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tlyn589

vermicomposting mess!!!

tlyn589
14 years ago

Hi,

I'm new to vermicomposting. I got my worm bin around September, and have been adding compost to it ever since. At this point my bin is almost completely full, and I have a feeling the worms have over populated, there are soo soo many of them. For the last month I've been trying to add food to only one half of the bin, but there are just so many worms that they are not coming out of the other half. It is impossible to harvest!!! I am moving May 1st, and would really like to harvest this before I go, because my boyfriend will not be impressed having to carry around a 60 pound bin of worm crap. I have a community garden plot, but it is winter here and the frost does not go away until the middle of May. What do I doooooo??????

ANY SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!

Thank you!!!

Comments (5)

  • PRO
    equinoxequinox
    14 years ago

    What a great oppertunity!

    Contact the e-mail list of your community garden plot and offer free vermicomposting worms. That would be real community and you would get to know your fellow gardeners and start the sharing ball rolling. Mayby 5 will reply. Give 10 pounds of the bins wormy contents to each of 5 very happy new vermicomposters and keep 10 pounds for your boyfriend to move. Oh, and stop feeding them now in preperation for moving day.

  • bobbi_socal
    14 years ago

    I completely agree with equinoxequinox!!

    I'm in So Cal and desperate to find someone to share their worms so I can start bins for our school. People would be thrilled to take it off your hands, and appreciative to not have to pay $3/50 worms!

  • maryld_gardener
    14 years ago

    Once the weather warms up you can use sunlight to move the worms. They move a way from light. I put the finished bin in a sunny spot and skim off an inch or 2 of compost at a time. Eventually the worms are concentrated at the bottom and are easy to move.

  • rickd59
    14 years ago

    Time to add a 2nd bin on top of the first one (see link below).

    The number of bins you need in a stackable system depends on how much kitchen waste you produce - I have 4 in my system now. It sounds like you're producing more than you can process in a single bin. You'll find that managing a multi-bin composter is much easier than a single bin because the worms have a much larger and more diverse environment to live. Just be sure to cover any exposed compost with shredded paper to minimize flies.

    Here is a link that might be useful: OSCR composter

  • plumiebear
    14 years ago

    Most of your worms will be in the top few inches of material...stuff that has the choicest food in it. Scrape that off and put it into another bin (is this a standard 18 gal. tote?). That would be the bin you keep when you move.

    The material towards the bottom should be good enough to use as vermicompost for the garden. Since you have several weeks, I'd suggest the onion bag harvesting method (see link below). Repeat the process a few times to harvest most of the worms. If you really have tons of worms, then give them away as has been suggested. Otherwise just add them to the new bin.

    Once most of the worms have been harvested, the remaining vermicompost can be put into a cardboard box and left for the community garden to use. You should take some of the vermicompost to use in your new garden...maybe a small box or bag.

    Good luck. It sounds like you did a great job with your first wormery.

    Andrew

    Here is a link that might be useful: onion bag harvesting method

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