My Vermiculture... aka the 'garbage disposer'

Why call 'em "disposer"?  That's what they do... converting my organic garbage like vege, bread and potato peelings, to something useful call 'vermicast' (or worm poo!), which makes great plant fertilizer.

One can also call 'em "BIG fish food" since that's where the smaller wigglers will end up... in a fish's tummy!

I was initially told that worm stock won't be available until end of March but being relentless in bugging the hell outta people, the shop decided to give in ... and told me to collect 'em yesterday Feb 18th 2003.  Yahoooo!!! I'm feeling like a kid again... twiddling with worms and stuff...

Ok, now I've gotten my worms... what's next?  Heh, fickle minded me decided to scrap the previous 'worm-bin' and start anew on a 'Mark II' edition.... Improved and much bigger! ... but nothing is perfect and this translucent storage box does have it's pro & cons.

Enuff rambling... here's my hands on experience in building and setting up my first vermicomposting worm bin.  The captions to the 'pictography' are in my own twisted sense of humor.... enjoy!!
 

The first version wasn't as well thought out and there wasn't provision for drainage of worm pee, or politely termed, "worm tea". "Mark II" now has a adjustable sprout, made from standard 1 inch PVC plumbing pipes. If the worms are sneaking out to the pub at night, I'll fit a tap valve.

Ventilation holes were drilled along both lengths and on the lid to maintain humidity, provide oxygen and avoid water condensation. I'm bugged by fruit-flies and beetles in my area, and to prevent them breeding in my bin, the ventilation holes are stuffed with coarse aquarium sponges.

Closeup look....  the hole... ok ok... not a very nice job. the donut... that's what the hole-cutter removed. the black stuff... a slightly oversized coarse sponge that grips to the side of the hole.

Because the worms will be fed mainly vege scraps, which contains alot of water, it's likely that they'll pee ALOT and this makes good fertilizer as well. Avid 'vermiculturists' call this pee "Worm Tea"!! The bottom is laid with packing chips so that the worms won't drown in their own pee ;o)  It'll also allow the worms to climb up onto the chips, through the nets and back into their bed. A plastic grid is added to avoid the pvc drainage getting clogged by the chips.

A slot is cut into the corners of the coarse net and folded in to form a basket. Hopefully, this will make collecting the compost and vermicast easier later on.

A finer net is laid over the coarse one to minimize too much coco peat falling through. Is it necessary??  Heck!  I dunno... I'm only experimenting and you're free to do it your way.  Trying bizzare methods is how I learn.

Coir or coco peat (aka shredded coconut husks) has lotsa fibrious strands and sawdust-like bits. This will form the bed or media in which worms eat, shit and reproduce.  During the process of vermicomposting, the worms will actually consume their own bed as well and convert the coir to compost.

The coir is soaked in water, hand squeezed until damp and then fluffed up again before laying it onto the nets.

Nope! It's not cow dung... just little balls of hand squeezed coir.  I'm told that worms don't like a dripping-wet bed and will try to crawl out.

The coir layer is spread evenly and loosely... not compressed.  The bed is supposed to 'breathe'. A coarse aquarium sponge replaced a finer one at the drainage outlet pipe. I'm thinking that maybe a little air will prevent the buildup of anaerobic bacteria.  Is it effective??  Gee... I don't know either! ;o)

The worms in their temporary quarters while I was furnishing their new home.

... and they were very much alive... crawling where the light don't shine. I'm quite amazed that these fat worms can squeeze through the gunny sack's tight knittings!... you can do that too if you don't have any bones! ;o)

A crushed cabbage leaf is placed on their bed and I'm ready to dump the worms over it.

getting 'em worms home... Spreading the worms and the old media over the food.

Here's a tiny fella that I almost missed out and  I was so very tempted to feed the fish...

Placing the 1st piece of gunny sack over the worms.

... and tucking them in with a 2nd gunny-sack ... sleep tight. The sack cloth should be damp, not wet, and cover their food.  A moist dark surface will encourage the worms to stay near the food. If one is using a black box, one layer of sack cloth will suffice.

As the worm bin is placed outside the apartment and along the corridor, there's lots of ambient light during the day and a overhead ceiling lamp at night. I think two pieces of gunny sack and eight ply of newspaper will keep the bed's surface dark enough. Oh... and how appropriate... the theatre ads is now listing "Catch me if you can" starring Tom Hanks and Leonardo Dicaprio. I wonder how difficult it is to 'catch' all the worms during harvest time!

The worm bin 'parked' between my laundry posts! Yup...  I'm in dire need for more space! I've an extra bin (remember the worm's temp quarters?) that can be converted to a worm bin if this one is successful but hmm... where am I gonna put it???

	Click on image to see "THE GLOB!" This is what I was hoping for... one big fat glob of worms... all 500gm. worth!! ... what was that again?... if Yan can cook? There're supposed to be 3 different species of worms here; The 'Tiger' (eisenia foetida) The 'Reds' (Red Wigglers or lumbricus rubellus) The 'Indian Blues' (periovyx excavatus)
	Tigers has stripes, Reds are urm... red! and Indians are brownish... not blue! ;o) Also the mature Reds has an obvious broad banding that's closer to the mouth.  Indians' banding are further down... near the tummy and no... they don't do turbans! Can't see the stripes? Click on image to view larger image.

These d*mned beetles have eaten alot of leaves off my ornamental and herbs plants!.... and they're not small  I wouldn't want to breed these fellas!! Pictured with a 20 cent Singapore coin (roughly the size of a USA quarter), the beetle measures about 4cm or 1.5inch.