How to blanch mulberry leafs for freezing

OK so it's not overcrowding. The bins I'm using are almost exactly the same (blue top) with plenty of vent holes drilled into the top. I use the same for my morio worms. I'll try rolling the chow over some cardboard tubes with the next order unless I can find some leaves first. Thanks!

I've finally been able to keep silkworms alive for longer than a week! I ordered them from a new supplier and they came in a plastic tub with chow and a ladder like hornworms do. They were fine in that for a week and a half or so and then the food started to get a bit moldy so I dumped it and moved all of them to a plastic bin on top of paper towel - same as I'd done before. I had some extra chow that I'd rolled up in plastic wrap and frozen as you recommended a while back. I started just grating the frozen chow log over them every day and they seem to be quite happy with that. They've survived two weeks that way (so far) with only 1 small worm dying. I'm not sure if it was the original source or the way I was offering food but the new combination seems to be working well which is great because Darwin goes bonkers for silks. If he sees the bin come out, he will bolt from another room and beg for them almost like a dog.

CooperDragon":1wgloxus said:

I've finally been able to keep silkworms alive for longer than a week! I ordered them from a new supplier and they came in a plastic tub with chow and a ladder like hornworms do. They were fine in that for a week and a half or so and then the food started to get a bit moldy so I dumped it and moved all of them to a plastic bin on top of paper towel - same as I'd done before. I had some extra chow that I'd rolled up in plastic wrap and frozen as you recommended a while back. I started just grating the frozen chow log over them every day and they seem to be quite happy with that. They've survived two weeks that way (so far) with only 1 small worm dying. I'm not sure if it was the original source or the way I was offering food but the new combination seems to be working well which is great because Darwin goes bonkers for silks. If he sees the bin come out, he will bolt from another room and beg for them almost like a dog.

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a response like you are getting from Darwin makes all the effort worthwhile .....

Absolutely. I want to get a video of his "silkworm face" with head straight up soon. Will post on his thread if I do. Thanks so much for your help and advice!

Found if I lay some paper toweling over the ventilated 4L tub's lid , the aircon doesn't dry the BLANCHED THEN FROZEN THEN THAWED (still have some of these from March 2016 in the freezer) leaves out and they stay soft (so far it's they've been in the tub since last Thursday and no mould and no deccicated leaves , allows air ventilation but re-tards deciccation of the blanched leaves) and the silkworms are happily munching away on them.

kingofnobbys":1joxt1p1 said:

Found if I lay some paper toweling over the ventilated 4L tub's lid , the aircon doesn't dry the BLANCHED THEN FROZEN THEN THAWED (still have some of these from March 2016 in the freezer) leaves out and they stay soft (so far it's they've been in the tub since last Thursday and no mould and no deccicated leaves , allows air ventilation but re-tards deciccation of the blanched leaves) and the silkworms are happily munching away on them.

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The thawed blanched mulberry leaves (patted dry and placed in a ziplock bag) kept for 7 days OK in the crisper.
These leaves were blanched and frozen on 24 - 3 - 2016.

Using my last bag of blanched leaves from March 2016 to feed my 2nd order of 100 mixed AussieFauna silkworms now.

Ran out of fresh mulberry leaves today, had a bag of 150 in the crisper that were over 2 months old and were nasty , had been sealed in a zip lock bag and forgotten about.

Thought I'd left the bag only loosely sealed , but it was air tight and this was resulted in the spoiling of the leaves in the bag, the leaves from the same batch I finished off yesterday were still fine when used (loosely wrapped/sealed (NOT airtight).

Horrible , very slimmy and very mouldy so the entire bag went straight into the bin, bag and all.

Fortunately I still had some frozen blanched mulberry leaves in the freezer which looked despite 2 years old. If the silkworms eat some of them overnight , I've got enough frozen leaves to see me out til after Easter when I've 200 fresh mulberry leaves ordered , if they don't , I'll be making some chow tomorrow. (Got plenty to powdered chow as a backup if I need it.).

.... already chewing the thawed leaves .... so I think they are fine. A very good result.

Interesting to hear those went bad when sealed. Good to know the leaves don't all react equally. I've had good luck sealing most greens with a fold of paper towel (collard, kale, bok choy, etc) but I will loosely wrap mulberry leaves if I ever find some =)

Well, my supplier tells me the leaves on the mulberry trees he harvests from are all turning brown and dropping now , so I'll out of luck getting more fresh leaves for a few months , so I'm now on last big bag of fresh mulberry leaves ( bagged 21 May --- they are still "edible" and no signs of mould on them (yet). Decided to stretch these out by mixing with the last of the frozen blanched mulberry leaves (frozen in late May 2016 , still have a bag of these …. they are thawing nicely and the worms are gobbling them up with no ill-effects.

That's frozen blanched mulberry leaves still good after 2 years in the freezer.

So another week or two and I'll then have no choice but to nuke some Silkworm Chow to keep my silkworms fed until the fresh mulberry leaves are big enough to be harvested in September or October.

CooperDragon":szl1ne7u said:

Interesting to hear those went bad when sealed. Good to know the leaves don't all react equally. I've had good luck sealing most greens with a fold of paper towel (collard, kale, bok choy, etc) but I will loosely wrap mulberry leaves if I ever find some =)

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Issue was lack of air to the leaves in the sealed bag …. the transpired moisture made for damp environment and I guess there were a few spores on the leaves …. sealed bag negated the benefit of keeping them in the crisper.
Had the bag been unsealed - they would have been fine.