Simple Garden Vermicomposting, 1 year update

 Just a short update to let you know how this project is moving along.  

People say that red wigglers are composting worms, and are not really suitable for the garden.  I would agree, in general.  However, I have 1 year of data that suggests they CAN survive and thrive in a yard setting.  

Back in 2020, most people did something new or unusual due to Covid.  One of my new behaviors was to spend much more time in my yard.  As I am growing avocados and oranges, it seemed like mulch was something that would help reduce my need to water and feed my trees.  I also have a pomegranate and persimmon tree.  All of these trees received an abundant cover of mulch.  Also in that spring, I put a few cardboard boxes under my avocado tree with some red wigglers and horse manure in them.  My goal was to breed some red wigglers to sell.  What happened was I didn't ever "harvest" any worms, the boxes decayed, and the worms went wherever.  Some months later I was digging under an orange tree about 25 feet away and was surprised to find an abundance of red wigglers under there as well.  They made the journey from the adjacent avocado tree to find another place of refuge.  This was part of what inspired me to create the bins under some of my other trees.  

Today I explored thoroughly the three worm "Rotters" in my yard.  What I found was two of them loaded with large adult red wigglers, as well as lots of juveniles as well.  The third, the one under the pomegranate tree, was not as loaded, in fact the worms were fairly scarce.  One contributor may be that roughly 4 weeks ago I pulled back a ~4 square foot area of mulch and put down maybe 20 pounds of cut up apples.  Maybe they have moved into that rich food source instead.  

Another thing I found was that the level of material was no longer going down.  All the bins had received some paper products a month or two ago, and they were all still basically "full".  The material at the bottom of the rotters was fairly compacted, and apparently the worms were no longer carrying that out into the garden.  My solution was to simply dump the contents into a cleared section nearby, put some new material in the rotters, and put some of the old material back on top.  The worms will work that material for awhile and continue to grow, breed, and feed my trees.  

If I had the option, I would used Rotters with a higher surface area.  I think the worms would do a better job of depositing the compost if that was the case.  I also considered just cutting off the bottom of the containers, as then there would be nothing to inhibit a free flow of compost out.  But for now I'll just see how it goes with the roughly annual maintenance.  I did move a couple of the rotters before now, as what can happen is the trees nearby know there's a great food source inside and will send roots up into it.  Not necessarily bad, but then the bottom gets clogged, and if you ever want to move the rotter then you'll break those roots.  

I continue to find red wigglers in the mulch all over my yard, as well as in the grass.  Often when I pull weeds up, a red wiggler will be somewhere in the roots.  That's part of the symbiosis between plants and the worms, the plant roots produce carbohydrates (I think?) that feed the surrounding fauna, and the worms are very interested in consuming the microbes feeding on those carbs.  

Simple Garden Vermicomposting

The subject of this post is garden worm food bins, and feeding composting worms in your yard or garden in general.  A garden worm food bin is sort of like a regular compost pile, but much more accessible to smaller yards and spaces.  What we're talking about here is a container which will protect decaying food and bedding from unwanted mammals and provide a place for composting worms to live right in your garden.  While likely soil dwelling worms, as well as ants, pill bugs, millipedes, and other composters would help to break down this material and put it in the soil, my favorite is red wiggler worms.  The first "product" I found that is designed to assist in this task is sold by Kookaburra Worm Farms.  It is called The Little Rotter.  It's basically a container that has access to the ground via holes in the bottom, which allows matter to pass between the container and the soil.  The matter could be insects, worms, microbes, or the materials which those critters carry.  

Credit:  Kookaburra Worm Farms

According to George Mingin of Kookaburra Worm Farms,

"These Little Rotters also have a surprisingly large capacity. Even though the surface area inside the Little Rotter is small, the actual surface area that your worms have access to is the size of your garden. So, you can feed a huge population of worms with just one Little Rotter, meaning they have the ability to outperform much bigger worm farms. These Little Rotters are also a “never fill” bin. As long as they are sitting ON TOP of the soil, the worms will continue to empty them for you. They will NEVER FILL when used properly.". 

After pondering this a bit I did some more searching and found an interesting blog post about someone who either made or perhaps purchased what he called a big rotter.  Same concept, different form factor, probably a bit better for larger populations of red wigglers.  

I decided to make my own Little Rotter.  From the website, "Each Little Rotter unit measures 220mm square x 310mm tall and will service an area of approx 10 square metres."  I made my Little Rotter's mostly out of discarded coffee containers.  Dimensions are about 220mm tall and 150mm in diameter, so a bit smaller than the ones you buy from Kookaburra Worm Farms.  One is a discarded dishwasher pod container.  The first Rotter I started in mid December 2021. The last (so far) I made yesterday.  I set them all up similarly.  Bottom layer is always a paper product, either cardboard, egg cartons, or this cool brown paper with small slits in it which is used as packing material.  That packaging material is visible in the picture of the bottom of the  Rotter.  Next is the worms.  Either more decomposing paper products full of worms, or a handful of worms and castings from one of my bins.  Then either some more bedding, or sometimes just food.  Yesterday's bin was set up with pieces of squash I found on a hike with my wife yesterday.  It's already decaying, so that will be food for the worms before you know it.  Going forward will most likely be primarily food, as George mentioned above.  But likely periodically I'll add some bedding as well.  When temperatures warm up, I may cover the boxes partially with cardboard to provide shade.  But it's been a cooler winter here, and direct exposure to the sun doesn't seem to be a problem.  

My first Rotter, under the avocado tree:  

Bottom of my most recent creation:  

 

The Rotters are placed under trees, as I don't have an active garden presently.  The first is under my Fuerte avocado tree, the second under a pomegranate tree, and the third under my Fuyu persimmon tree.  Not sure if the red wigglers were the difference or not, but this past year was phenomenal for the Fuyu.  It's tallest point is maybe 6.5 feet, and its roughly 10 feet diameter at its widest.  In past years it produced 30 to 50 persimmons.  Early Covid-19, so spring 2020, I heavily mulched all my trees, adding like 6-8 inches as shown in the pictures.  Fall 2020, I discovered there were some red wigglers living in the mulch under the Fuyu.  Periodically I'll bury grass clippings under the mulch, that and water is all I do.  This year the tree produced 260 persimmons.  That's a 5 fold increase!!  Was it the red wigglers composting action?  I'm not sure, but I'm promoting red wigglers under all my trees now.  

Avocado tree Rotter, installed Dec 18th:

Pomegranate tree Rotter, installed Jan 3rd:

Fuyu persimmon tree Rotter, installed Jan 15th: 

(note, the 1/2 black composting bin was used to support the very heavily loaded persimmon tree branches)

I did the same sort of thing in spring 2021, by putting manure and red wigglers in cardboard boxes under my biggest avocado tree (Hass).  When I dig around in the mulch under the tree, I can still easily find red wigglers living at the mulch/soil interface.  And not just where they were placed in the cardboard boxes, but several feet away as well.  

A couple of video examples below, both about 10 feet from where I had the boxes with red wigglers and manure.  This was under a plastic sled, so it's extra moist there still.  We've not had rain for 3 weeks now, but the mulch really helps keep things moist (even without the sled).   

Having red wigglers in bins is a lot of fun, but putting them to work in your yard is even more beneficial if you can take advantage of their characteristics and provide a habitat for them to thrive.  And it is a lot of fun to see them, as well as newts, millipedes, and the rest of the crew in action.  I'll be interested to see if/how the Rotter's I'm installing impact my yard, and also how quickly the level of material in the containers goes down.   

Video of lifting the most mature rotter, note the red wiggler in limbo:  

If you're not interested, or don't have the materials to make something, another technique I used this fall is to just put discarded squash under my trees.  The red wigglers like this also.  The one below is under the Fuyu tree.