For those wanting a cheap worm harvester

[Alan]

So, I got creative this weekend and with the help of my father and Kim I threw together this nifty and cheap piece of equipment:

The Homegrown Worm Harvester:
homegrowngoodness.blogspot.com

and check out a couple more pics in the worms section here:
picasaweb.google.com/bishopshomegrown


If you've got questions ask and I'll do my best to answer.

-Alan

[Alan]

Ran three bins worth of material through the new harvester today and it worked great, the material was a little wet and would have come out a little better if it were dry so I will re-run the bins latter this week or early next week and Finnish them up in time to replace the bedding with the spent sphagnum moss from the fall/winter tomato crop so I will be harvesting again by spring. We harvested roughly four, five gallon buckets worth today!

[cff]

Looks good Alan.

I have some 55 gal plastic drums that I thought about trying to turn into a harvester but I haven't had time for anything lately. Maybe this weekend I hope.

[Alan]

Yeah, you should definetly look into it, it makes harvesting much easier and gives you nearly 100% worm castings as opposed to castings and compost, it takes a little while to harvest much, but is definetly faster and more efficent than doing it by hand. A note about harvesting is that if the material is a little on the dry side it actually seperates easier and is much easier to harvest.

-Alan

[Alan]

I've been harvesting here and there all week, an hour or two a day when I have time and I've ran off about twelve, five gallon buckets of compost so far. If the sun would come out for a day or two and dry the bins down a bit I would be able to harvest a lot more efficiently so I'm going to give them a couple of days to dry down before I start harvesting again, needless to say the big blue bins were completely done composting with absolutely zero recognizable material (maybe a potato skin or squash seed here and there) and they were also nearly 3/4 full, I've got them down to about half way full but would like to harvest them down to about an inch of old material before adding any new bedding into the bins which shouldn't be a problem in a couple of days. The castings are really fine and just as black as they can be, they really have a nice soft texture and the pleasant smell of good, nutrient rich soil. Lots of this material was old sawdust so I'm hopping I have all kinds of good micro nutrients from the trees the dust came from in the mix which would be terrific for my '08 plots.

[cff]

I am planning to build a new one this week off your pictures, I picked up the wire screen today and I've been looking for a small 110v gear head motor to motorize the drum but no luck so far. My next thought was an old dryer motor and belt to drive the drum.

There is at least a ton and a half of bedding in the two worm bins under the rabbits plus I just added a new rabbit shed and some more rabbits; I'll be adding new bins soon as I can build up the worms I have. Its been real warm and I've been seeing a lot of small worms in the beds lately but I bet I'll still end up having to buy some more worms to kick start the new beds come spring time.

[Alan]

Excellent, let me know how it turns out, I thought about motorizing mine but alas didn't make it that far, maybe sometime early next year I'll look into that. I've probably got a little over 3 tons of nearly finished bedding in the wormhouse right now, just got to let it dry out a bit before I harvest it, not to mention it isn't heated and it's been really cold here the past day or two. It's sort of a pain to get the bins to dry a bit here in the winter when we have rain and snow because the plastic allows so much condensation to build up and drip into the bins overnight, but they have been getting progressivly drier every day. I'm glad the pics and ideas I threw up on the net helped you out, it was the cheapest and best idea I could think of at the time and it looks like it is paying off.

-Alan

[hoosierheightsfarm]

Alan, can you tell me what I need to get started with worms.

I was thinking of keeping them in the kitchen to put our scraps to.
Can we just use a plastic tote box? What kind of bedding should we start with? Can you bring me a "x" amount of worms next time you are over to the Co-Op? Let me know when that is and I'll work on getting down there.
Patrick

[hoosierheightsfarm]

I DO have an old dryer that worked when I took it 'out of service' due to the heater not shutting off. If it still does, that could be used to tumble out your worm poo....

[Alan]

Sure thing Hoosier, you don't really need too awful much, a plastic tote works great. Just pick a tote, drill some holes in the bottom and sides and you can use anything from spaghnum moss, shreaded leaves, newspapper (non glossy), composted cow or rabbit manure for bedding. Your also going to need some powdered garden lime (not hydrated, not pelitized) for your worm bin to keep the PH in check. If your going to put the bin in the house, you are going to need to prop it up and put a container under it to catch the runoff moisture occasionally, other than that all you need is worms.

I could bring you all the worms you would need anytime this week if you want, or just whenever. Let me know what size bin you are thinking of getting and I'll calculate the number of worms to get you up and started and throw in some eggs and a bit of compost for the bin as well, I'm guessing your going to want about 2 lbs of red worms to get started at least.

I sell them for $25 a pound and could deliever them to you at the co-op whenever is a good time for you, just let me know when you would like to have them and we can get it all set up to go, of course after you start if you have any questions my info is free, so theres a definite plus!
-Alan