Forget tumblers and anything that spins, rotates etc. Totally forget them for the intended use of the finished product unless you are growing on a VERY small scale and even then think twice. Ever thought how you'll get the worms out of the composted substrate? You'll be sitting there for hours picking out worms one by one. Now one might say leave the worms in the compost...but by MY experience worms have eaten very young roots. So no worms for me in the same substrate I grow in. THIS is what I use. You put your to be composted material with a pound of worms in the bottom tray. Once the worms have done what they are supposed to do they move in to the bin above and continue there and so on leaving the bottom tray completely worm-free! The way I have mine running they devour one tray of composted material in to worm castings within 7 to 10 days and then move on to the next tray. Every time they do so I get about 8lbs of worm castings. PS: If you wanna build one yourself go and check out cat litter pans. Try finding the ones which have a sifting pan, buy a few and stack them up. Doing so will work but your's won't look as cool as mine does.
Fantastic, a set up for life. Always good info and I love the links you always provide for a lazy stoner like me. Thanks bro.
hey I got one and I need to comapre notes. I put a full tray of coir in the bottom tray. I only fed it coffee grounds and stuff cuz I tries this before and not much happened, as in in the rubbermaid they did not really eat the crap. So i did this and got some really black coir, I figured this is good worm castings. I got the worms out by putting this tray on top of another tray and letting them crawl down. It took an hour or so for them to go back down. They are in this tray now. I am feeding them coffee grounds. This taked a month ro so to wat all the coffee smell out. In a week they do good and then I add more. What do you feed yours. How exactly do you feed it. Is it really just some lettuce and whatever and let them go? I got 2000 worms and they are breeding.
Right not worth it from the financial perspective...but fun to have a place to put your kitchen scraps etc. in to. Oh and I would need 250 Gallons for my... Anything from the kitchen and coming from other places such as friends etc. Don't know if you have the same one I have...but mine crawl from the bottom tray up, not down.
Cool, looks good. Must be on the north side of your house just like mine is...because the sun would cook the worms inside otherwise...
i have a worm bin and its really easy. i always have tons of plant food waste for them that they just love, plus i get couple pounds of star bucks coffee grounds from work every month or so. if you stick my head in the bin you can hear them squirming around doing their job lol. right now i have a simple 40 gallon rubber maid bin. its fine for now but i do plan upgrading to one of those tray systems or whatever where they just go up and up and up. sure worm castings are cheap but theres really no work involved and its fun. everyone should do it.
or you can jiust stick two rods in the medium attach a car battery and out they come on there own no bubbles no troubles
Nice link LF. Plus I think homemade worm castings are better quality than bagged ones (less fulvic and humic acids). It would be nice to make your own compost too but you need to plan it ahead. What proportion do you mix the castings with the ProMix Leap? Do you use worm castings tea as well? Compost tea? Later!
LOL none of the above...I do it just for the fun of it playing with dirt and worms. You already know what I use... On edit: The castings just pile up...maybe one day I will use them though.