Anyone do vermicomposting (composting with worms)?

[TudoBem]

Dh went to a composting class yesterday and bought a vermicomposting (composting with worms) bin. Does anyone have experience with these? Do you like them?

[mama_daba]

i used to have a worm bin and i loved it! worm castings are the best form of compost i have ever used, when we moved we didn't bring our worm bin with us, but our new landlord got a hige barel composter for the garden here and it is great cuz it is a shared composter with 12 apartments

worm bins are great though, definitly my favorite form of compost

[Attila the Honey]

I do! I do! I love our worm bin. It's a rubbermaid container with a lid under our kitchen table. We give them kitchen scraps (uncooked fruits and veggies) and shredded black and white paper.

My worst fear was that it'd be stinky, but it's not. It smells clean, like fresh dirt. My houseplants have never been healthier, I swear between the compost soup we feed them and the recent heat wave they've all had a major growth spurt.

I highly recommend it. My 19mo dd loves our worm bucket. She even throws her apple cores in herself.

[party_of_seven]

I have a huge old broken chest freezer out behind my shed that is full of worms. I have so many worms I have a hard time coming up with stuff to feed them. I usually have to go down to the bakery outlet and buy a big bag full of "pet bread" (its just several days old). It only costs a couple dollars. They love bread!

This thread reminds me that I need to get some castings out of there for the garden!!

[Silliest]

I don't have worms now <LOL!>

But I had a worm bin for about 3 years. It was awesome.

I used a regular compost heap for lawn and garden waste, and fed food scraps to the worms. It was nice not having to worry about my kids pulling disgusting rotted food out of the compost heap in the yard, and nice that the food didn't really last long enough in the worm bin to get gross ;->

(Yeah, I'm shallow ;-> There are other benefits, but those were important to me with kids that like to poke around like these two do.)

[Juniper]

I just went to a workshop, too, & it seems pretty simple. I am lookiing to get started within the next few weeks. Off to the bait shop.

I have so many scraps and I feel so guily throwing them away! Plus, my garden is growing slow and I need some compost.

No one has had any problems with bugs? Atilla the Honey you didn't drill any holes into yours? (I read an ealier thread)

Jennifer

[mama_daba]

i had a problem with ants in mine, but it was one raised off the ground so i put the feet in containers of water that way the ants couldn't get into it, no problems with any other bugs though

[Lucky]

Great thread!
It has sparked a new interest for me....starting up a worm bin of my own!

a few questions, (if you don't mind )......


Can any kind of container work for a worm bin?
Where can a worm bin be stored?
Can worms that already exist in a compost pile be used to start a worm bin?

:

[suwannee]

I think we talked about this awhile back... I want to start, but I read that it is better to wait til the temps get a little cooler ie not 95F every day. I am just a little squeamish about having them inside my house though. Can anyone suggest a cheap and/or free set up for outside?

[Attila the Honey]

Like I mentioned, I have a rather big rubbermaid container for our worm bin. It works fine. I've seen vermicomposting bins on the internet for $120! I think anything with a lid will work fine.

We store ours under our kitchen table (it's a rectangular table pushed against the wall). My friend stores hers in her laundry room.

As far as the types of worms to use, I am not an expert but I believe the best kinds of worms to use are 'red wigglers' because they eat the most and reproduce the fastest. Earthworms aren't good for indoor worm bins, they don't eat the right kind of stuff and also don't eat fast enough. Red wigglers will eat half their weight in kitchen waste a day. If you overfeed it's not a big deal but leads to mold blooms because the food is sitting in there too long. (Mold blooms don't require anything apart from waiting it out, they go away within a day or two.)

(No, I don't drill holes in my bucket. I've read you should, but it hasn't been necessary, so I haven't.)

Suwanee> Red wigglers don't live up north because they can't survive the winters here. Or so I was told. So, if you are up north and want an outdoor composting bin, don't use red wigglers. Dh told me they are abundant down south.

The cheapest, easiest set up for outside is to just dig a small hole and throw your kitchen waste in it. Cover with soil and wet down. Each day when you take your kitchen scraps out (no greasy foods, no cooked foods, no meat or dairy), turn it and dampen it if it looks dry. The worms in the soil will find it and do their thing, and you won't have to worry about the heat or the cold killing them.

[TudoBem]

Originally Posted by Attila the Honey

Each day when you take your kitchen scraps out (no greasy foods, no cooked foods, no meat or dairy),

Why no cooked foods?

[Attila the Honey]

I am not completely sure why, but I think it's because cooked food smells garbagey when it rots and it attracts flies. I would probably throw in some steamed broccoli, but I wouldn't give them cooked grains or leftover casserole. :LOL

[mama_daba]

i used to add cooked food and never noticed a bad smell and the wormes seemed fine with it, i read that you arn't supposed to put in ornge peels though there is something in them that kills the worms it is in the book worms eat my garbage

[Proudmom]

We have had one for over a year, It works well. I keep ours outside on the patio : I had it inside, but I didn't like the renegade worm or two...

I use a RUbbermaid with holes drilled around the outside. Just throw in some newsprint, food scraps and red wigglers, and you are all set...

I think I have super worms because they survive extrmeme heat quite well

DS loves our worm bin. He shows it to his friends :LOL

[Livi's Mama]

Resurrecting this thread because I'm preparing to start vermicomposting. (DH said "no" to getting a goat - I'll show him ). Anyway, for anyone who bought red wigglers, how many did you get (# of pounds) & how much compost did you get out of them? We have alot of kitchen scraps, so I'm thinking I'd rather get too many than too few. My soil needs amending desperately & I could use the compost.

TIA
Dawn

[Attila the Honey]

In my experience, a worm bin isn't the most effective way to get compost. I've had mine for a year and a half now and it still hasn't *needed* emptying. It's great for getting rid of your kitchen scraps and you do get some compost out of it, but not enough for a veggie garden.

I was told that red wrigglers eat half their body weight a day. So, if you get a pound of worms, you can feed them half of a pound of scraps a day. I started with a pound and they multiplied fast, very very fast. If you overfeed them it's not the worst thing in the world, but it might make the compost bin stinky for a little while or lead to a mold bloom.

But, I want to stress that the worm bin is not stinky normally. That always seems to be everyone's fear. At it's worst, when we had a bout of 'anaerobic bacteria', it was only smelly when we opened it and it went away quickly. I've never been able to smell the compost with the lid on, and most of the time when I do open the lid it just smells like fresh, clean dirt.

[mattemma04]

I never got around to getting red wigglers,but I have done composting with regular earthworms.I was in dire need of worms for our toads,and our new home boasted NO WORMS.So I just started digging,and dumping veg/fruit scraps,and we now have worms AND some good soil.Indoors I usually keep a bucket with earthworms and throw in a few scraps and newspaper moistened. Worm composting is great any way you do it.Suppliers charge a lot for that fertile end resulting poop

[beanma]

Originally Posted by mattemma04

I never got around to getting red wigglers,but I have done composting with regular earthworms.I was in dire need of worms for our toads,and our new home boasted NO WORMS.So I just started digging,and dumping veg/fruit scraps,and we now have worms AND some good soil.Indoors I usually keep a bucket with earthworms and throw in a few scraps and newspaper moistened. Worm composting is great any way you do it.Suppliers charge a lot for that fertile end resulting poop

i bet you've just got red worms in your yard. don't know where you are, but they live in the south where we are. they look just like earthworms, aka night crawlers, but they're smaller and they don't have to be as cool as earthworms. earthworms would die indoors. my dd1 has been on a worm kick for the past couple of days so we just went with it and bought some red wiggler worms at the bait store today. the guy that sold them said they'd be great for compost, but not to get the earthworms (night crawlers) 'cause they'd die inside. they have to be refrigerated in the bait shop.

here's a link we found about squirmin' herman the worm. dd1 has been really into it -- http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/worms/index.html . haven't gotten our bin quite ready yet, but our worms are hanging out in their little plastic container from the bait store. hope they make it through the night okay. i guess they will since he had tons of the little containers unrefrigerated out at the shop. we'll see in the morning .

[Vixenmama]

been vermicomposting for about 3 months and...

we love it.

we have a big rubbermaid, with holes drilled in it.

I don't put in meat or dairy, and really nothing except fruit and veggie matter.

Keep damp/moist cardboard on top of the bedding to prevent fruit flies from finding your scraps and laying eggs.


Make sure any scraps you add are buried under enough bedding to cover them completely---you won't have a fruit fly invasion if they can't lay their eggs on food, and they don't tunnel.


In about 2 weeks we'll harvest the compost, separate the worms and start over. This time I'll make 2 bins--I have lots of fruit and veggie scraps.


An aside--bait store worms cost considerably more than worms purchased by the pound for composting. I received my worms in two days and they were in great shape.


-v

[beanma]

my bait store worms cost $3 for a smallish container chock full of worms. they did make it through the night fine and seem to be happy in their new home. we're really doing it as an experiment because our dd1 decided she must have worms as pets. we have a big outdoor compost bin that is not as picky about what it recieves (leftover pizza and mac-n-cheese a-ok) so if dd1 tires of the worms we'll let them go outside (i think they'll survive in the south) and stick with our compost bins.