Help with My Vermicompost

5 years ago

Hi, everyone. Looking for a little help. This is going to be a bit of a long post but i'm new to vermicomposting, this is my first time trying, and i want to make sure i'm doing things right, or that i can fix anything that i need to.

I made a 5-gallon bucket system based on this.

Once set up (around end of July, early August), I added shredded brown paper, food for the worms , the worms (red wrigglers from Jim's Worm Farm) and then soil. I probably had too much of all the components; there was a few inches or so of stuff in the bucket.

Once the food started to decompose, the bin started to heat up and the worms tried to leave the bin. I kinda freaked out so i added a bunch more soil and even separated out some of the contents of the bucket into a smaller bucket. Things seemed to stabilize a bit; the worms were no longer trying to escape the bin.

I've added food a few more times but now I have about 5-6 inches of stuff.

I have two fundamental questions:

1. Because I started off with potting soil, which is very dark in color when moist, how can I tell what's castings and what's soil? Furthermore, like I said, I have about 5-6 inches of stuff in the bucket. I thought that the worms basically stay an inch or two below the surface. Because (I think) I started off with too much stuff in the bucket rather than starting at say an inch or two and gradually adding, what's going on with the stuff below the worms (ie, the bottom inch or two)? Is that likely just soil? If so, should I just mix up everything between feedings to make sure that in the end i'm left with a uniform product?

2. When do I stop adding food, if at all? I'm confused because if I add food every week, how will I ever be done? I guess the question is, is there a point when you stop adding food, wait, and then collect the castings? Or can you add food up to, say, a week before you harvest the castings?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Happy to elaborate more or add vids or pics.

thanks!

thx.5280

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Comments (6)

armoured
5 years ago
Biggest issue, most frequently, is too much food, too wet overall, and too much bedding. Don't know why you think five-six inches of depth is too much. With a bucket like that, you can just fill it up with bedding, whatever you're using. Make sure there's always a layer of loose bedding at top (why I think you can just fill it up), that way they have somewhere to escape to. It's better if the bedding is mostly dry or just slightly damp at first. Again, too wet is bad, worms-in-the-biblical-flood-and-all-die bad way, especially if your system doesn't drain water out. (Over time you'll get a sense of how wet your worms like). Same thing with food mostly, slowly until you see how frequently you can feed. They'll be fine with very little food for a long time.

For your questions: you don't really separate the soil you've added and the castings. Sounds like you added too much soil but just leave it.

When to stop adding: depends how you want to approach. You can stop feeding and wait for the food to mostly disappear, do it earlier and separate the gross bits by hand, or start a second (or third etc) bin. Personally I think easiest and safest to start a second bin, stop feeding in the first, and eventually remove worms/other stuff to the second. Since they'll multiply in your new bin you can worry less about worms being in the castings you use in the garden or whatever.
THX 5280
Original Author
5 years ago
Thanks. So how do i know when the castings are ready to harvest if i can't tell the diff btw them and the moist soil?
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armoured
5 years ago
Hard to tell the difference and probably not worth trying to separate them. Why do you need to separate them?

Short form is most of the time, you harvest when your bin is starting to get full.
plantmomzone10asunset16
5 years ago
@THX 5280 This might be of interest...looks like he moves the food to one side and then harvests...he's got another video about how he set up his self-watering system. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tde2SuXn9VE
11otis
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
""Because I started off with potting soil"" Straight from the bag or from your flower/plant pot? I assume there's no fertilizer in it. I never use soil when starting a new bin. I never know what insects etc. I might be adding to the bin with it.

There is so much information on You tube that you can watch to give you a better understanding about worm composting. There are some really good and educational ones. Search on YouTube for The Crazy Worm Lady, Lilia Kogan and AV. The first 2 haven't posted anything since earlier this year. (Hope they are OK) but AV has almost daily updates. Their Videos are REALLY VERY interesting.
THX 5280
Original Author
5 years ago
@armoured, i guess i thought i had to separate it before trying to use that castings. If I don't then i won't try. I thought for some reason I needed unadulterated castings. Maybe I'm being too much of a perfectionist.

@plantmomzone10asunset16 and @11otis, yes i've looked at youtube quite a bit but didn't seem to find an answer to my specific question, but thanks!