Hookahhead's Worm Farm!

Hey all, I posted this information long ago on another board that I am no longer a member of. I figured moving the information might be helpful for members here. It's very picture heavy so I am linking the pictures from that website. Since there is a 5 picture limit, this is going to generate a lot of posts. If you prefer to see the original post, I have included a link where relevant. Please let me know if you cannot see the pictures. I am copying everything word for word...




07/14/12 https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/16532084#16532084
There has been a little bit of talk about this here in the garden lately. I have been visiting this site for many more years before the date on the left implies. I have learned so much from this site it is unbelievable. Hopefully this is finally my chance to give back a little. Also thanks goes out to baron_samedi who was nice enough to trade me a digital camera for some of my worms, without him the pictures would not be possible.

First a little backstory...My second job is a prep cook at a franchise restaurant on weekends. This provides me a little bit of "fun" money. I won't name the restaurant, but I was honestly excited when I got hired because they present themselves as kinda hip/green whatever and seemed chill. After I got behind the curtain I realized it was just another greedy company using the word organic to sell their overpriced garbage. I began to notice that no one used the recycling bin that was provided. As a high volume pre packaged restaurant, they produce a huge amount of waste. After harassing the general manager on the issue for a few months, they finally started to increase awareness of the recycling bin. I think people decided that it was easier to recycle than listen to the ramblings about the importance of recycling / earth stewardship and the love for mother earth from the hippy in the back. This is a year later, and the recycling bin is still being used heavily. While harping on everyone about recycling, I started to notice the food waste that my position produced. I wanted to figure a way to divert this from the landfill, but there is no way I can compost all of this food in an open compost. I live in a fairly nice neighborhood and my neighbors would be quick to call the cops on my rotting mess. Then I remembered reading about worms a few years earlier; that night I was home googling my way through worm forums. Just like any other hobby that starts this way, there are so many conflicting stories as to whats "best" for said organism. Not to mention all kinds of crazy ideas people have come up with. November, 2011 I placed an order for 2 lb of red wiggler composting worms ( Eisenia fetida). I keep them in an attached garage that probably stays 45-80 year round. They do not care for extreme temperatures <32f or >90f. I plan to show you what has worked for me.

These are my worm bins, as you can see I have 3 now. They might possibly be repurposed mono tubs. The middle and the left handed one have screen over the vents, however I have found this unnecessary and did not do it for the third one. The lids have landscape cloth glued to the inside edge. I would probably put it on the outside if I make anymore.


There are several (15ish) 3/8 inch holes drilled around the underside of the bin. This allows leachate to drain out. This is NOT worm tea and will go anaerobic fairly quickly. It is excess water that has passed through the bin. In my opinion some leachate is good because it lets you know that your bin is damp enough. However if your bin is producing a decent bit, you are most likely adding to much water in some form. I dump this liquid on my grass as I am sure it does have some nutrients or benefit to it, but avoid using it on my garden / potted plants.


This is what the inside of the bin looks like. The brown paper at the top is just a paper bag. I only have it folded back to show underneath. Worms are photosensitive and this helps keep some light off them. It also helps hold in some moisture close to the surface, worms tend to hang out a little deeper if the top is dry. Remarkably true as all of the sites proclaim, there is little to no smell from a properly maintained bin.

The worms that I raise are often generically called red wiggler worms, or tiger worms due to the yellow banding on the tail. Scientifically they are Eisenia fetida. There are other types that are suitable such as Eisenia hortensis, Eudrillus eugeniae, Perionyx excavates and a few others. All live in similar conditions, but are better adapted to different areas. They are what are considered "leaf litter" feeders and are typically found in the top 12" of soil. Canadian night crawlers are not a correct type of worm to use. They are deep burrowers and do not like to be disturbed, not suited for a enclosed bin. A juvenile is on the left and an adult is on the right. Notice the band near the head on the adult? This is called the clitellum and is how worms mate. They lay facing different directions and line up their clitellum. A mucus forms around both bands and they each transfer sperm.


Both worms will then lay a cocoon, essentially a worm egg. They are lemon shaped and typically a light yellow when first laid, darkening to brown with age. Typically 3-5 worms emerge from each cocoon.


You will encounter some creatures besides worms in your bin. You are setting up a smorgasbord of fine rotting food here, get friendly with some other decomposers. Some people freak out about these cohabitants, but honestly there is nothing you can do; they will show up eventually. I don't mind them at all, the way I see it is they too are breaking down the organic matter, and speeding up the process I imagine.

Random gnats and flies. These are the most annoying for me honestly, just because they like to fly into eyes, ears, or your nose. I place permethrin (an insecticide ) around my garage windows, they tend to migrate to light after leaving the bin. I also have a fly strip that I occasionally change. This definitely doesn't stop them, but it does help control the population some

Mites will also be a guaranteed resident. They are very small and are the red "bumps" in the following pictures. There are 2 different varieties this reddish brown and white, I have both in my bin. The shear number that in population these guys can reach is astounding. Literally thousands of them. They tend to stay in the top inch or so of the bin, happily munching away.


Some other inhabitants that you will most likely encounter are springtails, potworms, and fungi.

Feeding
As I mentioned earlier I collect food from where I work, usually at least 10 gallon per weekend. This typically consists of tomatoes, onions, lettuce, pineapple, lemons, grapes, strawberries, cucumber, melons... well you get the idea. Things like pineapple and citrus are often advised against for worms due to their high acid content. About every other week I collect 5 gallon of coffee + filters (carbon source!) for a nice nitrogen boost. Meat and dairy should be avoided because they tend to turn rancid, which causes a very foul odor. I also collect about 100 egg shells per weekend. I rinse these in water that is first used to rinse off the vegetables. Once the yolks are rinsed out I bake them with whatever needs to go in the oven to dry them. I crush them by hand and add them to the collected scraps. The only other processing I do is dicing up the tops/rinds of pineapples. I have also found it beneficial to dice up grape stems, they take a while to break down and get clumped up with gunk if not. I get paid a meager wage, but the amount of worm food I can collect is a nice bonus.


I originally tried adding fresh food scraps straight to my bin. What all these worms sites forget to mention is that fruit/veggie scraps contain a very large amount of water. Once it starts breaking down the water is released, turning your bin into an anaerobic mucky mess. A little more reading lead to a solution... a compost tumbler. I built this one based on these plans Tumbler. This has worked marvelously for me. It accomplishes 2 things, it begins the rotting process softening the food waste which makes it easier for worms to dig in. It also releases a large amount of water in the form of leachate as well. This also gets dumped on the grass. This liquid is probably low on the ph scale due to the fairly acidic foods that I add. The egg shells are reported to help buffer the ph. The chemistry behind it is simple calcium carbonate reacts with acid resulting in calcium and CO2, but not sure how readily it plays out in real life. I usually give then tumbler a couple of turns every evening.

I feed my worms once a week and this is usually the only time I open my bin to mess with my worms. The blue bins slide nicely under my tumbler, which allows me to dump straight from the tumbler into the bin. As you can see there is very little plant matter left that is identifiable, but is no where close to being finished compost.


I then add the pre-compost to the top of my bin, spreading it across the entire surface at about 1-1.5 inches deep. This usually takes about 2.5 to 3 gallon.
before after

Add a bit of torn cardboard as fresh bedding and replace the brown bag cover. Thats it, the worms will quickly move into the new food and begin doing their thing.


I collect "cardboard" to use as bedding and a carbon source in my tumbler. While corrugated cardboard is readily available, we also recycle that and I feel that getting more life out of the paper pulp before it becomes worm poop is a good call. So what I collect is egg crate, drink carriers, and the piece that separates apples in the box. I tear this into smaller pieces. I collect a good many of these as well and can fill a 5 gallon bucket once shredded. This part is tedious but a little and a good show helps make the process a little easier. Also the promise of ice-cream often works on children who eagerly tear it to shreds. Of course you could use some type of machine, but lets use less fossil fuels and more child labor!

Once I have fed my worms, it is time to add the collected food scraps and the rest of the cardboard to the tumbler. As you can see there is still a decent bit of material left in it (10 to 15 gallon) this will help inoculate the fresher scraps and provide continuous compost.


While my boss is cool with my hobby, she has made it apparent that I can only collect on the weekends. During the weak the bureaucratic fat cats (corporate and state auditors) tend to dislike anything like this.

Harvest
I harvest the castings about every three months. I typically stop feeding a bin for 2-3 weeks before harvesting. This helps ensure that most of the matter is processed, and it also allows the bin to dry out a little bit. The material in the bin is now mostly nice dark worm castings.

I use a trommel for this. The screen is simply a 5 gallon bucket cut in half, with some 1/4" hardware cloth riveted to the two ends. I cut the notch that previously held the handle out to ensure smooth rotation. The wheels at the front fit right into these groves. The bottom part was built from a wooden pallet and a kid's stroller that was being thrown out. A few pieces of cardboard helps to keeps flying castings directed towards the catch bin.

The material from the bin is loaded into the higher end of the trammel. I like to crumble it a little before adding it. As the screen is spun, the material moves towards the opposite end and falls into a separate bin. A friend spinning the screen while I load makes this go fairly quickly.

(Continued from above..)



After running the entire bin through the trommel I ended up with about a 1/2 bin of material with a large number of worms. This can be split between 2 bins to expand your herd. I do not need another bin at this time though. It could also run though again in a week if I didn't feed the worms again. There is still a good bit of castings mixed in, but is in larger clumps due to moisture or bits of unprocessed material.


Finally the dark crumbly goodness. This contains a fair number of worms. I like to remove them at this point and add them to the 1/2 bin of larger material. Worms are are photosensitive and do their best to avoid light. By now most of them have worked their way deeper into the pile. I then scoop this a handful at a time doing a quick search for stray worms. By taking advantage of their light sensitivity, I clean the top inch or so of the pile, pulling from a different spot for each handful. By the time I get back to the beginning the worms have dug deeper. Since the castings are screened, they are very light and crumbly. It's easier than it sounds to quickly separate most of the worms. You could rescreen this material with a hand screen faster, but it would still miss many of the smaller worms. Plus I like playing in the dirt sometimes, it allows me to examine the material and see what didn't break down very well.


This yeilded a very full 5 gallon bucket of castings. I could use my black gold right away, but I like to let it age a bit. Unfortunately, worm cocoons are very small, and fall through with the castings. I allow the bucket to sit for about a month and then sort it again for worms. If you wait to long, the worms will grow up and lay more cocoons. These juveniles, the few worms I inevitably missed, mites, fungi and microorganisms will quickly break down any remaining food.

Update

Update

UPDATE: I have switched to a 96 gallon flow through design, this design is much better than the bin method I was using. Please check it out here:https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/17494473 (01/03/13)


I have been worm composting a little over a year now, and made a previous post about my worm farm.

However after doing further reading I am lead to believe that a flow through design worm bin provides a few benefits over the bin method. I received a free 96 gallon tote to turn into a worm bin. The rods going across the bottom are pvc and have deck screws drilled into them. The idea is to be able to turn the rods and spin the castings into the bottom of the bin where they should be easy to collect. I have a hinged cover with landscaping cloth covering it to allow airflow. I plan to add magnets to keep the cover shut tightly. The worms will travel to the top of the bin after a few months and the bottom will be nothing but finished castings. This design is said to allow better airflow to help avoid the sogginess that is common with the plastic bins.

I harvested all three bins this week using the method described in my previous post. I yielded about 15 gallon of worm castings total. The unfinished material is great starting material and was loaded with worms for the new tote. I covered the bottom with several layers of news paper and then added the contents of the first bin into the larger tote.

Added the second.



Added the third bin. Unfortunately, the picture of the tote with just the bin contents didn't turn out. I had to use my crappy camera phone because I couldn't find my real one. I then added a significant amount of shredded cardboard to the top.


I am not even able to take a guess at the amount of worms I added. It would be similar to guessing jelly beans in a jar. However I have picked worms out for trade before and know that I can typically get a pound of worms from 5 gallon of material. I probably moved 35-45 gallon worth of material into the large tote. Which gives me approximately 7-8 pounds of worms which seems about right. Each handful was loaded with tons of worms. This setup will hopefully eliminate some of the work involved harvesting the castings.

That's frigging amazing work Hookahhead!!

Many thanks!

Nice diy skills and worm farm. Thanks for sharing. I might have to try your design. Let me know how it works out.

Cheers!

Thanks for sharing! I just started my own vermicompost bins - 1 with 2lbs of red wigglers and another with 500 jumpers. I’m going to try your trommel design when I get ready.

Question for you (or others) about the mite issue.... Do all worm bins really have mitessand are they predatory mites or the kind of leaf suckers that attack our cannabis plants? If they are the kind that cause us so much grief, why not buy some predatory insects like green lacewings that will feed on (and possibly eliminate) the mites?

In my experience the little dot type mites are very common. There are many many type of mites in the world. Some live in the sea, some on land, and some like Demodex folliculorum and Demodex brevis actually live on your face! The ones in the pictures I posted (little red or white bumps) are not problematic for plants. They are decomposers and enjoy the wet, rotting conditions. Once you age the finished vermicompst, they won't have the same favorable environment. After you mix vermicompost into the soil, it's very rare to see the mites. The only time I've seen them is when there is a larger chunk of not fully composted material.

There are many organisms that are decomposers, they all contribute in their own way to your end product. They eat, poop, and die in your compost. This is what makes vermicompost so biologically active, it's not just worms passing through the material but an entire recycling crew. I never encountered black soldier flies (BSFL) in my bin back home, but they are a big part of the ecosystem here in Central America. I don't currently have a worm bin here, but I have run a few BSFL bins since I've been here. There is lots of information on the net about this species, maybe I can do a write up on my experience with them next. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermetia_illucens

2 critters you do want to keep out of your bin are centipedes and planeria worms. Centipedes are carnivorous and will eat other insects and worms. Millipedes are decomposers and not detrimental at all to your bin. You can tell the difference between the two since centipedes only have one leg on each side of a body segment, where millipedes have two.

Centipedes have 1 leg on each side of body segment. They tend to have flatter bodies and are much faster than a millipede.


Millipedes on the other hand have 2 legs on each side of a body segment. They also tend to have a rounder body and move much slower.

Planeria are freaky worm like creatures that eat worms. They are a type of flatworm and therefore can be cut into a bunch of pieces and grow a bunch of new ones (this is not possible with the worms we raise). I found one once, I fed it a worm just to watch.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planarian

Worm Tips

Worm Tips

Ok so those original posts were made in 2012 and 2013. I do not have either worm setup currently. I had the large bin until 2016 when I gave it to a friend because I was moving. I have helped at least a dozen people get started with their own setups. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

I've compiled some random tips from my experience. I'll update this post as I think of other things.

- Don't over think it!
Just like with cannabis, the worms don't need to be babied and watched over 24/7. When you start to over engineer, you create problems for yourself. This is a simple process... worms, container, food, moisture, harvest.

- What do worms eat?
So we all know we feed the worms our food scraps, they eat them and turn them into wonderful castings right? Well this isn't exactly what happens. Our worms are actually after the bacteria and fungi that are breaking down our scraps. The advantage over traditional composting is that worms have a much bigger mouth than the bacteria and fungi. So the worms take a big gulp of soft mushy apple that was being fermented by some yeast. Worms have a gizzard much like birds, which grinds the food up before passing it to the stomach. The worm extracts the nutrients that it can and passes the material out the other end. The grinding and mixing action of the worms, provides even more surface area for new microorganisms to flourish. Then another worm comes along and passes through the same material, and this process runs over and over and over again until there is nothing left but beautiful rich castings.

- Pre-compost!
If you want to have a pleasant experience with your worm bin, I highly suggest you pre-compost the material before feeding it to the worms. Fresh food scraps have a very high water content, and a wet bin is the biggest issue for beginners. A lot of resources on the internet seem to ignore this very important fact. An overly wet worm bin has a much stronger odor, and a greater "yuck" factor to the material. Pre-composting also takes the guess work out of feeding, you don't have to worry about whether worms will like it or not. In my opinion with a properly run bin, you can feed worms any sort of pre-decaying plant matter. Cooked food such as steamed vegetables or plain rice is fine, as long as the food doesn't have salt or oils. If they don't eat it right away, they will come back to it in a week or 2 after it has had a chance to break down more. Furthermore, worms don't have teeth! They eat by opening their mouth and pushing their body through the material. So they are only able to eat scraps once they have softened considerably.

- Worm Bedding
Truth is worms don't actually need any bedding material. It's probably beneficial for the health of the bin to have some, but worms don't really seem to mind that much. After the bin is established they make their own bedding. It does help regulate moisture, which is very important. It also provides a carbon rich environment for bacteria and fungi to grow on, which is the worm's food source.

You will read that some people like to use brown box cardboard or newspaper for bedding. I don't like to feed these items to worms, because the paper pulp can be recycled and reused. Therefore, feeding it to worms isn't sustainable in my opinion. Likewise, some people like to use peat. Peat is also not a very sustainable resource. Although it is natural and renewable, it takes a lot of time for a peat bog to build up. This is then mined using heavy equipment, packaged and shipped all around the world. There are only a few industrial peat bogs in the world. Coco coir is a much more eco-friendly option in my opinion. Coir is a waste stream from the coconut industry. I'm fairly certain coconuts grow on every continent, and are regenerated rapidly. Although most commercial coir in the U.S. is imported, at least it's a step in the right direction.

Really bedding can be any dry carbon rich material. In Autumn, you can collect bags of raked leaves. Pick up a few bags from neighbors. They're dry and store very well. You just need to crush/cut them into smaller pieces. Dry, brown grass clippings, cannabis leaves, stalks and roots. All of these can be roughly broken down and used as bedding. If you feed your worms horse manure, it already has some bedding mixed in. If you're just starting a bin old potting soil will work too.

- Flow through for the win!
The flow through design is much better than the plastic bin setup. The design allows airflow from the top and bottom, allowing more oxygen into the material. The increased airflow helps stabilize moisture as well. The vertical design also takes advantage of the worms tendency to move upwards when fed from the top. It's a nice continuous process fresh food goes in the top, and finished castings come out the bottom. No need to move around heavy plastic bins and run the material through a trommel. The worms are left undisturbed, and you can harvest whenever is convenient for you. In my large 96 gallon tote, I once fed them for like 6 months without removing any material. The level inside only raised a few inches. I think the ratio is something like 10 gallon of food = 1 gallon of castings. If you're looking for something smaller 30 gallon trash cans, or 55 gallon drums will work. The internet has a lot of different designs, but they're all similar in functionality.

- Issues
If you see a lot of worms on the sides of the bin instead of in the material, they are not happy. Sometimes the will try to flee the bin all together. Something in your environment is off, first check the temperature and make sure it's favorable to your species. Then check the moisture content in the bin. The plastic totes tend to have very wet and mucky bottoms if you're not careful. This can quickly go anaerobic and is not an inviting place for your worms. If you've recently added a lot of bedding material the bin may be too dry. You can add water or food scraps with a lot of moisture. Only add a little water at a time, its more common for conditions to be too wet than too dry. Especially when you're first figuring the whole thing out.

- Trommels
Trommels are great machines for sifting materials quickly. If you're going to use the plastic bins, do yourself a favor and build one before your first harvest. I think I hand sorted 2-3 of the plastic bins before I built the trommel, it gets tedious fast. There are various plans out there on the internet. You can even motorize it if you'd like. Personally, I think this detracts from the idea of staying as sustainable as possible. For me it's better to get a buddy over, get baked and spin some worms around. Little kids (mostly boys) make good helpers too, and you have the opportunity to teach them about recycling, food webs, and a respect for nature. Honestly though, your time and energy is better spent on building a flow through system. Sifting the bins before moving to the 96 gallon tote was the last time I ever used that trommel again.

- Sprouts
If you're feeding your worms veggie scraps, you're bound to get a few sprouts. Melons, peppers, and tomatoes are probably the most common. Sometimes I move these volunteers to a pot or the garden. Mostly however, I just kill the sprout and toss it back in the bin to be broken down.

Thanks for the handy thread. Especially thank you for saying the worm has a mouth and does consume organic matter and has a digestive tract. Many people on this forum have made it sound like they only pick microbes off the material.
I've posted diagrams of the digestive tract and a rundown of the other creatures in the bin in this forum seemingly to no avail sometimes.

I totally agree with your precomposting method. Another great dry material to use is (dry) horse manure.

I have found that the bin produces higher quality vermicompost than the flow through designs. You actually mention the reason for this yourself; material which is re-digested again and again is MUCH higher quality. Even our large production of several tons was done this way - 8 to 9 months for harvest time.

We used mesh transplant trays to trap out the worms before harvest. We lay them on top of the material filled with attractive food like peat or manure or banana sprayed with molasses. The worms migrate up into them for removal. This is repeated as often as required. No stress to the worms rolling down the metal cylinder.

Some oldy but goody posts; Kelly Slocum is my favorite worm scientist.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=5431070&postcount=3521

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=5431088&postcount=3522



EDIT: You will note on my website I say to avoid using citrus stuff in the worm bin. I only say this for expedited results. You can use citrus peels etc but it just takes longer for them to break down. The smaller the bits the better as Hooka has stated.