Parsley seeds can take a month to germinate, unless pretreated. A published peer reviewed study showed that pre-treating seeds with a polyethylene glycol solution (302 g PEG “6000” per 1 kg distilled water) at 15°C for 3 weeks, the surface drying the seeds led to seeds germinating in 1 or 2 days.

Update, I ended up planting wheat because I ran out of time! Crickets eat wheat too, so that’s ok. The wheat seeds sprouted in 2 days. I pre-treated them by:
- submerging them in water in the fridge for a day
- draining them
- putting every 1/2 cup of these seeds in a sealed plastic bag on top of the fridge, to use the appliance’s wasted heat. This was for a day as well.

At the end of the second day most seeds had sprouted, and I placed them in pots. These were filled with a 1:1 soil to vermicast mix. In fact, I placed them in self-watering mini pots I created.

Nuit Blanche is in 2 days, and the wheat grass is already 10 cm tall, 3 days after planting them and 5 days after starting the pre-germination treatment. In my Nuit Blanche exhibit, the grass display will illustrate how vermicast cycles nutrients from waste back into plants.

“New Texas Legislation- Urban Farm Microenterprise Support Program:
House Bill 2994 amends the Agriculture Code to require the board of
directors of the Texas Agricultural Finance Authority to create an urban
farm microenterprise support program to provide financial assistance to
microenterprises in urban areas inside the boundaries of a municipality
with a population of 500,000 or more that are primarily engaged in
research into processes and technology related to agricultural
production in an urban setting, the production or development of tools
or processes for agriculture in a manner suited for an urban setting, or
agricultural activities in a manner suited for an urban setting. The
bill provides for the establishment and administration of the program
and sets out guidelines relating to the issuance of loans under the program.

House Bill 2994 prohibits state money from being used for purposes of
the urban farm microenterprise support program, but authorizes the board
to accept certain gifts and grants of money for use in making loans
under the program. The bill establishes the urban farm microenterprise
development fund for the deposit of money relating to the program.”

Eisenia fetida were placed in a cattle manure medium at optimal temperature and moisture levels and observed for 600 days. Earthworms were shown to:

• be reproductively active for more than 500 days
• Each cocoon produced 2.7 hatchlings on average, after an average 23 days of incubation.
• Hatchlings attained sexual maturity after 40 to 60 days
• In another study by Spurgeon and Hopkin in 1996 showed earthworms produce one to 2 cocoons per week on average. Only some of the cocoons are fertilized and some of the hatchlings survive

In a study by Tripathi and Bhardwaj in 1994 Eisenia foetida was shown to produce 9 net hatchlings per months.

Information from scientific publications on earthworms is accessible from scholar.google.com (or at least the abstract is).