Worm Update

I’ve previously posted about my adventure into vermiculture. Since I’ve had my first casting harvest I thought it appropriate to post an update. As a novice worm farmer (and I use that phrase lightly) I must admit to making some mistakes. Although the castings have come out rich and dark (apparently a sign of a successful harvest) there were a few minor setbacks. The first of which is fruit flies. Not uncommon to worm bins I had more than my share. A word to the wise here, don’t leave you’re scrap bowl out for more than a day or two before adding it to your bin. If you need to keep it longer you can place it in the fridge or freezer until the time you need it. If you happen to encounter fruit flies before then a minute or two in the microwave should rectify the situation. I was able to reduce my fruit fly infestation to a fruit fly or two here and there thanks to the Internet. A few well placed traps all but eliminated the problem. Be sure to look up fruit fly traps if you encounter the same problem as they are very simple to make and extremely effective.

The next mistake I made was foul odor. Although not overpowering it was a tad unpleasant. Even just the hint of a foul odor in my basement makes me a bit uneasy. If you encounter this all you really need to do is stop feeding your bin. The odor comes from over feeding your bin and once you stop feeding it your worms should make short order of the excess food. Once the excess food is dispensed of the odor will disappear. It’s just that simple.

Since I’ve started my little experiment in vermiculture I’ve notice that my diet has become more produce based. The increase in produce has caused an increase in produce scraps. Increased produce scraps leads to an increase in worm population and in order to accommodate this increase in population I’ve decided to add additional worm bins. I’m up to 3 now and expect to add a fourth shortly. This would appear to be more work but aside from casting harvest I haven’t really noticed a difference in effort.

I’m no expert but from my experience the toughest part of composting your produce scraps via red worms is harvesting the castings. It’s a time consuming and tedious task. It is for this reason I’ve decided to come up with a more efficient means of harvesting the castings. I pulled a drawer out of a piece of furniture in my bedroom (that was destined for Craig’s List anyway) and decided to pull the bottom off replacing it with screening to screen out my castings. Although I’ve yet to do this I feel pretty confident it will make relatively short work of casting harvesting. I’ll keep you posted on the results.

When my friends and neighbors learn of my basement activity they seem genuinely surprised at first. I’ve since found that the promise of future castings have brought me fresh, organic, pesticide free produce. It’s nice to know that the power of castings in the future will bring me a meal today. For some reason I can’t get the phrase “I’ll gladly pay to you tomorrow for a cheeseburger today” out of my head. When people learn that worm castings are 7 times more effective than normal composting I think the little wheels in their brains start turning. Add that to the fact that I expect to start making a “tea” out of my castings and I think the lure is just too lucrative to pass up.

Ok, I’m just going to finish this up with one final note. I told a friend of mine of my activities and although they are not composting with red worms they started to compost their food scraps in a pile at the corner of their garden. Something they didn’t do previously and I’d like to think I had something to do with that. I’m jealous over the fact that they have a backyard enabling them to grow a garden and they seem to be jealous over the fact that I have 3 worm bins in my basement. I’m guessing that we’re going to have a productive relationship (produce wise) in the future. It shouldn’t be that hard to trade my castings and tea for fresh produce.

What are you doing with your food scraps?