Home made worm-bins vs shop brought bins

Nice tutorial! I'm trying to ease my hubs into accepting the idea of a worm bin. We are very limited on space. Plus, I need it to be someplace convenient to use....because I'm awful at emptying the small compost bucket under the sink into the large tumbler outside. SOOOOOOOO, I think I shall attempt making one that fits under the sink. And it has to be mostly out of recycled items because I promised I wouldn't spend more than $20. Now....off to find the right containers. I will post pics if I finally get it done.

I thought I'd give you an update on the cheap $5.98 homemade worm bin I made back on Oct. 16th.
In the video you can see I only added newspaper...worms...and left over food scraps.

Here are some photos of what it looks like today Nov. 28th.


It has about 2inchs of damp shredded newspaper on top.
When I pull the newspaper back you can see the worm castings.

The only thing I added was food scraps and damp shredded newspapers, but it looks like soil, and it has a good earthly smell to it.

(notice all the spots of worm castings on the sides of the worm bin, the worms come out of the bedding and they move all over leaving worm castings behind)



to give you an idea of how much worm castings was in there, I removed the newspaper and put the worm castings in gallon size containers.


So less than a month 1/2 I have two gallons of worm castings. I just leave the castings in the worm bin, and let it fill up, the worms will just keep moving up to the new food scraps, and I keep everythings covered with new damp newspaper. You can use damp shredded cardboard too as long as it's not coated with anything.

Thanks for the update Josh. I still cant wait to get my worms. But I am going to...till after the holidays I think. I have bins for them, just need the worms. I am impressed by what they have done in that little time:D

Also, I only used about a cup of worms, however many is in the video, there wasn't a lot of them. I took them out of my SFG.

Truly impressive. I can't wait to get worms.

This is a really brilliant idea. Depending on your area, it may be too many holes, and create too much drying of the bedding.

What you use for a base will determine how much liquid you will have. Josh used newspapers. I use composted manure. I add garden weeds, over grown plants I've cut back, decaying leaves, etc (I don't have much from my patio garden). I also add a small amount of decaying food. When the worms are visible in the food, I add more food. The liquid comes from the decomposition.

I check my bin every few days for liquid. I drain it off and pour it on my plants. They love it! (The spigot in a collector bin that has no bedding or worms is an advantage of purchased systems. You can get them at stores that sell processed water. Another advantage are trays with holes that allow the worms to move out of the castings and up into the new food & bedding. A third is they are usually on legs, making the trays more accessible. A tray of bedding and worms be as much as 30 lbs!)

How much wetness do you need? Fill a bucket with shredded paper. Add water. Squeeze out. Voila! Add to worm bin.

Worms move to the food...and to the comfort (think red wiggly couch potatoes!). They move up and down in the mix, depending on conditions. They like it damp, not wet. Decaying matter creates plenty of moisture for them.

Keep them in the shade or inside (temps below 85 degrees F). Keep the amount of food low (decaying matter can heat the bin and kill them...less is more). If you MUST have them outside, use plenty of damp newspaper on top (like 6") to keep them cool in hot weather.

Cardboard can be used. Just shred and soak and squeeze. Remember comfort. They don't like rough textures.

Worm castings can also be made into tea for your plants (different from the decomp drainage liquid). Take one cup castings. Add to one gallon water. Let sit for an hour. Use within 12 hours.

It's an instant nutritional boost (especially Nitrogen) for your plants!



So...if you shoot action, what type of action is it? With your avatar I can't imagine that it is gunpowder related (i.e., Cowboy Action Handguns).

ishootaction wrote:

I used 4" PVC between bins 1 and 2. I also used aluiminum screen on the inside to cover my air holes. Just got worms yesterday and don't think I lost any last night.

I will keep you posted. I noticed there were fruit flys I think already in there. Not cool. So I will be looking for a way to get rid of them.

I am also concerned about our temps 90 to 100 right now. They are in the shade but maybe I should add water. I don't want to drowned them. Maybe someone can chime in here and let me know. Thanks

FWIW, my new bin is producing about 12 ounces of liquid fertilizer daily.

Spigots rule!

thanks avadgardener....cool name
I am still not seeing a lot of action in mine, the worms seem to want to crawl under the paper and line themselves along the plastic on the edges. I have read how they mate, and so perhaps they are laying in wait of partners and just wish I was LEAVE them alone.

My first thought is they were raised in a different media than you have.

Do you know in what they were raised? What was in the package of worms you received?

Good news...they aren't trying to escape. They are indicating they aren't happy.

Are they eating the food you give them? If not, what are you feeding them?

But no...they aren't being wallflowers. They are thought to be hermaphraditic...able to reproduce by themselves or with a partner.

Which makes me want to put on some jazzy music and see if they get to it...

Today mine are more interested in the media they came in than the media in my container. I hope that changes...or I'll have to add more media like theirs.

I have had them since January 31st and they were "packaged" in with compost.
I have the plastic worm tower and the bottom collection part is starting to be lined with lots of what looks like worm poop.
Is this how its supposed to happen with these multi tray units?
Food, Bits of bell peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, coffee grinds, egg shells, (finely ground), apple cores, pear cores. I also took some carrots that had semi rotted, and grated them up...

Then definitely give them some compost. Steer manure is cheap...$0.98 USD for 1 CU. If you have some of your compost left from making MM, use that. Put it under the paper. If they were raised in compost the paper is their swamp cooler.

Is this in a bin or a pipe like Josh designed?

Yep...those are your most desirable casings below the paper. Congrats!

They move to food and to comfy conditions. They crawl away because the moisture is too little or to much; the temp is too hot (too much food decomposing or the outside temps); the media is different; there is a storm coming; and not enough air.

They will adapt...you just have to help them adjust!

GWN wrote:
Is this how its supposed to happen with these multi tray units?

Sorry GWN, I forgot to answer this...

(From an earlier post, above)

AvaDGardner wrote:...Another advantage are trays with holes that allow the worms to move out of the castings and up into the new food & bedding.

I'll try to get a photo tomorrow of my empty bin.

The bottom is covered in tiny holes in in (3/16"?). When you first start "the ranch" you line the bottom tray with dry sheets of newspaper. This is your barrier. Then you add your media and your worms. And cover them with damp shredded newspaper.

Worms will eventually eat the paper below. The casings fall through to the catch bin. When the first worm tray is full of worms, you set up your second bin with media from the second bin and some food, and place it on top of the bottom bin. The newspaper in the bottom bin touchs the new top bin. The worms move through the holes to the top bin to the food. After a while, all the worms will move up and your bottom bin and catch bin are ready to harvest.

Some leave the non-working bins in place for a while while, allowing more casing to accumulate.

The design I have allows for 15,000 worms with 3 trays.

That's a lot of worms.

A pound of worms (based on a low 600 count per pound) can produce over 57,600 worms in 6 mos.

I'll be taking them out and putting them in the garden. But I do need to keep an eye on not overcrowding! (Who thought worms would lead to being a City planner?)

I have a question:

If you leave your bin (either homemade or store bought) outside during the non-winter seasons, do you have any problems with rain getting your worm house too wet?

I think you need some shelter from rain, from what I've read it's best to put it under cover like in a carport or under a tree but I'm definately not an expert!

I'm looking at buying a commercial bin very soon, I know I could make one cheaper but I need the system to be as easy to manage as possible as I have two young kids and not a lot of time.

My question is about the worm blankets that they sell, they claim it helps with moisture retention and also keep out fruit fly. Are they worth the money or am I better off using newspaper? I don't understand how they work in a tray system either because wouldn't the blanket stop them going up the level or do they just eat through it? In which case you'd be replacing them all the time..

Hey Eric...if you haven't bought your commercial system yet, you may want to stay with home made.

I'm wrestling with this too, and I have a big commercial system (multiple trays, holds up to 15k worms). I'm thinking about ranching night crawlers too. I found some at the garden when I was digging around the deep mulch. They are grayish, a lot larger and super wiggly. I transported 3 of them into one of my boxes, LOL.

With worms, less is more. The bigger the system you have, the more care it takes. You'd think it be easier, but it isn't. The in-home systems are probably the easiest. And I've yet to have the worms eat even a day's worth of veggie trash in a week's time...I probably have 1200 worms right now.

We had some pretty harsh rain yesterday. I checked my 'herd' this morning (first time in about 4 days), and there were 2 on the top outside, 1 in my catch basin around the legs, and probably 75 in the basin and 25 in the lid. There were also a lot of hair-sized clear baby ones on the ledge of the lid. They don't like barametric changes.

I decided to check the base, where the legs connect. (It has 5 legs that lock into 5 columns of the catch basin. The columns have super tiny holes in them for air...same size as the holes in the lid). In one leg I found a snail and many slugs (probably why I find slugs in the basin), and in another leg I found clogged with mud dobber nests! I'm glad it was cold and winter and flushed them all out. It was so cold, I could catch flies with chop stick (I use them to remove the worms from the column ribs in the basin). Sounds so Mr Miagi, but it was too cold for them to move!

So Squaredeal...I leave mine bin outside 365. But then, I live in a mediterranean climate. My biggest problem is heat in the summer. It has a lid, so I don't worry about too much moisture getting in. They like it kinda dry...like a well squeezed out sponge. You can tell it is moist, but not wet.

All systems should have a place for the excess liquid to flow. Because as the food decays, as the humidity rises, the moisture in your bin will change too. That liquid is also good for your garden (NOT to be confused with 'worm tea' from castings.)

Worm Blankets? Never heard of them. Over time your bin will develop other creatures too. It's okay. They do no harm. I left my lid off in some mild weather a week or so ago so worms would dig in, and this week I have some flies. No big deal. If I see a slug, I do get rid of it.

I hear Purina makes worm chow. I can't imagine what is in it, and haven't seen it ont he shelves of the pet stores or the big box stores! Talk about a specialty item!

OH GNW! I have your picture!! The black dots are basically support joints, even though the entire thing is one piece. That's how they move between trays.


Ava

I'm FRUSTRATED!

I watched a lot of vids on worms and vermiculture last night. And all about homemade bins. Redwormcomposting.com's vids are very informative.

A picture is worth a 1000 words...or a 1000 worms! When I saw his video about Reds by the Gob, I knew I'd been had. And now I understand why Josh counted his - what a great deal his seminar attendees received!

I realized that I did NOT get a pound of worms last month in my purchase. More like 1/3 of a pound. Sure, there was more than a pound weight in the box, but a lot was bedding. They said it was 600-800 worms. At least I paid half-price. And no shipping, because it was local.

And they were the fattest reds I've ever seen.

I just took a good look at my bin. They are primarily on one side (different bedding), fat and juicy, doing their thing. At this point, I would expect (if I had a thousand or even 800) that my bin would filling up and I'd need to add another soon.

I might change the bin to improve the bedding (because it looks like a DMZ line, but it will be at least 2 more months before I need another bin.

I didn't think to count mine when they came in. Perhaps I should have. They seem to be pretty well distributed throughout the bedding in the box and not tons are up around the top at any point, with more being there early in the morning when the lights first are turned on than later in the day.

AvaD

Worms in shipping can lose 75% of their body weight. That could be the reason you felt "shorted". I weighed the little bag containing worms and bedding and it was over a pound and a half. I didn't count the worms, thought several days of shipping was stressful enough. They are suppose to breed pretty fast so a few months from now I hope you will have all the worms you want. My worm bin is 3 weeks old today and they seem to be pretty stable and eating everything I put in there. I've read where a new worm bin can take 3-4 months to get a good harvest of vermicompost. By June/July it could be a really nice boost for the veggies.

These recent pictures are from worms found in the garden under a two inch layer of part rotted wet horse manure 7 straw which was laid down under a piece of old carpet at the begining of JANUARY 2012 . They were harvested put in the worm bin at the end of January...

Initally the contents of the bin were a bit too wet and the veg bits etc were not quite at the correct stage of decay for the worms to have a feast on the decay products . I added a couple of hands full of old spent tomato grow bag contents to make it a bit drier and also eased the lid up on some plastic catches so there was plenty of air , I gave it a gentle stir in , covered it in wet pages from some grage sale paperback books and they have not looked back since..

This is how they looked ,, theres a lot more than in the photo , give it another couple of weeks and there will be almost double the number of worms

I actually counted my worms when I did the 2nd compost haul the first summer. I counted 2053 (I may have missed one or a dozen) worms and there was still room in my first floor condo for many more so they don't take up much room. I started with 500 the spring before.

AvaD,

Worm sellers all will tell you different things.

When you put in more food, just put it on the other side from the worms, cover with a piece of paper or cardboard. The worms will find it! Don't stir up the food. Red worms, if that is what you have, like there food on top. Moving the feed area each time will cause them to work throughout the bin.

Do you see any tiny worms? They will make babies fast.

Jo

I have a question I am thinking about making a homemade worm-bin but how do I use the castings once I remove them? Do I mix them in with my soil....I'm still learning.

Thanks

I just mix in to MM in the bed. I look to see if a plant that needs a boost. It's full of nutrients. Jo

I add about 2 cups per square as I plant and later in the season as needed. About 20% of my planting mix is vermicompost.