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Vermicomposting

13 years ago

I'm thinking of starting up a bin in my home shortly. I haven't done this in many years and was wondering if anyone here has helpful hints, pictures of their bins, anything they can offer in the way of advice.

The one thing that has changed since I last did this is the price of the danged worms. Wowza! They are now $45.00 a pound.

Thanks in advance.

Jane

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Comments (7)

Jasdip
13 years ago
Hi Jane,
I've done it for many years, indoors in our apartment. I can give you lots of ideas and hints, but you should check out the Vermicomposting Forum here too.

I use a simple Rubbermaid bin with ventilation. Either drill holes around the top, or I have put in vents at the ends.

A pound of worms goes for easily $48 or more here. I got out of it for a year and then started up again 8 months ago. I got a handful or less from Freecycle and put them in a very small salad container. I was very very careful feeding them so as not to kill them off. They flourished and have now graduated to a full-size bin and are thriving. I've done a harvest already.

What I love to do is freeze all of my food. This gets rid of fruit-fly eggs and they also break down quicker for easy digestion :) Fruit-flies are a bane of indoor vermicomposters!

The white thing in this old photo is a piece of styrofoam which I put cross-wise in the bin to make the bin smaller, with a small herd. They have to find each other to mate so I like to make things easy for them. The bread is to attract mites. I tend to get mites in my bins.
naughtykitty
13 years ago
I had been doing it for a few years but just lost them all a few months ago because of the extreme temperature changes - they were in the back yard. I plan to start it up again in the fall -in the garage. When I first started I had the bin in the guest bathroom. All was fine for about a year and then I started getting the fruit flies. I also freeze all my scraps before feeding.

I have the Worm Factory 360 and I love it.

I got most of my information from the Vermiculture forum here.

I hope I could find some freecycle worms. That would be great! 3 years ago I paid $35 for a pound at the state fair.

Good luck and enjoy the worms!
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Ok, what is the difference between the worm castings and vermicompost? All I know is that I do have worms in the bin that are giving worm casting. My last harvest was about 4 months and I just feed them kitchen scraps (veg peels, rotting veg/fruits) and I follow the method of burrying the scraps in one corner of the bin and alternate the corners everytime I feed them. And yes my big problem here is if I wanted to dry my finished compost, it would shrivel, clump and dry up. Now my other question here would be, if I were to dry the finished product to get a nice easy harvest, wouldn't that kill my worms since they need a moist place to live? Here is a link that might be useful:
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OklaMoni
13 years ago
I had a bin on and off for years. The worms are rather tough... as they overwintered outside in 2004, in partially frozen vermicompost. I had forgotten about their container, under the bushes, outside, after the move.

I just got some worms from a friend. Hoping to get started again too.

Here are old pictures of mine:

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/tahlequahgardens/library/Gardening/Vermicompost

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/tahlequahgardens/library/Gardening/worm%20harvest%202007
sylviatexas1
13 years ago
On the Gardening side of Gardenweb, there's a Soil, Compost, & Mulch Forum that you might browse through.
cjd63
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks all. I will be checking out all your information. My problem now is finding a source of worms. I can find them online to order from another part of the country, but I would prefer to source them locally.

I have been doing this on and off for at least 25 years, I would have thought the worms would be easier to find by now. Oh well, I will just have to keep looking.
Sonofkong
13 years ago
Please help Im a newbie.

Does crustaceous earth help in vermicomposting?

How about cat feces & Urine ?

We use yesterday news cat litter whichi is a recycled newpaper product, just wonder the affects of the urine on the soil and worm?
OklaMoni
13 years ago
Don't use cat or dog feces in a worm bin!

Moni

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