Vermicompost Q&A

Ever heard of “vermicompost,” or composting with worms?  We asked our friend Jo at Homestead Chronicles to help us out with a Q & A session on the topic of making compost with worms.  Here are some vermicompost points to ponder.

Composting worms are a great place to start with “livestock” on the homestead.  The space they require is small and you probably won’t have zoning issues in your town for worms.  For a more in-depth discussion of vermicompost, open your copy of The Do It Yourself Homestead to the “Livestock Wherever You Are” section.  Don’t have your own copy?  No worries, we wrote one just for you!  Click below to learn more and get your own copy.

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Composting Worms

For those who don’t know, people compost with worms in order to harvest their castings (fancy word for poop).  These casting are used as compost for their gardens.  There are a few different ways to keep worms, but they’re not like conventional composting bins so there’s a different science to it all.

Jo, from Homestead Chronicles, cleared it all up for me and gave me some great advice.

Vermicompost Q & A

Why Vermicompost?

I asked Jo – Why do you compost with worms?

Jo says – Worm castings are more than just an incredibly potent fertilizer.  It is an all natural, completely organic, and chemical-free fertilizer. But it is also a fantastic soil conditioner. The slimy stuff that the worms produce help the soil to retain heat and moisture, stay soft and workable, and facilitates good drainage without washing away important nutrients and trace minerals.

If you want an organic garden, it is the most effective & efficient way to fertilize and condition your soil.

Homestead Lady Butts in:  If you want to learn to make various compost teas with vermicompost, hhere’s a great article from Stone Family Farmstead to teach you how.

Different Kinds of Vermicompost

I asked Jo – What kind of vermicomposting have you done – homemade bins? Commercial bins? Tower in ground? If you’ve done more than one, which do you prefer and why?

Jo says – We started with homemade bins and it turned into a bit of a fiasco. Funny story actually (you can read it here in its entirety), but the short version is, “We had no idea what we were doing and did not research it well enough. We ended up being worm-murderers and decided that we could not be trusted with that method. So we switched to a worm tower.” That is the short version.

Lesson: Research it before you do it.

We prefer the worm tower method because:

• it is pretty much fool proof
• the worms won’t freeze because they know to go below the frost line when it gets too cold (so they don’t need to come in the house)
• the worms spread the castings for you and aerate the soil at the same time.  

Homestead Lady butts in: To learn more about the difference between worm bins and worm towers, please visit Jo’s post on the comparison here.

Attainable Sustainable shows you how to make a Vermicompost Bin for Less than Five Bucks here.

Vermicompost in the Garden

I asked Jo – How many worm towers did you place in your yard?  What benefits did you see?

Jo says – We currently have only one tower. We have a small (18 x 20) square foot garden so one was enough at the time. However, we are doubling that this year so we are planning a second tower this spring before the expansion goes in.

Homestead Lady butts in – If you’re looking to grow a better garden this year, get worms!  Also, get The Garden Notebook below to stay organized with goals and information.  I use this notebook every year!  

Is Vermicompost a Time Drain?

I asked Jo – How much time per week do you spend maintaining your bin?

Jo says – With a tower, once it is set in place, you just top the pipe with a few handfuls of kitchen scraps once a week or so and that is it. It is pretty much self-maintaining.

Can Kids Vermicompost?

I asked Jo –  In your estimation, is this a project a child could help with, in any of it’s phases? If so, what jobs might a small child do? An elementary aged child? A teenager?

Jo says – Oh sure! In fact, a worm bin is a great, low-risk way to introduce young children to the responsibility of caring for animals. At any age, a child can:

• feed them
• an older child could also assist with cleaning out the bin
• changing the bedding
• harvesting the castings

Teenagers could actually do all the work, and perhaps, even have a small business selling the castings.

Although, if you want the castings for your own garden that may not be a good plan for you. You will not want your teen selling off your precious black gold.

The tower method though … well, there is nothing to it once the pipe is in place.  So sure, kids can feed the worms … just give them a few handfuls of scrapes and say, “Please go out the garden and feed the worms.”

However, installation requires power tools and a very deep, narrow hole in the ground, so only a teenager is likely to be able to do that part

See my post here for complete installation instructions using the tower method.

Thank You, Vermicompost Experts!

A  big thank you to Jo from Homestead Chronicles for teaching us so much about vermicomposting, especially using a garden tower.  Thank you, too, to Homestead Chronicles for use of their other photos.

To read some good cautions regarding vermicomposting, please visit this post from Joybilee Farm.