Comments on: Making an Indoor Worm Composting Bin

By: Mr. Simpleton

Mr. Simpleton — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:58:16 +0000

Kristin worms have no trouble climbing back up. They don’t really “fall” through since the holes aren’t that big. They “crawl” or rather “slither” through the holes. But if they get down and need back up they just climb up the sides.

By: Kristin

Kristin — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:20:31 +0000

This is great! I am about to build one of these and have one question: how often do worms fall from a higher bin to a lower one? In other words, do they fall a lot from the top bin to the second right when you start (when the middle one is pretty empty) or from the middle bin to the bottom one right when you switch the top two bins? I am worried about losing a lot of worms (starvation?) this way. Is it worth putting a removable layer of screen/cloth around the bottom of the top bin after the worms have migrated up? Thanks!

By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:14:33 +0000

I love this! This is the next natural step for us as well but we are going to wait until the warmer months to start with the worm composting!

By: Mr. Simpleton

Mr. Simpleton — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:49:10 +0000

Yolanda,

The top two bins are for the worms and food and the bottom bin is for the compost tea / water drippings.

I start putting food in the middle bin first. When it gets full enough, I give the whole system a rest for a couple of weeks and then start putting fresh food into the top bin.

The worms smell the fresh food above and move up into the top bin in order to get at it. Within two weeks the middle bin is mostly empty of worms, but full of compost and worm castings.

I then dump out the contents of the middle bin and use it. At that time I’ll also dump out the compost tea in the bottom bin and use that as well.

Then I put what was the middle bin, which is now empty, on top so it becomes the top bin. The bottom bin always stays on the bottom because it’s the only one without holes.

Make sense? Sorry I should have explained that better in the video.

Most people only use two bins for this and catch the drippings in a lid that sits under them like a tray. I find that this is messy because the juice spills everywhere if it’s in a tray. That’s the only reason I have an extra bin – so it acts like a reservoir on the bottom to catch all of the liquid.

By: Yolanda

Yolanda — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:22:43 +0000

Thank you! I am a little confused about how to manage the 2 bins. I see there are castings in the 2nd one down. When do you empty and which one and…. I am just confused. Please explain? When do you switch them?

By: Leigh

Leigh — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 13:36:18 +0000

“Indoor” is really appealing these days, especially when it’s too cold outside for both worms and humans! I would just need to find a place to put one.

By: Anna

Anna — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:20:49 +0000

Nice looking worm bin! We might add the third bin to ours at some point — so far, our bin seems to get ready to harvest around the same time we’re ready to move the worms outside for the summer, so we don’t need the extra bin.

I’ve had good luck using leaves instead of newspaper as the brown matter, since we don’t subscribe to the newspaper.