Pics of my first bin

15 years ago

I have the best Mom ever - when I told her that I wanted worms for Xmas she took me seriously and actually got me some! I've been reading this forum for a couple of months, have learned a ton, and finally got time to set up a bin. I decided to go with a continuous flow through bin modeled after some great descriptions in these posts:

My Flow Through Bins - splitsec002

One Year of Worming: A Retrospective - mndtrp

Jason's Flow Through Bin

I got a 45 gallon garbage can from Walmart for $14.88 and 3/4 inch OD electrical conduit in ten ft lengths from Home Depot for around $2 each. The grate ended up looking like this:

When it came time to fill the bin, I placed 8-10 sheets of newspaper on the grate (figured having Reggie Bush and the Saints at the bottom of my bin would be good luck!)

Then I added about 6 inches of dampened bedding (pieces of ripped-up cardboard and shredded leaves) and 4-6 inches of pre-rotted vegetable and fruit scraps mixed with shredded leaves that had been composting for several weeks.

My 2 lbs of red worms arrived on 1/21/10 - I ordered them from Decker Worms in Houston because I figured the transit time would be short to Baton Rouge. My worms were only in transit for 2 days and were in good shape when I got them - they were packed in what appeared to be dry peat. I dumped in the whole bag to the bin and added some water to dampen the peat they were shipped in, and was surprised by how active they were right away. I topped them off with an inch of damp bedding. Finally, I added some appropriate decor for the worms' new abode which I'm sure they appreciated :) I also added a digital thermometer made for reptile enclosures that I got at PetSmart for around 10 bucks - the temp probe goes down into the middle of the bin. The pre-rot bin sits next to the worm bin. Most of my vegetable and food scraps go into the pre-rot bin rather than directly into the worm bin - I throw in whatever I have whenever I have it, and just cover with some shredded leaves - no worries about overfeeding or overheating this way. I was freezing scraps for a while but this is much more convenient for me. Most of what goes in are vegetable and fruit scraps, and some coffee grounds from work.

The hardest part of all this by far was not messing with them too much for the first week, but yesterday I couldn't stand it any longer and decided to check on what was going on under the bedding. In addition to finding lots of happy red worms, I had an awesome surprise - there were already cocoons after only ten days - there are lots of them in the pre-rotted material that I started the bin with - yippee!

Here is a link that might be useful: Full Album of New Bin Pics

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Comments (4)

eric30
15 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
Looks like a great bin, congrats. I went with conduit bars also and I am very glad that I did that, very sturdy. I see you taped the ends, good idea. I haven't done that yet and the bars want to slide out when I scrape. One thing that I noticed when I first broke the seal is that the newspaper layers didn't decay like I thought they would. They were pasted together like paper mache so I had to cut it into strips and tear it out. The compost might bridge above the grate after harvesting but that's no big deal. Sometimes it tumbles down on its own and other times I just poked a stick down from the top to cause an avalanche. Please keep us updated!
rickd59
15 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
Interesting design. I can see the advantage over a stackable design would be that there is less lifting - no stacking and unstacking during maintenance operations.

But how do you drain the excess liquid?
How do you keep flies and other creatures from getting into the bin from the bottom?
Do worms and/or partially processed compost ever come out of the bottom?

Is there anyone out there who has had a composter like this for more than a year or so?
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geauxworms
Original Author
15 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
Thanks for the comments and questions. I'm just a beginner with worms but will try to answer some of rickd's questions based on what I've read. The whole idea of a continuous flow through bin is that food and bedding go in the top and vermicompost comes out the bottom. Eventually (6 months or more from now) I should be able to rake some vermicompost out of the bottom.

I haven't had any excess liquid coming out of the bottom of the bin, but if I did it would just pool in the bottom and evaporate. I also haven't had any problems with worms coming out the bottom (I think initially running the newspaper up the sides of the bin for 6-8" helped with this).

As for creatures getting into the bottom, that hasn't been a problem so far but I'm concerned about ants and roaches when it gets warmer. I do have my share of fruit flies in the top but nothing unexpected.

I'll add a link that lists a number of good discussions of different sized flow-through bins. Also, the links I had in the original post will answer most of your questions.

Here is a link that might be useful: List of Flow Through Bin descriptions
eric30
15 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
I'm surprised that there aren't more replies, this is exciting stuff. Mine has been going for a year and a half now. I harvested mine way to early so I had worms and unfinished compost falling through. Now that I have a good bit of volume in the bin, I can rake out aged finished compost every time with no worms, they are all on the top. I haven't had any problems with critters coming in through the bottom, but when the bugs show up in the summer I layer extra paper and cardboard on the top. Because of the excellent airflow, liquid hasn't been in issue. If anything it tends to get a little dry over time. That's easy to control with wet bedding and kitchen scraps.