5 dollar, 1/2 hour Worm Composting Bin(s)

Step 6 The Harvest

Harvesting: Someone asked about harvesting the castings, and I probably did not address that step. Here is a brief description of how I do it. Eventually, I'll post some photos.

I confess to not having read this instructable recently, apologies for any redundancies.

The tray full of castings is usually the bottom one, where most of the worms stay. I usually rotate the trays, put that one on top, and move the entire bin outside.

The worms can't take being in the light, so they head downstairs, encouraged by my gentle stirring once or twice an hour, sometimes once or twice a week. Eventually, they all move lower, though it's a good idea to poke through any clumps. I suppose if you are more patient that I am, they'll all go on their own, with less work for you. I'm a little paranoid about ejecting my trusty friends from their comfy abode, so I am pretty thorough about sifting through the muck to get all the worms I can back into safer territory.

The harvest, and being able to keep the newer and older food separated are for me, the two main advantages to using the tray system rather than having one big tub.

Comments

[Busymama62]

I want to make sure before I do this. Is the very bottom tray the tray that drainage goes into and the next tray the one that has castings and you move to the top. If I have this right in my head, I do not want to move the tray with the plastic liner. Thanks! I do love this idea.

[Marcos]

Yep, bottom tray gets the liquid. Gravity and all. ;-) Any trays above that get food, worms, and bedding. If you're just starting your bin, I'd but all 3 in the next to bottom tray, then, as your worm population and food volume grow, add more to the upper trays. My worms like to stay in the lower tray, and move up to the "surface" to feed, as they do in the wild.