Today we harvested our first tray of
compost... really. It's been about 8 weeks since we started, and about what we expected
in terms of the earliest we could reap the rewards of our "not so
hard" work. It also says the longer you can let it brew, the better and
richer it is. Actually, we figured this is long enough, since we're about to
enter our last month of summer. Here's how the process worked.
I took the system outside and put it
in the direct sunlight and removed the lower most tray or the processing tray,
and set it aside. I took the cover off the upper most tray and removed the
moistened newspaper cap. I then put the processing tray back on top of the rest
and let the sun beat down on it. Worms hate the sun almost as much as they hate
being in a dry environment. The sun dries the compost out and the worm retreat
to the lower, darker and moistened bedding. This in theory, is supposed to
clear your processing tray of the worms allowing you to harvest your "worm
free compost." This actually worked better than I thought it would. I was
told to let the processing tray bake in the sun for a couple of hours, then
gently rake and turn over the contents allowing it to dry out quicker and
exposing more worms on their way down. After two hours, I went out and did as i
was instructed- raked, folded and overturned one layer at a time. To my
surprise, most of the worms were indeed gone and I grabbed a couple stragglers
and threw them down into the tray below. The only hitch was the tiny, new
infant worms- they were still in the compost in pretty large numbers but there
is no practical way to separate them so I dumped the compost little by little
into a plastic bag lined box and that was that.
The quality and richness of the
material was equally impressive. It looked very much like black, wet coffee grounds
with a couple wads of soggy newspaper clumps, crushed egg shells and a couple potato pieces to boot. Actually, it is the waste product of about 1500 worms and the best
part is there is no smell- my wife loves that part. The plan is to allow the
compost to dry out for a couple days and then mix with potting soil- about 1
part worm castings to 4 parts dirt. Our harvest yielded about one 5-gallon
bucket of castings and about two cups of liquid leachate. The blogs I've read
on the subject also recommend leaving the treasure sit for a month or two so
the compost can become more oxygenated and pH neutral. Although this is better,
I don't think we'll be doing that as our growing season would be done by then
and we'd never see how the stuff works. I've also waited long enough.
We'll be applying it to our flowers
and plants this weekend. After a quick hose and wipe down, I return the system
back to normal and put the worm farm back into the dining room. I have no doubt
this harvesting process is fairly traumatic for the worms so we'll leave them
alone, let them recover and chill out for a couple days before I bother them
again.
For more info and where to purchase
your own Worm Farm, shop http://gottabgreen.com and go to Grow Accessories or click on: http://gottabgreen.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=55&products_id=4538
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