I am new with composting and started first with vermicomposting.. and now I am trying the Earth composting... So far it is doing ok.. I t seems to be working for me because I have yard waste (that goes to the e-composter) and food scraps that go partially to the v-compost and the rest for the e-composter..

We do both types of composting. We compost our yard trimmings and other stuff in either our Dual Drum Compost Tumbler or our homemade compost tumbler. We also have lots of worm bins for vermicomposting and vermiculture.

I do both. I teach school, so the vermicompost is mainly for the classroom/teaching. Although vermicompost and all the worms I want are nice bonuses.

I do both, I started a worm bin first and realized it couldn't keep up w/ all my families waste. Especially at garden cleanup time in the fall so started hot composting. I'll keep the worm bin for the AVCT and feed 'em enough to keep 'em happy, but most of my scraps go in the piles. I also feed finished compost to the worms once in a while.

I don't vermicompost by design, but sometimes in winter, the compost doesn't get very hot, and worms crawl in.

I do both when its -40 I would much rather feed the worms in the basment(:

I don't. I like the worms in my garden but the bins of worms are just too gross for me. Generally not a squeemish person, but something about the box of worms is... icky.

Yes...the kitchen scraps first go into the worm bin. All the left overs go into the compost pile.

I feed the worms in my garden but can't be bothered being tied down to a box of worms.

What do those with vermicomposters do when they go on vacation? Do you have to hire a "worm sitter"? ;-)

I was please to see worms in my hot compost today! Maybe they are tired of the cold and liked the heat!

my compost bin IS my worm bin, I also use old plastic Coca-cola crates as a worm bin,.
ialbtc

LuckyGal, worms thrive on neglect. If they are kept adequately moist and not in a sunny location where they will dry out they will be fine. I left mine the whole month of January, they were just dormant. I came home and gave them a heating pad and they became very active. I have left them for weeks in the summer w/ out attention also. Maybe a quick glance once a week is all they get now days, and a sprinkle of water every other week. I give 'em a little extra food once in a while, like every other week, but I know they can live on the bedding for extended periods.

I compost and vermicompost too.

I started with the outdoor regular compost bin (by the way, I use rubbermaids too) and last year added the indoor worm bin. I love the stuff in the worm bin, I've been using it this year to mix with potting soil for my seedlings. The outdoor compost is just getting thrown in my garden. This spring, however, I threw what was left over of my finished vermicompost into my outdoor compost bin with some leftover worms and worm eggs, just to see if the worms would multiply and "finish" it up faster.

Rj is right, the more you "coddle" your worms, the worse off they are. They process food much faster when you leave them alone and even if they run out of food, they seem to still be able to survive for months at a time just eating the bedding

I don't, unless as mentioned, you count feeding the worms in the garden beds good compost and layers of shredded leaves and hay mulch composted in place.

Dave

I have two large compost bins and a Rubbermaid box for a worm bin, which is quite different from nurturing worms in your garden beds. I put my kitchen scraps in the compost bin if I am in a hurry and in the worm bin if I have the time. My worm bin is outside in the summer and in the garage in the winter, where it generally stays above freezing. I have left the bins for three or four weeks without any ill effects in the winter. They eat a lot more in the summer, but would probably still be ok for several weeks.

I use the compost that I make as a mulch and soil amendment. I use the worm castings in my potting soil mix, but most of it I dissolve in water (a simple, non-aerobic tea) and pour in the soil around all my plants and on my very small lawns. I use very little fertilizer; my garden is powered by worm poop. ;-)

I've ordered my worms and am getting their bed ready. It will make me the coolest grandma on the block. I've watched numerous utubes on vermicomposting and some are funny. I do wonder if vermicomposting will destroy weed seeds. Most of the time my compost piles do not get hot enough to destroy weed seeds therefore weeds or raw manure is not added to my piles.

worms rock,

i love em. My herd is growing!

ron

"I do wonder if vermicomposting will destroy weed seeds."

It isn't recommended to put weeds, leaves or any lawn debris in worm bins. Most people just feed them non-meat and non-oily kitchen scraps. Mine mostly get coffee grounds and banana peels, plus whatever carrot peels, cauliflower stumps, apple cores and whatnot that comes out of my kitchen.

Karchita, I wasn't planning on putting weeds on the worm bed but manure. There is a lady on the internet that feeds hers cow manure. I was wondering if the weed seeds in the manure were destroyed by the worms.

I started vermicomposting originally because I had to stop composting a few months before I moved house, having no practical way to move a bottomless bin full of half-finished compost! I found it too traumatic to put good food scraps in the trash so I got some worms. Of course they can't handle the full volume of scraps we produce, but it made me feel better to be recycling *some* of it.

The compost bin is back in action in the new garden but I keep the worms going too.

I got fond of the critters, and was distraught when a week of temperatures over 110, and night time temps not much lower, did my original bunch in, despite them being kept in full shade in the coolest part of the garden. I guess the blazing hot ambient temperature, especially in their confined space, was too much for them. I hope we don't get temperatures like that again, if we do I'll try to rig up a Coolgardie Safe type setup with hessian and a water source to keep them cooler.

belinda, I have never heard of using manure in a worm bin, but if the worms eat the seeds, what comes out the other end of the worms will not contain viable seeds! I think the problem would be if there was some material that was not processed by the worms. In my bin, there are always some things in the finished castings (like egg shells or coffee grounds) unless I harvest it and store it with a few straglers for a few months, who then finish off everything completely. Good luck and be sure to check out the vermicompost forum if you haven't already.

I put the red worms in the compost bins, and pick them out when I use the compost, and just throw them back in the bin. They haev lived through 3 winters so far, and are multipling like crazy!

It all gets mixed up. I find lots of them in my compost pile, so where to put them to keep them away from moles and a rapidly heating pile? Well I put a bunch in a bin with some scraps and some mulch over them and covered it. They finished that, so I gave them more. Now the bin is full of poo, and I start over again.

I am a huge believer in serendipity. If you wind up with a handful of something, put it somewhere to get the greatest benefit. Do that enough times, and you produce more, learn more, and have better... luck. Beetle larvae love unfinished compost, so I raise those too for my grandkids.

I have varmint problems in my compost pile recently, and I have some meaty things (not human) that I have to get rid of. I will let worms and soldier flies go to it in a secure bin rather than expose it to critters in an open pile. Having both technologies and reactors, so to speak, expands my production possiblities frontier. Technology increases the value of all resources.

I have both. I started with my worm bin and have two compost bins. My worms get as many kitchen scraps as they can handle and everything after that goes into the compost bin.