Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Worm Compost Bin-Ultra Plant Fertilizer

Worm bins for vermicomposting may be expensive. Instead, I found a translucent three drawer plastic bin that was being discarded and modified it.

1. Burn with a soldering iron or melt small holes into the bottom of the top 2 drawers. The liquid gold will drain from these holes into the bottom drawer.

2. Use shredded office, newspaper, phone book pages, dried leaves that have been dunked in water then squeezed to remove excess. This will be the worm's bedding.

3. Line wet cardboard around the sides to darken the bin for the worms.

4. Add red composting worms, not earth worms. Use sheets of moist newspaper over the top of the paper nest to provide as much darkness as possible.

5. Feed worms your kitchen food scraps like veggie peels, fruit remnants, coffee grounds from home or the local coffee house and even more shredded various papers. Do not feed them papaya seeds, meats or dairy products.

6. Worms will multiply. Does not stink if you balance the ratio of food to worms, just bury the food under the layers. You will see other grub worms show up but they are needed to change the scraps to rich garden mulch. After a week or so, put on a pair of plastic bags over your hands to toss the mixture to aerate.

*Use the worm dripping in the last drawer, add to some rain water or tap water into old water bottles and add an old spray trigger top. It makes an excellent fertilizer when you use this to spray the plant's leaves. Plants take in nutrients by roots and leaves. May also use "worm water" for watering.

*After some time, I can't tell you since I don't know how many worms you have working for you, but the scraps turn into what looks like black soil. This is vermi (worm) compost. Its now an organic SUPER fertilizer that you may use to plant your anything from fruit/veggies to flowers.

*Worm migrate to look for the food and they might slip through the water drainage hole so keep an eye out for a few in the bottom drainage drawer and fish them out, return to top 2 drawers to go back home to work. Enjoy your new pets- their quiet and do their job 24 hrs around the clock.




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