I did it...I made a flow through bin!

13 years ago

Now I just need worms. I have some decaying food in there and lots and lots of paper and cardboard!!

I used an old kitchen trash can and some plastic stakes I had from some broken garden mister/sprinklers. All was free so far!

Now I need to add the worms but I am scard I might kill them!!!

The bin has layers of paper then my mix of stuff I have been collecting for almost 2 weeks.

The collection has

Paper

Old bannanas

Egg shells

some dirt

Grass

Mint and oregano leaves

a tiny bit of UCG

Tea bags and tea leaves

tp tubes shredded

avacado peelings

old lettuce (which is gone)

then cardboard on top

I keep worrying I may kill the little guys if I add them.

Is there a sure way to keep them alive? Maybe I need to take out some food? Or if I wait till all is very rotten will that be ok?

Oh I am so scared to order those worms!!

Karen

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Comments (8)

sbryce_gw
13 years ago
One thing they may not have told you about flow throughs...

I don't know anything about your design, but the composting chamber in a flow through bin needs to be about 24 inches deep, or you will have worms in the VC that you harvest.

Other than that, you seem to be off to a good start. How deep is your bedding?
mendopete
13 years ago
It sounds like you have prepared the bed well! I am sure any worm would be proud and happy to live in your bin. Avacado peels take a LONG time to break down and could plug up a flow-thru? Happy Wormin'.

Pete
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Regarding don't ask don't tell...I found a second hand 55 gallon aquarium, filter, tubes, stand, the works for just a bit more than the filter would cost new. Recently, my 30 gallon cracked so I have 4 loaches and 3 black skirt tetras living in a 5 gallon bucket THAT my cats like to drink the water from. So...do I ask my husband, who doesn't like fish, or do I just go pick it up? (Look! Husband fixed the question mark!) We are going to be making seed bombs with the first harvest of VC, to throw around in the space behind our house. Also thinking of planting raspberry canes and some willow. Lilac and goose berry bushes. I can get all of these for free and why not grow food/bee nectar/wood where space is wasted. Sometimes I cut some of the long native grasses/clovers to mulch my veggies. City doesn't even mow! Wish I could have a goat to make all that grass into milk for the kids. Back to the new bin. Already I can tell it is processing food faster than my RM. I'm keeping the RB (don't tell my lovely husband) and keeping my bedding in it. I'm mixing leaves, cardboard, coffee grounds and a bit of vermicompost with sugar/aquarium water to make it all damp. Hoping to begin the breakdown/any heating done before it gets in the bin. I've begun freezing then thawing then blending all the scraps I feed them. Use to do that to make baby food. Didn't like it then and I don't now. I don't want to keep it up but I do want some VC to *fall out the bottom about the same time I want to use it in the garden. Look at me...trying to hurry the worms! Oh, I do have a question. The cardboard I used on the bottom is dry. I think I should have just used newspaper. How do you think would be the best method to get the cardboard wet because when I water the bin it runs right off the cardboard without it getting wet. Yes, Thomas has posted more than a normal spammer would. This may be a face palming moment that I'll cherish later this evening. *with the understanding that the VC is NOT going to just fall through, thanks E2 for all your detailed post regarding the none flowing of the flow through.
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It's been about 4 days and I think the worms are doing great. I didn't prep the bin ahead of time, just soaked some newspaper and cardboard for about an hour and mixed it with UCG. So I was a bit worried. But I fed them for the first time yesterday, just a little leafy greens, they are all over it. Today I put more food on other sides of the bucket. I took 1/4 avocado, spring mix, UCG, and cucumbers and chopped in in my blender. I figure I won't bother them for a week at least and see they like that combination. I'll post pics soon.
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Many people who built FT are stepping up from smaller systems be it DIY or bought. Once the FT is "ready" for worm population, either an entire tray or partial bin got dumped into the FT in 1 place and let the worms explore the new frontier at their own pace. So it's not as if the worms get up rooted and moved to a different environment, instead, the worms including their usual environment is placed into a larger space. In theory, anything wrong with the new space, the worms can always stay put or move back rather than wandering further. It also means that a lot of MO came to the new FT from the dumping. I have re-read your post ""I did it...I made a flow through bin!"", so your worms are all recently bought. I think you misunderstood the concept when people were writing about their FT and reporting how much food they throw in there and it's still OK. IMHO, even with an FT, if the worms were shipped just with some of their bedding, you still have to go slow to get the worms over their shock and/or stress. I didnÂt know until I joined the forum that worms could experience shock and stress, just like us. I have read of a guy who built a wooden FT and bought the worms with the VC and manure they lived in by the garbage bags full. In this case he was able to start "over" feeding straight away, also because there was a very healthy worm population, so he reported. ""It was smelly and really wet. . "" smelly ... which means it got anaerobic because of too wet and the cardboard >> not enough oxygen.. It is a good thing you re-used the yucky newspaper because I am sure it is loaded with MO. You do need to put something over the grating so stuff won't just keep falling down, until it is finished VC. So, a few layers of newspaper should do it. Also newspaper soak up moisture more readily than a big piece of cardboard (shredded is different) on their smooth sides. And will soak through to the exposed bottom of the newspaper and evaporate (up to a certain amount). The leachate will usually come down along the walls of the FT. Good luck with your worms.
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I have a bin where vermicompost does not fall through 3" by 3" holes on it's own. I have a bin where vermicompost does not want to fall through 7" by 7" holes on it's own. When I can entice the vermicompost to fall through, flow through?, it wants to fall in a column from the bottom all the way to the top. My vermicompost is not reading the instructions of how I am imagining my flow through to work. Huge flowthrough systems solve this by using precomposted cow manure. This flow through concept has not caught on in my toss in an apple core, toss in an egg carton flow through system. I do get the benefit of air at the bottom of the system. Moving bins around with 3 and 7 inch holes in the bottom is always exciting. I see your system is attached to the base with ties. It would be cool if the base was inches bigger and you could push the bin around back and forth over the base to harvest. This would take the place of a harvest bar.
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karendee
Original Author
13 years ago
I think I have about 2 inches of shredded paper then maybe 10 inches of a mix of paper and the food scraps, dirt, leaves etc. then a cardboard topper.

I thought avocado may take a while so I just put a few peelings. The rest I threw in the garden.

I have the room for 24+ inches but don't have 24 inches of stuff in the bin now.

I also have some old seed starting soil I need to dispose of and may add that to the bin instead of the trash.

Thanks for the advice and encouragement. I was worried to buy worms!

I think I am getting one pound from these people plus some vermicompost bedding (it costs a couple extra $ for the vc)
http://www.greenmountainsoil.com/buyworms.html

Karen

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.greenmountainsoil.com/buyworms.html
karendee
Original Author
13 years ago
I also ordered worms from www.triplegwormfarm.com

I did not make the shipping cut off deadline so they may not ship till next monday. This is ok with me because it will give my worm materials time to rot some more.

YEAH, I have new pets! :)

I plan to put the flow through in the basement because the home owners association does not allow any trash cans outside visible :(

Karen
karendee
Original Author
13 years ago
Looks like the worms will ship Tues. SO I will have them by friday.

I sure hope my bin is ready enough! I have lots and lots of paper and cardboard so I think they will be happy.

I also made a mushy banana, egg shell and apple puree. I dumped that in the middle and covered with paper.

I am still nervous about the worms surviving though
rookie09
13 years ago
Relax. You'll do fine. What I do is put them in a corner of the bin with all of their compost (don't spread them out), cover with bedding and turn a light on and walk away. You've created home base for them until they figure out that the bin is now home. Check the outside and basin whenever the urge strikes but no peeking for at least a couple of days. After a couple of days start peeking, poking and inevitably over feeding -- it happens :-) When the fruit flies come, stop feeding, add more bedding and wait a week. Rinse and repeat.

Keith
karendee
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks Keith! I will add the guys in the corner. I have lots of paper on top and might just pull some of it back them lay them under in the corner.
karendee
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks Keith! I will add the guys in the corner. I have lots of paper on top and might just pull some of it back them lay them under in the corner.

I did it...I made a flow through bin!

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sbryce_gw

mendopete

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I did it...I made a flow through bin!

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