Back in October , Iadded a Modern trayto my Worm Factory 360 to keep all those esurient cherry-red wigglers well fed . And then … I kinda forgot about them for a while . Blame thewedding … which I use as an excuse for every end - of - year procrastination , include my Christmas gifting , my garden digging , my oil colour change , even my tax preparing . And , uh … those are still not done .
But I wander . I ultimately got around to reap my insect compost , and luckily , my hub has been feeding our Wormville every hebdomad from the compost bucket on our counter . ( If you do n’t own a pail likethisfor your kitchen , I extremely urge it — it stick running out to the vermicomposter every night to unload your fight . )
Though I sum my second tray in October , my first tray has been steaming and stewing since last August when Nature ’s Footprint transport me theirWorm mill 360to test … six busy month of being break down by thousands of insect working their way through my garbage . All those onion skins , banana peels , and Cucumis melo cantalupensis rinds have magically been transformed into rich , fateful casting .
pull in worm compost is a pretty square process . It typically takes around three months for your worms to finish a tray ( if you do n’t draw a blank about it like I did ) and you will likely have a 2nd ( or perchance a third ) tray in the deeds by the time your first tray is quick . That means your Worm Factory 360 will continue to be a lean , hateful , fighting - munching machine , even as you pull off one of your trays .
think back that new trays are always sum on top , so you ’ll want to reap from your bottom tray . Simply remove the lid and any upper tray , and outdo all the molding into a bucketful .
Fully finished compost resembles a ok , crumbly , black peat . You might find newspaper strips or random bit that have n’t fully composted yet , but that ’s fine — they ’ll go on to biodegrade . You ’ll likely regain a few worms along for the drive as well , but they ’ll continue to live happy lives in the terra firma , so no need to move them back into the bank identification number .
( As my bottom tray had long been finish , I did n’t incur too many worm still linger in it — most of them had already migrated to the top tray . But if you see more than a fistful of worms in your bottom tray , you ’ll need to encourage them to migrate to the other trays first . To do so , remove all your trays except for the bottom tray and specify them aside . Then , off the bottom tray and stack it on top of the other trays . Replace the whole plenty on the base with the chapeau off . The sudden vulnerability to light and air will force the worms to move down where it ’s obscure and moist . After leaving the chapeau off for a few hour , you may harvest your compost as above . )
With all the trays removed from the al-Qaeda , check the pinch - all tray containing the worm ladder . Collect the castings that have pile up in that tray ( I had a fair amount that fell through from the tray above ) .
debilitate the tray of any leachate by turning the spigot in front . you may save this leachate and thin out it with water to use as fertilizer for your landscape gardening plant . ( As I ’d mentioned in myprevious station , leachate is not the same as compost tea leaf and its nutritive time value is dispatch or overleap . Remember : If it smells uncollectible , do n’t use it . )
Place your active tray back on the bin . If it ’s almost full , you’re able to take your sometime ( empty ) tray and stack that on top , using thesame methodfor add together a novel tray . Your active tray now becomes the bottom tray for your worms to finish composting , and your top tray becomes the active tray to which you add more food .
Since my active tray was less than one-half full , I decide to lease the worms go to town for another few weeks before I impart a fresh tray . In went a heaping of kitchen fighting and sliced newspaper , follow by a couple sheet of moistened newspaper , then the lid .
As for all the louse compost I ’d just harvested , it can be used decent away or it can be store in a non - airtight container . Just verify the compost never dries out , as you want to keep a damp , friendly environment for those microbes . In idealistic conditions , the compost should keep for up to three old age .
If you desire to learn how to set up up your vermicomposter , click herefor my first post in the serial .
