Cool! That's a serious load of castings!

I don't see anything that could be called "bedding". Do you use it? Do you get serious fruit fly issues? (that's my current battle).

Sometimes I cover the food scraps with shredded leaves if they start to smell. I am not sure if it is castings all the way to the bottom on this one since worms tends to stay on the surface but the first bin that I left unharvested for 3 years had castings all the way to the bottom.

This bin has no holes and I keep it covered and so far I don't see any flies hanging around.

Jet - how do I get started "your way" from scratch? Thanks, JR

Keeping in mind that i am in zone 7 and you are in zone 5.

My first bin started as a cold bin composter for my kitchen food scraps. I drilled a couple of small hloes at the bottom for drainage. I put shreded paper some leaves and then my kitchen scraps and I was doing that for over a year. Then I had an adea to add worms into this bin.

I have a small plastic worm bin in my basement for a few years already and i just took about a handful of worms and put it in my outdoor bin. I keep this bin covered because of flies. once in a while I dig in and see if the worms are still alive and i saw that they are even fatter that in my indoor bin. I don't have a lot of scraps but I do keep throwing some in there regularly and for 3 years I never ran out of room in the bin as it kept on shrinking. When I finally decided to harvest last spring I saw a lot of worms inside. They have multiplied. I don't water them but the rotting vegetation from my fridge and the scraps I saved in a covered ice cream container in my countertops provide the only moisture in it. I do throw in some dirt left over from my pots if I have any often containing a rootball from dead plants and some weeds from the garden.

Now that I know they can survive without drainage holes I prefer it this way. With my first bin I had some fluids escaping and staining tha concrete and even saw some worms living under the bin.

Today it was 75 degrees outside and just for curiousity i put a candy thermometer inside just laying it on top of the garbage and the temperature inside was 100 degrees but I wasn't worried. We had several days of over 100 temps not too long ago before I took the above pictures and I know they survived that.

In the winter I move the bin next to the house for convenience and maybe the heat from the house keeps them a little warmer but they are still outdoors.

This has been my experience. I wish somebody tries to do the same so I will know if mine is unique or that the little darlings are just tough and will survive anyway.

I would suggest for you to leave some leaves for bedding and feedstock for a while in a bin before you put in your worms so that they have food ready to eat. I am eager for you to try and see if it will work for you as it did for me. Good luck!

Thanks for the info! I've kicked this idea around from time to time and have never acted on it. I've got a hobby greenhouse and it would be perfect to house the container there except for the last part of June through the first part of September. We've had a heck of a heat wave going on this summer, the bank said 104º when I drove by this afternoon and it's been that way for at least three weeks. I could put it under the cedar trees, but I'm afraid anywhere outside would be too hot. The garage is the hottest place on the property. What if...we dug a hole and only the top 1/3 of the bin was above ground? I REALLY don't want them in the house/basement - that's what has held me up in the past at getting started with this project. Tell me what you think about the below ground idea! Thanks, JR

JR, I'm in missouri, and think i might give this a try. not sure but i would think that if it gets to hot here that the worms would just go down and to the center and in the shade would help. Well if i get this set up and give it a try i will let you know more (school is getting ready to start next week, so this may get put on the buttom of the list) Please keep us posted as to how this goes if you get it set up. thanks sherie

jet_ny, I did something similar. Mine was a rubbermaid tote that I took out too soon and I "thought" all the worms froze. It did have holes in it.

Well I went to harvest it in june and was disapointed that most of the worms had died. But found lots of cocoons. I put the tote by the shed and forgot about it. It was in the 100s here for a good part of july.

Last week I decided to make a bigger bin since and went to dump the contents of this one int it.

SURPRISE-it was all vermicompost with lots of worms. I just knew that nothing had survived those temps in that little bin. I am definitly gonna stop worrying so much.

Congrats

Carey

I'm going for it! Still wondering about the hole idea.