New to this....Should I be Vermicomposting or Composting??

[rainbowgardener]

For batch composting like the tumbler, you have to be collecting compostables for a batch. Empty the tumbler of finished compost, then load it up with a new batch. I just have a pile and I add to it continuously as things become available, all year round. The new stuff is added on the top of the pile and the finished compost is at the bottom. When I need to use compost, I turn the pile over, so that the unfinished stuff becomes the bottom of a new pile and the finished stuff is exposed. Some compost bins
( https://www.compostbins.com/compost-bins/compost-bins/wibo147cubicftcompostbin.cfm ) are made with a door at the top and bottom, so you can just pull finished compost out from the bottom.

So no batches, no collecting, just dump stuff in whenever you have it.

[welshie]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the helpful posts. So, I have decided that I am going to start out with vermicomposting. Can I use my tumbler (see the picture at the beginning of this thread) for that? I can easily fit a tap into 1 of the panels and not tumble it any more. Would this work? If not...who can recommend a good vermicomposter that I can buy??

Also, where should I be looking to get my worms from?

-Welshie

[The Helpful Gardener]

Hey welshie,

The tumbler isn't really a worm box; we don't want to tumble the worms as they feed in specific layers. As you feed then cover the food, they excrete to the surface (ever seen the little piles of wormcastings on the suface after a rain?) to make sure they do not contaminate the food level. Should you tumble, all that work on their part is undone. Building a vermicompost unit is inexpensive and easily done; we have some great examples [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=48818&highlight=vermicomposting+bins#48818]here[/url] and here [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22280&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=worm+bins&start=0]toils bag system[/url] desereves a good look for cost, ease, and function...

Start with the right tools and the job is easy...

In the meantime as you have a pretty nice tumbler, no reason to let that sit. You get mail and have paper scraps I assume? You have coffee grounds (or can get some at a local coffee shop), I'm guessing? Then you have the makings of compost. A little bit of soil or some of that vermicompost will add the organisms you need to get started, and the tumbler makes turning a snap. Any yard waste adds to the total. Why choose?

HG

[Toil]

Hg, FYI my observation of e. fetida is that they leav casting everywhere, unlike nightcrawlers (lumbricus terrestris I think, but I'm on my phone)

[The Helpful Gardener]

True toil, I was thinking of the nightcrawler in my example, but wigglers leave most of the excreta below them instead, moving up into the food layer. We do not so much want them tumbled in either case, or that was what I was taught anyway.

HG