How to use vermicompost
You have been feeding and caring for your worms for months and now your worm bin is full, what ' s next? How is vermicompost harvested and how to use it?
It is usually recommended to harvest for worm compost only after 120 days from the day you started the worm bin, this is to ensure all food particles, even non visible ones, to be fully composted and for the compost to be safe to use even on edible plants. With a stacking system with three or four trays this should be easily achievable if you didn ' t rush by overfeeding.
When ready to be harvested, your compost should look dark and fluffy with no sign of bad smell or recognisable food material. Some material such as eggshells, avocado rinds or small amount of cardboard might still be found in the bottom tray, this is OK and they can either go back into the worm bin or be added with the vermicompost into the garden where they will continue to break down.
The vermicompost should be moist and crumbly but not wet and muddy or else this means the system is too wet and there is a risk of the material being anaerobic, which should be avoided. A muddy vermicompost makes it hard to harvest and separate the worms, then when applied to the garden it is not simple to work it down into the soil and it can become really hard when it dries and won ' t absorb water easily to soften back. There are several ways to fix a muddy compost:
• Mix in a lot of dry shredded corrugated card board and wait for few days and apply both into the garden. The cardboard will eventually break down.
• Add a layer of dry carbon rich material on top of the muddy compost and wait few days without a lid for the dry material to suck up the moisture that will then evaporate in contact with air. Rolling sheets of corrugated cardboard and pushing them deep into the compost, sticking out from the surface will help the drying process. In the end remove the cardboard material and reuse it in another tray as bedding.
• For several days, fluff the vermicompost daily and leave the lid open for it to dry.
Once the vermicompost is dry just enough you should be able to make a ball in your hand and it will break down with a slight squeeze. You now can harvest it from the tray.
If you have a stacking trays system, separating worms and cocoons from the harvested tray( bottom) is not necessary, there should be enough left in the other trays so sustain the whole system. You can release them into the garden where they will survive if you have added mulch on the surface and keep it moist. They will, there, continue to do good to the plants. However, if you need to separate the worms you could try one of these methods:
• Use a bait such as half an avocado or a slice of cantaloupe( rock melon) placed on the surface of the compost. In a day or two most of the worms should be gathered under the bait, just scoop them out.
• Use the light method which requires you to pile up the vermicompost into mounds under a light source. Wait few minutes for the worms to dive down and start scratching the top of the mound away. Repeat the process until you reach the bottom where there should be only a ball of worms left.
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