Worm bin harvest

[Capt.Ahab]

Ive had a worm bin in the basement for a few months. Started with 500 worms and now have about 5000 along with tons of eggs and little babies. Along with the newspaper bedding I started with Ive been feeding them kitchen scraps, coffee grounds and lots of shade leaves off my plants. Also occasionally added some pelletized lime. Needed some castings for the veggie garden and am planning on an organic soil grow for my next MJ run so I dragged it outside and started picking away.

Ive got about 6 gallons of castings in my Rubbermaid bin.


Left it in the sun for a few minutes and the worms start burrowing deep. I scrape off the top layer of castings and then let it sit for another ten minutes or so before I take more castings out. These little suckers are fast and it doesnt take long for them to burrow.


First gallon of castings. The garden plants are going to love the tea I make for them.

 

[supermanlives]

nothing better than castings made at home . the more variety of foods you feed em the better. way better than most commercial castings. my bin is growing strong.the good organic casting i buy have good nute ratio. 0.86 0.37 0.25. i would like to see if i could give them food with more p and k and make a better castings for flower.

 

[Capt.Ahab]

Hey Superman. I added a few sprinkles of Happy Frog 3-4-3 here and there along with some fresh well -rinsed seaweed,egg shells ,lots of banana peels, etc.
I have been thinking the same. Tailoring the castings to a specific period of growth is a good idea.

 

[supermanlives]

ya i have messed with adding meals and such.i last added some piece of mind fert

 

[Harry Hoosier]

If you have a compost pile there is nothing like fresh compost for the worm bin. If you sift it through a 1/4 inch screen the worms will make short work of it.

I add a mix of equal parts kelp meal, neem cake, crab meal, flax seed meal. Also, I add glacial rock dust and a sprinkle of alfalfa meal. Some dried dandelions when in season. Comfey as well.

Remember to aerate and mind your moisture manners.

 

[The Revolution]

Nice man, Ive recently made myself some worm bins. I used about 3-4" of homemade compost in the bottom, and topped with shredded newspaper and cardboard. I pulled about 500 worms from my compost and thru them into the rubbermaid worm bin. I bury in banana peels egg shells, coffee grounds and any other scraps a few times a week.
I was curious how i would go about harvesting the castings when i need them.
How do others do it? Do you just wait several months, and remove all of the castings and start a fresh bin? I did notice that directly beneath the first layer of shredded papers there seems to be a nice layer of castings developing. Its possible to skim off this layer, but more curious how to get a nice overall harvest from the bin. Thanks for sharing brother.

 

[ClackamasCootz]

The Revolution

Here's what I use and I run 1/8" screen which is small enough to retain the cocoons. 1/4" is also available which will not screen out the cocoons - depends on how you're running your set-up.

 

[Harry Hoosier]

It doesn't get much easier than Cootz's method.

I use a couple of 5 gal buckets, one with the bottom cut out and replaced with 1/8" screen.
It gives you a fine vermicompost and saves most of your cocoons to be returned to the bin.