Worm Factory 360 For Easy Set Up Of Your Worm Composter!
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Want to start with composting worms but don’t have the DIY skills to make up your own bin? Well here is the answer. The Worm Factory 360 stacking worm bin is for you.
Some of the Features include
* stacking four tray units that are expandable to eight trays.
* Built in worm tea collector tray with spigot for easy drain off.
* Instructional DVD with step by step guide.
* An accessory kit with basic tools to get you started, all you add are the worms!
So there it is, an easy way to get started down your own path of Recycle, Reduce and Reuse… and in return, you get the best soil amendment you could ever want..Worm Castings, Natures Black Gold!
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Compost Pile Update
Here are a few Pix of the compost pile after a year of “cooking”, this takes a year due to the hands off approach. i only turn the compost every other month if that much!
If you wanted to get out and turn this over every two weeks or so the process would go much quicker, the extra oxygen from the aeration speeds up the composting action, you could have a finished pile in as soon as two months.
I don’t get in a rush, so it takes a little longer for my stuff to cook.
As you can see , the cage was almost full , after cooking , not so much. the breakdown process compacts the compost down quite a bit.
Well there you have it, I will spread this around to feed all the spring garden plants.
Thank for dropping by.
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How I Build A Compost Pile!
Here is an Article I wrote for my other blog, Home-Grown-Vegetables.com But it fits here too, plus I have been so busy I thought I would Spread the wealth! Enjoy It!!
How I Build A Compost Pile!
Since the high heat is in place here in South-East Texas there is not much in the garden that is thriving, other than watermelon and corn,see the last post! So today I thought I would get another compost pile going, it’s really easy the way I do it , so come check it out!
The first thing I did was to build a cage out of Red Brand Goat Fence, you can use what ever you have around your place, we just had some extra. I took a 10 foot piece and connected the ends to make a cylinder, it works perfect for contaning the pile. I put this cylinder in an out of the way place , its gonna be there a while, and start gathering my materials. Since I live on the farm out here materials are easy to come by. I use mostly old hay that has gotten wet, and bales that fell apart around the haystack, plus grass clippings from mowing around the house. We also have an abundance of chicken, cow and donkey manure around here so that is a key ingredient as well.
Old Hay
Let’s Assemble!
With the materials gathered up I first put down a layer of hay, 1 to 2 feet deep, then water it down with the water hose , it will compact down quite a bit.
1st Layer of Hay
The next layer is a layer of grass clippings, I used about 2 full bags from the mower for the grass layer it works out to about 5 to six inch layers.
Bag From The Mower Full Of Clippings.
Layer Of Grass Clippings
After the grass goes on I dump in about two five-gallon bucket fulls of chicken manure over the grass layer and then wet it down, it helps to keep the dust down as well as adds to the needed moisture in the pile.
Five gallon Bucket of Chicken Manure.
From there it just goes layer upon layer , just like lasagna! I put about five layers on this pile and will keep the water going on for a few more days, as you add water you will see the pile begin to compact down. After a few weeks you can turn the pile over a couple of times to get the air moving again, this will speed up your compost, or you can just let it set and it will still work, it will just take longer.
Almost Done
So there you have it, started compost pile ready to cook. You can continue to add kitchen waste, more grass clipping, fall leaves, whatever just make sure you keep the pile moist and it will do fine. Check back in a few weeks and I’ll update how this particular pile is going!
Thanks for stopping by!
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Organic Soil Amendments
Marcie over at Organic Vegetable Garden Guide Posted this article on her blog, so I thought I would repost it here , she has several good articles if your into the organic thing, I suggest you check her out!!
Organic Soil Amendments
The absolute best type of amendment you can use in your soil is organic soil amendmentsbecause these organic soil amendments can add a reservoir of nutrients for plant roots to absorb.
To produce big juicy nutritional vegetables, your soil must be able to supply the plant with the following five critical nutrients:
* Nitrogen — for leaf development;
* magnesium — to help the plants with photosynthesis
* Calcium and phosphorus — to help the plant bear fruit and help root growth.
* Potassium — for root development and to resist disease.
* a range of micronutrients such as boron, iron and zinc.
Adding organic matter as organic soil amendments stimulates the natural cycles that enrich soil. Earthworms and soil microorganisms break down organic matter into forms that plants can use. As organic materials are slowly broken down by microorganisms, they are releasing their nutrients slowly over months or even years.
Organic soil admendments are far superior to synthetic chemical fertilizers because synthetic fertilizers are water-soluble and produce a sudden flush of mineral salts that are taken up rapidly py plants. However, even though such salts can produce good yields, they also repel earthworms and other compost-making creatures, our most important allies to keeping the soil fertile and rich. (Here’s a personal experience which showed me how worms hate synthetic fertilizers.)
If you use only synthetic chemical fertilizers, your soil will be lifeless soil, low in nutrients, and low to nil in compost. The only way to support your crops would be to add more doses of chemicals — and you’ve started on a merry-go–round of ruining your soil.
Because your soil is not being replenished, it will have less and less of the necessary nutrients for lush and healthy growth, the plants/vegetables will be less and less healthy thus more and more susceptible to being attacked by insects and pests.
To avoid this type of catastophic ending to nutritious food and better health, you might want to consider the opposite route of feeding the soil — i.e. using organic soil amendments.
If you want to find out exactly what nutrients might be missing in your soil, discover how to take a soil sample and send the sample to get your soil tested. The testers can tell you exactly what soil amendments must be added to your soil.
Organic soil amendments can be made of
natural plants (ex leaf mold or peatmoss) or animal materials (such as bloodmeal or bonemeal) or of powdered minerals or rock (such as rock phosphate or granite meal).
Different Ways to Create Organic Soil Amendments:
Here are examples of good common organic soil amendments you can use. These natural materials will feed and remedy any soil structure.
1. Compost or decomposing plant material — organic soil amendments which improve soil texture and add nutrients to the soil. Straw, grass clippings, or shredded leaves are examples of such mulches.
When organic soil amendments are added to the upper few inches of soil as mulch and are allowed to slowly decompose naturally, you are in fact mimicking nature’s process of feeding not only plants but also the soil.
The end result is the creation of humus, a stable form of decomposed organic matter that improves soil structure so roots can penetrate the soil easily.
Not only is the soil being replenished with nutrients, the compost or humus also increases the soil’s capacity to hold air and water.
On the other hand, you can choose to use compost bins to make compost– a mix of decomposed plant and animal materials. This organic soil amendment can then be worked into your soil in the spring before you plant or in the fall after harvest time.
OR…you can choose to cold compost also. All these methods of composting are explained step by step in the ebook How To Compost In Your Backyard or you may choose to read individual posts outlining each of the four composting methods step by step.
2. Peat moss, a lightweight and inexpensive natural and organic soil amendment, — helps loosen heavy soils or in the case of sand, to radically improve the ability of soil to hold moisture. Peat moss can be bought in big or small quantities. I always used to keep a bag or two in my shed.
3. Composted manure, (usually cow or sheep manure which can be bought in bags) — improves drainage and moisture retention in the soil and adds nitrogen among other nutrients. Composted manure has a rich, dark texture and is easy to work into soil.
4. Leaf mold (composted or decomposed leaves) — helps loosen the soil. High in nitrogen and potassium, the leaf mold releases its nutrients slowly in soil. Leaf mold and other garden leftovers are often called “the gardener’s gold” for when decomposed, the resulting organic soil amendment helps any type of soil become rich loam.
5. Shredded bark or wood chippings — improves soil texture by making it more airy and help with proper soil drainage. Shredded bark such as cedar bark is often used to mulch around the base of plants and trees.
Avoid shredding or chipping any wood which has been painted or have been tainted with oil preservatives or such things as plywood which is kept together with glue.
6. Worm castings — is a terrific addition to organic soil amendments which bring with it much needed nutrients. I have been using worm castings for my balcony and indoor potted plants and have found worm castings to be every bit as good as composted plant material.
7. Green manure, — a great organic soil amendment which can add many nutrients and amend texture immensely.
Green manure is easy to make. In the fall after the harvest, plant alfalfa seeds or soy seeds (be sure the seeds are GMO-free) in your garden. Allow it to grow some, and in the early spring before the crop starts making seeds, cut the growing plant to the ground and then plow it in or with a shovel turn this green manure under. I’ve used this method extensively during the last five years I still had my house.
By adding the proper organic soil amendments to change the texture of your soil, you are well on the way to producing rich loam, the road to healthier, more nutritious vegetables and plants which are lush and vibrant.
Marcie
Bio: A gardener since the 70′s, Marcie Snyder knows that it is important to grow your own vegetables and plants organically and that adding organic soil amendments is extremely important to growing healthy nourishing vegetables.
You will find loads of great tips in her FREE ebook “The Complete Guide to Organic Vegetable Gardening” (OVG GUIDE), as well as a very comprehensive step-by-step ebook detailing 4 methods of composting. Check for more articles at http://organicvegetablegardeningguide.com/blog
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Red Wigglers worms (EF) for Organic Gardening, Composting or bird food.
Price is per pound of red wigglers. Our red wigglers are home grown in bins and compost heaps on our property. They winter well and reproduce rapidly. Your worm population should double every 90-days or so, given enough food and moisture. We ship Monday thru Thursday, so your order should arrive on within two days… Always graranteed live delivery! Each shippment includes instructions, suggestions and tips. We ship packed in coir or peatmoss, weight dies not include packaging.
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Worm Factory 360 WF360B Worm Composter, Black
Composting with worms allows you to turn kitchen scraps, paper waste and cardboard into nutrient-rich soil for your plants. The Worm Factory 360 composting system makes the entire process quick and easy. With a thermo siphon air flow design, the Worm Factory 360 increases the composting speed. Now you can produce compost much faster than traditional composting methods. Master Gardeners agree, worm castings are one of the richest forms of fertilizer that you can use. The Worm Fac (more…)
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Worm Factory DS5GT 5-Tray Worm Composter – Green
Worm composting is an incredibly efficient way to convert kitchen scraps, junk mail and cardboard into nutrient-rich compost for your garden. Master gardeners agree that compost produced by worms will produce the best results and help your plants thrive. The Worm Factory’s unique stackable, multi-tray design makes it the most efficient worm bin composter around. Worms begin eating waste in the lowest tray, and then migrate upward as food sources in that tray are exhausted. By al (more…)
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Worm Factory DS3GT 3-Tray Worm Composter, Green
Worm composting is an incredibly efficient way to convert kitchen scraps, junk mail and cardboard into nutrient-rich compost for your garden. Master gardeners agree that compost produced by worms will produce the best results and help your plants thrive. The Worm Factory’s unique stackable, multi-tray design makes it the most efficient worm bin composter around. Worms begin eating waste in the lowest tray, and then migrate upward as food sources in that tray are exhausted. By al (more…)
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Food For Your Worms.
What do you feed your worms? If your like me , I’m always looking for the free goodies to feed the crew. I like a mix of food scraps and yard waste, who knew all those leaves would be worth raking?!
Anyway , in case you need some ideas her is a list of things I have droped into the worm bin at one time or another.
And in no particular order:
- pasta
- cornmeal
- culls from the garden, damaged or bruised fruits and veggies
- manure, horse, cow , chicken litter use with caution, chicken litter can get real hot !
- coffee grounds
- tea bags, remove the little staple if it has one
- grass clippings
- fall leaves
And the list could go on and on. But for the most part any organic material can be digested by the worms. I’ve even used shredded paper for the bedding , and they burrow right thru that stuff.
Anyway , I hope that gives you a few ideas of the stuff you can use to feed these little worms, until next time.
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How to Article On Vermiposting
How to Make Your Own Worm Compost System
from wikiHow – The How to Manual That You Can Edit
Vermiculture, or worm composting, allows you to compost all your food waste faster than you ever imagined, while producing the highest quality compost and fertilizing liquid. Best of all, it’s self-contained and nearly odorless!
Steps
- Obtain a worm bin.
- These can be purchased from many online vendors or your local gardening or farm supply store.
- You can build your own. Use rubber storage totes, galvanized tubs, wood, or plastic.
- Material: Rubber is cheap, easy to use and durable. Galvanized tubs are somewhat costly but will last forever. Wood will eventually be eaten, and plastic cracks easily, but either will do in a pinch. Some people prefer wooden compost worm bins because they may breathe better and absorb excess moisture[1], which can be hazardous to the worms. Just don’t use chemically-treated wood, which may be dangerous to worms or leach harmful chemicals into your compost. 5-gallon plastic buckets now for sale by most hardware stores can be used – especially if you live in an apartment. Clean the big 5-gallon soap buckets thoroughly and let them sit for a day or so filled with clean water before using as a worm bin.
- Ventilation: Your bin should be well-ventilated, with several 1/8 inch (3mm) holes 4 inches (100mm) from the bottom (otherwise the worms will stay at the bottom of the bin and you may drown your worms). For example, you can build a worm bin out of a large plastic tub with several dozen small holes drilled out on the bottom and sides.
- Size: The larger you make the container, the more worms it can sustain. Estimate 1 pound (0.45kg) of worms (1,200) for every square foot of surface area. The maximum productive depth for your bin is 24 inches (61cm) deep because composting worms will not go further down than that.
- Cover: The bin should have a cover to prevent light from getting in and to prevent the compost from drying out. Choose or make a lid that can be removed if your compost is too wet. Use a canvas tarp, doubled over and bungee-corded on, or kept in place with wood. Burlap sacks also work well, and can be watered directly.
- Use 4 old car tires: To make a four-tire wormery, create a base from old bricks or flagstones (must be flat and with as few cracks as possible). Place a layer of heavy newspaper on top of the bricks. Stuff four old tires with newspapers. Pile the tires on top of each other, with the first tire on the Sunday newspaper. Put some scrunched up paper or cardboard in the bottom to soak up any excess liquid. Fill the entire wormery with organic material (semi-composted is best). Add the composting worms (tiger or brandling species are best). Use a piece of board weighed down with bricks as a lid. The lid must be big enough to stop rain getting in. Harvest a tire’s worth of fertilizer roughly every 8 weeks (during warm months).
- Prepare the box for worms. Fill your bin with thin strips of unbleached corrugated cardboard or shredded newspaper, straw, dry grass, or some similar material. This provides a source of fiber to the worms and keeps the bin well-ventilated. Sprinkle a handful of dirt on top, and thoroughly moisten. Allow the water to soak in for at least a day before adding worms. You can also use Canadian peat moss, which is more expensive but yields a loamier vermicompost.
- Get worms. There are several varieties of worms that that are bred and sold commercially for vermicomposting; just digging up earthworms from your backyard is not recommended. The Internet or local gardening club is your best bet for finding a worm vendor near you. The worms most often used, Eisenia foetida (Red Wigglers), are about 4 inches long, mainly red along the body with a yellow tail. Another variety to consider are Eisenia hortensis, known as “European Night crawlers.” They do not reproduce quite as fast as the red wigglers, but grow to be larger, eat courser paper and cardboard better, and seem to be heartier. Dendrobaena’s are also a good choice, search online for them. They are also better fishing worms when they do reach full size. However, with any non-native species, it is important not to allow them to reach the wild. Their voracious appetites and reproductive rates (especially among the red wigglers) have been known to upset the delicate balance of the hardwood forests by consuming the leaf litter too quickly. This event leaves too little leaf letter to slowly incubate the hard shelled nuts and leads to excessive erosion as well as negatively affecting the pH of the soil. So, do your best to keep them confined!
- Maintain your bin. Keeping your bin elevated off the ground, using bricks, cinder blocks, or whatever is convenient will help speed composting and keep your worms happy. Worms are capable of escaping almost anything, but if you keep your worms fed and properly damp, they should not try to escape. A light in the same area will ensure your worms stay put. Sprinkle the surface with water every other day. Feed your worms vegetable scraps at least once a week. Feeding lightly and often will produce more worms (which is good when starting a new bin) and large amounts fed less often will fatten your worms (good for fishing). Add more cardboard, shredded newspaper, hay, or other fibrous material once a month, or as needed. Your worms will reduce everything in your bin quickly. You will start with a full bin of compost or paper/cardboard, and soon it will be half full. This is the time to add fibrous material.
- Harvest the compost, using one of the following techniques.
- Put on rubber gloves, and move any large un-composted vegetable matter to one side. Then, with your gloved hands, gently scoop a section of worms and compost mixture onto a brightly lit piece of newspaper or plastic wrap. Scrape off the compost in layers. Wait a while giving the worms time to burrow into the center of the mound. Eventually you will end up with a pile of compost next to a pile of worms. Return the worms to the bin, do whatever you want with the compost, and repeat.
- If you prefer a hands-off technique, simply push the contents of the bin all to one side and add fresh food, water, dirt, and bedding to the empty space. The worms will slowly migrate over on their own. This requires much more patience, of course.
- The last technique is to use a separator.
- Barrel separators are expensive and available on the internet.
- You can also make your own shaker box.
- Apply the harvested compost to plants, or use it to make worm tea.
Tips
- If you have two bins, it can be a bit easier to get at your compost. Fill one bin and start the next. When you want to get at the compost, move the uncomposted matter from bin one to bin two and use all the finished compost. Bin two, the now-active bin, becomes full and then bin one becomes the active bin again.
- Egg shells in your bin increase the calcium content of the compost you produce. Worms also seem to like to curl up in them. To be most effective, eggshells must be dried out and finely ground (with a mortar and pestle or a rolling pin) before their addition to a bin. Use raw eggshells, not cooked.
- You can throw your coffee grounds, unbleached filters, and used teabags (remember to remove the staple!) right in the bin.
- The smaller you chop up/crush the food, the faster the worms will eat it. (And the faster your bin will produce compost.) Although some home-scale worm keepers use blenders to puree food scraps, others believe vermiculture should be a low-carbon-footprint endeavor and thus use little or no electricity.
- If you would like to collect the water (liquid fertilizer) produced by watering your worms, place a tray under the compost bin. Otherwise, the ground under the bin will become terrifically fertile. An elevated bin (either on bricks, or a bin with built-in legs) sitting in a tray of water will also prevent ants and other unwanted critters from getting into the bin.
- Remember that a worm bin is a tiny ecosystem. Don’t attempt to remove the other critters living in your worm bin, they are helpers. However, do remove centipedes: Centipedes are carnivores, and eat baby worms and worm eggs.
- Shredded paper junk mail, egg cartons, cereal boxes, and pizza boxes all make excellent bedding (avoid glossy paper). Always soak household paper waste bedding for at least 12 hours before adding it to the bin, and thoroughly squeeze out the water first. Don’t shred junk mail envelopes unless you remove the plastic windows! Worms won’t eat plastic, and picking hundreds of shredded plastic window panes out of otherwise beautiful compost is a vermiculturist’s nightmare.
- Pre-composted cow manure is a great food for worms. Just be sure to bury it at least 3 inches deep. Rabbit, sheep, and goat droppings do not require pre-composting and their addition makes outstanding vermicompost.
- Green food increases nitrogen in your finished compost. Examples are: green grass, beet tops, carrot tops, philodendron leaves, fresh cut clover or alfalfa.
- Brown food increases carbon and phosphate in your finished product. Examples are: paper, cardboard, wood chips, leaves, bread. If adding fresh lawn grass, be certain chemicals have not been added to the lawn. Lawn chemicals are deadly to the ecosystem in the bin.
- A balanced diet makes for a healthy bin, healthy worms and a great finished product.
- Finely ground and moistened grains (flour, oatmeal, etc.) are eaten the fastest, followed by fruits, grass, leaves, cardboard, paperboard (cereal boxes), white paper, cotton products, and magazines (slick paper). Wood takes the longest (up to a year or more).
- Calcium carbonate works well to solve most problems. Be sure to use calcium carbonate (e.g., powdered limestone) and not quicklime (calcium oxide).
- There are several types of pre-made wormeries available online. From Beehive Wormeries which take care of home/kitchen/green waste to Dog Poo Wormeries which will deal with pet waste, try searching online.
Warnings
- Do not feed your worms meat, dairy products, eggs, or oily foods.
- Go easy on the citrus rinds. You can add them, but remember that they’re acidic. If possible, a little at a time with plenty of other matter.
- Don’t allow your bin to dry out. If there are enough holes at the bottom, your worms are not likely to drown, but they will die without water.
- Some varieties of worms may be sensitive to the oils or pH of your skin. Internet forum posts by active vermicomposters indicate that handling their worms seems to not yield any negative effects.
- Extremes of temperatures are deadly for worms- about 50 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal. Don’t place a worm bin in direct sunlight or out in the cold. Sustained frosts will kill your worms. If this is an issue in your area, move outdoor bins into a garage or shed during winter. If bringing your worm bin indoors during the winter is not possible add a small heating pad as follows: push the matter away from one side, place the pad up against that side, then backfill onto the pad. Run the wire out to an extension, plug it in and leave the pad set on low – or medium in particularly cold weather. This will prevent freezing in winter.
- Don’t allow your worm bin to heat up past 90 degrees. You will cook your worms — something no one should smell.
- Large amounts of green feeds (grass, alfalfa, etc.) heat up quickly and should be added lightly.
- Fresh (uncomposted) cow manure contains harmful pathogens and should not be used. It will also heat the bin to deadly levels and kill your worms.
- Powdered limestone will create carbon dioxide in your bins and suffocate your worms if the bins are not well ventilated. Use sparingly only if absolutely necessary and stir your bin every few days following adding.
Related wikiHows
- How to Build a Compost Bin
- How to Use Your Home Built Tumble Composter to Create Rich Compost
- How to Build a Tumbling Composter
- How to Find Inexpensive Mulch
- How to Look After Houseplants
- How to Create Urban Rainforests
- How to Make Worm Castings Tea
Sources and Citations
Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Make Your Own Worm Compost System. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.
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