Harvesting My Worm Compost – Yard Betty

Once more in October, I added a model new tray to my Worm Manufacturing facility 360 to take care of all these ravenous purple wigglers properly fed. After which… I kinda forgot about them for a while. Blame the wedding ceremony ceremony… which I exploit as an excuse for every end-of-year procrastination, along with my Christmas gifting, my yard digging, my oil altering, even my tax getting ready. And, uh… these are nonetheless not achieved.

Nevertheless I digress. I lastly purchased spherical to harvesting my worm compost, and fortuitously, my hub has been feeding our Wormville every week from the compost pail on our counter. (For individuals who don’t private a pail like this in your kitchen, I extraordinarily counsel it — it beats working out to the vermicomposter every evening time to unload your scraps.)

Though I added my second tray in October, my first tray has been steaming and stewing since ultimate August when Nature’s Footprint despatched me their Worm Manufacturing facility 360 to examine… six busy months of being broken down by 1000’s of worms working their method by my garbage. All these onion skins, banana peels, and cantaloupe rinds have magically been transformed into rich, black castings.

Gathering worm compost is a fairly simple course of. It often takes spherical three months in your worms to finish a tray (must you don’t neglect about it like I did) and you will potential have a second (or presumably a third) tray inside the works by the purpose your first tray is ready. That means your Worm Manufacturing facility 360 will proceed to be a lean, indicate, scrap-munching machine, similtaneously you pull off one amongst your trays.

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Don’t forget that new trays are always added on prime, so that you just’ll want to harvest out of your bottom tray. Merely take away the lid and any increased trays, and scoop all the castings proper right into a bucket.

A tray of fully processed worm compostA tray of fully processed worm compost

Worm castingsWorm castings

Completely accomplished compost resembles a efficient, crumbly, black peat. You might uncover newspaper strips or random scraps that haven’t completely composted however, nevertheless that’s efficient — they’ll proceed to biodegrade. You’ll potential uncover only a few worms alongside for the journey as properly, nevertheless they’ll proceed to remain fully glad lives inside the earth, so no wish to maneuver them once more into the bin.

Worm compostWorm compost

(As my bottom tray had prolonged been accomplished, I didn’t uncover too many worms nonetheless lingering in it — most of them had already migrated to the very best tray. Nevertheless must you see larger than a handful of worms in your bottom tray, you’ll want to encourage them to migrate to the alternative trays first. To take motion, take away your entire trays aside from the underside tray and set them aside. Then, take away the underside tray and stack it on prime of the alternative trays. Substitute the complete stack on the underside with the lid off. The sudden publicity to gentle and air will energy the worms to maneuver downward the place it’s darkish and moist. After leaving the lid off for only a few hours, you presumably can harvest your compost as above.)

With all the trays away from the underside, confirm the catch-all tray containing the worm ladder. Accumulate the castings which have gathered in that tray (I had a superb amount that fell by from the tray above).

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Check the catch-all tray for castings and leachateCheck the catch-all tray for castings and leachate

Drain the tray of any leachate by turning the spigot in entrance. It may prevent this leachate and dilute it with water to utilize as fertilizer in your landscaping vegetation. (As I’d talked about in my earlier submit, leachate is not the equivalent as compost tea and its nutritive value is hit or miss. Keep in mind: If it smells harmful, don’t use it.)

Drain the leachateDrain the leachate

Place your energetic tray once more on the bin. If it’s practically full, you presumably can take your outdated (empty) tray and stack that on prime, using the related approach for together with a model new tray. Your energetic tray now turns into the underside tray in your worms to finish composting, and your prime tray turns into the energetic tray to which you add further meals.

Since my energetic tray was decrease than half full, I decided to let the worms go to metropolis for an extra few weeks sooner than I add a model new tray. In went a heaping of kitchen scraps and shredded paper, adopted by a pair sheets of moistened newspaper, then the lid.

Add more kitchen scaps and shredded paper to the vermicomposterAdd more kitchen scaps and shredded paper to the vermicomposter

As for all the worm compost I’d merely harvested, it could be used instantly or it could be saved in a non-airtight container. Merely be certain the compost on no account dries out, as you want to protect a damp, favorable environment for these microbes. In very good conditions, the compost should protect for as a lot as three years.

Finished worm compostFinished worm compost

If you happen to want to uncover methods to rearrange your vermicomposter, click on on proper right here for my first submit inside the assortment.

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