Worm composter - flow through

[Lando]

Hi
Has anyone ever tried building a "flow through" worm composter, a big one, about 4 feet by two feet, out of wood. Or has anyone seen any plans for one?
Thanks

[veggiechicken]

Like this DIY Flow Through bins: a collection of links - vermicomposters.com

[Lando]

yeah similar to the OSCR reactor, but they charge for the plans and it dosent look that complicated to build. I have ploughed through videos on utube but have not been able to get any plans/measurments. Its not that complicated so I might just botch it and see how it goes

[liddlelur]

Hi there!
I have instructions to build a wormery and where you can get the building materials free. Here are the instructions:
Instructions for setting up your stacking wormery.
You will require: -
• 3 x Stackable plastics tote boxes (bins) Wilkinsons are the cheapest, and are very similar to the silver wormerys on eBay.
• 1 x clip on lid to fit the top bin again from Wilkinsons.
• Plastic gauze with no more than 1mm holes, to fit the size of the bottom of the bins .Buy from most garden centres, it called green house shading. We will sell you some if you cannot get hold of this, at a reasonable price.
• Damp to the touch shredded paper (bedding) to cover the bottom of one of the bins approx 1 inch in height, throughout the bottom of the bin – important: ensure paper only & no staples.
• A drill and drill bit up to ¾” (16mm) in diameter to drill holes in the bottom of two bins. Precise size of this drill unimportant.
• A plastic tap + nut and seal – from Wilkinsons. An appropriate size would be ½” or ¾”.
• A drill bit to drill a hole for the tap. It is important that the size of this drill bit matches the outside diameter of your tap. But do not worry too much about the tap, as you will not get much liquid on the bottom bin and can be easily tipped out.
• Crushed up weetabix (starter food, preferably mixed for 1.5 minutes in a food processor).
• Buy Night crawler / Dendrobena worms or red worms, buy from the Internet (the more you buy the more productive a wormery will be). We use wormsdirect.com who are cheaper than anywhere else we could find.

1. Drill six holes in the bottom of two of your bins, ensuring they are evenly spaced.
2. Drill a hole the same size as your plastic tap into any side of the third bin. The height of the hole above the bas of the bin needs to be just enough so that the lowest part of the tap is just clear of the surface the wormery will stand on.
3. Insert your tap in the hole you have just drilled. Place the seal over the tap on the inside of the bin and secure with the nut.
4. Cut the green mesh to the size of the bottom of your bins.
5. Locate the green mesh in the bottom of one of bins with holes in its base. This will stop the worms from falling into the bottom container and possibly drowning in the liquid fertilizer. As an added precaution a large stone in the bottom leaning upwards will help them climb back into their home.
6. Place a couple of sheets of newspaper over the mesh.
7. Add some damp, not wet shredded paper (or compostcritters coir block) and fill 1 inch of the bottom of one of the bin.
8. Sprinkle a teaspoon of crushed up oats or wheat.
9. Add the worms.
10. Place some more damp newspaper over the top of your worm and bedding.
11. Place the lid on your wormery.
NB: You do not have to use the third bin at this stage.
12. Place the now prepared bin on the top of the bin with the tap. Your wormery is now up and running.

Your worms and food.
Worms will need a little time to adjust, therefore please go carefully with what you feed your worms. Firstly feed only half a handful of chopped up kitchen waste dispersed all over the bin, in the first two weeks. Feed a teaspoon of worm food every four days. Keep an eye on the food to ensure that the worms are eating, they will eat eventually after they have become acclimatized. Do not put to much food into your wormery to quickly until you see that the food is disappearing. Once the worms start to eat you can add more waste, just remember to much food will go rotten and kill them. If your wormery starts to smell, you are overfeeding! Making worm casting compost is a gradual process. We find that worms love shredded newspaper and lay more eggs if they have plenty to nest in.
Worms need grit to add their digestion, crunched up eggshells periodically, will do the job just as well.

Your baby worms and more worms and more……
Worms breed like you would never believe, they will produce small yellow eggs which get darker, you will quickly double your stock, if the breeding conditions are right (they do not like to hot or cold temperatures therefore try to keep your wormery between 12 and 25 degrees), if you have a hut or garage this is the ideal place to look after your little critters!!

Creature comforts
Worms love the dark (put food under damp newspaper). The worms also require lots of air, turn your wormery periodically and use plenty of shredded newspaper, worms love shredded paper!!!. Do not get your wormery to wet. It should always be damp to the touch.

Making more compost
When your wormery is two thirds full add the third bin to the top of your 2nd bin, ensuring you put the snap on lid on the top bin of the wormery, add scrunched up newspaper around the corners to stop your little critters escaping. Your worms will eat all the scraps from your 2nd bin and then naturally migrate through the holes in the bottom of your third bin upwards to the eat the food, leaving you with gorgeous worm cast compost.

Liquid from the sump
Liquid will take some time to penetrate to the sump, be patient it will happen. When it does you will be very happy with the results it produces.

One Bin Wonder
If you do not mind picking out worms, you can buy any bin with a secure lid without gaps (wilkinsons) drill a few small holes on the bottom of the bin, add some anti escape mesh then add worms, a little food and just feed gradually. Once full of waste just wait, until the waste turns to compost, then tip the contents out separate the worms use the compost and start again!!

Personally we prefer the stacking method, as the ‘one bin wonder’ is a lot of hassle to pick out the worms. But is no hassle until this stage.
EITHER WAY BUILDING A WORMERY IS NOT DIFFICULT ANYONE CAN DO IT!!!!

To get all of the materials free check out the UK online based non-profit voluntary recycling/reuse organisation ilovefreegle.org which is a free to join and use online forum with over 366 groups across the UK - Freegle means 'Free Giving Locally Easily' and has only one goal 'To Stop Good Stuff Going to Landfill' and in doing so supports local communities.

You can offer or request just about anything so long as it's free and legal ilovefreegle.org has a presence on Facebook and Twitter and is run via Yahoo Groups you will also find Freegle Direct (https://direct.ilovefreegle.org) Freegle also actively encourages Schools, Colleges, Uni's, Allotment Assoc. Hostels, Community Groups, Charities, Non-profits and many more who can post for resources free of charge. Hope this helps?
Regards
Liz

[Two_Sheds]

3 x Stackable plastics tote boxes

He (?) does want wood though, and 4ft by 2ft.

Question: why so big?

[Lando]

I need that much surface area to hold a large enough population of worms to deal with amount of vegitation my house and allotment produce as waste