this type of peat moss contains many fertilizers that are not organic. This can throw off the salinity of the soil and will kill the worms or drive them out.
There are plenty of ways to help the worms thrive. Our reader can use regular peat moss, but they will need to change it out every 14 days. The peat moss needs to be completely organic and contain no fertilizers. This will help to prevent protein poisoning.
If our reader is trying to grow and breed worms, they can use peat moss along with other ingredients. They can add shredded and dampened paper or cardboard. They can also use manure and dampened sawdust. All of the ingredients should be dampened. PH levels and temperature should be check very frequently. The ingredients need to heat up before adding the worms to the bedding. If the ingredients have not heated up, the worms will die.
When starting a worm bed, it is important that our reader adds a few worms at a time to keep from killing them. The bedding should be changed very frequently. The more worms that our reader has, the more they should change out the bedding.
In summary, our reader asked us if using Miracle-Gro peat moss will help in his worm bedding. This type of peat moss will either drive the worms away or kill them because they will not have organic matter to eat and thrive on. Our suggestion is to use organic peat moss along with dampened paper products. This will help the worms to grow and reproduce.
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I find that if you crush up some egg shells it not only helps with the ph and calcium levels in the soil but also helps the worms digest as they have gizzards and rely on grit from sand or something else to help. Hope its helpful.
I have worms in a 50/50 mix of peat moss and coco coir. I feed them organic corn meal and used coffee grounds. Is that enough diversity?
Thanks
Steve