vermicomposting

[charlie@vt]

Thanks top_dollar_bread for the informitive post. This could be another winter time indoor project along with sprouting & herbs.
We have to keep thoes finger nails dirty you know!

[Ozark Lady]

I think that I almost understand what a worm bin needs.

I have the bowl full of worms that I just dug out of the compost piles at the barn. As I went through it removing sticks and rocks, I just tossed the worms into a bowl with a bit of the original dirt. I probably have close to a hundred and a few round balls that look something like the pics posted here as cocoons. I hope that is what they are.

We really need a sticky on how to do a worm bin. Both for city folks and another one for country folks. Muddy boots seems to have a method that might work for me. With using fresh manures, and stuff.

Even after spending alot of time reading, I don't totally get, why should I raise worms in a bin? I can go to the barn and get worms, or just turn on the garden hose anywhere and soon they will pop up to get away from the water. I feed household scraps to the animals, their poop feeds the worms, I clean the barn or henhouse, and they are so far ahead of me, that I get finished compost full of worms, not raw manure. So why keep a bin? What is it that they do, that I can improve on? I am seriously just considering putting the worms back where I found them in the first place.

I understand if you are in town and have no worms in your barn, but how does having a bin help me? I can get dirt full of them at will.

[Toil]

A bin is useless and redundant in your case I would say.

[rainbowgardener]

The idea of the worm bin isn't for growing worms; it's for turning kitchen scraps into earthworm castings (ewc) , which are a very rich soil amendment. But I don't do a worm bin either, just use my compost, which I figure must have some ewc in it, since it's got so many worms.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Well that makes three of us; I was scooping up handfuls of castings out of the paths and throwing them back on the beds last year, and the beds were just crawling. Pull a weed and four worms popped their heads out of the hole...

Toil on the other hand is reclaiming urban soil and needs all the help he can get; worm bin makes sense in that setting...

HG

[Toil]

I actually put sustainable waste disposal first, and the castings are not a big part of the garden. I do put some on the raised beds at home, but at the big garden we just use city compost for now (yes, I know, I can't be sure it isn't toxic, but it's just reality and I trust those veggies before market veggies). Just the veggies is 75 x 75 feet and has had just a couple active members until this season (we hope), and the most I could hope to do is brew tea to cover that. Alas, we have no electricity out there, just water.

But if I had chickens I would probably not own a bin. Or maybe one as a pet, but not a bin, a stack of smaller bins, and a worm bin bag.

Or with your kinda space I might think about a very very large worm operation. I don't know, I would be so giddy if I had your space, I would be immobilized. I would not know what to do.

[applestar]

Alas, we have no electricity out there

What about solar or wind generated electricity?
My neighbors across the street just had 20 solar panels installed on their roof. They've accomplished what I've been wanting to do for years now.

A mutual friend told me that the husband was at a sustainable energy conference through his work recently, but I haven't talked to him/them yet. I'm waiting for the green color to subside from my skin.

[Toil]

We don't even have membership fees.

Zero budget, just assets.

[Ozark Lady]

So, you have a community garden? Memberships, budgets, no electricity etc. is why I am asking.

Sounds like a lemonade stand to offer cool drinks, might get some money in a kiddy for projects there.

[Toil]

It's a very young community garden, yes. Nice chunk of property with decent sun/shelter compromise, and we have a fence around the veggie area and water that the land trust provides.

With the right people and methods I can see it supplementing significantly the diets of quite a few families. On top of the veggies we have fruit trees started, raspberies, and strawberries struggling to get a hold.

So far we have no individual plots but that is hard to keep that going as it grows.

[yardfarmer]

Great thread, and I am glad that I found this site. One thing that I do is use a two part system whereby I first partially break down my kitchen scraps via hot composting. I mix the kitchen scraps in with other yard waste and this speeds up the process, and that way I don't get the extra heat and bugs when adding straight from the kitchen to the worm bin.

Here is a wooden compost bin that I built from fence cut offs..
[img]https://www.ecoyardfarming.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/wormbintop2.jpg[/img]

I have had really good success with this system and it has yielded me many pounds of castings. Here is how I built this worm bin.
[url=https://www.ecoyardfarming.com/wormcompost/diy-stackable-worm-composter]Wooden worm bin[/url]