Vermicomposters Unite! Official Worm Farmers Thread

[Crab Pot]

NN-

I recently read the book that you mentioned earlier in this thread, "Beyond Compost". It certainly helped me to get a better understanding of the VermiComposting process. I'm interested in building a system with either the bakery trays or wood bins, like yours. Anyway, I was hoping to get an update on your system. How is it working for you and do you have a collection pan on the base to collect VermiJuice?

 

[NickNasty]

Its working good, I do have a pan on the bottom its just a cement tray but you can use anything. The only thing I would change on mine is I would like to have handles either cut in or attached and I am going to add felt pads to the corners of each tray to give a little more air exchange. I have only run water thru it once hasn't needed more then that I ran 2 gallons thru and got about 1/2 gal back a few days later.

 

[WeedKillsBrainCells]

Is rotten shit ok for the wormys? I have one of them brown paper composting bags filled with scraps, though it was left a while, mould on the outside

 

[VTMi'kmaq]

Hey everyone!

I thought the Organic section could use a dedicated thread about all things WORMS!


Post your questions, techniques, photos or comments related to Vermicomposting.


Ive had my bin going for about 4 years, and feed my worms an assortment of food scraps, selected herbs (nettle, clover, alfalfa, kelp, yarrow, comfrey)
rock dusts, coco and home made leaf mold/composts.

I will also be building a new bin from smart pots (thanks Rrog) and will post some photos when its built.

(My latest batch of Recycled soil after worms have done their thing..)

View attachment 2588083

Subbed cant believe I couldn't find this earlier in the year........most recently I find myself buying Canadian crawlers for vermicompost instead of for fishing for smallies! I have (at last count) three dozen in around a yard of compost. By yard I mean truckload square yard! I feed that dirt all my table scraps. Tjis has been going ok so far. I have 13 pages of thread to read before I post again lmao! Excellent thread op thankyou for takin the time.

 

[Rrog]

Weed Kills- I'd avoid the mold

 

[VTMi'kmaq]

Ok guys im all ears for your insight on these Canadian crawlers I use, no they aint red wigglers, tbh most of them are about a foot long! There monsters! I have around 48 of em in that soil of which half is covered and the other is exposed to 4 hours of sunlight a day. If this has been in vain no worries ill start over with a different set-up for winter anywho! Was 39 degree's here last night time to start thinking about old man winter!

 

[Rrog]

The red wigglers are sure known to be excellent composters. If I was doing the worm bin, I'd get the red wigglers.

 

[VTMi'kmaq]

Agreed, I cant have these big fat crawlers getting lazy on me when I need serious ruffage breakdown! Red wigglers I say! Ha ha I played with worms and dirt when I was a kid, whodathunk i'd be loving it even more as an adult?

 

[VTMi'kmaq]

[video=youtube_share;zhMbsN_iaXQ]http://youtu.be/zhMbsN_iaXQ[/video] ha ha!

 

[VTMi'kmaq]

Had to share these to use my first mistake as a guide for WHAT NOT TO DO. Lesson 1. DONT FEED THOSE WIGGLERS MEATs OR FATS! I made a horrible mistake with this. [video=youtube_share;CCfzOxkEEL8]http://youtu.be/CCfzOxkEEL8[/video]

 

[JRTokin]

Ok guys great thread. Id just like to add that its easy to make a HUGE worm farm out of an old bathtub. Link can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvIWLu3o5OY

I like this guys vids very easy to watch and self explainatory. Gonna try and copy this idea in the back yard and hopefully get some great compost and teas going Im sure the girls will love this stuff. Happy days. Keep it natural

Peace, love and happy growing

 

[Crab Pot]

NN-
How about a 2"x2"x6" piece of wood screwed down on two opposite sides of each tray, for your handles... would that work?

 

[WeedKillsBrainCells]

Weed Kills- I'd avoid the mold

ok whoops. guess this is about to get messy... thanks

 

[NickNasty]

NN-
How about a 2"x2"x6" piece of wood screwed down on two opposite sides of each tray, for your handles... would that work?

Yeah that would work and much more labor/cost effective. Thanks!

 

[Crab Pot]

I put 5 gallons of BuffaLoam Compost and about two pounds of worms in a Smartie yesterday. I was hoping that this will make some great castings but I'm not sure the worms are doing well. Last night they were attempting to escape and today they seem to be all huddled along the sides of the smartie, with a few dead worms in the medium. What do you guys think... should I rescue the worms or will they adjust??

 

[SpicySativa]

Crab Pot- If that Buffaloam is actually finished compost, it isn't going to offer much sustenance for your worms. They'd much prefer something fresher (fruits, veggies, leaves, etc).

 

[Crab Pot]

No, you're right Spicy, the only thing the BuffaLoam did was kill the worms. The ones that survived I place in another bin but I could only find about a third of a pound of worms left alive.

 

[SpicySativa]

Another possibility -- Deworming medicines given to cows are very persistent. That just might have been the secret ingredient inyour Buffaloam that the worms weren't fond of.

 

[TreeOfLiberty]

My home made 4 stack worm bin and worm casting harvester.


Worm bin is made out of 1x6” wood 16” x 24” bins using lathe strips to interlock the bins from sliding off. Worm bin stand is made out of 2x4's and OSB plywood bottom standing 18” high. Worm bin lid is OSB also. Worm bins screen is 1/4” stapled to the bottom of the 16” x 24” bins.


Worm casting harvester that keeps most of the worms inside the spinning bucket while turning by hand is a simple 5 gallon HD bucket sawed into with 4 lathe strips for braces stapled to inside of bucket. A wooden curtain rod is drilled thru the end of the bottom of the bucket and thru the bucket lid which slides down the curtain rod. I used the same 1/4” screen mesh to wrap around the bucket as I used on the bottom of the worm bins. It is also stapled into the bucket. Staples are filed down in the inside of bucket to keep worms from being impaled on them. Sterilite 45 gallon tote is used with notches cut into each end so curtain rod will turn easy by hand and stay in place.



I have a Gusanito worm bin that's black with 6 levels giving me 10 trays altogether. I ordered it off the internet, didn't think it was special enough to post. I take a lot of pride in my home made stuff since I made it by hand.

I use blender ground egg shells to keep the PH of the worm bin from dropping below 6.3 but will use coffee grounds very sparingly to keep the PH from getting above 7.0 PH.

I keep a 6 page paper shredder for shredding newspaper for worm bin bedding. I use apple peelings, carrots , banana peels, celery , and the pulp left over from my juicer. I use 2 different brands of PH soil tester probes testing them against each other and they always come up the same number so I know they give me the right PH number when testing my worm castings. I like to harvest a bin when it's right at 6.5 PH.

 

[Crab Pot]

SpiceySativa- BuffaLoam is organic. It wouldn't contain deworming medicine... would it?

BuffaLoam was recommeded by CC several different times in the ICMag ROLS tread. It killed my worms in 24 hours?!?!?