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How do you store worm castings?

Proud Marine Dad

Proud Marine Dad

I have probably 5 gallons now from my vermicompost bin but I am wondering if the beneficial bacteria are alright by just keeping them in a bucket with something covering it? Does it need to be kept moist? I don't want it to be like the bagged stuff in stores that is probably devoid of any living organisms.
Rich?
 
Most people remove the castings from the bin and store in buckets just as you are doing. No need to add moisture. Honestly, why not just add any surplus to top dress around plants? This way no fear of storage. :) Immediate plant benefit

any commercial castings that have been pasteurized are void of life, including worm eggs. Look for the brands that are not heated :)
 
I saved them Rich as I was going to add them to the compost, peat moss, perlite mixture for my pepper plants.
There is more in the worm bin but I hate the mess of separation. Makes me not want to vermicompost when I have to do it.
 
There must be an easy way to separate them.
I could build another plastic tote and drill a bunch of holes in the bottom and pour the contents of this tote into it and put a bright light over it, spread it out thin and put the original bin under it to catch the worms.
 
Lots of dudes just push all the castings to one side of the bin (same with scraps) and the worms will use the different areas to either poop or eat. So they just keep adding to the castings side after they get their fill on the scraps side. Then it's easy pickings for you when you harvest.
 
I actually store my castings in the bins themselves.... I have some fairly large plastic tubs which are the worm farms.  No doubt, some of the castings in there are 4 years old. 
 
The way I retreive my castings for feeding is to grab a handful (worms, castings, and "unfinished food") from each of my 6 bins and put them in a bucket.  Next, I fill the bucket with water and gently agitate it.  I then pour the contents of the bucket through a fine screen leaving the large particles and worms above the screen and a silky black/brown, uniform liquid tea below.  The castings are now ready for pasteurization or direct application.  I dump whatever is left on top of the screen back into one of the tubs. 
 
When I want some wormcastings to use as a soil ammendment, I take individual handfuls of worm castings and *gently* "rake" them along a slightly larger mesh than is used in the making of worm tea as described above.  This is a time consuming process though, because after say 30 mins of doing that you will only have like a quart of castings. 
 
In the late fall as winter approaches, I will dump half of my bins into the garden/compost pile and bring the other three bins indoors for the winter.  So I never really separate and store the castings.  Any time I am separating them from the main bins, it is because I am using them immediately for a specific purpose.  I have probably 70 gallons of worm castings at the moment.
 
My worm bin has been kicking ass lately. Ive been harvesting about a tray per month (15lbs ).

Marine dad ...I found an easy way to harvest as I was tired of the mess too.

Mine is a stackable type and I have four tiers going. When I want to harvest the bottom tray I just put the bottom tray on top and leave the lid off. Put a bright light right above it just like you mentioned. in three days the light, heat , and drying effect drives all the worms down into the tray underneath.

Its very simple and works perfectly. I do stir up the tray once a day or so to help the light and air penetrate better.

Honestly if you wanted to be really lazy just put the tray to be harvested on top with no lid and leave it for two weeks... they'll move down to the next tray no problem as it starts to dry out
 
Yeah... thats what the pros do.  Alternatively, I have read that you could do essentially the same thing without a bottom screen... some people make a "heap" and place the light above it... within hours, the worms will decend to the bottom of the heap and the top layer is simply scraped off.
 
Thanks for the help guys. I don't have one of the three tiered systems as I read they are not reliable to getting the worms to move in the book The Best Place for Garbage:
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Place-Garbage-ebook/dp/B004T54BT8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370055080&sr=8-1&keywords=the+best+place+for+garbage
 
So I built this one below as she suggested in the book.
 
I have a bin I bought from Walmart and cut a big section out of the top and glued in a piece of black screen door material for air.
It never seems to get too wet in the bottom as I use a pump spray bottle to mist the cardboard in it.


70 gallons Noah? Damn! That's cool. :cool:
 
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I hear ya.... you know... I started with rubbermaids with holes drilled in the bottom and it worked...but I never could get it to really thrive.

ever since I bought the worm factory its rocking.

I think the deal is that the trays are more shallow... only about 6" deep or so... the worms tear through it now and move easily from one true to the next.

My castings are thoroughly processed where before they were always like 80% done.

I'm not saying you have to purchase lbs.. it could easily be made from wood and screen, but I think shallow trays are key.

Not only that but I've switched to using aged horse manure for bedding rather then paper products. The worms are huge, plump, and more vigorous then I've ever seen. The population is exploding.

I really love the worm factory ... good airflow...no sour bin and as I mentioned they process a full try about once a month which is 15 lbs. Never had such a productive bin in my life.

I may build another out of 2x4's and screen modeling it towards the worm factory.

Just my 2 cents...I know lots have real success with rubbermaids but I never did...it worked...slowly...but this worm factory is straight kicking ass so I'm sure the rubbermaid failure was a design flaw on my part.

....for what its worth. If you find you never can get the rubbermaids to be really productive consider the work factory or building something like it. Harvesting is easy as well!
 
Thanks Ozzz sounds good. One of my biggest problems is that I dont seem to have as much food for the bin if the worm population increases. Right now I feed them some chopped up vegetables or melon rind along with a cup or so of used coffee grounds and then I add two or three egg shells that I grind into a fine powder with a coffee grinder to give the red wigglers some grit for their gizzards.
 
If you are running low on food for the worms dont forget that cardboard, newspaper, and most printed papper (as long as its not glossy) are good to go (most "ink" is actually soy based dye).  And dont forget tree leaves and new-mown grass.
 
If you had it in the shady side of your garden it could work!!! :dance:
 
Honestly... thats what I want to do eventually... this Fall I am going to make the greatest raised beds of all time ;)  
 
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