inbloom2316
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Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2013 6:08 pm

New to Composting/Vermicomposting

Hello!

I went into composting with a small budget and knowing virtually nothing about it. My compost bin is a 30 gallon tote with holes in the bottom and a few on the side and it is lifted off my deck with four cat food cans at each corner.

I started it off mixing in coconut fiber, timothy hay, dry leaves, cardboard, old fruits and veggies I found in the back of my fridge (haha), and my pet rabbits poop/bedding (and of course water). I ordered red wigglers online and added them to my bin a few weeks ago (a couple weeks after I originally created my bin).

I have several questions about how to proceed.

1. Is this an okay set up or have I done something horribly wrong?
2. How do I separate out the castings from the rest of the stuff in there?
3. I have been adding a weeks worth of rabbit poo, soiled bedding, and scraps of vegetables my rabbits didn't eat. Is this okay or should I just add vegetables? If it is not okay, can I start another compost for just the bedding and poo or should I add other stuff to it?
4. Can I use the other stuff in my compost bin as compost? How can I tell when that is ready? How much can I take out at a time?

Thank you for reading my post and your advice!

tomc
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Posts: 2661
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 2:52 am
Location: SE-OH USA Zone 6-A

There is a 'too warm' and 'too cold' for vermicomposting. Where (and at what temperature) you is, does make a difference.

Amending your zone or signature line will help others, help you.

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rainbowgardener
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Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Your title said Composting/Vermicomposting and you seem to have some confusion about which you are doing.

Your bin can be a compost bin or it can be a worm bin, but it can't really be both at once. If what you are trying to harvest is worm castings, you need a dedicated worm bin that is set up for that. There can and should be worms in a regular compost pile, though probably not as many, and they will be making castings, but the castings will be all mixed in with everything else and you will never be able to separate them.

30 gallon tote seems big for a worm bin - you will need many thousands of worms for a bin that size and a lot of tending - but pretty small for a regular compost bin.

"I started it off mixing in coconut fiber, timothy hay, dry leaves, cardboard, old fruits and veggies I found in the back of my fridge (haha), and my pet rabbits poop/bedding" All mixed together? Mixed together is good for regular compost bins, not for worm bins. The secret to worm bins is layers. Bedding layer of the dry leaves and shredded cardboard, a little bit of soil, worms and the fruits and veggies (but not more than they can eat pretty quickly), then another layer of dry bedding. You need to add the fruits and veggies a little at a time as they eat them.

The coco fiber and timothy hay are good browns for a regular compost pile (if you have them, I wouldn't go buy stuff just to compost), but I don't see any reason for them in a worm bin.

I think you really need to start over, with two bins. The regular compost bin works best if it is at least close to 9 cu feet, so 50 or 60 gallons. It can be in a plastic bin like an earthmachine or you can just use wooden pallets or whatever is at hand to enclose a bin space. The coco fiber, timothy hay, rabbit poop and bedding, and some of the fruit and veggie scraps from your refrigerator/ cooking scraps/ veggies the rabbits didn't eat, along with weeds you pull from your garden, garden trimmings, fall leaves, etc go into the large regular compost bin and get turned and mixed together occasionally.

The worm bin would be 18 gallons or less. It would have the layers as above. There's lots of good info about composting and worm bins here in this Compost Forum. Do some reading. Here's a few threads to start with:

Regular composting:
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... =35&t=9089
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... hp?t=29022

worm composting:
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... hp?t=18171
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... hp?t=35062

Incidentally the worm bin, if properly managed, will be leaching out fluids all the time. You may not want that on your deck, unless you have the cat food tins sitting on a collection tray.

redworm
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Joined: Mon Sep 30, 2013 1:26 am

1. Is this an okay set up or have I done something horribly wrong?

all seems ok although a 10 gal rubbermaid container would have been fine.
it doesn't matter, though - just feed on one end of the bin, only - check in about 2 weeks
and you should be beginning to see a lot of dark castings.

2. How do I separate out the castings from the rest of the stuff in there?

the worms will stay where the food is generally and as they create castings,
you will be able to take it out - just make a mound of the castings and scrape
away the top a little bit at a time and as you scrape the pile away, the worms
will move toward the bottom and you can remove the castings.

3. I have been adding a weeks worth of rabbit poo, soiled bedding, and scraps of vegetables my rabbits didn't eat. Is this okay or should I just add vegetables? If it is not okay, can I start another compost for just the bedding and poo or should I add other stuff to it?

You can all of that and it is fine. - just REMEMBER, put all of your food on one end of the bin.

4. Can I use the other stuff in my compost bin as compost? How can I tell when that is ready?
How much can I take out at a time?

Mainly vegetables - remember a worm bin and compost pile are two different things.
No dairy, no meat, no oily - no citrus.

Powder some eggshells in your blender and add the powder occasionally, helps to keep
the pH balance



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