Watering with worm castings - 2024 07 21

 

10 worm bins in production

The worms are doing really well in my current container / bedding / feeding / extraction configuration.

Container - medium size mortar mixing containers, a combination of two bins. The bottom bin is intact, waterproof. I put spacers in the bottom to lift the second aerated bin above the base. The second aerated bin has been peppered with holes to allow excess moisture to drip into the base. Sometimes there are some castings that have dropped through the holes. Also, sometimes there are worms that have slipped out into the base when there is excess moisture. These worms will drown or die if they aren't rescued in time.

Bedding - a combination of coffee chaff from the local coffee roaster (brown compost) and soil from the city's composting program (I consider this material brown compost because it is inert due to high heat during the composting process). The lid is made out of Amazon shipping boxes that have been soaked in water until they are soft. These pieces of cardboard make a perfect lid for retaining moisture in the bin and adding brown compost to the worm's habitat. I will often find them in the corrugated channels when I remove the cardboard to re-soak. In the space of a week, it is easy to see worm activity in the cardboard - frayed edges, castings, worms in and on the cardboard.

Food - alfalfa pellets purchased last year that were too weedy for using in the garden as mulch - these are used as green compost. I have been sprinkling the pellets into the coffee chaff and city soil. When they get wet they soften and break down. Some of the pellets are moldy, the worms don't seem to mind. Another source of green compost is leaves I collect from the garden and chop into smaller pieces - comfrey leaves, batchelor buttons, plants that constantly need cutting back. I am working to get the right amount of food so that the worms have processed the majority within a week.

Extraction - I pull all the worm bins out of the barn and into the yard. The cardboard is carefully removed and put into a bin of water to re-soak. I wear rubber gloves to pull the worms, castings, and unprocessed material into a pile in the centre of the bin. I leave them sitting there for an hour while I do something else, and then when I come back, the peak of the pile is empty of worms. I pull these handfuls of castings off the pile until I can see mature worms again. I re-pile the bin contents and leave them for another hour. I pull another collection from the pile and then spread the remaining material and worms out evenly in the bin.

Worm tea - Once the bin contents have been reduced, after extracting the worm castings, I go through each base and give it a rinse. The rinse water is collected in a bucket. I pour off the rinse water through a sieve to catch any lost worms, they are returned to the bin. This rinse water is rich with castings that have fallen through the bottom of the aerated bins. Before I water the garden with this rinse water, I add more water to it, to dilute it, and then also add a couple of scoops of worm castings to make a mix. I might also add a scoop from the kitchen compost to further enrich the blend. This water is distributed to the most needy or busy garden plants to give them an extra boost.

Now that the quantity in the bins has been reduced, I am able to add more layers of soil, coffee chaff, alfalfa pellets and garden greens. These are all tucked in under the re-soaked cardboard and I put the worm bins back in the barn for another week.

Getting the moisture level right in the bins is a constant fine tuning between adding wet and dry material into the mix. I notice putting the lid of soaked cardboard over the bedding / food material seems to reduce fly infestations. 

It might be my imagination, but it seems to me that the next day I see an extra growth spurt on the plants I watered with the worm tea concoction.