The choice of in or out is yours.

I leave my castings outside, but try and protect them from rain or run-off until 'deployed'. In fact the castings stay in the wormbed until needed. I also have a bad back and only want to move things once.

Another thing you can do is add food to the castings. In the spring you will likely have many more 'new' worms.

Good luck and happy wormin'

Pete

Wow, 10 gallons is a lot ! Good job ! How many gallons of tea do you plan to make ?

I wouldn't trust for many of the original bacteria to be around after long months without food, even if provided with the correct amounts of H2O and O.

Outside low temperatures or inside warm temperatures will, I guess, select different bacteria or spores.

But the lack of food will be, IMHO, the most limiting parameter, or the most selective one.

What I would fear, personally, is a total change of the species of bacteria under the pressure of different selective forces. Obviously the worm castings won't become sterile, but some bacteria may disappear and other ones may come and colonize the castings. So the end product might be different in a few months, whether outside or inside.
Although I might be totally wrong. Interesting question though, I'll try a Google scholar search and will come back if I find something.

Found this article by Marinissen and Dexter : Mechanisms of stabilization of earthworm casts and artificial casts (1990).

Well, I had it all wrong :

"A drying-rewetting treatment strongly increases the stability of the casts."

So Ughman, let them dry, inside or outside, and you should be good.

Sorry for the ignorant post above :-(

Francoise, nothing ignorant IMHO and thanks for doin the legwork for further information.

I believe you were on the right track in your first post in that some things will still be there but other things will be gone. Doesnt mean the VC goes bad or is any worse than when fresh but I do believe it is different. Some live active microbes will surely be absent though their bodies will be decaying and presenting nutrients plants can then take up. So it seems if establishing the microbes in the soil is the goal maybe fresh would be better but if feeding plants is the goal then aged is better.

Key word is stability which is not the only variable at issue . . .

?

Francoise:

Are you interested in discussing this further ?
Did you log in for the whole article ?
If so, send me an email ( see member page)

Hi Barbara !

I've only access to the beginning of the article for free, but I've asked kid to send it to me since she has unlimited free access.

I'll read it whole (and several times so as not to appear stupid) and will come back to you.

Kid will send it, but it might take two or three phone calls to remind her to not forget old mom ;-)

So if I don't come back to you at once, please don't think it's because I'm a pompous arrogant rude french woman who doesn't give a rat's behind about promises ;-)

I'm not sure there was much more than we got free.
I agree it needs to be read more than once.
The reason I suggested direct dialogue is that
I am thinking the article could be TMI for this forum.

If ARFW is what you aren't,
ARAW is what I am risking being.

Funny thing, one day I found a wiggler in my sink and now how did It get there. I have a window over my sink with some cuttings in that window and I remember that I added some VC to those cuttings. Obviously either the worm was in the vc I transferred or it grew from an egg that got accidently added. Those cuttings were covered so not much air to breathe so made its way out the bottom holes of the cup into my sink. Made me stop and think for a minute,, had a bit of laugh on that one.

By stability they may be talking about the structure of each individual casting so it is sprinkelable and not mud or at least holds its physical structure.

When we on the board talk about storing vermicompost, I could be wrong, but I think we are mostly considering biological diversity of the wee beasties and if it maintains viability and numbers.

EQ2, yes, that's what I add in mind. Apparently from what I read some communities of fungi stabilize the vermicompost if kept wet enough. The communities may be different depending on the environment (temps, humidity), they come and go according to the parameters, but there's always one adapted to the vermicompost that builds sort of a net and keep the bacteria surviving and waiting for better conditions to spring to life.

EQ2, yes, that's what I add in mind. Apparently from what I read some communities of fungi stabilize the vermicompost if kept wet enough. The communities may be different depending on the environment (temps, humidity), they come and go according to the parameters, but there's always one adapted to the vermicompost that builds sort of a net and keep the bacteria surviving and waiting for better conditions to spring to life.

Speaking of storage I keep mine in 5gal buckets and now have 3 full buckets since mid summer it seems and expect to have double that amount by spring. I use the stuff for my plants and gardens and share it with my sis as she helps to supply me with worm food garbage , egg shells, etc.

Similar and different question:

Want to suggest enhancement to this notion ?
Or something different.

I removed most of the castings from my RM bin yesterday.
about 4 gallons or 8 # . . . mostly moisture . . .
I'm wondering what the best way to store and "cure" them is.
I am imagining putting the castings in a half size burlap bag in a 9 gal mixing tray, flat, with some kind of food lure at the open end
to draw the hatchlings and any cocoons that hatch.
Maybe the the cardboard roll trick ?
Halved egg cartons, lids under, line the mixing tray:
(air)
Disadvantage: the worms can and will crawl through the burlap. Fill the egg cartons with shredded paper, but not food ?
Dinner in the egg tray is horsemanure (pucky per pocket)
and pumpkin pureed with apple cider & egg shell.
The castings won't be brewed before April.

Along this line, I've put some small perforated pumpkins with seeds, whole, in the Worm Inn, in a net ( onion type ) bag . I'm hoping the worms will gather in the pumpkin shell and that the seeds will stay in the net.

This post was edited by barbararose21101 on Tue, Dec 30, 14 at 23:43

"the seeds will stay in the net." genius? First time I have heard of something like this. But maybe I need to get out more.

My eyes sort of glazed over reading the other methods.

"I'm wondering what the best way to store and "cure" them is."

Stop feeding for a time.

Harvest.

Let set for a time.

Worms will congregate at bottom of 5 gallon bucket of aging vermicompost.

Harvest top 4/5ths.

Bottom 4/5ths either painstakingly light harvest worms or use to seed a new bin.

Let top 4/5ths rest again.

Now I'm not sure what to do after this.

It depends upon how close to one needs to start seeds or otherwise use vermicompost.

I've saved castings in buckets. But not for 4 months.
I wanted to give the new worms and the worms I missed
a better chance.

Sometimes Overdoing is fun.

I bet Francoise will like it.

I have a 5 gallon pail of harvested still nicely damp castings sitting for a few months in the cool cellar awaiting seed starting time. I am thinking of moving the pail to a warmer area or putting a tiny reptile heating mat under it to induce the seeds that are probably in the bucket, tomato, pepper, pumpkin, to sprout. Then I would tip over the contents into a second pail and heat it again to see if more sprouted. I do not want to nuke or cook the vermicompost to kill the seeds. Maybe there is a better way out there somewhere?

I needed the tray in the above picture for a passive migration scheme.
So I picked up the burlap, placed the egg cartons with shredded paper in a different tray and put the burlap bed back on the bedding in the different tray.
Brushing clinging shreds of paper showed a lot of hatchlings sticking to the plastic tray.
The hatchlings, as small as thread, moved down through the burlap and not to the food.

Pictured with this post is the repurposed tray. VC will go in the empty side.
There's a seedling starting heat mat under.
I hope this will be a way to harvest a little VC at a time .
It takes little space and the worms can be as pokey as they please.
In the future I will always line the plastic with burlap .

Anyone want to guess how long it will take for the worms to move next door ? There's about a gallon of VC on the VC side.
Not particularly worm dense. Fairly sticky, i.e. more castings than bedding.
Could be weeks. Could be months.

Just guessing here Barbara but if that is freshly harvested VC then there is not only still considerable food left in it but also cocoons. The able bodied verms will move over if the grass on the other side is greener but it will be months before the now embryonic vermi are up for such travel.

For just a gallon of VC wouldnt it be easier to just sort them out by hand and grab and cocoons you might see at that time?

Hi Nexev
Yup. It might be easier if it were a one -time operation.

I just did that with a whole tub of vc and have the 8 or so gallons of vc/castings pictured in the post: burlap envelope & egg carton food ( a la Francoise ). So the idea is to have a passive harvest also going on. Having got it set up I can remove a gallon of vc from , in this case the Worm Inn, and fill WI bin back up with HM. I don't have to harvest the whole thing at once.

I want to be ready to "brew tea" when the roses come back to life. I think this arrangement will create more than enough castings for a steady supply for frequent tea application to the roses.

Appelhoff writes about high and lower maintenance vermicomposting. Having two indoor bins, a curing tray (pictured) and a harvesting tray (second picture ) is high maintenance made a little easier . In Appelhoff terms, Pete, and I think you, with outdoor bins in which you are content with Whatever, is low maintenance. Low maintenance also includes, in MA terms, letting the worms die and the castings get quite digested by remaining organisms.

Don't tell EQ but I spent some money: an aquarium heater for the brew bucket (cold garage);
a seedling heat mat for the passive migration and a 4 outlet 15 LPM air pump . I haven't figured out how to configure the airlines yet. Got any ideas on that ? I've googled it for pages . . .
BTW so far I haven't found a thermostatically controlled soil heating cable that looked to be in imy price range.

I finally spread castings about 170 gallons of castings which were harvested about 19 months ago. This delay was due to a blown out lumbar disc and subsequent back surgery.

The casts had been in totes under 3 tarps. Most material was still moist, with some damper due to I think condensation drip. One tote smelled slightly anaerobic at the bottom, but was the only one with worms left alive....maybe 100.

These casts were spread among a raspberry bed, apple tree and several rich and productive garden beds. The casts were worked into the large bed. The beds were mulched heavy with straw, and the fruit with aged wood chips.

I have always used it fresh before, and more fresh casts will be added in springtime from the 3 worm cages along the fence.

While I am sure fresh is much better, I hate to waste. I think it won't hurt

Pete

my raspberries are jealous

Nice looking garden.

Im thinking the worms will take care of the breeding and separation process. Maybe Im just lazy but trying to pick out any or all eggs is too time consuming. By using the stacked method using multiple bins by the time the top bin gets to the bottom for harvest eggs should have had enough time to leave eggs and move up to the food, sorry for straying from thread title. Storing castings in 5gal buckets seems to work. I have loose fitting covers on each. So generally the vc stays dark and moist.

I wonder how most feel about letting the vc dry out vs keeping it moist. How beneficial would the vc be dried out? If it was more dried out would it be less beneficial to plants and gardens vs being used more on the moist side? I have read about many people drying it out and selling it.

Man 'o man oh man... And the winner is...

That is so damned awesome Pete I can barely contain myself and wishin more and more we were having that occasional brew discussing the benefits of being vermifolks. At least I would be close enough to sneak off with a little of your leftovers ;)

Thats just shy of a cu yd, 34 five gallon buckets or close to half a ton in case anyone is counting.

You said that had been sitting for a year and half, guessing that the current big bed is close to mature with even more yield?

A reply to hummersteve's questions: "I wonder how most feel about letting the vc dry out vs keeping it moist. How beneficial would the vc be dried out? If it was more dried out would it be less beneficial to plants and gardens vs being used more on the moist side? I have read about many people drying it out and selling it"

Moist vs Dry would seem to be similar to a farmer who leaves the corn plant roots and some of the stubble standing in the field vs tilling pulling up the whole plant. The wee little beasties like both the moisture and the plant roots to play in and have other little friends to play with. It makes it a place where things happen. Otherwise it is like a playground of bare tar. Probably it is dried out to loose weight and make shipping less costly. But then again the more water they get paid by the pound for water. Maybe there is some rule it has to be dried to a certain percentage. Sort of like how turkey can only have a certain percent added brine.

My vermicompost ageing in 5 gallon buckets gets a bit dry on the top. It is still a bit too moist on the bottom. Every once in a while I flip a bucket into a second bucket and harvest worms off of the bottom. Then magically the top drys out and the bottom which was just the top, re moistens from the wandering dampness.

Being a bit of a vermicomposting rookie I have not had the problem of storing large quantities of castings yet.............. poor, poor mendopete!! :(
Any of my harvest is sitting in a couple of 5gal. pales with lots of holes. I'd be willing to bet that small burlap sacks would be great for storage because the air circ. would be fantastic and you could just feel the sides of the sack and probably tell how moist the castings are. If it feels a bit dry just give it a quick spray with some water and keep out of the sun and cool. I think when people are talking about " drying it out" they are really just reducing the moisture level so its not "mucky" anymore and therefore more useable. IMO, to dry it out completely would destroy a lot of those beneficial microorganisms that our castings are so famous for.
Harry

Harry---IM sure burlap would do fine for storing of the vc, anything anyway to store them to keep them moist.

I guess what Im trying to get at is the beneficial microbes needed for plants. So we make the worm tea feeding molasses with aeration to supposedly increase the microbes into the millions/billions. It just seems if a person lets all this material dry out the microbles would die. Or would they not actually die and go dormant and be possibly revived with the natural or man made watering that would eventually take place. Im afraid I dont understand the full process but would like to from the experts on this site. I have seen some vids showing the active bacteria that takes place in the bin which is too small for the human eye to observe. I think it would be impressive to see the same thing or lack of it once vc has been transferred inground for plants. OK maybe Im not making much sense , I quit.

Eleven days.
The worms have moved from the VC side of the migration tray .

Many cocoons in the curing tray seem to have hatched.
Two cups at random from that VC/castings winter storage
had too many worms to count and relatively few cocoons.