Comments on: Verms, Baby. Verms.

By: stroppycow

stroppycow — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 08:55:26 +0000

I found the wormery too much hard work and after 2 years of a series of fatal (to the worms) mistakes I ended up tossing the sruvivors of the 4th batch of worms in our 2 standard garden compost bins where they are thriving.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 20:26:17 +0000

I found two not-quite-local places to buy worms from:

http://www.thewormfactory.net/
http://www.cathyscomposters.com/

Both are $25 per 1/2 pound, $45 per pound for red wigglers.

However, some Googling shows that vermicomposting has been making the rounds at the University of Waterloo. I am going to guess that if you asked the right people you’d be able to net yourself a fistful of wigglers gratis from someone in town.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 20:11:11 +0000

Actually, that’s what I meant… perforate the worm bin, but put a single hole in the catch bin to funnel the wormy liquid veggie goodness into a waiting container.

I think if I can figure out a good place for the bins that is out of the way, I’ll be allowed to try it. You can do your part by enthusiastically raving to my wife (you know, when you monopolize her time like you said you were going to) how nice it is to have the worm bins, and how much bother they are not.

By: violet

violet — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 18:58:59 +0000

Robyn, my writing method was the “ideal method” as opposed to the “half-assed method” that I slid into about 30 seconds after the first bin came home. :) I like your harvesting method – much better than poking the little wigglers.

Andrew, the convincing that I had to do on my ex was to let him know that there’d be no smell (because he envisioned ‘rotting food’ stench) and that the worms would not be escaping nor wandering aimlessly around the apartment we lived in. I then promised to take full care of it – he just needed to put vegetable scraps into a plastic bucket for me to deal with later.

The reason for multiple holes, generally, is to allow even liquid drainage – so it doesn’t pool in (say) one corner of the bin and not escape (and thus start smellin’ up the joint). You could definitely try something different – maybe multiple holes that lead to a funnel system that feeds into the 2L bottle?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 18:40:43 +0000

I’m sold. Actually, I came pre-sold. I have to convince the missus that it’s a good idea… and find a place to put the bins. The former job will be the harder one, methinks.

Instead of having a bin collect the worm juice, have you ever tried drilling one small hole and putting some sort of collection container underneath? 2L pop bottle, perhaps? I just can’t imagine trying to collect the liquid from the bottom of a big bin without lots of sloshing and spilling.

By: Robyn

Robyn — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 18:31:40 +0000

Boy, all my worms are going to want to go live at your house! I feel all lazy and mean!

Every week or so I stir up the bin with a trowel to aerate it, then dump a bucket of veggie scraps on top and throw in some dry leaves. When one bin fills up we switch to the other bin and let the worms chew away undisturbed for a month or two. I harvest with a trowel, too — worms and castings go together into the garden, and I just leave a few trowelsful of worms+castings in the bin to start the next batch… kind of like making sourdough or yoghurt or something, I guess.