Vermiculture

In my greenhouse, I have a worm composter that I made out of a plastic tub. To make the worm composter, one needs to drill holes in the bottom of the tub and in the lid cover. The holes in the bottom of the tub allow the excess liquid created by the decomposing vegetation to drain out. The excess liquid is known as worm tea.  One needs to place a tray under the tub to catch the liquid and keep the compost worms from crawling out the holes. Since my composter is in the greenhouse, I am not too worried about worm tea leaking out because the excess liquid will drain into the greenhouse soil floor. One can begin your vermiculture mixture with shredded newsprint that is moistened with water. The paper should be damp. The moist paper is simply plant cellulose that is high in carbon content. The compost worms will devour the newsprint into a light fluffy compost. When you add vegetative compost such as vegetable and fruit peelings, the compost will have a high content of potassium and phosphorus.  If there is too high a concentration of green material, the compost may begin to smell of rotting vegetation but with the right mixture of shredded paper , the carbon in the paper will counteract the odour of the vegetation so that there is absolutely no odour.  I have found that by adding a few handfuls of peat moss to the vermiculture mixture, will absorb the worm tea and counteract the smell created by the excess liquid.  I have been experimenting a worm composter tumbler to rotate the compost material.  In a square tub, one has to periodically turn the compost with a garden tool to aerate the material and spread the compost material so the compost worms will digest the composting material. Red wiggler compost worms can be purchased at any fishing store that sells red wiggler worms.  A pound of red wigglers sells for about $25 a pound. I started out with just a couple of dozen red wigglers and let them multiply.  Worm soil sells for about $15 a litre. I use a couple of tablespoons for my potted geraniums . The high phosphorus and potassium content of the compost stimulates flowers to produce blooms.  Nitrogen promotes vegetative green leafy growth.

Greenhouse

I managed to find some nice metal shelving for my greenhouse on which to place my various plants in specific micro-climates. I have placed my cattleya orchids that like high light on the top shelves and the cooler growing cymbidiums next to the window. In the spring , I will start the bedding plants on the middle shelf.  I will be pruning my fig trees down to about 4 feet so they can grow new foliage next year.  I have place water barrels in the greenhouse for humidity, temperature control and water for the plants. I have eight tropical fish tanks in the greenhouse and use the fish water to water the orchids.  I have a couple of worm composters to recycle the leaves and other vegetable matter.  I am also going to experiment in growing plants with different soil mixtures.

Pruning Fruit Trees

October was a nice month of Indian Summer. With November came the first snow fall and currently it is cold. Before the first snows of November came, I pruned my fruit trees. The cherry and apple trees that were 25 feet tall were trimmed down to a height of 10 feet. In the spring, the trees will grow back with new vitality in the new shoots and the apples on the Macintosh tree will be even larger. If one does not prune the fruit trees, the increased foliage means most of the plants nutrients goes into maintaining the old vegetative growth. As the branches grow longer and higher there is a tendency for the branches to snap or cause the main trunk to crack with the excessive weight.  The root system has more energy to produce newer and more vigorous growth because the old growth has been eliminated.