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No flashing lights, bikes or iPods here. Just worms in a box. Eating.
Update: Due to popular demand for information about how to care for worm bins, I'm thinking about writing a small book about the subject. Please let me know if you'd be interested in having a little worm bin manual! (Yes, I know there is another such book. I'd like to do one in a slightly different style.)
Years ago, when I was poor and under-employed, I craved a worm bin (aka vermicomposter), famous for the fastest compost in the West. I did research on the web, and found that commercial bins were expensive, as much as US$200 for an Australian multi-tray "worm farm", which was way too big for my apartment-dwelling self anyway.
That winter, I visited my sister in Oregon nursery country, and she had the brilliant idea to use nursery flats as trays.
I've seen simpler versions of worm bins, a 5 gallon bucket, or a big Rubbermaid tub with a lid. They probably work as well, at least until you want to harvest your worm castings, which you must sift out of the newer bedding and food scraps. The tray version allows you to segregate old from new, in just a few minutes.
Mine has a couple of issues I have not gotten around to solving, more on that in the last couple of steps.
Update, Sept. '07: After all these years, I finally realized how easy it would be to separate the liquid from the food and castings. The castings I had been getting were thick mud.
Enter the filter! I lined the next to bottom tray with heavy shade cloth, usually used overhead for shading plants, etc. You'll see it in the shade plant section of the nursery where you go to get your flats. I'll post photos later.
Onward to the building part...
Update, : May 28, 2008 See step 7 for some info on how I harvest the castings.
Update March '09: There seems to be a steady stream of questions about how to maintain worm bins. People seem to want more detail than I have provided here, so I'm thinking about writing a small book.
Please let me know, preferably via comment or private message, what delivery method you'd prefer. Paper book?, e-book? I kind of like the image of an intrepid composter outside, muddy hands clutching a Kindle. ;-)
Update: Due to popular demand for information about how to care for worm bins, I'm thinking about writing a small book about the subject. Please let me know if you'd be interested in having a little worm bin manual! (Yes, I know there is another such book. I'd like to do one in a slightly different style.)
Years ago, when I was poor and under-employed, I craved a worm bin (aka vermicomposter), famous for the fastest compost in the West. I did research on the web, and found that commercial bins were expensive, as much as US$200 for an Australian multi-tray "worm farm", which was way too big for my apartment-dwelling self anyway.
That winter, I visited my sister in Oregon nursery country, and she had the brilliant idea to use nursery flats as trays.
I've seen simpler versions of worm bins, a 5 gallon bucket, or a big Rubbermaid tub with a lid. They probably work as well, at least until you want to harvest your worm castings, which you must sift out of the newer bedding and food scraps. The tray version allows you to segregate old from new, in just a few minutes.
Mine has a couple of issues I have not gotten around to solving, more on that in the last couple of steps.
Update, Sept. '07: After all these years, I finally realized how easy it would be to separate the liquid from the food and castings. The castings I had been getting were thick mud.
Enter the filter! I lined the next to bottom tray with heavy shade cloth, usually used overhead for shading plants, etc. You'll see it in the shade plant section of the nursery where you go to get your flats. I'll post photos later.
Onward to the building part...
Update, : May 28, 2008 See step 7 for some info on how I harvest the castings.
Update March '09: There seems to be a steady stream of questions about how to maintain worm bins. People seem to want more detail than I have provided here, so I'm thinking about writing a small book.
Please let me know, preferably via comment or private message, what delivery method you'd prefer. Paper book?, e-book? I kind of like the image of an intrepid composter outside, muddy hands clutching a Kindle. ;-)
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I bought 5 nursery flats (the trays that hold a bunch of small, square pots. They are also used to grow ground cover and grasses in. (you buy the whole flat of plants). [people outside the US, please let me know what's used in your country].
A gruff old country nursery man sold me the flats for seventy-five cents each.
You'll need:
- 3-5 (or more if you eat a lot of vegetables) nursery flats
- a piece of heavy 3-5 mil plastic sheeting, big enough to line one tray with a couple of inches coming out over the top edge. This will be the bottom tray. Another piece to lay over the top as a lid is optional. Better yet, a piece of screen to keep pesky flies out.
- shredded or torn paper for bedding. I first used newspaper, then got a big bag of "cross-cut" shredded office paper from the Accounting dept. It works great, and I don't have to tear paper or put it through a home shredder any more.
- 1 small stick for spreading bedding and food scraps.
- about a pound ( a little less will do fine) of red wriggler worms
- optional lid to keep varmints and light out. I used a scrap of wood.
- food scraps, vegetable matter only! No fats. More on this later.
A gruff old country nursery man sold me the flats for seventy-five cents each.
You'll need:
- 3-5 (or more if you eat a lot of vegetables) nursery flats
- a piece of heavy 3-5 mil plastic sheeting, big enough to line one tray with a couple of inches coming out over the top edge. This will be the bottom tray. Another piece to lay over the top as a lid is optional. Better yet, a piece of screen to keep pesky flies out.
- shredded or torn paper for bedding. I first used newspaper, then got a big bag of "cross-cut" shredded office paper from the Accounting dept. It works great, and I don't have to tear paper or put it through a home shredder any more.
- 1 small stick for spreading bedding and food scraps.
- about a pound ( a little less will do fine) of red wriggler worms
- optional lid to keep varmints and light out. I used a scrap of wood.
- food scraps, vegetable matter only! No fats. More on this later.
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Peat is thought to be endangered these days, and is much more valuable staying where it was created than as a storage medium for worms. As you mentioned, newspapers work well, as does coffee chaff, coir (coconut fiber) and other "waste" products.
And of course you know that using all caps in digital communication is considered to be yelling.
IMO, your post is not especially appropriate to this 'ible, and hopefully is not part of the recent epidemic of advertising disguised as comments on blogs, news stories, and, gasp, Instructables!
If you are local I would LOVE the name of the place to get the nursery bins as well! I do not yet know how to dens a personal message, can you send me one?
I got my flats in Oregon, where they are made, but you should be able to find them. I'd start with your local nursery first. If they sell ground cover in flats, they may have some with the smaller holes.
Since worms are cold-blooded, you'll want to make sure they don't get too cold. I keep mine in a shed, which has a cement paver floor, but I raised the bin up on a couple of pieces of wood (like paint stirring sticks) to keep it off of the cold floor.
Ctrl+Vhttp://www.terracycle.net/
Why not just add an image to a comment on this Instructable?
as that is where I got my worms and supplies from.
The only other species in common use is the European Nightcrawler, Eisenia hortensis. African Nightcrawlers, Eudrillus eugeniae, are also starting to become a bit popular.
I've been vermicomposting for about 5 years now, and I prefer to use a simple wooden box with about 3 square feet of surface area. I find that wood works a bit better than plastic or styrofoam. Wood breathes better, and also absorbs any excess moisture (helps keep the bin from getting wet and smelly).
I have photos up on my blog of the hemlock worm bins I build (sorry, no step-by-step on instructables, yet):
http://vermontworms.com/red-wiggler-compost-worm-bin/
Whatever material you use, enjoy vermicomposting. It's pretty neat to see your bin slowly filling up with the richest compost around!
I do want to try a multi-level worm bin like you've built just to see how well they work. I'll probably make mine out of wood and galvanized 1/8" hardware cloth, however. That will let me make it whatever size I like, probably 2' square. I'll post an instructable if that works out.
As far as the work of harvesting worms/compost goes: it depends. The traditional method of building pyramids of castings and then letting the worms migrate downward into a clump of nearly pure worms as the pile dries is very easy and works pretty well, but does take some time.
I actually built myself a rotary worm harvester this past weekend, which works extremely well. It's a scaled-down and simplified version of commercial trommel screen worm harvesters like this:
http://www.jetcompost.com/harvesters/2430-2.jpg. Another potential Instructable, I suppose.
As far as posting my hemlock worm bin as a "commercial product", I don't actually sell them at this time. I recommend wood to new worm composters only because I've found it to be more forgiving than plastic. As I said, though, I haven't tried a multi-level bin like that in this Instructable, yet. I would guess that they're less likely to suffer from excessive moisture than the typical Rubbermaid bin that most people start with.