DIY Worm Bin for dollars.

[JackTheGrower]

We can avoid meats even with BSF..

I read that some folks need to have solid close-able bins to keep out the unwanted visitors but then I believe they also tend to put kitchen scraps in as they get them..

There are ways to manage the issues peacefully and naturally..

The benefit of compost outweigh the problems IMO.

 

[RESINvention]

I made a nice compact residential worm composter last year.. I'll get photos of it on here soon. This is awesome, I have a lot of great ideas towards the evolution of the perfect worm composter system.. Maybe we could all collaborate and come up with something special. If it would help your garden as much as mine... why not?? I'll get back to this thread... very important. Peace!

 

[stanky bud]

ya, hes really paranoid about the critters. He doesn't grow ganja, but they get in his veggies. So what is off limits then? Food related items?? Can you just use leaves and paper and such and no food related stuff??

 

[DARC MIND]

ya, hes really paranoid about the critters. He doesn't grow ganja, but they get in his veggies. So what is off limits then? Food related items?? Can you just use leaves and paper and such and no food related stuff??

most if not all critters in finished compost wont harm plants or veggies. they are there to decompose the plants matter or eat the life that reside ther and will help in building a diverse soil biology.

Leaves and paper will make compost with time, it all comes down to balance: c/n ratio (aka browns and greens), oxygen, moister and heat.
Food related items like lettuce, egg shells, banana peels, apples, onions ect can be used if you wish or you can just stick to garden waste like trimmings, clippings and leaves. I like to be diverse with what I use to compost and how I compost but thats just how I garden.
Here’s some links that will help
163 things you can compost
C/N ratio of common organic materials
balance is key

hope this helped

 

[HHHG]

Can worms eat roots with some perlite still left after shaking out the roots?

 

[ehonda187]

Shake em out real good. Then I would rinse the roots under water, chop them up and put them in the bin. They won't eat the perlite. Chopping them up will help them break it down a little faster. Perlite will just be left within the Vermicompost when you screen it out. No harm at all in it being there.

 

[Kaneh]

Can worms eat roots with some perlite still left after shaking out the roots?

They sure can. They won't eat perlite, but it doesn't harm to have some perlite in your worm castings.

 

[Kaneh]

My old man is a gardener and he doesn't do a compost...

There's just something terribly wrong with this sentence!

He's gardener, but no compost! WTF!!!

 

[Kaneh]

Now that I got started...

Little advice for people new to wormcompost:
Give it some time!
It takes a while before things get in balance in your bin and it starts working 100%. There's lots of other little bugs involved besides worms, and wide variety of microbes and fungi also. It takes a while before you get them all in your indoor box.

I had my bin now for about 2-3 months, and now it's finally looking perfect. Lots of baby worms wigling around, looking happy!
Gotta love those little crawlers!!!

 

[maryjohn]

wow, my bins took longer than that to really start digesting things. congrats.

 

[C21H30O2]

can i use spent coco based organic soil for the bedding of my worm bin?

 

[maryjohn]

man, I've been using straight brand new coco for bedding.

I'm not sure i like it. Once it powers a grow I'll have an opinion. It definitely needs more watering than peat.

 

[jaykush]

i prefer half finished compost or forest duff for worm beddings. they absolutely love it. i know someone who tried coco and there compost time was doubled if not tripled. i have used peat and newspaper and dont like them anymore.

 

[Moneygrowonweed]

Wow lots of info here nice form nice list on compost it took m days to read it all lol i like the concept here i will have to try it.

 

[Tropical Treats]

Worm bins Rock.

The best natural fertilizer in the world. I have two myself.

T/T

 

[Kaneh]

wow, my bins took longer than that to really start digesting things. congrats.

How long ?

Well, tell you the truth now that I think about it, it's probably more like 3-4 months it took with my bin.
And since this is my first time, I'm not sure it's still working 100%.
But after some problems, it now looks good and working.

It may speed things up if you put some compost, leaves and soil from outdoords like I did.

 

[maryjohn]

mine took about a year to really balance out and start consuming fast. Now that I run things through a bokashi bin first, I don't have quite enough trash to feed at maximum.

As jay pointed out, coco does not really break down, while the food items do. So I have coco mixed with castings. I think it may be ok for the flow through bin, because I just take from the bottom and put it back on top with new food added. I am going through tons of garbage that way, but I am getting fewer usable castings.

I would use half done compost, but my bins are inside. Last time I used leaves, my bins got slugs. I hate slugs!

 

[3rd base]

Just wanted to say thanks to the OP, ehonda187 and everyone else for chiming in and making this an informative thread... I learned something.

 

[jjfoo]

When they get near the top you can fill a mesh plastic transplant tray with their favorite food and they will crawl in there over about a week.

What is a good food to use to best attract the worms into the bag?

 

[ehonda187]

What is a good food to use to best attract the worms into the bag?

Any food scraps mentioned above works well. Old fruit works like a champ. I have access to apples and bananas daily so I just let them all sit in a bag at room temp. Squash them down and add them to pile. It smells so fragrant you might want to cover it up a little to discourage a bloom of fruit flies.