Continuous Flow/Flow Through Worm Composting

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71 Comments

Comment by Eve on October 22, 2009 at 2:01pm

The wheels are a good idea. I have already moved mine into the garage for the winter. It would have been a back breaking job with them.

Comment by Len on October 22, 2009 at 3:31am

No Eve, I'm not much of a tech type person yet. The bin is plywood with the working area about 4 ft high, 3 ft wide and one foot deep. Used part of a metal closet organizer shelf as the grate. Have an old dresser drawer in the bottom to collect the castings (later) and have large wheels on it to ease moving. Although don't know if it'll ever leave the friendly environs of the garage.

Comment by Eve on October 21, 2009 at 7:12pm

Do you have photos Len?

Comment by Len on October 21, 2009 at 7:02am

just moved my guys from an overcrowded bin to a home-built wooden flow-thru.

Comment by Bones Stiziles on August 16, 2009 at 12:10pm

I used to get lots of fruit flies in my bin (which is literally 24 inches outside the kitchen door) until I started keeping a 2-3 inch layer of shredded newspaper on the surface. I modeled this from nature establishing leaf litter layers on grade. I observed in the garden, every time I found composting worms they were always in the lower layers of the moist decomposing leaf litter. Also, since I’ve been using my bin mulch, I’ve observed that it works similar to mulch in the garden with the added benefit of reducing any odor, maximizing airflow, and blocking light & fruit flies. Because of the bin mulch I don’t use a lid anymore. I just use two small pieces of scrap plywood across the top which doubles as a workbench when I push them together.

As for feeding, I mix all kitchen scraps into a worm salad before putting it under the mulch in the bin. The salad consists of crushed kitchen scraps mixed with peat moss, seasoned with ground eggshells, a sprinkle of sifted sand, and tossed with a handful of shredded cardboard. It heats up a little bit, but depending on the volume of worm salad I spread it on thin or make a pile where they can get away from the heat if they like. It’s worked great so far and the end product is rich and fluffy. Still, it can always be better.

Comment by Eve on August 15, 2009 at 8:11pm

Ants don't like it when the bin is on the wet side. If your bin design allows place the feet in pans of water with a bit of soap in the water to break the surface tension.

Comment by Diane Kerchner on August 15, 2009 at 1:56pm

Ants; I have too many in my wooden bin. Anyone have a suggestion on how to eliminate or reduce the numbers in an outdoor bin? Thanks

Comment by Jason on August 4, 2009 at 9:52pm

This may be information everyone knows already, but regarding fruit flies, I have this to say:

I've been having a fruit fly issue lately, and it got way worse when I left some food sitting around for 3 days. After it went in the bin it was fly city. I made one of those traps where you cut a plastic bottle in half and invert the top after putting some cider or white wine vinegar in there (with some dish soap to break the surface tension and make the flies drown) and placed it in an indentation in the middle of my bin. It's worked like gangbusters. In 2 days it's collected about 50 flies. These traps work great at making sure adult flies don't stick around to make a second generation. Better than anything else I've tried.

Comment by Sue on August 4, 2009 at 3:55pm

Yes Susan, I dumped 1 of my 3 Rubbermaids in there. The one that I estimated has the most worms in it.

Comment by Susan Bolman on August 4, 2009 at 3:26pm

That's a great way to make use of a rolling garbage can with a wheel well!

I'm not sure, but it sounds like you've put bedding, food and cocoons in this bin. I'd put at least a couple of handfuls of worms from your other bins in this one (as well as some compost with the worms) to make sure you've got the right kind of microbial community for your worms to hatch in to.

They hatch in 1-2 months and then don't get to their mature size for another 2 months or so. It's going to be a long time until they're consuming any quantity of the food that's there. Alternately, take lots of the food out so it doesn't go anaerobic. I'd still make sure to put some of the VC from other bins in to get the right community going.

You may have done all of this already, but just in case....

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