white tomato planting bags

[mdvpc]

JB-so maybe you shouldn't add compost. let the worms finish off the tomato roots, and when they don't have anything to eat, they will either leave the container, or die. Either way, you have accomplished what you set out to do-reuse the container soil. And there will be some worm castings for fert.

[OmahaJB]

Will try it that way then, Michael. Thanks...Jeff

[mdvpc]

Glad I could give you some ideas.

[outsiders71]

At the end of the season, couldn't you just pull out the tomato plant (as much as possible), then throw a black garbage bag over the bag and just leave it outside in a full sun area where it can solarize (sp?). The sun should be able to bake it before the next season comes.

[dice]

With the containers for seed potatoes, you could let the
worms feast and put a container on top of the soil with
1/4" holes in the bottom, worm bedding (moist shredded
newspaper, for example), and some kitchen scraps, coffee
grounds, old oatmeal, etc in the top container (buried in
the worm bedding), covered with a piece of cardboard. A
top cover with tiny aeration holes in it is recommended,
too.

Once the worms run out of things to eat in the containers
where you had tomatoes or other veggies this year, they
will crawl up into the container above through the holes
in the bottom of it. Once you find the top container full
of worms, dump it into a worm bin, into another container
that is not going to have seed potatoes, or whatever.
The worms in it are still going to need something to eat
if they are to survive over the winter.

The top container can be anything that will sit in the top of
one of your containers or grow bags without falling over
(like a 2-gallon plastic ice cream container, or anything
like that.)

The document at the URL below describes a worm bin setup
and regular rotation using 2 identical plastic bins and the
system above:

http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/Easywormbin.htm

You would be duplicating part of this system, using your
growbags/containers with used container mix in place
of the bottom worm bin initially. (A little molasses might
help bacteria soften up the roots for the worms faster.)

The only real caveat with the system above as a simple
2-container worm bin rotation is that it requires patience
(waiting for the worms to migrate into the top container
before you use the worm castings in the bottom container).
I keep a shallow aluminum pastry pan under the bottom worm
bin to collect "worm tea" that regularly dribbles out of it, pouring it into containers or around recent transplants into the
garden.

[OmahaJB]

Good ideas 'outsiders' & 'dice'. After I harvest the potatoes in what will probably be early September, I'm going to figure out a way to use the worms to take care of the roots. Will probably dump all of the dirt out of each grow bag, 1 bag at at a time to harvest the potatoes, then put the soil in large clean buckets at which point I'll add the red worms. And I may take the time to separate out some of the cleaner soil from the heavily rooted soil, and store that separately until next spring. Then the worms will have less work to do find the roots to chomp on.

I'll have to read through the info on the proper forum for this, but I'm wondering if the worms would eat the vegetation from the potato plants. Some of the stalks are pretty darned thick. I'm guessing the answer is yes, which would be great - would end up with ALOT of worm castings from that.

[dice]

I'm wondering if the worms would eat the vegetation from the potato plants

Sure, they just have to rot a bit first. That happens naturally
in moist compost piles or soil.