what kind of worm bins work for you?

I've tried a lot of different worm bins. Most of them didn't work. All the small plastic kind didn't have enough volume to keep up with our scraps, and had temp/moisture fluctuations that were bad for the worms. Some of the tower kinds were almost impossible to harvest from.

So I built something like a large wooden cold frame, filled it with bedding, and put window screen over it to keep out flies. I put hardware cloth in the bottom to keep mice out, but keep a connection to the ground; that way moisture would be regulated and the worms could burrow down to hide from weather extremes.

So far, so good . . . except that mice are getting in through cracks where the wood warped and raccoons have figured out how to pull off the screen on top.

What are you all using? And how long have you used it for?

Hi Gilbert, we love our worms and compost bins.
It may be worth to replace the wood and add a latch lock so the critters can't get in as easily. If the weather is dry, one could add a little hot pepper powder where the mice are digging. It would make the mice sneeze whilst digging and hopefully retrain them to leave your worms alone.

I too have found the small plastic stackable worm bins to be too shallow. Here are a few photos of our bins. It's good to have space within a bin to rotate the worms feeding. Putting food in the same place can cause that part of the bin to become really acidic. Add a little brown material to keep the pH balanced.

You could use the HDX Tough storage bin, the largest is 55 gal and costs less than US $20 when on sale from Home Depot. They are much stronger than Rubbermaid. With careful feeding you won't need drainage at the bottom. Just drill holes in the lid for air.

I came up with a worm bin that works great!    We had an old leftover fiberglass bath tub kicking around here for a few years.  I connected pipe to the drain so that it drained horizontally and duct taped a piece of bedsheet over the drain hole.    The tub is mounted on cement blocks in full shade. There is a shallow 2 gallon container that sits under the drain spout.   I placed a piece of thin plywood on it for a lid and painted the whole thing forest green to match the cedar tree background.       The plywood warps down slightly in the middle and directs all the rainfall on the surface to the long back side of the worm tub.   I put the worm material from the old bin in there and piled a lot of it on the back edge.    Now when it rains, the water running down the back edge makes worm tea which drains into the lower container so I can use it on the garden!   When the worm bin gets full, I place balls of worm poo next to each plant for time release fertilizer.    

Mine is similar to the one above. It was a kids plastic sandbox that I drilled a bunch of holes in on one end for drainage as it's on a lil slope. I built a 6 inch extension to make it deeper, out of wood (maybe a foot deep now). As for the lid, it's just plywood and I keep a big rock on there to keep the critters out. It's up on two logs to enable a bucket to sit under my drain holes so I can collect the worm juice. HOT TIP: Put a stick in the bucket to save on dead rodent disposal time.

I’d recommend trying the Johnson-Su bioreactor method. It takes about an hour to make the 4x’ diameter cage with hardware cloth and perforated pipe+ a tpost. Layer materials, leaf litter is the primary preferred ingredient (50-66%) with food scraps and <10% manures layered in. Saturate materials and keep the bun moist. Add worms after its heated up and then cooled below 90F. After a year you end up with almost 2cu yds of worm castings with less than 4hrs work. It’s been found to have some of the highest biodiversity of any compost, can have substantial benefits at as low as 2lbs per acre on broad acre farms, and has a relatively high fungal population for worms castings when leaf litter and wood chips are used for Carbon/browns. I am spreading mine around my raised beds and newly planted trees now, and it looks like the stuff one might pay 40$/ cu ft for (x50 cu ft per bin).

I just use plastic 30 gallon Sterelite storage bins in dark colors. The first one has holes in for drainage, but I've found it's easier to control moisture than to drain to it off. Shredded newspaper controls it well.
I've just started my third bin which is actually my first bin and it was a large ice chest. I put potting soil and composted manure in the chest and let the worms go crazy. They breed like rabbits and the casings are already in the mix so it makes a real good plant starter.
My next bins will be plastic 55 gallon drums cut in half. I have about 5 of them and eventually they will all be in use. I'm trying to get to the point that I have to look for scraps from restaurants and grocery stores. My goal is to sell worm casings by the pound at my local farmers market.

I had great production from a flow-through bin. Go to www.redwormcompstion.com and search for Vermi Bin 48 (or VB 24 if you want something smaller) Easy to build with common tools

I started with a vermicomposting kit based on a plastic bin. I live in Ottawa, Canada, so the bin was kept in the basement to be able to work through the winter. A couple of years after moving to a rural area, I got tired of the harvesting process and, now having a large outdoor composter, I just dumped the worms into it.

The next year I thought they had been killed by the deep winter freeze, but by fall I discovered that I still had worms (in a good way). Since then I just operate and occasionally aerate the composter in the normal way, harvesting compost as needed in the warm months and leaving hungry worms to help make more. They must hibernate or just leave eggs to carry on through a pretty frozen composter in the winter.

I just started raising worms this year.  I had an old livestock water trough that was no longer being used.  It's one of those rubbermade black ones.  I cut the bottom out leaving about a 2" rim around the bottom.  I attached screen to this so it would drain but the worms couldn't crawl out.  I then set it all on a pan that would catch all the liquid and funnel it to one drain hole.  I am in the learning process with vermiculture, but so far this seems to be working fine and the worms are doing okay considering the fact that I have the bin in my garage and the temps have been over 100 for days.  I will be adding more bedding soon.

From the setups I have looked at online I'm hoping I can find an old bathtub that I can use in the future.  Those look like they work very well.

Welcome to permies, Susie! I'm glad you're growing worms. I'd love to see a picture of your set-up. (if you need help posting a picture, follow the link in my signature)

A proper vermiculture is still on my ToDo list, other than operating several composts that occasionally present me with a bounty of them.

I purchased an Urban Worm Bag and love it. I keep it in the basement and, when it’s perfectly balanced with dry bedding and wet food it doesn’t drain at all. The worms are thriving and reproducing well. I like the fact that I can harvest castings from the bottom without disturbing the busy little workers on top. Harvesting takes 10 minutes, max. I’ve had it for 3 years now and that’s a minor miracle since I was totally new to worm farming.

Lexie Smith wrote:I purchased an Urban Worm Bag and love it. I keep it in the basement and, when it’s perfectly balanced with dry bedding and wet food it doesn’t drain at all. The worms are thriving and reproducing well. I like the fact that I can harvest castings from the bottom without disturbing the busy little workers on top. Harvesting takes 10 minutes, max. I’ve had it for 3 years now and that’s a minor miracle since I was totally new to worm farming.

This one? https://shop.urbanwormcompany.com/products/urban-worm-bag-version-2 It looks really easy to use, particularly for people in cities, where space is limited. What are you using as "dry bedding"?

I saw where CRMPI used pallets on the floors of their greenhouses and would lift the plywood walkway and feed the worms. I rerpurposed a plastic cooler buried it in the green house walkway and use that for my worms. I feed the worms household and garden waste. I have control of harvesting the worms and finished compost is ready for use. Drainage holes and vent holes along with a seperator that divides the cooler in half my only modifications. Strong enough to walk on, doesn't freeze in winter.

https://shop.urbanwormcompany.com/products/urban-worm-bag-version-2 It looks really easy to use, particularly for people in cities, where space is limited. What are you using as "dry bedding"?

Yes, that’s the one. I use leaves, grass clippings, cardboard, brown paper, newspapers, used paper towels and so on. I have a counter top compost bin that I put scraps, egg shells, paper towels, coffee grounds, tea leaves and such in and freeze a double handful every week to kill the fruit flies off before I thaw it well and feed it to the worms. I make sure that the material is drained before adding it to keep the liquid (leachate, I think it’s called) from dripping out the bottom. The creator of the worm bag has a newsletter that comes out occasionally that has really good information about successfully keeping it going as well as discounts and recommendations for purchasing worms.

Hello,
has anyone used wooden wine boxes for a worm bin? I have a bunch of them and have been wanting a worm bin in addition to my regular 2 compost piles. There used to be a local company that sold worm castings
but they were ahead of their time and went out of business and I really miss worm castings.

If anyone has suggestions, I'd appreciate them. I don't want to use plastic, even if scavenged.

Thanks!

Cara Campbell wrote:Hello,
has anyone used wooden wine boxes for a worm bin?
Thanks!

I am sure the wooden boxes would work fine. The worms do need a certain level of moisture so the wine boxes would rot after time, but then you could just the set the worms up in some new wine boxes when that happens. My first outside worm bin was a very large wooden box, about 4' x 4', and it took a few years, but it rotted and fell apart. I just left it all in pieces and now the worm bin has become a sort of worm pile. :-) They continue to be happy and prolific. I only have a tarp with a couple of holes over them to keep them from getting overly wet when it rains.

Instructables, vermicomposting bag

Hi!
this bag style vermicompost system won’t work for everyone, but I worked out a version of this that I was planning to install in a 12” wide pull-out cabinet (from IKEA, like a drawer that is the full height of the base cabinet) in my kitchen -- the bag hanging from the upper drawer glide frame of the pull-out, a catch basin sitting on the "floor" of the pull-out

I moved before I could implement, but it seemed to me that this would work well in my cold winter Northeast USA situation with no garage where even my indoor temps would be a little cold for the worms

I may still try this when I get an indoor kitchen built now that I have learned that black bears will go after a bin to eat the high protein worms

I use an old chest freezer. Needs some holes drilled but it is easy to secure and, so far, protects the worms from huge temperature swings.

Jay Angler wrote:

Lexie Smith wrote:I purchased an Urban Worm Bag and love it. I keep it in the basement and, when it’s perfectly balanced with dry bedding and wet food it doesn’t drain at all. The worms are thriving and reproducing well. I like the fact that I can harvest castings from the bottom without disturbing the busy little workers on top. Harvesting takes 10 minutes, max. I’ve had it for 3 years now and that’s a minor miracle since I was totally new to worm farming.

This one? https://shop.urbanwormcompany.com/products/urban-worm-bag-version-2 It looks really easy to use, particularly for people in cities, where space is limited. What are you using as "dry bedding"?

I want to try this but in my kitchen. Any noticeable smells?

Hi
Any plastic container will do provided its vermin proof and retains moisture. Unless timber is lined with plastic, it is far too difficult to keep moist enough. Most people DO NOT keep their worms moist enough to promote breeding.
The trick with those tiny retail farms is to take off drain tap ( keep OPEN) all the time and use the bottom “water tank” as just another tray/level.

I recently started using shredded cardboard with a little coco mixed through.

Depth needs to be 300mm but I have  European night crawlers so plan for 400mm. Surface area is the most critical factor that determines final population you can have.

Vents are also VERY important for evaporation to keep the worms cool in summer.

Photos. White threads on black cloth are hatchlings, Bottom of plastic dog house, kiddy shell pools, retail w/farms, scavenged bath to be converted.

Do not use crushed rock in base for drainage, this is crazy. Grated vertical panels may work. Otherwise, just fluff it up now and then.

Good morning, A couple of years ago my wife and I decided to get a worm bin after attending a garden talk at Sylmar High School in Sylmar California and speaking with a wormer at a local farmers market. We decided on one of those multi layer Japanese Pagoda looking ones, small enough for the two of us. So off we went and set it up in our garage following the instructions. Next we went and bought worms at a local farmers market put them into the bin and a week later added some finely cut up kitchen scraps. We waited a week and added more scraps, noting that there was not much progress ( though we did see some worms ), but we are patient being new to worm composting. Well after about 3 months we saw no activity, digging through the scraps now moldy and slightly smelly we saw no worms. We spoke with our "worm lady" at the farmers market and started over just because. New media, kitchen scraps and then got new worms. Well about 2 months later we went through the bin and no worms at all. The worms did not escape from the bin because we kept the lights on in the garage, the temperature was not hot for too cold. So exasperated at this Time we decided to start over with a bigger bin thinking the bin was too small. Well as I was cleaning out the worm bin layer by layer I discovered a frog in the bottom where the "juice" would be and I swear it was smiling at me, or maybe laughing. Well it was happy and after we stopped laughing at ourselves I removed the frog to the garden.
The moral to this story is "you've got to keep your sense of humor", we don't always have complete control even when we follow instructions.

I am using a long thin plastic box with a lid, in a 'wedge system'.

It took a while to find the right box: The box itself was originally designed as a plastic Christmas tree storage box. It is around a foot wide and deep, and 4ft long. It holds up to about 77L, which is the same as most home systems.

When using it, as for the larger farm scale wedge system, you layer your greens/browns and grit etc from one end at a slope of say 45 degrees. Each week I add my veg scraps and browns on top to make a bigger wedge.
I've not got far yet but the worms are thriving. I keep spare shredded card at the other end of the box to soak up excess moisture (I figure the microbes in that moisture are probably worth recycling into the worm farm)

So far the worms are thriving and happily multiplying. I like the size because it fits neatly in my outhouse (protected from the colder weather) and it is portable if needed (I took it to a horticultural society event to show children the worms - went down very well!)

Once I get to the other end, I'll start harvesting from the start point, and then push the remaining matter along the box to maintain the wedge and carry on adding more organic matter.
This is simple, cheap and accessible - I am so glad I didn't pay money for a more expensive system.

I purchased a cheap plastic tower bin off Amazon and a bag of red wigglers . The set up lives under my kitchen island. No smell at all and it produces more casings than I can keep up with!  I also have chickens and a compost bin for additional scraps. The worms particularly love coffee grounds and banana peels. Which I have a lot of!  For a small set up it works great. Every now and then I take out an entire tray and dump it in my garden, worms and all.

I've been using these bagster worm bins ala Meme's worms on Youtube.  The internal frame is 3/4" PVC piping and fittings.  They are permeable on the bottom so moisture won't pool.   If I remember correctly it was about $35 for the bagster and then maybe $20-$25 in fittings/pipe.



We started with 5 lbs of worms and they eat all of our kitchen scraps and other old veggie scraps from a food pantry operation, as well as all of our cardboard and paper scraps.  Grass clippings.  Pig and cow poop and straw bedding.

I also fed them some old spoiled feed from the feed store.  

We have a mist system set up to multiply the worms.  I think this plus the permeability of the bag is key.

This fall I split the one bin into 3.  In the middle of the bin they had multiplied such that if you stuck your hand in near some food, it was a wriggling mass 1 inch thick.  You could literally pick up a pound of worms in your hand with a scoop or two.

Here is another idea if you have an old leaky water trough or two about: Homemade Continuous Flow Through Bin, this one is out of a stock tank with 3/4" EMT conduit for the bottom.  I drilled holes with a hole saw and bent the conduit over so it wouldn't fall out.  

I also spaced the conduit so it would be spaced for the tool I'm using to scrape the castings out, in my case, an old corn fork to pull the cobs down out of a crib.

To start it out, you put in a layer of cardboard, some bedding, and your worms.  

Then you scrape the castings off the bottom and keep adding your feed and fresh bedding to the top.  The castings can sit on the ground to dry for a few days before sifting.

The bedding is rotted wood chips, compost, and shredded (non-glossy) paper.

I use a large cooler placed in one of my raised greenhouse beds. Trimmings go into the bin, it's insulated keeping it from getting too hot in the summer or too cold in the winter. Kitchen compost goes in as I take it out.
Drainage goes into the raised bed, that happens to be a self-watering bed. It is dispersed throughout the bed eventually, though you can see some areas that are better fertilized due to proximity. Worms and castings are readily available to spread.