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How to build a worm farm!
- Josh
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How to build a worm farm!
Watsup growroom!?
Been wanting to do this for a while
Me and my gf go through loads of fruit/vegetable scraps, cardboard, and coffee grounds every week, so it only makes sense to start composting. Especially since half my tent is organic soil!
Worm castings (the worm poop) is called black gold for a reason
Full of good bacteria and fungi, natural growth hormones, and... a bunch of other shit
If anything it's kind of fun seeing the garbage disappear I suppose
From what I've read, you can give them anything except meats, plastic, paper with that waxy texture and onions or anything related to them
Ok so I'm posting through crap-a-talk so a list of pictures at the end unfortunately
Trying to see how many phones I can blow up
1. Get 3 black storage totes, or make them out of wood.
2. Drill a shit load of holes on the bottom and around the sides. Bottom holes are for drainage, side holes to let air in.
3. Drill a hole in bottom tote at lowest point (middle prbly) and install tap so you can drain the worm water out as it accumulates
4. Use mason jars or bricks/wood/styrofoam/anything in the corners to space the totes out. Otherwise they will smush the wormies
5. Lay down a bedding material of some sort, can be a lot of things. I spoiled them and put down a couple inches of peat moss, few handfuls of soil, shredded egg cartons and some small mulch pieces. 50% of the worm's diet comes from the bedding btw
*adding some manure would be a goid idea, a great fucking idea actually if you can find it. My neighbor happens to raise rabbits so I'm going to ask him for the poop
That shouldn't be weird at all
6. Lightly water until as damp as a wrung out sponge. Add the worms. I added 2000 to my top bin
Supposedly 1000 worms can eat a pound of food per day, or 2.2 kilos
So I went with overkill over time they'll lay eggs and multiply also
8. Cover with food or your choice. I started with coffee grounds/filters, vegetable scraps, banana peels and crushed eggshells. Also some more cardboard for good luck
9. Cover with burlap or just newspaper, and put the lid on. Store in a place that doesn't get extremely hot or cold, and in the dark. Mine's in the garage for now
10. Try not to watch them too much!
They're hungry little bastards, 5 minutes after I added them I caught about 50 gang banging an apple core
So the whole idea behind the tower design is that it makes harvesting the castings easier. When you're happy with how a bin looks you rotate it from the top to the middle, and put bedding and food in the top bin. The worms will crawl up the walls, into the new tote and begin the process over. They're wired to crawl up and search for food
This saves you from having to sift out 2000 worms by hand. Another way to do it is to just put food on one side of the tote, and harvest one half at a time.
This is how I'll be doing it because I'd rather run both my totes at once, doubling the amount I can compost at a time
Well, that's it! Takes about 30 minutes to make, and you can order red wrigglers online for cheap
If anybody decides to make one, post some pics!
Sent from my LGMP260 using Tapatalk
Been wanting to do this for a while
Me and my gf go through loads of fruit/vegetable scraps, cardboard, and coffee grounds every week, so it only makes sense to start composting. Especially since half my tent is organic soil!
Worm castings (the worm poop) is called black gold for a reason
Full of good bacteria and fungi, natural growth hormones, and... a bunch of other shit
If anything it's kind of fun seeing the garbage disappear I suppose
From what I've read, you can give them anything except meats, plastic, paper with that waxy texture and onions or anything related to them
Ok so I'm posting through crap-a-talk so a list of pictures at the end unfortunately
Trying to see how many phones I can blow up
1. Get 3 black storage totes, or make them out of wood.
2. Drill a shit load of holes on the bottom and around the sides. Bottom holes are for drainage, side holes to let air in.
3. Drill a hole in bottom tote at lowest point (middle prbly) and install tap so you can drain the worm water out as it accumulates
4. Use mason jars or bricks/wood/styrofoam/anything in the corners to space the totes out. Otherwise they will smush the wormies
5. Lay down a bedding material of some sort, can be a lot of things. I spoiled them and put down a couple inches of peat moss, few handfuls of soil, shredded egg cartons and some small mulch pieces. 50% of the worm's diet comes from the bedding btw
*adding some manure would be a goid idea, a great fucking idea actually if you can find it. My neighbor happens to raise rabbits so I'm going to ask him for the poop
That shouldn't be weird at all
6. Lightly water until as damp as a wrung out sponge. Add the worms. I added 2000 to my top bin
Supposedly 1000 worms can eat a pound of food per day, or 2.2 kilos
So I went with overkill over time they'll lay eggs and multiply also
8. Cover with food or your choice. I started with coffee grounds/filters, vegetable scraps, banana peels and crushed eggshells. Also some more cardboard for good luck
9. Cover with burlap or just newspaper, and put the lid on. Store in a place that doesn't get extremely hot or cold, and in the dark. Mine's in the garage for now
10. Try not to watch them too much!
They're hungry little bastards, 5 minutes after I added them I caught about 50 gang banging an apple core
So the whole idea behind the tower design is that it makes harvesting the castings easier. When you're happy with how a bin looks you rotate it from the top to the middle, and put bedding and food in the top bin. The worms will crawl up the walls, into the new tote and begin the process over. They're wired to crawl up and search for food
This saves you from having to sift out 2000 worms by hand. Another way to do it is to just put food on one side of the tote, and harvest one half at a time.
This is how I'll be doing it because I'd rather run both my totes at once, doubling the amount I can compost at a time
Well, that's it! Takes about 30 minutes to make, and you can order red wrigglers online for cheap
If anybody decides to make one, post some pics!
Sent from my LGMP260 using Tapatalk
- The Aspie Toker
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Re: How to build a worm farm!
I'm glad someone else is into their worm bins.
I made my first one like yours - but smaller. I used to keep it on top of the cats litter tray. Sometimes a worm would crawl out and fall into the litter... then dry itself out. At first I thought one of the cats had stringy shit.
From that I went with polystyrene boxes - the ones fishmongers use. I kept them outside. It was great at first, but after a few downpours of rain, I soon found out the lids were not waterproof.
I now have one of these...
So not to deflect from your post, I've split the thread.
wormery-worm-bin-tips-3886
I made my first one like yours - but smaller. I used to keep it on top of the cats litter tray. Sometimes a worm would crawl out and fall into the litter... then dry itself out. At first I thought one of the cats had stringy shit.
From that I went with polystyrene boxes - the ones fishmongers use. I kept them outside. It was great at first, but after a few downpours of rain, I soon found out the lids were not waterproof.
I now have one of these...
So not to deflect from your post, I've split the thread.
wormery-worm-bin-tips-3886
Never give advice. Wise men don't need advice. Fools won't take it.
- GMO
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Re: How to build a worm farm!
Nice one Josh! can we assume this is an outside bin?
Im playing with finally making one for under the kitchen sink or somewhere with a bit more space. wonder if you and aspie can coach me along?
im playing with the idea of clear tubs as i think i read somewhere that they avoid the edges so are less likely to try escaping but is that going to stop them moving up when i wanna harvest the previous layer?
Im playing with finally making one for under the kitchen sink or somewhere with a bit more space. wonder if you and aspie can coach me along?
im playing with the idea of clear tubs as i think i read somewhere that they avoid the edges so are less likely to try escaping but is that going to stop them moving up when i wanna harvest the previous layer?
“If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.” -Albert Einstein
- The Aspie Toker
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Re: How to build a worm farm!
I have a huge single (see-through sides and lid) layer one indoors atm. It only has fallen leaves in there and one cardboard egg carton (soaked in molasses water). I've since added some egg shell dust and powdered comfrey leaves.GMO wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2019 12:08 amNice one Josh! can we assume this is an outside bin?
Im playing with finally making one for under the kitchen sink or somewhere with a bit more space. wonder if you and aspie can coach me along?
im playing with the idea of clear tubs as i think i read somewhere that they avoid the edges so are less likely to try escaping but is that going to stop them moving up when i wanna harvest the previous layer?
With single layer types, I just sieve it, pick out any worms, and anything that doesn't go through goes back into the bin.
- GMO
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Re: How to build a worm farm!
cos i dunno the word. isnt bin juice an issue in a single tray?The Aspie Toker wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2019 12:13 amI have a huge single (see-through sides and lid) layer one indoors atm. It only has fallen leaves in there and one cardboard egg carton (soaked in molasses water). I've since added some egg shell dust and powdered comfrey leaves.GMO wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2019 12:08 amNice one Josh! can we assume this is an outside bin?
Im playing with finally making one for under the kitchen sink or somewhere with a bit more space. wonder if you and aspie can coach me along?
im playing with the idea of clear tubs as i think i read somewhere that they avoid the edges so are less likely to try escaping but is that going to stop them moving up when i wanna harvest the previous layer?
With single layer types, I just sieve it, pick out any worms, and anything that doesn't go through goes back into the bin.
- The Aspie Toker
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Re: How to build a worm farm!
It depends on what you're feeding them. The single layer is just leaves scooped up from the hospital grounds. They were wet, so didn't need any extra moisture. By taking off the lid during the day will reduce moisture by simple evaporation. I've not added any fruit - the main thing that will/can produce leachate. I also often stir it so any juices get mixed up with what's already there.GMO wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2019 12:18 amcos i dunno the word. isnt bin juice an issue in a single tray?The Aspie Toker wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2019 12:13 amI have a huge single (see-through sides and lid) layer one indoors atm. It only has fallen leaves in there and one cardboard egg carton (soaked in molasses water). I've since added some egg shell dust and powdered comfrey leaves.GMO wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2019 12:08 amNice one Josh! can we assume this is an outside bin?
Im playing with finally making one for under the kitchen sink or somewhere with a bit more space. wonder if you and aspie can coach me along?
im playing with the idea of clear tubs as i think i read somewhere that they avoid the edges so are less likely to try escaping but is that going to stop them moving up when i wanna harvest the previous layer?
With single layer types, I just sieve it, pick out any worms, and anything that doesn't go through goes back into the bin.
I'll be giving them some powdered banana skins tomorrow.
- GMO
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Re: How to build a worm farm!
right! so i will need a couple layers as i go through a good volume of fruit and tea (i assume tea bags are fine if broken up) to be able to deal with the potential liquids. am i right in thinking i can just pour it into my outside compost bin?The Aspie Toker wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2019 12:26 amI've not added any fruit - the main thing that will/can produce leachate. I also often stir it so any juices get mixed up with what's already there.
- The Aspie Toker
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Re: How to build a worm farm!
Fruit goes on the outside bin, but not so much atm as winter is setting in soon. They slow down on eating if it's too hot or too cold. Also, adding too much fruit can make the soil too acidic. Blitzed up egg shells help with balancing the pH as well as for a grinding agent for the worms.GMO wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2019 12:38 amright! so i will need a couple layers as i go through a good volume of fruit and tea (i assume tea bags are fine if broken up) to be able to deal with the potential liquids. am i right in thinking i can just pour it into my outside compost bin?The Aspie Toker wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2019 12:26 amI've not added any fruit - the main thing that will/can produce leachate. I also often stir it so any juices get mixed up with what's already there.
If you want to use the leachate, then add it to your flower beds, and not to any food that you may eat or smoke. I wouldn't bother adding it to the compost bin.
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Re: How to build a worm farm!
Okay, so am I best creating 2 indoor bins for waste then and 2 lists ie one for outside compost and one for indoor worms?
translated from the bongo of the canna jungle
translated from the bongo of the canna jungle
- The Aspie Toker
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Re: How to build a worm farm!
You can do it however you wish, mate.
I have 2 compost heaps (outside),
1 "posh" worm bin (outside),
1 outdoor one level bin with worms (they are in quarantine atm. Mainly to get rid of as many slugs as possible before adding to the indoor bin.
1 indoor bin for leaves.
I would have the posh bin inside, but there's no room. I've placed a black sack over the one outside to stop the rain getting in. This bin contains a small amount of fruit and veg, but mainly carbon (shredded paper).
A couple of years ago I had a 2 layer one in the house. One bin on top of the other. The top bin had holes in it at the bottom. It did produce a lot of pot worms (a sign it's too acidic and wet) and worms did escape from time to time.