Vermicomposting - Winterizing the Vermicomposter 2009

Sunday, November 15, 2009.

The air is chill. The temperature has dropped to 9c.

Time to bring in the worms.

In past winters I have left them outside on the balcony; as the temperature drops, the worms lay eggs.

The worms do not survive the winter, but the eggs do survive. Worms have evolved over millions of years. As a species, they are succesful survivors.

The eggs hatch once the warmer weather starts, but this year I found that to be an unacceptable delay, so I’m bringing the family indoors.

Here is a photo of my big bin, scraped pretty clean.

The piece of cardboard standing along the back side looks burned, but is really rotted and eaten away by this year’s worm colony.

At the upper-left, outside the bin, you can see the “burned” edge of another strip of cardboard removed while I was emptying the bin.

These sheets of cardboard lined the sides of the bin. I will keep them and use them as bedding on the floor of the bin next spring.

Here we see a 25-liter pail holding the last scrapings.

I did not see many worms in each of the five pails I removed, but I saw some, so I know that they are in there!

My plastic bin (the tray from a discarded hamster cage!) is full of scrapings, and has been covered with a sheet of cardboard to stop Jupiter using it as a kitty-litter tray.

The contents of the plastic tray will be consigned to bags.

Here lined up on the west-facing wall are plastic garbage bags into which is loaded a bin of shredded paper from my paper shredder, and onto which is tipped a pail or two of bin scrapings.

Each plastic bag is a small colony of worms.

I will leave the bags in the warmth of the afternoon sun until the first frost strikes, then they will come indoors.

The last warmth of fall will help to jolly the worms along, and the black plastic should absorb some heat to tide the worms over each chilly evening.

When I bring the bags inside, I will fold the top of the bag to trap condensing moisture and feed it back into the mix while still allowing air to circulate.

Here is another example of an indoor bag solution.

The tall (2 feet) cardboard carton is lined with a black plastic garbage bag.

Into the bag goes a shredder-bin of paper.

On top of that first load goes a half-pail of vermicompost, complete with worms.

I place a plastic shopping bag on top of, and inside, the garbage bag.

As moisture evaporates from the mix, it condenses on the shopping bag and drips back into the mix.

There is a gap around the edge of the shopping bag that permits some air to circulate.

Coffee grounds and the ˝ cup of yesterday’s coffee go into the garbage bag as extra carbon and moisture about three times a week.

Of course, once the shredder bin is full, it will be added to the garbage bag.

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