Posted: 4/15/2014 11:38:01 AM EDT
| Anyone here do it? I have a big compost pile in the back with leaf and grass clippings. Thinking about adding a worm composter for kitchen scraps, paper etc. It looks pretty straightforward, but would love to hear some 1st hand experiences. |
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Awesome! I don't think I'll be anywhere near that scale. It's just me, so my kitchen scrap output is pretty small. |
| I have 5-6 large 40 gallon totes with red wigglers that live underneath my aquaponic growbed. I prefer worm composting over normal compost because I do not have the room for a large heap. I purchased the brown rubber made containers from lowes and drilled air holes in the side and drainage holes in bottom. You can start your bin with shredded cardboard, newspaper, or a layer of leaves. Take some sand and dress the top of that to aid in the digestive process since they don't have teeth. From there you can add kitchen scraps but stay away from citrus, meat, grease... Want to speed it up; blend your scraps with water and feed them that way. It also keeps it moist. After a few months you will have "black gold". If your worm population gets to big add them to your garden. If you want to be super hardcore catch the leachate that comes out when you water them and brew that as compost tea. |
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Cool. I might have to try that. |
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Quoted: Cool. I might have to try that. I've got the tubs built and am working on the bedding now. Once I have it the way I want, I'll be ordering worms.
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Quoted:
I've got the tubs built and am working on the bedding now. Once I have it the way I want, I'll be ordering worms. Quoted:
Quoted:
Cool. I might have to try that. I've got the tubs built and am working on the bedding now. Once I have it the way I want, I'll be ordering worms. Are you doing this inside? If so, I'd like to make a suggestion. Put a small light at the top of your bin, around 15W or so. Worms don't like light and it will help keep them in the tub. In a new bin they don't really care for the conditions and will try to escape. Ask me how I know. Even when the bin is somewhat established they'll still try to escape. If you keep DRY bedding on top AND a light then they won't really try to escape too much at all, with just a light only a few will attempt to get out. Also, it is tough to UNDERfeed them, not so tough to OVER feed them. Too little food and they just wont grow / multiply as much. Too much and it will rot and smell and possibly kill them. |
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My vermicompost bin is still going strong after a year with no problems. Here's a write-up I did when I started it:
I'm a Worm Overlord I have to politely take exception at the comment above mine. Worms will not leave unless their conditions are stressing them. I don't have my airholes (pictured in the link) covered and have never had any escapees. In fact, I purposely don't want to have the airholes covered because if I see a couple worms that have crawled out (it won't be many unless you neglect it for weeks, plus they pretty much die and crust up right away)... if I see a couple worms that have crawled out, that tells me I better be checking the moisture content, or make sure they have enough food, or whatever else is making them want to leave. Worms won't go anywhere if they're happy. And it doesn't take much to keep worms happy. You don't want to put a light inside your tub as it will likely dry out your bedding, which needs to be moist. |
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Quoted: My vermicompost bin is still going strong after a year with no problems. Here's a write-up I did when I started it: I'm a Worm Overlord I have to politely take exception at the comment above mine. Worms will not leave unless their conditions are stressing them. I don't have my airholes (pictured in the link) covered and have never had any escapees. In fact, I purposely don't want to have the airholes covered because if I see a couple worms that have crawled out (it won't be many unless you neglect it for weeks, plus they pretty much die and crust up right away)... if I see a couple worms that have crawled out, that tells me I better be checking the moisture content, or make sure they have enough food, or whatever else is making them want to leave. Worms won't go anywhere if they're happy. And it doesn't take much to keep worms happy. You don't want to put a light inside your tub as it will likely dry out your bedding, which needs to be moist. Thanks for the info!
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Quoted:
My vermicompost bin is still going strong after a year with no problems. Here's a write-up I did when I started it: I'm a Worm Overlord I have to politely take exception at the comment above mine. Worms will not leave unless their conditions are stressing them. I don't have my airholes (pictured in the link) covered and have never had any escapees. In fact, I purposely don't want to have the airholes covered because if I see a couple worms that have crawled out (it won't be many unless you neglect it for weeks, plus they pretty much die and crust up right away)... if I see a couple worms that have crawled out, that tells me I better be checking the moisture content, or make sure they have enough food, or whatever else is making them want to leave. Worms won't go anywhere if they're happy. And it doesn't take much to keep worms happy. You don't want to put a light inside your tub as it will likely dry out your bedding, which needs to be moist. When you first get the worms they are going to not be super happy, they came balled up with no bedding. Your bin, when NEW, isn't going to have fantastic conditions either. That is what I ran into. Recently I had the light unplugged and the worms didn't escape at all, but I have much more established conditions now too. But man, the first week or two was a bit rough getting them to stay in. |