vermiculture

I made a bin with directions from here.

I found a young fellow in Gentilly with worms to sell from Craigslist (he's still in my phone as "worm guy"). I think I bought about 250 worms from him (though I think it was less - I just got tired of him searching & counting them); maybe it was only 100.

That was back in April. Now into August, there is some indication of castings (falling out the holes on the bottom, and when I put more food in) but they're nowhere near ready to move to a new bin.

When I first set up the bin, I had it outside and was quite happy with that until my landlord's handyman, not knowing what it was, moved it into direct sun and used it as a sawhorse. Lots of cutting and hammering on it. Poor worms. When I finally arrived home and saw the situation, I grabbed them to bring inside - opening the lid, it was really hot inside there. They didn't all die though.

I read not to put onions in, and to chop things finely. I put some whole half-egg shells in because I read baby worms like that shelter. Otherwise, only vegetable matter and no oil.

The worm bin cannot keep up with all my kitchen waste - I am only one person, but I do have a lot of vegetables in my life - so I still have a compost pile outside. I think that at a couple times I overwhelmed them and the population died back while the food rotted. I was recently gone for three weeks, and before I left I chopped up four large cucumbers that overgrew in the garden, with seeds and all, and threw that in. When I got back, the seeds had sprouted (!) but there was a very healthy worm population in there, though when I took off the lid about four worms were near the top - trying to escape? I threw a big layer of ripped, dry newspaper over the top and it soaked up the excess moisture. I just added a bunch of cantaloupe peelings which I didn't chop up, so I'll be curious how they handle that.

So, overall: it takes a lot longer than I expected to create the rich compost, and the worms are kind of picky but do best with neglect. It's too hot outside most the year here for the bin to stay out there because the plastic bin just really holds in the heat. It takes up more room than I would like it to in my house. But, if I can stick with it, once I move to a new house I'll be darned excited to have this great stuff to build up the soil.

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Today I went to put some cilantro in the bin, opened it, and there was a cockroach.

The bin is outside now and will stay there. I'm sorry, little worms, for the extreme heat, but you partied with the wrong crowd and now you're all evicted.

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1/22/10
We had some bitter cold here a few weeks back, so I did bring the bin in until it warmed up. I can't seem to find an authoritative source on exactly how cold the worms can take it, but if it's not warming up about 55 or if it's getting into the low 30's, it's probably good to keep it inside. They survived and I've seen quite a few in there when I've added food - but they haven't been keeping up with all the food waste I have (and no citrus or onions or garlic for them), and it's nowhere near ready to harvest. Nine months now? I must be doing something wrong, as I thought these were advertised as creating garden-ready castings in a few months - perhaps keeping outside? But, they are still living and that counts for something! Perhaps I just need to slow down my expectations.