harvesting worm compost
I’ve got a bin about 1/4 full of excellent vermicompost. I’ve tried harvesting using the light method, and it’s just too labor intensive for me. I’ve tried moving the compost over and feeding only in 1 corner. But, there are still worms all over the bin.
This bag method seems to hold the most promise. I took an ordinary plastic potato bag that holds 5 lbs of potatoes and filled it with worm food.
The bag has lots of holes in it that look like they were made with a hole punch.
I placed 2 of these bags on the surface of the worm compost in the bin. After 3 days, I removed the bags which were then full of worms, and dumped the contents in the new worm bin.
This picture is not the greatest, but you can see how the worms have congregated under the bag. What you can’t see is the same congregation in the bag. Author’s note: sorry, that image has been lost.
I’m sure it will take several tries to get all the worms into the bags and out of the bin, but it sure beats trying to separate them by hand.
As a side note, since I want to harvest, I’m not adding any more bedding to the bin. All the food is in the bags. As a result, it’s getting really wet in there.
In the picture above, you can see shredded paper in the right hand corner. I cleared the compost from the right hand edge and have been adding paper to that corner only.
I’m also leaving the lid open for a few hours during the day to help air circulate and things dry out.
Reply to this post if you have any methods of compost harvest that work well for you.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
This is very good information that I will use in my garden.
Ron, I absolutely love using worms in my garden. They create so much good fertilizer with so little work by myself. Let me know how they work out for you.
{ 1 trackback }