tags: Ecology, Garden
Turbo Vermicompost
February 26th, 2006, by Rich.
For over five years now we’ve been actively composting almost 100% of our bio-degradable waste in a small bin that lives in the garden. When I say “we’ve been composting” I really mean it - it’s been a team effort between me, Em, and about ten thousand worms.
Vermicomposting is remarkably effective, and because we recycle everything else, our weekly rubbish mass for the household usually amounts to a single half-full refuse sack. The added bonus is that the refuse sack is rarely slimey or smelley, because it never has food remains mixed in with it, so if you do throw something away by mistake, it doesn’t come out covered in the remains of what you ate yesterday.
The worm bin we use is an Australian design called a [goog]Can-o-worms[/goog]. We find it particularly effective because it’s designed as a stack of trays. When you first add waste to the can you start just one tray, and when that tray fills up, you can place a second tray onto the top - the worms can then move up to tray two tray when they fancy a change of scene, and over time, as more worms breed, both trays become well populated.
After a while, the second tray also fills up, so the third and final tray is added. The theory is that by the time the third tray reaches capacity, the first tray should be ready for rotation. The tray in the picture above is a perfect example of a tray that’s finished composting. The rotation process typically involves a little sieving in order to separate the rich vermicompost from the worms. Then, once emptied, the tray, and the worms from it, move to the top of the stack and the process continues.
That’s how it’s supposed to happen anyway.
When the worm bin first arrived, it came complete with several hundred worms, but we very quickly realised that there weren’t enough worms and they weren’t eating fast enough. We could have waited for the worms to breed, but impatience can be a virtue too, and we were surprised to find that there are plenty of places on the internet where you can [goog]buy composting worms[/goog] and have them delivered by the regular postman! We immediately added another few hundred nemetodes to the bin and the composting rate increased to a level that balanced with our output.
Recently, we’ve installed a new kitchen, and ramped up the amount of real cooking we’ve been doing. Traditional foods made with fresh locally produced ingredients are healthier, and cheaper than ready meals and take-aways, but they also have a side effect that we should have planned for.
We’re now generating more compostable waste than ever before. Every meal that’s not from a plastic sachet; everything that doesn’t come in a box; everything we now eat, is made of real ingreditents that have to be extracted from natures bio-degradable packaging, and that packaging has to be composted.
The result is the worm bin is full to brimming, and we’re going to have to start throwing compostable food into the waste bin, which we dont’ want to do. We need to somehow turbocharge our vermicomposting efforts, or introduce a longer pipeline so that the worm population can grow and thus, increase it’s throughput.
The most obvious solution that I can see is that we could buy a couple of extra trays for the can-o-worms, but I’ve not seen anywhere that sells individual trays in the UK.
My search will continue, but in the mean time there may be alternative solutions to this minor glitch, so if you’re in posession of any nuggets of turbo-vermicomposting wizdom, please leave them in the little box below and receive the our eternal gratitude (and when I say “our eternal gratitude”, that’s the gratitude of me, Em, and about ten thousand overworked worms).
February 27th, 2006 at 3:07 pm
We eat ‘real’ food. We have three compost bins tucked away at the end of the garden. As you say, when you use fresh produce, in our case, lots of vegetables which are locally grown on a farm a mile down the road, there is a huge amount of extra biodegradable stuff…. like peelings, skins etc, however, not many veges come in nasty layers of plastic wrapping, so the landfill is unused.
We rotate the 3 bins and are about to gain rewards from two of them as the coming flowering season will mean lots of seedlings to be potted and the borders to be restocked, all requiring compost.
We have a bit of a battle with the resident bird population as they, too like the worms from the garden, but any we find in teh garden before the birds, join the fun in the tubs.
I din’t quite underestand how it all works, as I always thought that compost heaps were hot, so we should get cooked worms?… but the resulting, smell-free brown stuff is producing loads of budding daffodils just now. So something useful is happening.
By the way, egg shells can go in but they need to be crushed first… I wrap them in a piece of kitchen paper have a good squeeze. I understand they are doubly useful in their next incarnation since not are they a source of calcium, they are not very comfortable for slugs to walk on, so keep the next generation of vegetables slug free.
Good Composting!
March 1st, 2006 at 9:53 pm
If you want to speed up your worm bin, try putting the scraps through a blender or food processor before adding to the bin. This provides more surface area for decomposition, the worms don’t have to work as hard, and there will be more room, physically, in the bin for the next days food scraps.
May 31st, 2006 at 11:15 am
I am also running out of room in my Can of Worms and was looking to buy another tray or two. I noticed that they are available at http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk at £15 each.
Hope this helps.
Lynne
May 31st, 2006 at 2:29 pm
Thanks Lynne! I tried their website before but found nothing… and tried again today and also drew a blank (even with the search); so I went all lo-tech and called them.
Armed with a bit more information (a.k.a. the catalogue number) I was able to find the extra trays by performing this search.
WW’s recommended that you can run an extra two layers without any worry (if on a flat and stable surface), but beyond that it may get a bit too heavy for the plastic legs.
December 8th, 2006 at 10:59 am
Hello there
With a bit of trial and quite a lot of error (fruit flies and dramatic infestation by ants!) I have managed to produce some worm compost from my Can O Worms. So far so good, but I now need to know if it should be sterilised before use in a part of my seed compost as proprietory compost is sterilised. I am concerned that the compost msy contain organisms that will infect my seeds. Also, I try to use organic food as much as possible to feed the little fellas but sometimes the food is not organic, does this mean the compost will contain chemicals from the non organic food?
Linda
June 1st, 2007 at 9:08 am
hi
I am master student in ferdosy univercity of mashhad in iran
i need consultation of vermicompost and vermiwash ,becasue my
project about this and it name is my project :
effect of vermicompost in different levele in tamato,pepper and
eggplant seedling.
if youe consultation me i will thanck so much of you.
Thancks so much of your cosultation
dehdashti .banafshe
June 1st, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Hi dehdashti banafshe,
what are you hoping to learn?
December 20th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
To Linda,
you don’t need to sterilise it, it is heaving with beneficial bacteria, funghi and protozoa so you want all of that in there.
Generally food would be largely free of pesticide residues or at least present in very low concentrations so there shouldn’t be a huge problem but I guess there is always a risk of the skins and peelings from vegetables containing heavy metals from the soil as well as other undesirable chemicals.
I wouldn’t worry about it :) - life’s too short
April 16th, 2008 at 7:38 am
Linda,
How did you manage with the infestation by ants?
Mine it’s terrible, and I’m worried for my worms…
July 26th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
To Anna,
Having ants moving into your worm bin usually means that your bedding material is not moist enough. To fix this problem gently turn the bedding material with a garden fork and water the bedding material remembering not to over water. Also if possible rest the legs of your worm bin in a container of water so as to discourage the ants from returning. Alternately you can make trenches on the upper crest of the tanks and keep them filled with water.