As the castings are drying, I am finding hundreds of tiny red wigglers – they’re babies and I don’t want to sacrifice them just because they go through my sifter. Got pot worms, too. Sentient beings, unite! Do you have any suggestions for collecting the baby worms as the vermicast is drying? Right now I’m spending about 5 minutes every hour or so just hand-picking them out of the castings. It’s a little time-consuming, though okay for a Sunday.

Thanks for all of the great information you’re sharing!

Linda

Mold on food waste isn’t too much of an issue in my experience – if you have lots and lots of it, this may be an indication that there is too much food in there. Speaking of which, I definitely wouldn’t add any new food for awhile for this very reason (you included food with your bedding when setting up the bin).

As for worms crawling up the side, there is definitely a certain amount of that that occurs regardless of conditions in the bin (some worms seem to like exploring) – unless of course you have a thick layer of absorbent, shredded cardboard/paper on top (tends to dry up moisture on lid and sides of bin, thus discouraging worms). The fact that your worms moved down into the mass is a very good sign.

If you see lots of worm up on the walls/lid (underside of lid, that is) or balled up together in a corner somewhere, this is a pretty good indication of something seriously wrong. If they stay where they are that is a good start. Give them a couple days to mellow out, then do a little (gentle) digging around. If they seem very active (retreating from the light etc) and settled in, you are likely in the clear. That said, you’ll still want to be conservative with your initial feedings. Just add a little bit at a time and wait until it disappears before feeding more.

Hope this helps!

B.

I’ve been adding food scraps and shredded newspaper to my bin for about a week and a half now. I was a little concerned because some of the scraps were getting a bit moldy…. is that a problem? When I added my worms, some of them started climbing up the sides, but by the next morning they had all but disappeared into the bedding/food mix.

So now I’m wondering…. how do I know if my worms are doing well (or vice versa, how do I know if they are not doing well)? This is all so new to me! I originally had the bin on my back porch, but it can drop down below freezing out there, so I moved it to my basement. My cat is very interested in my worms, by the way….

Anyway, if you have a chance, any advice/suggestions would be so greatly appreciated. I think I will write another post on my blog with some photos, for my friends to check out (they are mostly back in Chicago and think I’ve gone a bit goofy!) Thanks so much!!
Joanna

You have castings at a local store there? That’s cool
As for separating castings, the best way is to use some sort of ‘continuous-flow’ system, such as the large-scale flow through reactor that RT Solutions uses to make Worm Power. I should probably write a post about continuous flow systems rather than try to explain it here (thanks for the idea!), but basically these types of systems rely on the worms tendency to follow the highest quality food source.

In the case of a flow-through reactor bed, you would start by laying cardboard down over the grate floor, then add lots of bedding and food (kinda like setting up a normal worm bin). Once the mixture is ready to go you would add worms. Then you can start adding very thin layers of waste to the top of the composting mass (where the worms are) – perhaps an inch a day or so. Gradually levels in the bed rise, eventually getting close to the top. At this point you can start harvesting from the bottom (cardboard will be completely digested).
Anyway, thats the basic idea.

Separating castings from worms in a ‘normal’ worm bin would be a little different. (will talk about this more soon)

As for processing materials twice, while castings will be reasonably well stabilized after one pass through a worm, there will still be some nutritional value left in them. In the case of a worm bin where castings have not been harvested ever (or for a very long time), keep in mind the fact that they have likely passed through a worm a few times. And yes eventually they will offer no value as food (not sure they would ever actually be “toxic”.

Anyway, I’ll definitely write more about all this shortly!

Thanks again!

Allen