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| Harvested vermicompost |
Last fall my husband repurposed an old cupboard that we pulled out of our laundry room. It was about 2' wide and ran floor to ceiling. He drilled holes in the bottom and added some dividers so it had 5 compartments.
Fast forward to this spring when I ordered red wigglers, aka composting worms. I didn't do enough homework and didn't ask the right questions. As a result I got worms and packing material (1 lb. total) instead of 1 lb. of worms + packing material. Oh well, live and learn.
After the worms arrived I added torn newspaper and cardboard to one section of the worm cupboard. I then added the worms and fed them kitchen scraps for the next 3 months.
I was very happy to see that my worm herd had increased substantially. I had planned to weigh them but the batteries in the scale died. You can also estimate weight by volume. A cup equals about a pound of worms, which is about 1,000 worms. They were a mucous-y mess, though, and I couldn't bring myself to use a measuring cup from the kitchen. Of course I would wash it but I would always know they had been in there! I would estimate that there are 1.5-2 cups of worms in the pile above.
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| Vermicompost in recycle bin |
I was shocked at how much vermicompost they had made. It didn't look like much in the bin but I harvested almost a small garbage can full!
I divided the worms and now I have 2 compartments in the worm cupboard going! After the next harvest I hope to have all 5 in production.
