Lizzie Borden

I decided to start making my own worm castings to use as part of my soil mix.

Here is some information on worm castings from Organic's Organics:

"Worm castings : 0.5 - 0.5- 0.3
Also known as worm compost or good ol' worm sh*t, this may be the single best all-purpose fertilizer. Although the nutrient levels are relatively low, worm castings somehow have amazing effects on plant vigor, and anyone who has used them can testify to their effectiveness. They are very gentle on plants, making them ideal for seedlings, and also contain micronutrients. Worm castings can be used as part of the soil mix (no more than 20% total volume is suggested) or can be made into tea (1 part WC to 5 parts water) and applied as watering solution or as a foliar fertilizer."

Good stuff. I'm anxious for my plants to begin enjoying the benefits of worm castings.

I bought two 18 gallon Rubbermaid bins ($4 each). Other sizes will work too, but they should be between about 12" and 18" deep and a dark color to block out light.

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Lizzie Borden

I drilled about 20 1/4" holes in the bottom of each bin. These are for drainage and so the worms can move from one bin to the other.

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Lizzie Borden

I drilled 1/16" holes for ventilation near the top of each bin, 1-2" apart all the way around.

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Lizzie Borden

I put about 30 1/16" ventilation holes in one of the lids.

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Lizzie Borden

I made bedding out of shredded newspaper. Worm bedding should be moist but not soggy. I dipped handfuls of newspaper into water, squeezed it out until water was just dripping but not streaming out, fluffed it up, and put about a six inch layer of this in one of the bins.

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Lizzie Borden

I sprinkled about four cups of dirt from my yard on top of the moist newspaper bedding.

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Lizzie Borden

Then it was time to add the worms. These are redworms (Eisenia fetida). I bought one pound of them (about 1000 worms) for around $25 with shipping. It might be possible to gather them from outside, but I wanted to make sure I had the right kind. Redworms are the best worm for home composting, because of the amount and type of castings they produce and their adaptability to a worm bin environment. They're supposed to breed like crazy so I shouldn't have to buy them again. They're all hermaphrodites but they cannot mate with themselves. Neat, huh?

They arrived packed in damp peat moss. They're kind of hard to see in the pic, but when I dumped them in the whole pile was moving. It was a little creepy.

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Lizzie Borden

I placed a piece of wet cardboard, cut to approximately fit the surface area of the bin, on top.

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Lizzie Borden

The worm bin should be kept in a well-ventilated area, with a temperature between about 50 and 80 F. The space under the table in my flowering room is perfect for this.

I propped the bin up on top of the lid without holes in it, to allow it to drain freely. The liquid that collects in the lid is great for plants too.

Once a week I'm going to bury food scraps derived from plant material in the bin under the cardboard for the worms to eat, putting them in a different spot each time so the worms move around the bin. When the bin gets full, I will take the lid off and place the other bin, prepared with fresh newspaper bedding just like the first one, and food scraps, on top of the castings. When the worms have eaten everything in the lower bin they will migrate to the upper bin, leaving me with 18 gallons of pure worm castings. As the worms multiply the speed at which food is converted to castings will increase. My goal is to produce one bin full every two months, but I'm not sure if that's possible. I might need two going at once.

I will update this thread as my worm farm progresses.

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sticky_greens

hey brindie nice setup you got going there.. i have a worm farm that has 4 levels 1 for food 2 in the middle for changing around with the food makeing 3 full of castings and the bottom one is empty and fills with the liquid so as it can be used for watering its really good and works great. as for haveing 1 full tub of castings every 2 months hard to achive so more setups would be good and i also have the same woms and they do breed like crazy!!! i started with a hand full and now have 1000s

good luck
sticky

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