Has Anyone Done Vermicomposting?

I have a worm bin sitting in my living room - the rest of the house is too cold at the moment. They're doing wonderfully though, and they don't smell. They're just tucked away under a desk, and I throw in some coffee ground, kale bits, and melon peel. They're thriving as far as I can tell - the bin is slowly filling up with vermicompost. The only time you can smell them is when you're actually with them, and even then it's an earthy smell like a properly managed compost pile.

I wrote about making a bin and the basic mechanics of worm care here - http://thewannabefarmer.wordpress.co...rmicomposting/

I love my worms. Really.

The worms can be distinguished by color, size and markings. Another way to cull unwanted species from worms is forcing hibernation which kills the less desirable for composting species.

__________________
"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"

I am thinking about starting a bin also. I would keep mine in the basement which stays about 60-65 degrees year round. I've read about it in compost books, or do a Google search. Good luck

I've been doing it for about 5 years.

I have several chest type freezers outside with my worms in them. We generate about 800 lbs of worm poo (castings) per year and about 400 gallons of "juice".

Here's how I do it. Its my own design.

Find a broken chest freezer on craigslist for free. Make sure you get the type that is plastic inside so you're not dealing with rust.

Make sure you remove the drain plug inside but leave the outside one in place as this is where you will drain your juice from.

You'll need a hole saw to drill three holes through the side. One hole for a small computer muffin fan, one for air intake, and one for a power cord that goes to the cold weather heater.

Find an old computer muffin fan and mount it to the outside of the freezer so it sucks air out of the freezer. Computer fans are 12 volts so you can usually power them with either a solar charged battery or one of those cell phone charger plugs.

The next step requires some imagination but I'm sure you'll figure it out.

You'll need to build a "false floor", sort of like an elevated surface that is very porous with very large holes. This false floor is to allow the water to drain down and be emptied. Some kind of grate material. It needs to be elevated about 1 or 2 inches above the bottom of the freezer and you'll have to cut the shape so it fits snug all the way around the inside contours.

If you're like me and you live in the north where winters get cold, you'll need to provide your little friends with some artificial heat. Don't believe anyone who says natural composting action will keep them warm because that doesn't work below about 30 deg F.
The best way to give them heat is to buy some pipe heating cable like this stuff:
http://www.acehardware.com/product/i...uctId=30411676

Its basically a water proof heating tape designed to keep water pipes from freezing. They have built in thermostats that will keep things right around 40 degF. Your worms won't do much when its that cold but they'll live and survive just fine and it won't cost you a fortune in energy. The heat is gentle and quite evenly spread out. 60 to 80 watts of energy is plenty inside an insulated box like a chest freezer. You'll need something six feet long minimum, I like the 9 footers myself.

Lay the cable across the bottom of the freezer before you put in the false floor. Make sure both of the ends of the cable are secured to the inner walls near the top so only the continuous rubber jacket is in contact with the wet materials.
You'll want to drill a 1.5 inch hole through the side of the freezer to run the plug out so you can attach a power cord to it. Make sure to fill the hole with something to keep heat in and worms in, as well as critters out.

Once the cable is in, put in your false floor.

Next, put a layer of window screen on top of that. Make sure its the plastic type and not the aluminum stuff. Cut the screen so it rides up the walls. Neatness does NOT count here.

Next, get a bunch of cardboard boxes. Use natural brown cardboard only and remove any packing tape or labels. Cut the cardboard into 1 inch strips between 2 inches and 10 inches long. You'll need enough to create a 3 inch thick layer all across the bottom.

Next, shovel in some pre-composted horse manure. About six inches worth.

Spray the whole thing down with the garden hose until sopping wet and toss in your worms. Make sure your muffin fan is plugged in. You might also want to fashion some type of air intake filter to prevent flies and stuff from getting in too.

The process starts slow. If you pick up 500 worms, don't expect to see any progress for six to eight months. It will take a full year before they really get going.

I have probably 100,000 worms in each freezer, that's just a wild guess.

To harvest the worm castings for your garden, just scoop them out worms and all. You might kill 5000 worms but there's probably 100,000 unhatched eggs ready to replace them.

The juice that flows out the bottom is almost better than the worm castings for fertilizer.

During the winter months, you can unplug your muffin fan and cover it up with something to keep the heat in.

Hope that helps, hope I didn't forget anything.

Almost forgot,

Here are some facts:

Don't believe anyone who says worms don't stink if you do it right. That's just silly. Worms don't eat the food you give them, they eat the bacteria that grow on the food you give them. Food rots >bacteria eat the food > worms eat the bacteria.
Bacteria stinks.

Be sure to add as many egg shells as you can. Egg shells are a natural pH buffer that will keep any acid generated in check.

Worms don't have gills like fish, there's a good reason they come to the surface on your sidewalk when it rains. Be sure to drain your worm bin frequently.

Make sure you get "red wigglers", (Eisenia fetida) I think. Normal earth worms won't work.

Do not feed oranges or banana peels to them. Oranges contain a chemical that will kill them, banana's peels are not normally washed and contain some nasty pesticides that will also kill the worms.

Do not feed meat unless you enjoy the stench. Won't hurt them but it will make you want to stay away.

When it gets hot out in the summer, monitor the temperature as the ambient heat and the composting action could cook them. Worms are not happy below 60 degrees and definitely not happy above 95.

Whew!

Great post Crisste.

A couple of questions-

Where do you live, and/or, how cold does it get there? We live in northern Minnesota and I have never figured out a way to keep my worms warm in the winter, so instead of letting them grow in population I had to keep pulling some out to keep from overpopulating my bin. If I could keep a chest freezer full of them going out in the barn all winter I would do it in a heartbeat. But, our winter temps get down to 40 below (F).

With your setup do the worms crawl out of the freezer at all? They did sometimes crawl out of my Can O'Worms bin at home. I am about to start a vermicomposting program at my daughter's school and I don't think the staff would be excited about having worms crawling around outside of the freezer.

This is a matter of energy balance and a simple problem to solve.

Get yourself a 15 or 20 foot heat cable like I linked to (get that exact type as I found they work the best), and lay it in the bottom of your freezer. It will keep your worms alive all winter.
40 below is some seriously cold stuff but I would estimate that 150 watts of energy would keep those little buggers alive all winter.

Here's the thing, even if parts of the worm bin freeze near the outside edges, the worms will simply migrate to the warmer spots.

Only the stupid ones.. Lots of times you open the lid and it ends up crushing a few when you close it. It makes no difference if you kill 10 or 20 here or there when the population is 50,000+.

But to answer your question, generally no, they will not crawl out because doing so means a long trip up a dry plastic wall without food or comfort.

Also, if you find that your worms are crawling up, simply put a light bulb on top or expose them to the sun and they'll crawl right back down. Worms do not like to be illuminated and will do anything they can to get away from it.

Very small-scale here, but thought I'd chime in. I have a roughly 12x18" rubbermaid tote under my kitchen sink (handiest place to remember to drop in peelings, coffee grounds, and such) started with 120 red wigglers from the bait shop. They've been eating and thriving for over a year now, and I'm amazed when I go to clean it out and replace the bedding at just how much they've managed to multiply.

__________________
http://www.powerplucker.com drill powered chicken pluckers, metal restraining cones. Produced on our homestead in Southwest MO. HT members PM me for 10% discount code

I'm in MN too and plan on utilizing my basement, just a thought

Worm bins do have odor attributes as they require the bacteria generated during pre decomposition of the bin buried food stuff , however properly managed bins have the earthy aroma of a forest floor not the buried foodstuffs.

The best species choices of compost worms actually do well in a slightly acidic bin environment but eggshell is the best antacid for overly acidic bins and offers the worms excellent gut grit.

While worms do not have gills they do breath through pores in their skin and do best in 70% moisture environment.

Banana and orange peels can be fed in small quantities but often add to fruitfly infestation. Boiling both in water and pouring off the water will make them more cooperative to the bin population.

Pumpkin rind can also be added to bins but not the seeds as pumpkin seed possess natural dewormer properties.

As others have mentioned, avoid adding meat or dairy to a bin environment unless you have the bin located in an area where meat decomp oder and possible soldier fly swarms are not of concern.

__________________
"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"

I got a pound of worms about 15 years ago and their progeny are still out there. We see below zero every year, and saw 25 below one year (pipes broke and flooded basement).

Anyway, there are elaborate systems for vermicomposting, trying to provide the ideal environment for them. What I try to do instead is just have a big pile so they have a choice of where to go, and have enough insulation to get through the winter. Piles are not hot composting.

My piles start 30 feet long, and 2 to 3 feet deep. Manure, bedding, leaves, and kitchen waste. Roll it over each year and plant where it was for a couple years, then its done and then spread around.

So have a couple piles at various stages, right in the garden, taking up 4 rows for each pile. Figure I like the runoff to be in the garden where it will be used. Also covers ground to prevent weeds.

Anyway, I figure if your worms aren't surviving, your pile isn't big enough. There is plenty of material around if you look for it to make a pile 10 feet wide and 3 or more feet deep. Leaves, manure from farms, etc.


I know people who just have a few kitchen scraps and its all either too wet or too dry or too cold or too hot, and they wonder why their worms died. With a big pile, it doesn't all have to be perfect, and they can find their favorite spots.