Believe it or not one gets attached to the worms. By winter you might not want to let them get cold. A much smaller system for the winter indoors is fine. Pre-freeze or blend their food for the tinyer system.

I think you can do it on your own. A smaller system might be better. Large trays can get heavy with wet compost. If you do not leave for huge periods of time (because they dry out) you may like one of the new hanging bag systems that are supported with tubes. It sounds like no trays to lift thus easy harvesting.

My eight gallon system gives me about 5 gallons of compost that a worms has at least looked at. Can't claim it is a huge percentage castings. If I was vegetarian or scouted some crab apples or jack o lanterns I could keep it fed by just me. One person can only make so much kitchen waste even when trying. You may not need 3 or 5 pounds of worms. A pound would be more than enough. Maybe there is a place very close where you could pick them up in person from a person who is chatty about worms.

Until you get the worms you could start saving your kitchen waste in the freezer and hand shredding up a bunch of egg carton or coffee trays.

You could always give away the worms in the fall to a few people and maybe someone would give back a share in the spring to get you going again.

I enjoy peeking into the bin to see what food the worms have eaten up and where they are hanging out.

One guy in Canada winters his outdoors. A hay bale or two helps with this.

Hi Barb. You could have an outdoor worm bin in the summer only if that is how you want to do it. In your climate in the winter you would need to either bring them in, or winterize your outdoor bed with lots of food and straw, or simply allow the herd to die-off. A worm die off should result in lots of cocoons, which will hatch in the spring and renew your worm herd.
How large of a worm bin or bed were you thinking? Are you tring to produce castings for your roses?

Pete

Yes, Pete, that is exactly what I was interested in. I am really not able to take on something like this all the time. I remember teaching the kids in Sunday School the benefits of God giving us various forms of the insects and other forms, and it was a wonderful read on what the worms can do for us. I was going to get a book from the library as my DIL was extremely interested also. I did not know about the herd dying off and starting new ones the following spring from the castings. So interesting. Thanks for the comments. Barb

Got a book from the library and this sounds rather complicated. I was thinking in terms of putting one right in one of my raised beds, but from all the reading, I don't think that sounds plausible. My DIL thinks that would not keep the worms confined. I thought if you fed them well enough, they would be okay, but my DIL thought we should try the other. I read something about the plastic boxes not being the best. Now I'm in a quandry. Thanks for any hints. Barb

Barb, I use a plastic box right now. Had one for years, but then during divorce and several moves quit.

Never had a problem with a plastic box.

Moni

Check out redwormcomposting.com. He does all sorts of indoor, outdoor (raised beds, trenches) and wacky experiments. Lots of info and ideas there.

For low maintance (except for watering) there's also a 'worm inn'. I find it's the most fogiving system I've used.

Hey Barb, worms are easy to raise, not complicated. They are extra easy in the ground like you want to do. All my worms are in bottomless bins and beds, and the worms do not leave. I feed them and keep their environment the way they like it(Temperature,moisture,air ect.) In-ground worms have an easy escape route if things go bad and the temperature is regulated by the earth.

I think you want to make a "vermi-trench". Basically dig a trench down the middle of your raised bed. Make it a shovel width wide and about 18" deep. Add a layer of thick cardboard, some worm food, worms and cover with straw. Pull back the straw and feed every week or two. After the growing season you could add horse manure or garden scraps and lots of straw to help winterixe your wormery.

This is not my idea. Check out Bently at redwormcomposting.com. He has used these trenches and wrote quite a bit about them.

Try this:

About 99% of advice and videos I�ve seen on how to make Worm Tea involve soaking the castings for 24-48 hours in a 5 gal or larger container with air bubblers going for aeration. I really don�t see the need to harvest worm castings or "brew" worm tea from castings at all. To me it seems like unnecessary waiting, unnecessary energy spent and actually less efficient use of the worm "offal". In the following, I detail a much simpler method which I think is more efficient in every aspect, and I would like to know what you and your audience think. Using this method, my garden has grown quickly without the use of any other fertilizer and severe infestations with aphids and white flies have disappeared. I also would like to know what you recommend as a mineral, etc. supplement to worm tea, or is it a complete fertilizer in itself.

I built a worm bin in a 25 gal Rubbermaid Tote, I originally drilled 5/16″ holes only in the sides and ends for aeration, but NOT the top and bottom. However, I developed a problem with gnats or fruit flies coming in through the holes. So I redesigned it and I installed 4 x 4″ plastic dryer vent covers, 2 in the ends near the top and 2 in the sides near the bottom, covering them with a piece of nylon from old ladies hosiery. This solved the problem I had with gnats Then I installed a PVC drain valve in one end near the base of the unit. Next I put a bag of gravel over the drain valve intake, filled with bedding, kitchen waste and worms and wait 2 or 3 days for the worms to do their thing. I pour a 2 gallon watering can of water over the worm bin contents 2 or 3 times daily and put the can under the spigot and turn on to allow it to drain into the can. PRESTO, worm tea and it works very well. This Worm Tea (or Leachate, call it what you will) is simply the dilute and FRESH version of Worm Castings and can be poured directly over the leaves of your plants and/or onto the soil of your garden.

This method avoids the 3 to 6 month waiting period during which time your worm bin matures after which the castings can be harvested. This way your worm tea can be harvested almost immediately and several times per day providing up to 6 gallons per day of effective, perfectly diluted worm tea for your garden. Using this large volume of water and not allowing it to sit in the worm bin avoids the problems I have seen others have of making the worms uncomfortable, etc. My worms have yet to "run" and are never to be found crawling on the sides or lid of the worm bin, and just appear to be very content to take their daily "worm shower".

It appears that what is happening is that the water is partially dissolving the worm castings and cleaning out what other worm wastes are present (pee, poo, sweat, slime, etc.) and keeping your worm bin clean and attractive to the worms. In other words, they don�t have to crawl around in their own waste products for several weeks or months. Since their home stays nice and clean with plent of aeration and food, they have no reason to leave. It just works, plain and simple, with the absolute simplest and cheapest design, least amount of labor and attentiveness and greatest productivity of any system I have heard of. Try it, you�ll see.

Michael

if you water your bin daily, how does that not result in over saturation and the negative consequences of that? Doesn't your bedding retain too much water or something? I guess not but that is surprising. If I watered my plants daily they would get root rot...you'd think you would get some kind of negative 'worm rot' or worm bedding/food rot that would lead to some kind of imbalance.

I do not know that the procedure can produce official worm tea. Not sure what government office polices that or if they have shinny whistles. Food decomposition juices would seem to be part of the drainage. Worms can live 100% under water for months. I have seen it. There needs to be lots of oxygen in the water. It is a unique system, cool, not what most are doing.

Mikey10,

Could you post a picture of your set-up? I'm in the process of building a worm bin and am intrigued by what you've described.

Thanks,
Steve

Interesting that there's such a wide range of views and practices with regard to moisture.

I use two "worm factory" stacked four-tray systems, which are built for flow -- the trays have mesh bottoms and rest on a base with a spigot. When they're running well I usually get a few tablespoons per day of tea draining out the spigot. (A piece of nylon cloth helps filter it and keep worms draining too.) If it dries up for a while I may add water. But in general I figure I can wait until the compost goes into the garden to get the nutrients.

Part of compost management is getting a texture that does not waterlog too easily, so moisture trickles out. I keep a bale of compressed coir handy to mix in if it gets boggy.

During the hot summer months, though, I've found it best to err on the dry side -- you're more likely to get heat crises in a hot wet bin than in a hot damp bin.

colin3 there has been much talk about flow through bins and defining exactly what it is that is flowing. Some feel it is the vermicompost. Some the air. Some something else, I forget what, maybe the worms flow up. It is interesting that you refer to your stacked tray systems as built for flow. Usually the definition of flow is defined by a non tray system. You are using yet another definition of flow. I guess it would be the liquid flowing thoroug the system that gets the system the name in this instance.

I am wondering what you do with the daily drainage from the systems. Adding it back on top with bedding is possible.

Also dealing with heat by keeping the system dryer is a unique method. I can see wanting to avoid swamp issues in a bin.

Sorry -- I thought it was clear from context that I meant flow of water.

Drainage: once a week or so the containers each bin drains into are emptied into the garden.

What I've found is that the summer heat problems that generate worm die-offs are more likely in wet compost (which can be caused just by what you are feeding the bin), and that adding coir to make the mix more airy and dry (squeezed-sponge dry) stops those die-offs, even if outside temperatures remain high.