I Wet My Plants

When I first started looking at different options for vermicomposting I decided to go with the one that had the easiest harvesting method: the OSCR Jr.

The OSCR Jr. has three bins: the base that catches the leachate, the middle bin that starts off as the working bin and the top bin that you use a few months later once the middle bin has filled up. After about six months of worm wrangling, your middle working bin should be getting pretty full. The next step is to stack a new bin on top of the full middle bin, place a layer of food and the worms migrate upwards. This way you can harvest the middle bin which will have pure castings and very few worms. Other methods involve hours and hours of separating worms from castings. No thanks.

I checked in on them and realized that they were starting to get to the top of their bin. Here they are in their cold, cramped location in the basement:

You can see that there is really only about 2 1/2″ of room left looking at the sides of the bin and the bottom of the lid of the worm bin was actually resting on top of the newspaper:

There were even worms cruising around underneath the lid:

There were loads of worms lolling about the top-side of the newspaper layer:

I peeled back the newspaper layer and found many, many worms on the bottom-side:

I started digging down to the food layer and there were loads there too:

Thinking that they were running out of room, I decided to add a new bin to expand their home. I found the extra Rubbermaid bin and started to drill holes. I used a 1/4″ drill bit and eyeballed the holes about 2″ apart, way less precise than when I had first drilled the bins. I used a kitchen knife to cut off the sharp, excess plastic created from drilling the holes and then placed the bin on top of the newspaper layer of the old bin:

I put the top back on and thought I was done. Here you can see the bottom bin (catchment bin for leachate), middle bin (full of worms and vermicompost sitting mostly inside the bottom bin) and the top bin (empty, on top of the middle bin and waiting for the worms to move in):

Well, just because I put a new bin on top of their house, it didn’t mean that the worms were going to relocate. After two or three days I hadn’t seen any worms crawl up through the holes. I had to give them some incentive. I moved them upstairs next to the recycling bins to get them warmed up and active.

Then I went out and bought the biggest, ripest cantaloupe and diced it up. My worms love cantaloupe, it’s like crack to them. I took the top bin off, scraped off the newspaper and food layers in the middle bin, put the food layer at the bottom of the top bin, spread my ripe cantaloupe and topped it off with the newspaper layer and put the lid back on the whole shebang.

It took a couple of days for them to find their way up through the holes that I had drilled in the bottom of the top bin. I was worried that they’d have trouble finding their way up and kept checking on them to see if they were okay. I checked on them this past weekend and was mildly squicked-out at the number of worms frolicking amongst the cantaloupe bits. Success!

It’s a brave, new world for my worms!

The first time I tried to compost with worms, I had disastrous results.  After a few months my parents, who had a really healthy bin, gave me a batch of their worms complete with castings and newspaper.  It’s been going on for about four months now and has been quite successful though I still keep my fingers crossed in case things go south.  This winter I’ve kept them in the basement on a scrap piece of carpet on the concrete floor and they don’t seem to mind.  I feed them once a week with leftover scraps of vegetables and fruit that I collect in a stainless steel compost pail (with a lid!) on my kitchen counter.

To feed them, I put on rubber gloves, open up the worm bin, take out the top layer of newspaper and the second layer of shredded newspaper, exposing the layer of foodstuffs.  Then I dig in to the compost pail and pull out all the rotted foodstuffs that I collected the previous week.  This can be a little gross at times depending on what you’ve put in there: bread gets mouldy, tomatoes have dripped their juices over everything and there can be a slurry of stinky liquid at the bottom.  I gently squeeze out the liquid and layer the foodstuffs thinly over the entire surface of the bin.  Then I put the first and second layers of newspaper back on top.  The first layer of non-shredded newspaper (usually a whole section from the local paper) helps keep the moisture in the bin.  I usually try to keep the second layer of shredded newspaper around 2″ thick.   I put the top of the worm bin back on and that’s it.

Last weekend the snow melted and the temperature was really mild so I decided to trot my worms outside for a little trip.  Here’s what I saw when I pulled back the top newspaper layer:

So fat and happy hanging out on top of the second layer of shredded newspaper!  You can tell I need to add more shredded newspaper to their bin as there are a couple of carrots poking out on the bottom right.  Here’s a close-up of my worms:

Lots of bigs ones, a few small ones and a bunch of eggs.  I found a little baby:

And he was all, “Put me back, it’s too cold out here!”.  Here’s a shot of the eggs:

Here I am pulling away the second layer of shredded newspaper, digging down to the layer of foodstuffs:

A few weeks ago I threw in some old cloves of garlic which decided to sprout.  I pulled them out, found some of my worms entangled in the roots and shook them off:

I put the the foodstuff on, put the newspaper back and put the lid back on.  Then I lifted the whole top bin to check and see if there was any liquid on the bottom that had leached through.  I drained it into a bowl and dumped it on one of my flower beds.

I’m pretty happy about my worms and I hope they continue to enjoy their little house in the basement.

My worms are dead.

There was a pervading stench from my worm bin so I lifted the lid to have a look. Everything seemed good - there was rotting food, moistened newspaper and not a lot of condensation on the bottom of the lid. I sat for a moment to listen for the quiet, mucking noises and didn’t hear anything. Pulling on a pair of latex gloves, I started to poke around underneath the bedding. I saw a small clump of wet worm poop though I couldn’t find any worms. They were all dead except for one sluggish, lonely worm who looked like his number was up.

I have decided to admit defeat.  Their coffin has been moved into the garage.

Long live the worms!

I bought Worms Eat My Garbage a few days ago and have already finished reading it. There’s a lot of good information in there for people who are just starting out. I skipped the chapter on using a wooden worm bin. The two most important points that I got from the book is:

• Use 1 pound of shredded newspaper to 3 pounds of water.
• Excess moisture in the bin can be dealt with by adding dry shredded newspaper to the top. After the initial bedding preparation there’s no need to add any more water to the bin. Your bin will get all its “water” from the foodstuffs you will be adding and also from the process of breaking down the foodstuffs to worm poop.  Condensation on the bottom of the lid will drip down and wet the dry newspaper.

Last night I noticed there was condensation on the bottom of the lid of my worm bin. The bedding was looking really damp and the food that I had placed in the four corners was looking glossy, rotted and mouldy. Tentatively, I added a small handful of dry bedding, laid it out on top of the bin and then placed a banana peel (inside peel down), some rotted lettuce and eggshells on top around the edges of the bin.

I had a light on the bin while I was working and there was a pesky baby worm crawling towards it. I scooped him up and put him back. I checked the bottom bin and there were about 20 worm carcasses and three live ones painfully moving about. I sprayed them with water and scooped them out and put them in the top bin. At one point the entire bin shuddered which was a little spooky. I listened closely and I could hear soft mucking noises. It was a little creepy.

Here are the things I think I did wrong the first time:

• I didn’t add enough water to the bedding to make it moist enough.
• I didn’t prepare the bedding in a bathtub to ensure even moisture.
• I didn’t add calcium carbonate to the water to reduce acidity and to promote reproduction.
• I poked around too much and messed up their bedding by displacing food and dirt into their “escape zones”, the places they can go if one area in the bin is too unpleasant at the moment for them.
• I put them on a cold basement floor which slowed their movements and probably killed some of them.
• I poked around too much.
• I added green onion which stank as it decomposed and also started this whole mess.

No wonder they hated living there.  I’ve had to force myself not to be too “hands on” with these worms because they really don’t like it when you disturb them.  Right now, I’m just trying to keep an eye on the moisture content and food.

It’s been a very stressful week for my worms and me. Everything seemed to be going well for a couple of days after setting up my worm bin. I’d check on them and they seemed like they were having a good time wriggling through the food that I’d buried. After the third day, I noticed a rank odour when I lifted the lid.I knew that the only time a worm bin smells is when you are doing something wrong, either it’s too wet, too dry, too much food or not enough food. After looking at the top bedding, I decided that it was too dry. I got my spray bottle and went to work, spraying all the way down to the bottom layer. Then all hell broke loose.There was a mass exodus. For days I couldn’t figure out what to do - worms were leaving, crawling up towards the strong light. I’d find them dried up and crispy within a two-foot radius of the bin or sadly dying in the bottom bin. I felt terrible. I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. I thought I had it all figured out, however, my worms would rather crawl out of their bin and die rather than stay in the home I made for them.