A Mighty Worm Composting Farm

  

Ta-da! I would like to introduce my first large-scale worm composting system! I only partly-permanently injured my back making this thing, which is a 6'x12' flow-through worm composter. You can see by the pics that my carpentry may be a tad lacking (note the lack of support beams on this thing... it's quite wobbly). However, the friendly folks at the warehouse were more than happy to tell me where I went wrong, and I will soon be stabilizing it with diagonal beams on the sides and reinforcing the ropes along the bottom. My hope is that this system will allow me to breed a ton of worms, feed from the top without any mixing, harvest pure castings from the bottom, and provide tons of airflow for my little buddies. My good neighbors over at the West Oakland Greening Project (fancier website soon to come courtesy of yours truly) are making me a second one that looks just the same as this one. If these monster composters work, then in a few months I'll have a fleet. 

While I'm waiting, I have dumped out every single smaller bin I have and have created windrows. I was trying to explain to my masseuse friend last night just WHY my back is such a mess. It took a lot of gesturing and mathematical calculation for me to get across the fact that I have 400 square feet of manure piled two feet high which requires constant attention and turning. She was horrified.

And speaking of horrified, yesterday at the warehouse involved a black widow spider (if you listen really closely, you can probably still hear me screaming) AND a ridiculously friendly rat. These are two occupational hazards I was really not counting on. It's a good thing my neighbors are 1. Men, and 2. Have really big feet. 

The holidays were beyond nutty for the Cantwell family. Let's just say thank GOD for preschool (and thank GOD it's back in session!). My loving husband was so kind as to buy me an extremely powerful drill for Christmas AND a back brace! I'm in tough-mama heaven over here! 

That's all for now. Here's hoping my back holds out for the transfer to these 4' high bins. 

Good worming!

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Comments

[Andrew]

Wow! That's a huge flow-through bin. How far apart are the rope "gratings"? I have a much smaller DIY flow through and I thought 2.5" gaps were big. Will you use newspaper or cardboard for the "floor"? I look forward to seeing updates on this new system. Congratulations!

Andrew

[Jen]

Hey Andrew,
Thanks for your comments. I didn't see your previous comments until tonight. I do sell at Berkeley Hort, but didn't over the holidays. I wholesale at several local retailers and am expanding that part of my business. Also, I'm about to start dropshipping for other worm sellers. To answer your question, the gratings are too far apart in this pic, about 8". I'm going to adjust them to be about 2" with twice the rope in coming days. My friendly neighbors at West Oakland Greening Project have built me a second bin even bigger than this one, so I'm excited to get everyone transplanted into the new systems (but not excited about shoveling probably 4000 pounds of worms and manure... thus the delay...).

[Jim Kreft]

Hi there-

I came upon your site while getting information to start home worm composting myself, and I just have to warn you- that rope that you have, even in a finer mesh, is most likely not going to hold a ton-plus of compost and worms. I would highly recommend using woven steel wire instead- enormously stronger than any rope! The Bay Worms folks use steel mesh in their systems.

I live nearby (on 55th st)- I would be happy to give you a hand some time (I actually enjoy shoveling) in exchange for some worms and/or castings!

Jim

[Andrew]

Hey, Jen.

I wondered how you kept track of all the blogs & comments. I imagine you could use an extra dozen hours each day. Glad to hear business is good.

I don't envy you the task of shoveling that much material. I turned a compost bin yesterday and that was maybe a couple hundred pounds. Like Jim, I'm also willing to "work for worms", but I doubt I could last more than an hour or two in your warehouse. :)

Andrew in Berkeley

[Jen]

Hey Andrew,

Actually, I could use the help this week or next! Email me at jencantwell@comcast.net.
Jen