Thank You!

Way to go, Pete! I just started something similar to your bin a few weeks ago. I did lay down some wire mesh on the ground to discourage any burrowing critters. I feed this 4' x 4' bin with pre-composted material from my regular compost bins. There are also red worms in this foodstock, so I'm constantly adding worms to the bin. At 16 sq. ft. it can hold a lot of worms. Hopefully it'll do as well as yours in 9 months.

Andrew

Thanks Andrew and good luck with the new bin. You will be amazed at how much easier it is to manage, compared to plastic bins. Worms like to live on/in the ground! Great to cover the bottom with hardware-cloth.
Let me know if you find a better way to harvest. I trapped as many adults as possible in onion sacks, abalone shells and burlap. I then used bright light and patience to scrape away an inch at a time. I took 75% of the bin this time. It was a 12- hour/12-pack job!

Pete, I've decided not to "harvest" at all. I have been taking partially complete vermicompost (maybe 30-40% castings) including worms & cocoons and putting them directly into "wormholes" in my small garden plots. The holes are 6" deep and contain enough foodstock for the worms to work on for a few months. I'm hoping they continue to produce VC where the plant roots can access them directly. I'll check to see how these embedded mini-wormeries are doing in a couple of months.

Have you noticed the worms in large bins seem to be larger & a darker red than the worms in plastic bins?

Andrew

These "wormholes" sound like tiny Eden's for microbiological life. Life rafts to start good things happening in the soil around them.

By next year Andrew, your garden should be 1 big "worm-hole"with the volume you will produce. I am pretty excited about my garden this year also. I layered worm food (coffee grinds,pumpkin, straw, and lots of my "magic manure") over about 220 square feet of existing and new beds. I covered the 6"-16" tall mounds with coffee bean sacks. I plan on planting right in the post when its time. The mounds are now about 4"-8" high. My occasional peek under shows active worms!!!
I have also converted a 3' diameter hardware cloth compost bin into a wormery. After lining the inside with 2 layers oy coffee bean sacks, I added about a foot of wet wormy compost. I then placed a previously started worm bin made out of an old milk crate shoved inside a bean sack. This was surrounded by more compost. I placed another milk crate in top of the first and filled with aged kitchen scraps, cardboard, and straw. The rest of the post fit in perfect. I then dumped a tote box of worms with VC on top and covered with layers of straw and bean sacks. I am hoping to mist only on hot days (swamp-cooler) and harvest the goods next October.
The worms are much more robust in a in-ground compared to the scrawny looking runts in my plastic bins.

"next October"? I think you will have reached the goal of 100% compost by June.

"I have also converted a 3' diameter hardware cloth compost bin into a wormery. After lining the inside with 2 layers of coffee bean sacks." Excellent idea! Lots of air. Keep moist. I often wonder if the whole idea of even extreme airated bins is wrong and we should be putting our kitchen waste into "bins" of hardware cloth. Maybe vermicomposting does not need a bin, but just a bit of wire to contain it.

To produce quantaties of vermicompost you need the right balance of food, water, and air. I think of it as the "worm triangle". The "extreme airated bins" operate on the principal of having those 3 ingredients in perfect proportions. I built this wire caged worm townhouse with those principals in mind. Most worm activity occurs within 6" of the surface. Very few places in the cage exceed that, with help from the inner air chamber. I may soon build a couple more! Happy Wormin'

maybe this means the best worm habitat is not a Can of Worms or a Worm Factory but a cheep few feet of "Hardware of 1/2 inch cloth" encircling vermicasting gold. It could be the best system is just that simple and all else is snake magic.

My most successful and productive bin also has good access to air- and being in Ireland good supplies of rain:

As I had hoped to make it into a flow through it also has air coming in from underneath:

Here is a link that might be useful: large outdoor bin

Thanks for sharing your link cathd66. Nice set-up. I am part Irish, hence the drinking and harvesting!

Nice link. Very comfortable to read. Accurate informaiton. I really, really liked some parts of it. Encouraging. All encompasing. With a friendly, homey quality. It sort of took up all the information available online and put it in one heartfelt place and told it as a mom would impart information to her child. But with scientific accuracy and all the options and facts and compilations told. Sort of a one stop, if one wants to stop, for worm compost info.

I checked the "worm cage" today. After a spat of cold weather and 21/2" of rain, the warm sun was out this AM. As I removed the straw and layers of burlap, I noticed a nice warm core. I saw lots of worm activity in the burlap layers and many very young (just born) worms. I got real excited, but ended my probe there! So far so good!!