BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Gardening worm composting

Does anyone have a worm bin? I'm about to "harvest" my first compost and wanted to share my excitement with someone who would understand! LoL! Even my DH still thinks I'm a bit off to be so excited about my worms.

We compost, but don't use worms. Where did you get the worms? It sounds like a great idea!

I got my worms locally. From what I've read online, it seems like the common worm to use is the "red wigglers" (?). It's illegal to bring in worms to our state (Hawaii), so I have "local" worms.

They're a lot of fun and my 3 year old son enjoys them too. I haven't harvested my compost yet because I decided that I want to start another bin first.

Our composting is just starting. Hubby added lots of leaves from the trees and now it just sits until spring. Since you are in Hawaii I bet it is just beautiful there! We are having cold weather...today is supposed to be 20 for the high and tommorow 9!!!

My hubby used to love to fish, worm composting would be fun I think. We used to raise parrots and had purchased some pairs of african greys from a lady that used to do worm farming and then got into parrots. She had a huge barn filled with rows of tables that the worms used to sit in. I am sure raising worms is way easier and less demanding than raising parrots!!

How long does it take from start to finish for the composting to be complete? Where do you keep your worms? We have a huge basement under our house and it has cement floors and walls. The temperature down there is always nice reguardless of the time of year. We would have to keep them indoors in the winter.

9 Degrees! Brrrrr! I'd turn into a popscicle! LoL! Here in Hawaii, we "freeze" when the temp is in the low 60's. I was wondering why there wasn't much traffic in the gardening forum and after a few days, I realized it's probably snowing on the mainland!

Did you ever talk to the worm/parrot lady about her worm business? Did she sell worms to fisherman, or did she sell the compost and worms to gardeners? I can't imagine making a living from worms, but people seem to do so.

I usually have my worm bin (approx. 30"x17"x6" plastic bins) in my kitchen. They're on my patio right now though. I've had my worms for 7 months and I can't decide where to put them! They're my lil pets and I feel bad when I leave them outside. I know....weird.

Anyway, I've had my worms since May and am finally ready to harvest my first compost. This first batch took much longer than usual because my bin needed time to build up its population. According to the woman who helped me start this, I should be able to harvest every month or so once the population is up.

Worm composting is very easy. All you have to feed them are your fruit/vegetable cuttings and peelings. The woman who runs the gardening site has an article about this under "projects".

Katelyn's article

The woman who helped me has an article on the web also.
Piper's article

Very interesting articles. The worms would definately have to stay in the basement here! It is so cold here, if it is 9 degrees today it sure won't feel like it with the wind blowing like it is!

The lady that used to raise worms had told us she sold the worms for bait. She told us she saved her money from the worm sales and later sold all the worm stuff out and got into raising parrots. She was selling out of the parrots when we purchased our african grey pairs from her. Her husband had retired and wanted to travel. There is no traveling when you have babies to hand feed!

We already compost all our kitchen refuse so I am already programed to save things for the compost. I also save all house plant cuttings. We have 2 coffee can containers (the plastic ones) that we put our composting materials in.

Dear poster,
I'm not sure how to use this chatroom,
but I wanted to get a couple of these worms just to show my students. In Hawaii, they just sell them by the $40 sod-bunch and I was wondering if you have any ideas on how I can get just a few.
Thanks for helping me and I really respect your composting efforts. The whole thing sounds so earth-friendly!
Sincerely,
Robin, robinspencer611@yahoo.com

I googled worms for composting and came up with this link 1 lb red worms I think 1 lb is probably the smallest amount you can purchase. Good luck! Connie