Vermicomposting: Harvest time!!!

It has been just over two months for my worm bin. A week ago I noticed there wasn't much material left other than castings, so I stopped feeding it for a week and decided I would take this day to harvest. I wanted to see the yield of castings, but more importantly I wanted to see if I had facilitated a healthy ecosystem, so critters and worms seemed more important to me.

My bin was in the same place it had always been. Before showing pics of the harvest I have a few things to report. I kept the bin behind my couch the entire time, and it never had an odor. If I took the top off, I smelled earth, and sometimes if I dug around there was a putrid smell. In my bin, bad smells often followed the addition of too much rice, and it isn't hard to add too much, a handful is easily too much.

I also had critters. The critters stayed in the bin, there was nothing for them on the outside, until I left it unfed for a week, they started to get a little more aggressive to leave when I opened the top. It still wasn't more than one or two. I also began getting fruit flies, though they weren't bad. They weren't bad enough for me to feel like I needed to do anything with them. As I looked at the little crawlers, I saw mainly millipedes and spring tails, both never leaving the bin (well one millipede tried after I stopped feeding).

 The steel tub was my sorting area, the orange bucket was for organic waste that needed more time, and the white cat litter bucket was for separated castings. I lined the tub with a white garbage bag and a piece of news paper. As I got closer to the end the news paper was less and less useful. The little white bowl is the basket for my scale.

This was what I found in my bin. As soon as I dumped the bin I could tell I had facilitated a wonderful ecosystem, I could move casting without finding tiny little worms and eggs. Of course then I realized why the method I was using was always described as a slow process. I had to separate less than a handful at a time. It started moving quicker as I corralled the worms to the center. I found I could scrape around the edges with my fingers and separate casting, organic material, and worm much easier.

This is what a lot of my casting looked like if I dug even a quarter inch under the surface. The bloggers were right though, as I disturbed soil the worms began to move down and later to the center to come together.

I would find these dense pockets of worms and by excavating around them, continue to drive the worms to the center. It was along process, but very calming once I resolved to the fact I was going to be there for a while. It was quite Zen.

Now, what you can't tell from the picture is that you can feel the worms in this pile if you place your hand on top, and as soon as you reach a finger in it is very soft and slimy. I continued to excavate all I could until the worms could no longer stay under the pile. I then weighed the pile, 2 1/4 lbs. This is not counting the babies lost in the separation of castings, the eggs I couldn't dig through without finding a half dozen per handful, and worms that I moved because they were attached in some way to organic waste that I was moving. Oh and the smell of the castings... earth. 

Look at them... Now I will let them sit for a little while, a week or so the little fellers left will continue to eat until they die and the crawlers will move off when there is nothing left to eat. There isn't a whole lot, the cat littler bucket is half full. but that is okay, I will convert a lot of it to worm tea anyway and give most of that away. 

Is is a nice handful of casting. Look how pretty!!!

But this is not the end, every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end. 

I thought I would use a lot more corrugated card board this time. They seem to love it. The bedding beneath is news paper though. I might have to add a little water later, I will look in on it again tonight. I didn't add any excess soil this time, I figured I already had a microbial picnic in the castings that came with the worm I already have inside. 

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I will be posting again soon about why my bin worked. I read up on a lot of indoor vermicomposting horror stories, so I am proud that my bin worked so well. More on that later. Keep growing!!!