Outdoor Vermicomposters

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Comment by Nic on November 25, 2009 at 10:20am

i'm Nic. did my 9th grade science fair project on vermicomposting, and just ended it. my mom makes me keep my worms in the backyard. looking into bokashi for meat waste and stuff like that.

Comment by Bart J. Meijer on November 23, 2009 at 5:58pm

Hi Bentley,

Hmm, I thought the beds were already having worms in them.
It is funny to get weird stuff popping up in un expected places yes,
however..

I should be a bit carefull with the seeds.
I have a big garden and am growing historic "forgotten"fruits and vedgies. Heirloom?
So I have to keep weeds out as much as possible.

I do want to use my compost though.

So my plan was to make a 2 bin system.
One to get it to the boil, and the other to finish things off.
The last one would be perfect for the worms.
However, as I just started making compost there, I just did not have enough.

The food is the product of anaerobic processing, gotten brown, then turned a couple of times.
In this stuff I made a H form gutter 4*4 Inch, and put worms and bedding materiel in that H. Then covered with an other 2 Inch of brown compost.
There is no stuff in it, that can heat up again, so no worries there.

So, just the top would be heating up, and maybe not enough. Will check tomorrow.
It will keep it warm enough trough winter though ( I hope )

Will make a few pics tomorrow, ith the rain is not too bad.

Cheers Bart

Comment by Bentley Christie on November 23, 2009 at 7:22am

Hi Bart,
I probably view the term "problem" with a slightly perspective than some at times - and weed seeds is definitely one of those times. In all honesty, I am really mellow and laid back about this sort of thing. I constantly have little plants popping up here and there in the material that comes from my various systems. It almost makes it more interesting.
Down in my basement right now there are open tray systems that have lots of tomatoes, cantaloupe/melons, even a sprig of kale popping up. Kinda entertaining :-)

This is my first year with the winter windrow approach (so no 'finished' pictures yet). My first winter composting system was simply an insulated wooden bin. Last year, as mentioned, I had a big bed with straw bale walls.

Material from my various beds tends to get moved around a fair bit and I am sure that's what will happen next spring. Almost certainly I will rake everything out and concentrate it over top of my vermicomposting trenches where worms will finish processing the material.

Your buffer zone may do the trick for you assuming it doesn't heat up too much as well (you mentioned it having lots of "food" - just keep in mind it is generally the stuff we think of as "food" that helps to kickstart heating). Generally when people pre-compost (and this IS quite common) they do so in a separate system before adding the material to the worm beds.

Anyway - best of luck, and do keep us posted!

Comment by Bart J. Meijer on November 23, 2009 at 5:43am

HI Bentley,

So don't you have problems with the seeds?

I almost have a feet of buffer under the big bin, so I hope the worms will keep in this buffer area until the heat has gone in the layers above a bit.
In that buffer zone is enough food for about 4-6 weeks.

I really need to get rid of the seeds in the compost, as I dump all my unwanted weeds there, with seeds and flowers and all.

Do you have any pictures from when the windrows are done?
I mean, what do you do when winter is gone, do you collect the worms and the castings?

Cheers Bart

Comment by Bentley Christie on November 22, 2009 at 6:08pm

Hey Bart,
I certainly HOPE it won't get that hot! There are a lot of worms in that bed.
This is why I am adding materials slowly over time. By the time it is at its max height the serious winter weather will be here. My aim is to keep it as close as possible to 20 C (68 F) all winter. We shall see :-)

Comment by Bart J. Meijer on November 22, 2009 at 3:06pm

HI All,

Daft, I had been reading Bentley's winter composting blogpost weeks ago.
And I didn't add things up.
Been running around too much.

Bentley, those windrows, do they get hot enough to kill weed seeds?

Cheers Bart

Comment by Bart J. Meijer on November 22, 2009 at 5:58am

HI All,

Well I do hope it will heat up. My plan is that it'll heat to 50 Celsius ( 122 Fahrenheit ) for 14 days, then I will turn it and get some air in.
When it has been that hot, all the seeds are cooked.

The bin is now full till the last horizontal board, and I started the second compost heap next to it.

Andrew, I live in the polder 3-4 meters (9-12 feet) under sea level., so it is a channel like thing, that will bring the water away.
The polder sort of are like long islands with channels in between in an area with a dyke around it. The water collected by the sloten ( little channels) will go to the wetering ( bigger channels ) that lead to a water mill that pumps the water out to the river.

Cheers Bart

Comment by Andrew on November 21, 2009 at 1:41pm

Bart, is that a stream in the background?

Comment by Bill Ross on November 21, 2009 at 1:27pm

That puppy is big enough to heat up quite hot.

Comment by Bart J. Meijer on November 21, 2009 at 1:10pm

HI All,

My bin is 4 feet in length, 4 feet high and 3 feet deep/wide.
My climate is less cold then yours, if it freezes very hard, the ground will freeze aprox 4 inches deep, not more.

Done a load of work today, it is full now
.

I will make one next to it coming week.
Was warm here today too, like summer..

Cheers Bart

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