Worm Bin 3: Flow Through System

In my recent addiction to vermicomposting, I must have watched over 50 videos and read over 50 blog entries for my research and entertainment.  I think I dream about composting worms in my sleep already.  Anyway, freaky behavior aside, I was intrigued by the can'o'worms contraption. Basically, it's a stack of flow-through trays or trays with little holes at the bottom.  It's supposed to let worms move from one tray to another; once they finish eating through one, they'll migrate to the other trays with more food sources.  Now, this system  goes on sale for about $105 or PHP4,600.   So I figured, hey, that's not so hard to replicate and shouldn't cost that much money.

So I bought three trays from Landmark and they're full of holes all over.   It cost me P120 or $2.75.  Well that's not so bad.  To make sure the worms don't escape, I used packing tape around the sides.  You won't see on the picture, but I actually left small holes on the sides: good enough for ventilation but a challenge for worms attempting to escape.  I also taped folded paper on the sides (all 4 sides) to make sure the trays don't get stacked tight.  Now the only way out for the worms is up or down.  Below the bottom tray, I put in a whole newspaper.  Since the bottom is flat, that basically takes care of escape routes from the bottom.   But it'll still have excellent drainage since a whole newspaper won't impede water flow. On top, I'll just place a another whole newspaper and that's it.  No more escape routes.  And yet, since everything's loose, there'll be enough air for the worms. 

So that's it.  I now have a makeshift multi-layer flow-through vermicompost bin.  Will it actually work?  For now it seems better designed than worm bins 1 and 2.  But, we'll see in a couple of weeks if it lives up to my expectations. 

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Growing Melons in my Flow Through Worm Bin - Terminated Experiment

I've been eating a lot of melons the past few months and I've been feeding my African Nightcrawlers a lot of melon rinds.  I've also been throwing lots of melon seeds in my various worm bins.  Because of this, a lot of seedlings have been growing in my worm bins.  So I figured maybe I'll try growing these melons to term in one of my flow through worm bins.
It's been going great too.  I was wondering what to do if the roots grow through the bottom of the tray so I decided to put the tray on an aquarium with lots of paper, food and of course, worms. 

Today, I've decided to terminate the experiment.  Why?  I looked at the aquarium earlier.  It was disgusting.  I even saw a cockroach!  Eek.  There was too much water flowing through the bin and into the aquarium...murky water. I decided to just move the seedlings into a 5-gallon container instead.  I'll just add more material every few days.  There are still worms in there anyway.  I just hope they don't bake since the container is out under the sun.

As for the aquarium, I did what other vermicomposter would do.  I added dry shredded paper all the way to the top of the aquarium.  I'll stop adding material for a few months.   I'll check back in a few months (hopefully it dries up before the rainy season. 

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Vermicomposting in the Philippines: Multiple Tray Flow Through Worm Bin

My really small back porch has been getting really crowded and messy because of all my little worm bins.  And then I had an inspiration.  I decided to have a multi-level flow through bin made out of office trays.  Of course I've tried this before, but I only stacked two or three.  This time around, I stacked five fully filled trays.  That's lots of paper and stuff and very few worms (about 250 grams I would guess).  Will it work?  Perhaps.

Here are some "features" of this stacked contraption: I put four chopsticks through the holes of each tray.   This prevents the trays from being too compressed.  This way maximizes the air flow.  Also to that end, I removed all the packing tape on the sides of the trays since I'm not afraid that the worms will try to escape.  I'm also not afraid of the vermicompost spilling from the sides.  That's because I also have a slightly wider bin at the bottom that will hopefully catch vermicompost falling from the sides.  On top, I just cover the tray with a breathable eco-bag.  And that's it. 

It's just like an expensive worm factory, only much cheaper.   The downside though is that the contraption is accessible.  I've seen a cockroach and two lizards already.  Really?  Are those house lizards feasting on my worms?  Tsk.

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Vermicompost Flow Through Tray Update: Vermicomposting in the Philippines

Today I want to provide an update on my vermicomposting flow through trays.   The tray is pretty full and the contents I would guess are about 80% processed.  In my case, that's good enough to use.   So what did I do?  Well, I wanted to remove the worms from the tray but I don't want to sort through the contents since there's a lot of material there.  What I did instead was to put another tray on top of it with a good number of wet cardboard and paper.  At the bottom of the upper tray, I also put in a watermelon rind and a couple of banana peels just to entice the worms. 

Two days later, I found worms already hanging at the bottom of the upper tray.  Migration has begun.  Earlier when I was looking, I also found lots of worms on the upper part of the lower tray.  Yey!  At least I know vertical migration works.

A couple of entries ago, I also talked about seeds germinating in my worm bin.  I took this picture earlier.  It's just getting silly.  There must be dozens of seedlings in my tray.  They're probably mostly melons.   I'm not sure what to do with the tray.  Should I harvest the vermicompost or should I just let the worms migrate for another day or two and then use the tray as a seedling bed?  Never mind that I'll leave a couple of worms there.  That should be good for the seedlings

right?

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Growing Melons in my Flow Through Worm Bin

I've been eating a lot of melons lately since my worms like the rinds.  So now I have more than enough seeds than I'm prepared to deal with.  So a lot of times, I just throw the seeds in with the rinds inside my worm bins.  In my flow through try, I've had dozens of melon seedlings sprouting at the same time.  Since the contents of the bin are almost fully processed anyway, I figured I would just grow the melons.   As you can see though, the tray is quite shallow.  So how can I grow big melon plants from here?  For one, I'm using pure vermicompost so I'm hoping the roots get their nourishment without a problem.  The tray also has holes in the bottom.  You can't see it very clearly, but there's a covered aquarium underneath.  If roots grow through the tray, they can anchor inside the aquarium.  The aquarium is filled with paper and coffee grounds and of course a couple of worms.  You get the idea, right?  In a month or so, I'll see if it works.  But what happened to the worms?  They're still there.  However, I made the materials in the aquarium high enough so that they touch the bottom of the tray.  The tray gets some sunshine so if it gets too hot, the worms can crawl down the aquarium.  So far, the worms are alive.  My problem though is that the contents of the tray keep dipping since worms tend to poop underneath the tray.  To help keep the tray contents up, I just add shredded paper and coffee grounds regularly.   Once the melon plants grow bigger, I'll tie a couple of straws from the gate to the tray for that trellis effect.  Watch out for it!   

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Harvesting Vermicompost

Curiosity finally got the better of me (yet again).  I know my worm bin 1 is not quite finished (about 60% processed), but I just had to experience harvesting worm castings.  So, I borrowed one of the unused trays from worm bin 3.  I had two reasons for buying those trays: 1) I wanted to try a flow-through bin; and 2) I wanted a sifter.  I figured, the holes at the bottom of this tray are small enough.  It might get a few unprocessed materials, but hey, as long as it's largely vermicompost, I'll be happy.

And so I started getting chunks of material from my pail and pouring them into the tray.  I shook the tray gently and true enough, material fell through the little holes.  Whatever didn't go through the sifter, I just put aside and placed back in the bin afterwards.  I did this about 4-5 times.   I wasn't really trying to finish the contents of the bin, after all.   I just wanted to get enough worm castings to fertilize one lucky plant.  As you can see from the picture, it wasn't really much.

Now the process itself wasn't really as smooth as I described.  In the course of my shaking, I naturally put in a good number of worms in the sifter.  I bet they got dizzy with the process!   As you can see from the picture, there's a couple of those wrigglers on the tray.  If you look close, you'll also see that the worms can easily fit into the holes.  And that's exactly what happened.  The worms (big and small) went down with the castings.  Argh.  So I had to use my trusty new portable garden fork to pick them up (about 20 or so) and put them back in the bin (still dizzy).

And that's that.  After a ton of sweat (it was really hot and humid), it was time to put the castings in a pot.  Which plant was the lucky recipient?  It was this small Spearmint.  Why?  It's the only Spearmint in my garden and it has been stunted for months!  I'm happy it has survived all this time, but I'd like to propagate this too.  And just to add to the odds, the mother plant (this was given to me as a cutting) died already.  I also can't find Spearmint in any seedling garden.

Well let's see how effective the worm poo is and if it can help my little Spearmint defy the odds. Watch out for that update!

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Publish Post

Where Do African Nightcrawlers Poop?

It's an interesting question.  I've never really been able to definitively answer it.  If you look at most material on the Internet, they'll talk about Red Wigglers, not African Nightcrawlers since the former is more suitable for US and Canada where most of the English sites are.  Red Wigglers supposedly feed on top and leave their castings at the bottom.  That's probably why flow through bins work; the vermicomposter can just harvest from the bottom.

The problem with my experience with African Nightcrawlers is that I've seen them deposit castings on top of the bin.  In fact, I even showed a video about it.  However, from my experience with my worm tray, it seems like these worms also deposit their castings at the bottom.  That's why they fall down to the catch tray. 

That said, for now I'm utilizing the tray a little more since harvesting is easier.  The castings that fall through the tray are fairly dry and are more appropriately termed worm castings rather than vermicompost simply because most of the material falling through are vermicast with minimal other organic material. 

Does anyone know the true behavior of African Nightcrawlers?  Where do they poop? 

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Worm Bin 3 Update: Mushrooms in My Worm Tray

A couple of days ago, while checking on my worm bin / flow through tray, I was surprised to see mushrooms sprouting.  In the morning I saw two.  When I checked back in the afternoon, there were like 3-4 more.  Not being sure if they were good for the worms, I cut off the tops to kill the mushrooms.  Yesterday, this is what I saw.  A lot of new mushrooms sprouted.  I'm not sure what type of mushrooms these are, but they have a white stem and a black head.  The head is also "inky" and in fact is staining my tray black.

This morning, naturally I saw a couple more.  But to my surprise, when I lifted the tray to see if any new vermicast has fallen through, I found mushrooms growing upside down!  If only my herbs were as persistent, I'd be a great gardener.  It remains to be seen if these mushrooms will make good worm food.  Let's see.

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Worm Bin 3 Update: Castings

In worm bin 3, I had hoped to apply the quick lessons I've learned from my other relatively new bins.  As I mentioned before, worm bin 3 is designed to be a stackable, flow-through bin.  I also mentioned that while I have been quite generous with my feeding, I'm certain my worms are still okay.   I haven't seen my worms since I placed them there since I haven't been digging around this bin, but this is what I saw underneath.  I think those are worm castings!  Enlarge the picture and see for yourself.  What's cool too is that when I shake the bin, the castings just fall through the holes in the bottom of the bin or tray.  Of course there are some egg shells that fell too, but otherwise, most of the material is black.   Just for fun though, I placed everything back on top.  After all, worm castings are supposed to have beneficial microbes.  If I can spread those in the bin, then great.

Meanwhile, let me talk about my overfeeding.  For most part, I feed my worms pruned herb leaves and weeds.  Lately, I've tried submerging the leaves in water for about two days.  It softens the leaves a lot (like spoiled vegetables).  And since worms don't have teeth (they just suck their food), it'll help them if the food is soft.   True enough when I got the leaves from the cup with water, there was definitely a light aroma of something decomposing.  ;-)  I cut up the leaves and spread them around the tray.  Afterwards, I just covered them with a dry bedding of shredded bills and receipts.  I didn't add further moisture since the leaves were soaking wet as is.  Well that's about it for the update.  Although I don't see my 7-8 worms down there, I hope they're having a feast!

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Easy Worm Castings Harvesting: Vermicomposting in the Philippines

About two weeks ago, I noticed that the contents of one of my small plastic worm bins are almost fully processed.  I figured I would try horizontal migration as a harvesting technique.  I brushed the contents to one side and then I placed a folded cardboard pizza box in the middle to act as a divider.  Then I added fresh bedding to the other side and food for a couple of days.  Since it was a small bin, it was easy to fill up.  Afterwards, I only moistened the "new" side because I wanted to dry up the the vermicompost side somewhat.  In fact, I even left the cover off during daylight to hasten the drying process.  I wanted to encourage the worms (African Nightcrawlers) to migrate to the side with "fresh" food and more optimal moisture.

I did help the process somewhat.  While fiddling with the vermicompost side, I moved one or two worms manually, but for most part I let the worms move on their own. True enough, within a week or so,  I couldn't find any more worms on the vermicompost side.  They all migrated.  Cool huh?  No more sifting.  So apparently, that approach works.

Nonetheless, I didn't use the vermicompost at once.  I placed them all on my flow through worm tray.  Why?  There might be cocoons and I didn't want to waste those.  Meanwhile, only pure vermicast (well 90% at least) falls through from the tray. I know because I see the worms hanging from the bottom to poop (check out my toilet trained African Nightcrawlers video).   It slows down the process a bit.  Still, I get almost pure vermicast while saving worm babies with this method. 

Tip: if you want worms to migrate, feed them their favorite foods!  Try melons and watermelons.

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Low Maintenance Vermicomposting

I haven't been able to give my worms their due attention in the past weeks since I've been rather busy.  That said, my vermicomposting habits have changed somewhat.  I no longer check on my bins several times a day.  It's more like once a week now.  But guess what?  My worms are alright.
So how do I take care of my worms now?   I collect our organic leftovers in a resealable bin.  I add paper as necessary (when there's moisture under the lid) to keep the contents as dry as possible.  At the end of the week, when the bin is full of nice, sour smelling contents, I dump the contents on several layers of whole newspaper sheets (about 3 to keep the dampness from getting through).  Afterwards, I wrap the contents nice and tight and then I dump the newspaper package into one of my flow through trays. 

I transfer about half of the contents of the tray to another tray since the tray contents go down by about half in a week so that my newspaper package has somewhere to go.   I rarely add moisture now since it's been raining.  The worms take care of migration on their own.  That's about it.  Zero organic waste with minimal effort.  

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Wild Yam: Hormone Balancing and Breast Enlargement

Creams, lotions and nutritional supplements with Wild Yam extract are a big hit now. They are recommended as a natural solution to hormonal problems and for breast enlargement. How do they work, and can Wild Yam really help?

Hormonal system is a complicated mechanism that regulates the way your body functions. Food, stress, even day schedule can affect this system and, by that, the way you look and feel. Two hormones whose balance is so important in a woman's body are estrogen and progesterone.

Estrogen is a name for a group of hormones that take part in regulating woman's reproductive system. They are produced by ovaries. As soon as an ovary releases an egg, it starts making estrogen to prepare (thicken) the inner lining of the uterus for pregnancy.

Progesterone is a hormone that is produced by the follicle after ovulation. It keeps the inner lining of the uterus ready to receive a fertilized ovum, and later provides the nurturing for the development of the embryo. If the egg was not fertilized, progesterone encourages the uterus to shed the lining, and the result is menstruation flow.

If the body lacks estrogen, it uses progesterone to produce more estrogen. On the other hand, progesterone counteracts the effect of estrogen. The key is the balance of these two hormones. Too much of either one can cause health problems.

Most women experience lack of progesterone, not estrogen. In addition to estrogen made by the body, we receive doses of estrogen with meats and dairy (farm animals are given this hormone to gain more weight).

Symptoms of estrogen dominance are irregular menstrual flow, hot flashes, cramping, mood swings, migraines - to name a few. Excess estrogen is also associated with endometrial problems, including endometrial cancer. Sufficient levels of progesterone can prevent these problems. Interesting enough, in one study patients who were given natural progesterone showed an increase in bone density, which means that progesterone prevents and even reverses osteoporosis.

Natural progesterone has a structure similar to that of human progesterone and is made form plant fats - saponin and diosgenin. Wild Yam is reach in diosgenin, so it became the most popular source of natural progesterone.

However, it is a common mistake to think that Wild Yam constituents are converted into progesterone by a human body. It does not happen. Progesterone can be derived from a Wild Yam plant, but only in a lab.

So why do people still find Wild Yam creams helpful?

Diosgenin found in Wild Yam is a phytoestrogen, and it closely resembles human progesterone. Due to this similarity, the body reacts to it as if it were progesterone.

Because they are not the same as human hormones, phytoestrogens are far less potent which results in slower effect but safer use. Phytoestrogens do not cause any side effects. Unlike estrogen which, when in excess, is associated with endometrial cancer, phytoestrogens do not evoke cell growth.

Many people question the effectiveness of topical application.

Our skin has the ability to absorb elements that come in contact with it. These elements travel with the blood flow or accumulate in tissues. Nicotine patches and essential oil blends work this way. The benefits of it are obvious: nutrients and vitamins do not travel through the digestive system and liver, where they can be broken down and lose their effectiveness. Diosgenin becomes nearly useless after it is processed by the liver.

On the other hand, when it is applied to such areas as breasts, inner thighs and belly, it easily penetrates the skin. When it is accumulated in breast tissues, it makes fat cells a little bigger, which adds fullness and roundness to the breasts. It does not increase the number of cells, therefore there is a limit to size increase, and it depends on the number of fat cells already present.

After phytoestrogens get into the blood flow, they cause mild estrogenic effect. In other words, they "draw attention" of cell receptors and lock on them preventing real estrogen from producing significant and often undesirable effect. That is why women who suffer from PMS, cramping, menopausal discomfort will benefit from Wild Yam cream. Before the breast enlargement effect was discovered, Wild Yam had been used to treat these complaints for hundreds of years.

Whether you want to balance your hormones, or to add fullness to the breasts, creams with Wild Yam and natural progesterone can be a part of the solution. The results will depend on your actual hormone levels. Sometimes, additional food supplements will be necessary for hormone balancing and faster results.

Disclaimer: The above statements were not evaluated by the FDA. Always consult your doctor for professional advice.

(C) Natalie Katsman 2004 Natalie Katsman is a co-founder of http://www.natural-aid.com where you can find fine quality aloe vera products for beauty and well-being and subscribe to HealthySkin Newsletter filled with beauty tips, recipes and information on herbal healing, skin care and cosmetic chemistry.

Worm Bin Updates

Hello fellow vermicomposting enthusiasts! I can hardly wait to provide an update on my worms.  That's me and my addictions.  Anyway, let's first look at worm bin one: the pail.  As you can see, there's a lot of uncomposted material, but the ratio vs. composted one is probably 40:60.   I've stopped feeding this bin for a week now.  I only add water and I mix up the stuff for aeration (and of course to see my little African Night Crawlers in action).    In the past few days though, this bin has had some adventures.   The other day, I saw a couple of ants inside.  I panicked because I've seen how ants attack lost worms in my backyard.  I added some water to discourage the ants from hanging around any longer.  So that's that.   Yesterday afternoon, when I opened the bin, I was shocked.  There were like 6-7 worms all hanging out on the sides, trying to get out.  That's a first.  I've read that when your worms try to escape at the same time, something's very wrong.   You know what?  I felt the air inside the bin.  It was really warm!  And it came to me.  The 34 degrees Celsius day really heated everything in sight.  My hydrangea wilted (again).  My basil plants wilted.  And now, my worm bin's like a sauna.  And so I left the lid open for a while and used my trusty garden fork to move around some material for better aeration.  I checked again this morning.  Everything's fine again.