Worm composting

[Staceyshoe]

Does anyone here do worm composting? The thought of worms in the house makes me feel a little squeamish, and I'm concerned about flies and such. But I'm thinking about it. Has anyone tried it? Success? Failure? Advice?

[OrganicAnn]

We do not do worm composting. I've seen many articles over the years about worm composting in Organic Gardening magazine. You may be able to find the answers there (they have a website with forums).

[anneinco]

We have been composting with worms for about 2 months now. We were going to buy them online but someone local had split their worms and was selling a bin with worms. While it ended up not being that great of a deal (the number of worms was a lot less than he said), I am still glad we did it since I am not sure when I would have gotten around to ordering.

 

We started for two reasons, first to get rid of our scraps and second for the fertilizer that is left over. That stuff is gold for the garden!

 

We split our original bin into two bins shortly after getting it. We wanted to see how many we had so we sorted through and hand picked the worms out and my daughter kept a tally sheet going. There are ways to sort and split that does not require as much hand contact but we wanted to get a feel to how many there were and what sizes.

 

We have dealt with some small flies but not a big problem, they come and go. We store our two bins in the garage so I do not really worry.

 

If you have more questions, feel free to ask. We are just starting out but my husband did some research before so I can pass the questions his way if I am not sure.

[Spy Car]

I just came in from feeding my worms :D

 

They live outside. i would not want them living inside.

 

Our set up is pretty simple.

 

Two Rubbermaid "Roughneck" Plastic bins. With holes punched (using a nail and hammer) in the bottom and the lid for air-circulation and drainage. Place the first (punched) inside the second bin (no holes) to catch any worm-tea, and use the second lid loosely on to of the first to fend of rain and water.

 

Start with the worms, shredded newspaper as bedding, waste greens/fruit (not too much at first) and cover with a moistened newspaper section (as the worms need a moist, but not sopping wet environment).

 

Then feeding them waste and they multiply and grow. Easy.

 

Bill

[EJCMom]

We do worm composting. Ours live outside. There is no foul smell, believe it or not. I was actually really surprised by that. We simply re-purposed an old plastic toy box.

 

The compost that you get is the most amazing stuff. Our front yard is divided by a concrete walkway. A couple of years ago we spread some of our worm compost on one half, just to see if we could tell a difference. The grass on the side with the worm castings became so lush and green, it looked like a golf course! People kept asking us if we put Miracle Grow on it!

 

Worms are super easy to care for. I say, go for it!

[LibraryLover]

Collecting worm juice from the bin is pretty smelly no matter how you slice it. ;) We can't have them in the house. In winter they go in the shed or barn.

[Peela]

I have had mine of the verandah outside the kitchen door. No smell, no flies.

I know someone who keeps their in their laundry. If its done prooperly, there is no smell. It needs to be fairly accessible (for me at least) to actually get the food scraps out to them regularly.

 

I tend to cook mine. I have had 3 successful worm farms. Its gets very hot and dry in summer here and black plastic worm containers get awfully hot :sad:. I intend to start a new one soon.

[Staceyshoe]

Thanks for the replies! It's nice to hear from people actually doing this!

 

Hmmm . . . I really do want to give this a try. I would do it in a heartbeat if I could keep it outside, but I'm in Ohio. I think it might be too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter, and we don't have a basement or sheltered porch. I may try putting them in the garage, but I'm not sure whether the temps there would be moderate enough for them. (Does anyone in a similar climate keep them in the garage???)

[Spy Car]

Thanks for the replies! It's nice to hear from people actually doing this!

 

Hmmm . . . I really do want to give this a try. I would do it in a heartbeat if I could keep it outside, but I'm in Ohio. I think it might be too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter, and we don't have a basement or sheltered porch. I may try putting them in the garage, but I'm not sure whether the temps there would be moderate enough for them. (Does anyone in a similar climate keep them in the garage???)

 

I can't help you on surviving winter in the Ohio cold (I'm not sure how any being survives such things :D) but my understanding is many people move the bins into basements or garages for the winter.

 

As to heat, my (non-expert) understanding is that it is more dangerous to worms than cold. But I live in an area with hot summers and haven't cooked our worms yet. It does seem to be important to keep the bins out of direct sun (so the bins, especially plastic ones) don't become bake ovens. But high ambient temperatures haven't been a problem for us with bins kept out of direct sun. I can't imagine a bin kept in a garage or provided shade out doors would would be a big problem.

 

It does seem important to keep the environment moist. I've found that keeping a moistened piece of cardboard or a moistened "section" of a newspaper on top of the worms is very effective in maintaining the balance even if one neglects the bin awhile. Paper is "worm-food" too, so it does double duty.

 

Bill

[Melinda S in TX]

I raised worms in a rubbermaid in the corner of my kitchen. They didn't smell and you would never have known what was in the box.

 

Blessings,

Melinda

[chubbyhugs]

Thanks for the replies! It's nice to hear from people actually doing this!

 

Hmmm . . . I really do want to give this a try. I would do it in a heartbeat if I could keep it outside, but I'm in Ohio. I think it might be too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter, and we don't have a basement or sheltered porch. I may try putting them in the garage, but I'm not sure whether the temps there would be moderate enough for them. (Does anyone in a similar climate keep them in the garage???)

 

Hi Staceyshoe,

My worms are in the garage by the north-facing wall. We're in Southern California and we had temps close to 97 degrees a few weeks ago. Many of the worms came to the top of the bin (the "ceiling") and I thought about putting ice cubes on the moist towel I have at the top of the bin under which I place the scraps. But I didn't put the ice on. After two days I noticed worm "shadows" sort of like grayish worm shapes but no worm. I questioned whether those wormies vaporized. Anyhoo, after it cooled down to the low 80s I noticed the worms were eating like usual.

 

We had a slight frost for one day, it didn't seem to affect them. But, that's nothing like winter in Ohio. Maybe you have neighbors that have worms?

 

I've only had worms for about a year. I had an opportunity to get a worm bin cheap and I like that I can just turn a spigot for the "worm tea." I put a plastic bowl underneath the spigot for any spills. At first I had pill bugs and moth larvae; the original redworms I got free and I think their originally bedding had those buggies. The moths are gone now, but still have the pill bugs which I handpick and put on the dirt outside.

[Nature]

Wow! I've heard that worm castings are the best fertilizer. How long does it take to get the compost?

 

We do worm composting. Ours live outside. There is no foul smell, believe it or not. I was actually really surprised by that. We simply re-purposed an old plastic toy box.

 

The compost that you get is the most amazing stuff. Our front yard is divided by a concrete walkway. A couple of years ago we spread some of our worm compost on one half, just to see if we could tell a difference. The grass on the side with the worm castings became so lush and green, it looked like a golf course! People kept asking us if we put Miracle Grow on it!

 

Worms are super easy to care for. I say, go for it!

[keptwoman]

We have had a worm farm for 4 years now. We've graduated from a bin to an old bathtub in a wooden frame (it's covered with a lid and when I get around to making a topper for it, it will be an outdoor seat) It doesn't get too cold here so I can't comment on that, but in the heat they seem to cope, I usually give them a cooling douse with the hose on really hot days. There is no smell at all, ours is in our outdoor living area.

 

We've never had an issue with flies, but we do get fruit flies sometimes in the summer. I find that covering the castings well with newspaper stops most of them.

[EJCMom]

There are so many factors: How many worms you have, how often you are feeding them, how much you are feeding them, etc. It had taken about six months to have enough to spread a thinish layer on one side of our yard.

 

Wow! I've heard that worm castings are the best fertilizer. How long does it take to get the compost?

[min]

Peela, I went to a talk the other day about worm farms/composting, and a couple of people raised the heat issue. The lady said on those really hot days to put a frozen bottle of water in the top of the worm farm. She said to open the lid just a little so the water drips out as it melts.

 

We do something similar with our rabbit when it is hot, except we don't want the water to drip out, so we keep the lid tightly closed. We use a plastic milk bottle, usually.

 

Miranda

[mhg]

I saw a pic of a worm composter build within someone's coffee table!

[Nestof3]

I just found several worm composting resources I had saved in my homeschooling file. I thought we might try it out sometime.

 

http://carteret.ces.ncsu.edu/files/library/16/Vermicomposting%20Curriculum.pdf

 

http://www.deq.state.ok.us/factsheets/local/worms.pdf

 

http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/publications/Schools/56001007.pdf

 

http://www.p2pays.org/ref/09/08006.pdf

 

http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/materials_minerals_pdf/rw.pdf