Vermicomposting (worms inside!)

I've been looking into different types of compost styles and different types of bins. I found a great resource on vermicomposting (or composting with a specific variety of worms). You do it inside, which is great if you live in an apartment or condo.

The article I found is here: http://vermilab.blogspot.com/2008/04/composting-with-worms.html

The main page of the blog (http://vermilab.com) also has information on where to buy red wiggler worms.

I'm excited about this method of composting, because it means I can compost food waste away from the rodents that patrol my suburban neighborhood.

I was looking at vermicomposting just last night and was looking at these bins. http://www.compostbins.com/compost-bins/worm-composters/cascadewormfactory5traywormcomposterblack.cfm

Seemed pretty interesting and I liked the fact that the tray at the bottom catches "tea" to add to water and fertilize plants. Not sure if I'll do it or not, but definitely something I'm looking at. Would be a fun project to have around for my 7 year old boy.

orionsbelt,
let us know how it goes if/when you get your bin. I've been thinking about doing that for years but haven't tried it yet.

You guys may want to look up Josh, (I think his screenname is Josh now) he's our local worm boy

I did this last year and it went great, until we moved and DH left them outside and they froze

Hi! I'm known as The Worm Guy at the old forum, I have done the worm composting inside for a couple years now, it's easy, it is very low cost for materials, and the worms love your left over food scraps. Tomorrow when I get home from school I'll try to get some pictures of just how easy it is and post them. The worm compost is expensive to buy, when it is so easy to have your own. Worm tea is also great to use on your plants, and very easy to make.

Here is what Martha has to say about it.

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/vermi-composting

Do a search on Youtube. There's a wealth of info there too, both for inside & outside setups. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=vermicomposting&aq=0

I've been thinking about doing this as well but I'm curious as to just how much compost is created by say 2000 redworms? Am I just better off throwing all my scraps in my regular composter instead?

You would have to have a lot of scraps for 2000 worms. I started with 1 lb of worms. They multiply fast.

I am interested in this too. The last piece of the puzzle for my SFG is composting. I have considered three options:

1. Build a outdoor compost bin.
   
2. Build or buy a rotating compost bin.
   
3. Do worm-based composting.
   

Now I am not sure whether I can do a combination of these or not and I am not even really sure of the pro's and con's to each. So if anyone can enlighten me on their experiences and what I should be looking at, it would be greatly appreciated. A couple of immediate questions; with vermicomposting can you compost materials you couldn't normally do if you didn't use worms? I see a lot of people talking about food and I am not sure how inclusive that is. Does it include meat and things you normally don't compost in a non-worm bin? Also, if you do use worms, what do you do with them once it's time to use the compost? Do you just put the compost worms and all into your garden or should you take the time to remove the worms first?

Thanks...
Rob

The main things are you don't want to put any fats or meats in, keep onions to a minimum. on youtube there are lots of how-to plans - some with stackable bins where the worms migrate upwards. I use rubbermade tubs with ventilation, tray underneath to catch liquid. I harvest the worms, dump compost in garden, refill tub with shredded paper, moisten paper & put worms back in, start feeding again.

I think I started with 1000 or a pound of worms, which i think can handle about 3-4 pounds of scraps/week.

I am so excited about this! Best of all, my crazy wife absolutely LOVES worms! When it rains she goes out on the back porch and picks them up and stuff

Does anyone know of good plans for a vermicomposting bin? What are these multi-tiered things I see?

rob.emenaker wrote: When it rains she goes out on the back porch and picks them up and stuff

I do too, my grandkids know to rescue worms off the pavement. (embarrassing when picking them up at school after a rain & they find one, holler "Nana, Nana, here's you another worm". Other people just don't understand.

check this one out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxhEQEA0GN8

I'm excited that this has sparked so much discussion! I'm interested to investigate how to harvest liquid (compost tea) from this method. I'm very excited to start doing this, especially as I have a friend who's volunteered to give me worms if I help her sort out worms from compost.

I bet that compost tea tastes NASTY

Hello, I am new to the forums and live in the San Francisco Bay area. Last August, I purchased a Gusantio Worm Farm (5-stack trays with roof) off Ebay. I waited and won one for a VERY good price. There are several brands like this but we liked the roof because it seemed like it would keep out more rain than the others.

Anyway, the stack system has worked well. I have two full trays of worm compost ready for the garden and two working trays. The top tray is where I put the food waste and the second tray is where the stuff that hasn't finished working is.

Upside to the system is that it is well contained, the worms eat up so I don't have to sort them out of the compost and it looks attactive on my back porch. It does not require much work -- just adding food and shredded newspaper or the coconut stuff to keep it balanced.

On the downside, the system is not big enough for our 5-person family. We eat a lot of produce and have a lot of waste for the system. Because of that, our system tends to get a bit moist and I have to stack dry newspapers on top of the uppermost bin to keep it dry.

Overall, I am really happy with the bins. We were able to start with a full tray of worms & compost because we got our worms locally from a worm composting facility. He just shoveled the worms in their compost into a plastic shopping bag and we were good to go.

I am looking forward to starting to use the actual compost when we put together our SFG next month.

-- Lisa

Here are some plans I found.

http://www.klickitatcounty.org/SolidWaste/ContentROne.asp?fContentIdSelected=991251662&fCategoryIdSelected=965105457

http://working-worms.com/content/view/40/62//#c

Here's a plan for a do-it-yourself worm farm using 3 plastic tubs instead of the two shown in the video.
http://working-worms.com/content/view/40/62/

I've been eyeing the worm farm on Amazon for a few weeks. I think you guys have just pushed me over the edge!

You can make "worm tea" to water your plants with. To make a gallon of worm tea, put water in a gallon container, take a coffee filter and put some worm compost from your bin in it, tie a string around it, put it in the gallon of water, let it soak a day or two, and then water your plants with it. It won't burn your plants. You can still increase the value of the worm tea by putting a air rater, the kind you put in a fish tank, in the worm tea while it's making.

One more comment about the stackable bins, they require very little work. Pretty much I check the worms every week or so to see that they are still processing food. After I feed them, I check in a few days to make sure I didn't overwhelm them with moisture (and top with some paper if needed).

I pay a little attention to the cold outside and move the to the garage when it freezes or gets over 100 degrees on our porch but other then that... no fuss. It has been great.

Two of my kids are into it. My 15 year old daughter thinks I am nuts and I am not allowed to talk about my worms in front of her. LOL.

-- Lisa

been doing some research on this and one of my many internet searchs found this nifty site to purchase your worms
http://www.unclejimswormfarm.com/

They also have a few diffrent worm compst bins and pretty reasonable prices

Two of my kids are into it. My 15 year old daughter thinks I am nuts and I am not allowed to talk about my worms in front of her. LOL.

-- Lisa


Hey Lisa, I have been talking about setting up a system, my middle daughter (the squeamish one) actually posted about how "gross" worms are, etc. etc. etc. on her facebook page.

My other two kids are used to my "crazy" ideas.

Sandy

choksaw wrote:been doing some research on this and one of my many internet searchs found this nifty site to purchase your worms
http://www.unclejimswormfarm.com/

They also have a few diffrent worm compst bins and pretty reasonable prices

FYI Dave's Garden website has several negative reviews for Uncle Jims Worm Farm
http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/
I will probably order somewhere else.
Anyone have any recommendations?
Sandy