Comments on: Mini VermiPonics System

By: scott

scott — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 23:32:25 +0000

Great!…. I no sooner than think I have a cool setup…. someone comes along and tempts me with another cool, low tech, yet fun sounding way to consume my time….LOL… ya’ll rock!

By: Colin

Colin — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 06:38:23 +0000

Hello Bentley lad’s ‘n lasses.I have been thinking about setting up a Vermiponics system.. but was was wondering if it would be any better than the Wicking beds* I’m already using other than river sand in the reservoir and a great deal more organic growing medium in the bed.. I guess I should give it a go! Col L

* wicking beds a C Austin concept powered my worms

By: Bentley

Bentley — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:27:46 +0000

Yeah – I guess it never hurts to err on the side of caution! Although, there seems to be toxins in pretty well EVERYTHING these days! lol
Good idea re: the aeration. I do have a small air stone in the reservoir, but something a bit more substantial would certainly help.

By: John

John — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:54:16 +0000

Great project! Be careful with the dryer lint tho. If you use some type of non-toxic laundry soap it won’t be as toxic tot eh worms or the food you grow. I also wonder about the synthetic textiles used to make clothing these days. I wonder if it would be beneficial to add an aerator pump to the water to help reduce pathogens and provide oxygen for the worms?

By: Bentley

Bentley — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:58:19 +0000

Hi Jeff,
While there probably wouldn’t be much point in harvesting the castings from this system (since getting soaked, and a lot of value being removed by plants), removing worms has been something I’ve given some thought to. Part of my motivation for creating the feed tube (with removable insert) was to see if I could also remove concentrations of worms. Once the plants start to grow up it will be next to impossible to remove worms in
any other manner (without seriously disturbing the bed). Initially, the main goal will simply be to see how well plants grow in the system.

I’m not stocking a specific quantity of worms. All I did was add a bunch of material that contained worms. I prefer to let the population grow from there.

Let me know how your own experiment works out for you!

By: Jeff Kurtz

Jeff Kurtz — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:53:57 +0000

Bentley,,, Will there be any way to harvest castings or worms from this system? or are you just going to let the population adjust to the volume and maintain the plants growing there.

How many worms are you thinking? 1# to start?

I’m going to clone what you did and try it soon.

Have a great week!

Jeff. (snowed in in PA)

By: Bentley

Bentley — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:06:12 +0000

Hi Don – I think the flood and drain approach could work just fine (I’m not sure that pH would change all that much) as long as the “flood” periods weren’t too extreme (ie shooting jets of water at the bed etc – haha). As mentioned, I have actually opted for a continual, low-flow system. Like yourself, I do like the idea of keeping everything fairly balanced, and want to make sure there is always plenty of O2 available.

Will definitely keep posting! Thanks for your interest.

By: Bentley

Bentley — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:03:02 +0000

Hi Catherine – sorry for the delay responding! This system will pump water constantly (at a low flow rate)

By: Don

Don — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:24:09 +0000

I wonder if the worms would tend to wander because the system seems it would be a lot more volatile. The temperature and Ph will change dramatically several times a day with each water change. I’m very interested in trying this myself. keep posting about this.

By: catherine

catherine — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:16:06 +0000

Hi Bentley- great looking system- will you have the pump on a timer to flood and drain your grow bed, or have it on all the time?