Comments on: Super Simple Vermicompost Screener

By: Linda Beatson

Linda Beatson — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 08:46:13 +0000

I reckon you could also use plastic paint buckets – 10 or 20 litre, and just cut the bottom out to make a tube. I have been using these buckets for curing worm compost and for keeping some breeding stock – they work great. Have made some as worm towers to put straight in the garden as well. They are cheap, readily available, and stack nicely if you want to make them taller.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 09 Oct 2014 11:50:08 +0000

Ryan, if you use Gorilla duct tape you will find that screener will hold up even longer. Even though it costs a bit more I find it is well worth the extra cost. I Gorilla duct taped some communication cabling to a floor at a work site. Normally duct tape would disintegrate from the clean-up crews maintenance, but this material has lasted for…..years. Good stuff. Here’s an upcoming seasonal link to show what else it can do:

http://www.gorillatough.com/node/253

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sun, 06 Apr 2014 12:12:58 +0000

Hey Bentley – thanks for the inspiration! I used an empty 12 pack beer case for my screener. Having absolutely no construction skills, the duct tape was perfect.
The only thing I had to add was a few pieces of wood to make sure the box didn’t collapse. And yes I used duct tape to hold the wood to the box =)

By: Cory

Cory — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 04:10:15 +0000

Going to use a 55 gallon drum… should make for a bigger diameter.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:43:25 +0000

You’ve put up some good information! Been contemplating some in-ground worm towers (6-8″ PVC pipe buried 2-3′ in the garden) and thought of something like the first steps, i.e., inserting a wire screen tube with a bottom that could be used to harvest some of the castings. Yes, I know worm towers are primarily to feed worms and dispose of kitchen cuttings; but don’t think me totally selfish – because there ought to be enough castings to harvest some at the end of the growing season for new seed starts during the winter.

By: JCRomero

JCRomero — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 21:10:26 +0000

Very interesting concept. Simple is best when it comes to home made compost screeners.

Cutting the tabs in the wire cloth can be tricky depending on the quality of the metal mesh that you are using. If it is high quality screen, something that might be sold here for instance: http://www.bwire.com/ or another industrial manufacturer, the best way to cut this material is going to probably be the yellowe handles Wiss Aviation snips.

Be very careful when making these cuts as this material becomes EXTREMELY SHARP when it is cut. I have the scars to prove it!

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 22:44:04 +0000

Thanks for this post, I had been wondering what to use for this. I just harvested my first tray for the first time last weekend (similar system to WF with 3 trays).

By: Bentley

Bentley — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 15:43:24 +0000

Thanks John!
The biggest I could find on the Home Depot site was 12″ as well ($15 and change CDN – yikes!). I think even a couple of inches would make a difference though.

By: John

John — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 15:31:37 +0000

I looked at lowes.com
they sell the same tube, but in a 12″ diameter. Its $10 where as the 10″ tube is $7 and some change.

By: Bentley

Bentley — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 15:22:28 +0000

CARMEN – I knew it wouldn’t take long for someone to put me to shame with their own (vastly superior) design! LOL
Joking aside, I was actually really interested to get a discussion going on this topic, since I have little doubt that plenty of people (like yourself) have their own cool strategies for screening! Thanks for sharing.
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JOHN – Sorry about that! Had actually intended to mention that these are those tubes used to create concrete supports (for decks, fences etc). Should be available a pretty well any decent sized hardware store or building center. Glad you were able to track them down.
Not sure what diameters they actually come in but, again, if you can find ones with a bigger diameter than 10″ you’ll likely end up with a better screener than mine. If I made another one of these I’d definitely make it wider and would put some handles on it.
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THUAN – You are absolutely right about the vermicompost needing to be dry. If this is stuff coming from a regular enclosed plastic worm bin, you will definitely need to let it sit for awhile before trying to screen it (just don’t forget to keep breaking it up – otherwise you’ll end up with a block of vermicrete! lol). Interesting idea re: using WF trays. I would have thought the plastic “mesh” walls would have been too thick for effective screening (compared to wire)
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SANDY – Glad you brought up the topic of “harvesting”. Something I didn’t point out in the article is the fact that “harvesting” and “screening” aren’t necessarily one and the same. When the pros use their big trammel harvesters they are effectively harvesting worms while screening beautiful vermicompost – but that’s not the idea with my own screener. You will almost certainly need to do a separation of some sort (speaking of Worm Factory trays – they are great for helping you to separate the worms from the vermicompost) and then let the separated material dry out even more. I can certainly end up screening out some worms from the remaining material, but the goal is definitely not to harvest worms with this thing (would not be very effective, and would likely just harm the worms).

“Curing” of the material will happen as it sits and dries out. How long this process will take will totally depend on the environment it is sitting in, and how dry you need it before it can be screened effectively. In a warm, dry environment with good air flow (and someone regularly raking through the material), it would likely take “days” – but in a less-than-perfect environment it might be more like “weeks”. In the book “Worms Eat My Garbage”, Mary Apelhoff suggests putting the wet vermicompost in a thick carboard box to help it dry out. I think this is a great idea, and if the material is really wet you could simply add additional layers of cardboard and/or newsprint in the bottom.
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DAVE – Absolutely! As mentioned above (but unfortunately left out of my blog post), I definitely think most of the worms should be separated
from the vermicompost before the screener is used. Any stragglers can then simply be picked out from the screenings and put into another active vermicomposting system!
8)