does anyone use a worm bin for composting, hobby, soil creation? I just picked one up yesterday off Craigslist and I'm looking forward to getting into it. I had a system years ago when I was in college, just haven't got around to starting something up again until now..
Worms!
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jacob
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Yes, I've been running one for two years now.
http://earlyretirementextreme.com/updat ... -farm.html
I built the system myself and got some worms on freecycle from another 'composter'.
http://earlyretirementextreme.com/updat ... -farm.html
I built the system myself and got some worms on freecycle from another 'composter'.
Nice, I think I'll build one similar to yours when my current worm population increases to the point of expansion. The bin a got off craigslist has 4 or 5 shelves, but is still quite small. The duplex I live in has 5 total people so I'm aiming for a lot of soil production just using household waste that would otherwise end up in a landfill.
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jacob
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I suggest looking for a better design. While the worms are supposed to migrate to the upper container on their own, in reality they don't---maybe my drain holes are too small. Thus I find myself using the sun+skimming off layers to separate the worms from the compost. It's doable and slightly meditative, but not so convenient. My current system works as well as a 5 gal bucket with a bunch of drain holes in them.
I used to do this when I had an apartment and I recently set one up for the people I'm living with now. I put mine in a plastic storage bin with holes drilled in the bottom and top for ventilation (sounds similar to Jacob's). The pre-made systems have the advantage of being easier to sort the worms from castings, but I don't mind spending some time doing it. Be sure to keep a thick layer of bedding on top to minimize fruit flies.
sounds like what i did. my original system was just one plastic bin that I poked holes in. I put the lid underneath to let it drain, and laid a plastic garbage bag on top. It worked well, but I'd end up dumping the whole thing out and sorting it by hand every couple months. a big mess, but good dirt. fruit flies are no fun. I got a bad case from giving the worms more juice pulp than they could handle once..now I freeze all my pulp and cook with it.
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ICouldBeTheWalrus
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We worm-compost nearly all the vegetable scraps, eggshells, and the advertising fliers (torn up in strips) that come in the mail, it's amazing how much the volume is reduced (slightly disappointing actually, using it to add to the garden soil.) We only avoid composting citrus (due to the toxicity to a lot of invertebrates) and really tough stuff (fruit pits, avocado peels.) Lately we've had some fly problems, so we've been throwing fruit scraps in the trash instead, it seems to be helping.
I've previously composted in a Rubbermaid tub that was about 8 inches deep which I had drilled lots of holes into and placed on a couple boards to keep it off the ground. It worked, but far better, in my experience are semi-continuous worm composting systems where you put food and scraps of paper in the top, and remove finished compost from the bottom.
There are two types of these for sale that we've used, and you could probably build some variant of either one of them: One is a series of plastic trays which nest in each other and just have an open mesh as the bottom of each tray. You fill up a layer (it's nice to have about 5 of them), and once you've filled them all, and hopefully the compost on the bottom is nearly done, you take it out from under, leave it on top of the stack uncovered, stir it a bit to expose the worms to light and dry the compost out a bit, at which point the worms retreat (mostly). The whole stack sits atop a tray which helps catch the runoff from watering the compost.
The other type, and I think it's possibly the best due to greater aeration (and probably not too hard to make) is a tapering fabric bag that you hang from a PVC pipe frame. The top is some kind of mesh fabric with a zipper around the perimeter, the bottom has a drawstring closure. The body of the bag is some kind of heavy synthetic cloth. You want a bucket under the bottom to catch excess water and periodically you can open the drawstring and squeeze / bang on the bag / scoop some compost out the bottom.
I've previously composted in a Rubbermaid tub that was about 8 inches deep which I had drilled lots of holes into and placed on a couple boards to keep it off the ground. It worked, but far better, in my experience are semi-continuous worm composting systems where you put food and scraps of paper in the top, and remove finished compost from the bottom.
There are two types of these for sale that we've used, and you could probably build some variant of either one of them: One is a series of plastic trays which nest in each other and just have an open mesh as the bottom of each tray. You fill up a layer (it's nice to have about 5 of them), and once you've filled them all, and hopefully the compost on the bottom is nearly done, you take it out from under, leave it on top of the stack uncovered, stir it a bit to expose the worms to light and dry the compost out a bit, at which point the worms retreat (mostly). The whole stack sits atop a tray which helps catch the runoff from watering the compost.
The other type, and I think it's possibly the best due to greater aeration (and probably not too hard to make) is a tapering fabric bag that you hang from a PVC pipe frame. The top is some kind of mesh fabric with a zipper around the perimeter, the bottom has a drawstring closure. The body of the bag is some kind of heavy synthetic cloth. You want a bucket under the bottom to catch excess water and periodically you can open the drawstring and squeeze / bang on the bag / scoop some compost out the bottom.
My wife started a composting bin in the backyard about two years ago. She just a has a square box wiht a flip lid on top. We put most of our veggie scraps in there and old plants from the garden. Funny thing is we never added worms to the mix, they just showed up. My wife stirs it every couple of days and we are always surprised to see a healthy worm population and the occasional frog or other critter in there.
Good Luck!
Good Luck!
I used to have a worm bin in my office; the Sunday School kids loved it. It worked great as long as it wasn't overloaded.
Now we have a compost pile in the backyard; worms just seemed to find it. Originally it was surrounded by chicken wire but raccoons would fish out things sometimes. So we collected several abandoned automobile tires, drilled holes so the sidewalls wouldn't collect water, and made a tire tower for our composting (with a tighter-mesh wire top). It's definitely neater and keeps the animals out, but how it'll work overall I don't know yet.
Now we have a compost pile in the backyard; worms just seemed to find it. Originally it was surrounded by chicken wire but raccoons would fish out things sometimes. So we collected several abandoned automobile tires, drilled holes so the sidewalls wouldn't collect water, and made a tire tower for our composting (with a tighter-mesh wire top). It's definitely neater and keeps the animals out, but how it'll work overall I don't know yet.