| Project by Dchip | posted 79 days ago | 626 views | 2 times favorited | 4 comments |  |
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My lowly two compost bins have grown into dual worm towers. I borrowed some design elements from the worm factories I’ve seen online going for about $100. The theory goes that the worms will slowly move up the buckets as the food is depleted, making harvesting castings from the bottom buckets easier. Just have to keep adding fresh food on the top. Not sure how this will pan out. I got my red wigglers 2 weeks ago, and so far so good. There’s already lots of visible castings, and the worms have visibly grown in size. Depending on how long the finished castings take, I may add one more story to each of these towers. All questions/comments/concerns are welcomed.
-- Dan Chiappetta, NYC
4 comments so far
Tomw
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10 posts in 1396 days
hardiness zone 8b
posted 78 days ago
Great idea! Do you plan to collect the tea?
-- Tom
Dchip
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32 posts in 1138 days
posted 77 days ago
In the picture of the base (3rd pic – the base just has a brick in it for stability, no compost) you can see I made a sort of bootleg spout (out of a sharpie marker). My plan was to periodically add some water to whatever fell through to the bottom and let it “brew” for a day or so, then add it to my plants. What has fallen through so far, though, has been dry and solid, so I just collect it in a container. I’m only a couple of weeks in, and when the containers eventually go outside I may have more tea to collect. I’ll update as I find out.
-- Dan Chiappetta, NYC
Jimthecarver
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107 posts in 667 days
hardiness zone 8b
posted 76 days ago
Hopefully it will work out for you. I have the worm factory it has already paid for itself.
Five layers of composting goodness. I harvest castings every other month the tea you will want to mix 24/1 ratio, it is very powerful and will burn plants.
Its so very rewarding turning waste into fertilizer.
If you shred the paper smaller the worms will compost it faster..and Also for your green waste, if you blend it in a blender they will attack it and consume it faster. I found in my outside worm bed blending is unneeded as other microbes help break it down for them and make it easier to consume.
-- JTC
Harold and Pam
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243 posts in 1217 days
hardiness zone 10b
posted 51 days ago
We’ve been doing worms for a few years. For some reason, I don’t get a lot of compost but it’s nice to simply dump the kitchen garbage n each week. You can see my set up here
and oh, I like your tools. Ridgid are GREAT.
-- Pam grows 'em - I cook 'em...... Melbourne, Fl