How to Turn Kitchen Scraps Into Fresh Food With Vermiponics

Hi Everyone,

This instructable is about how to combine worm composting with hydroponics so that you can turn kitchen scraps into fresh food. When worms compost food, they produce worm castings and a liquid called wormbin leachate.

Worm castings and wormbin leachate are a rich fertilizer and when diluted and prepared correctly can be used as a nutrient solution for certain hydroponic systems.

If you're interested in vermiponics then you can find out more on this Facebook page.

Step 1: Collect Your Kitchen Scraps and Feed Them to Your Worms

Step 2: Collect the Wormbin Leachate at the Bottom of Your Wormbin

Step 3: Collect the Wormbin Leachate

At this stage its best to filter the wormbin water in case anything else has fallen into the bucket.

You might also want to check the pH and EC of the solution to make sure that its suitable for your plants.

Step 4: Add the Filtered Wormbin Leachate to Your Hydroponic Setup

Our hydroponics kit uses the wicking method but there are lots of different hydroponic kits available.

To find out how to set up a wicking bed check out this instructable

https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-set-up-a-ve...

Step 5: Place Your Hydroponic Kit in a Sunny Spot (and That's It!)

Place your hydroponic set up where it'll get enough sunlight and top it up with wormbin leachate whenever the wicking bed is running low.

By the way, if you liked this instructable then make sure to leave a comment below or head over to our Facebook page for more info on vermiponics.

To find out how to set up your own system and grow with vermiponics you can download a free mini eBook when you subscribe to our newsletter and for more posts like this head over to http://www.vermiponicsonline.com

Thanks!

Comments

[Rodeodog]

Nice Instructable, much simpler and maker friendly than other bins I have seen. There are just a couple of clarifications that could be made: for instance - What is the largest drill bit you have? 1/4" or 5-6 mm? My largest is 1 1/4" and that seems a little too large. Does the leachate have a "shelf-life" (life expectancy of the biologics deposited by the worms in the castings and leachate) ? For better efficiency and performance, should the leachate be diluted with water to a 10% solution?

Note: All I got from my dollar store when asking about a claw "thingy" were funny looks!

The drill and "thingy" were attempts at humor. All else was read in articles about building other worm composting bins. Bottom line: This Instructable is so good, that I will make this bit and include pictures in a future comment. Thank you for showing me how.

[Growerer]

Hi Rodeodog - I'm not 100% sure on the microbes in the wormbin water but I've heard that wormbin leachate (when diluted) and wormteas should be used as soon as they're prepared. With diluting the wormbin leachate, it depends - if its rained recently then your wormbin leachate will be diluted anyway, a better rule of thumb is probably the colour of the tea itself, which should look like a mid-strength tea (or you can use an EC meter like I do). The other thing is that most worm tea recipes on the internet are about applying worm tea to plants growing in soil (so they already have a source of nutrients) as these plants only grow in wormbin leachate you don't want the nutrient solution to be too diluted (so I aim for an EC reading of around 2). Hope that helps!

[Cheiron]

I really like the setup. would you describe your wicking hydroponics setup as well. I would like to start my own hydroponics or aquapinics setup someday.

[Growerer]

Hey Cheiron, I use rope for the wicking material and have added coco coir and perlite as my growing medium (but this link explains how I actually did it step by step https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-set-up-a-vermiponic-wicking-bed/ )