How To Harvest Worm Castings From Your Vermicompost

Are you thinking about or have you started a worm bin and now you are ready to harvest your compost? Composting with worms is super easy and kid friendly, as well.

You can feed them all the same you would feed an outdoor compost and they make pretty quick work of it.

Once you have started your worm bin composting you’ll need to be prepared for the harvest. Today we’re going to talk about how to harvest your vermicompost.

Ready For Use: How To Start Harvesting Worm Castings

Vermicompost (vermi-compost) is the product of the decomposition process using various species of worms, usually red wigglers, white worms, and other earthworms, to create a mixture of decomposing vegetable or food waste, bedding materials, and vermicast. This process is called vermicomposting, while the rearing of worms for this purpose is called vermiculture.
Vermicast (also called worm castings, worm humus, worm manure, or worm feces) is the end-product of the breakdown of organic matter by earthworms.^[1] These castings have been shown to contain reduced levels of contaminants and a higher saturation of nutrients than the organic materials before vermicomposting.^[2]
Vermicompost contains water-soluble nutrients and is an excellent, nutrient-rich organic fertilizer and soil conditioner.^[3] It is used in farming and small scale sustainable, organic farming.

Wikipedia

Two to three months after you start your vermicompost, you’ll notice a few inches of pure worm castings ready for harvesting. The brown, earthy-looking, garden soil – like material at the bottom of your bin is the finished compost your worms made.

You might think that harvesting vermicompost from a home bin can be challenging, especially if you think about how you’re going to separate the finished compost piles from the remaining bedding and/or food, and the worms themselves.

You can take a handful out of the bin, pick out all the worms and any undigested food, then set the finished compost aside.

Although it works, this method can be extremely time-consuming. It requires a strong attention to detail as you are making sure not to harvest worms, eggs, or uncomposted material

There are a few different methods and tricks you can use to harvest your vermicompost.

Benefits Of Worm Castings

Worm castings do amazing things for the soil and seedling growth. The way worm casting gets the best results is the beneficial microbes they provide. The quality of worm castings or organic waste increases the water retention in the soil. This is very helpful in keeping the soil structure sound.

Not only that, but worm castings help improve soil aeration. The best part is that worm casting also helps with the soil quality by keeping healthy ph levels.

This because the ph of the castings act as a barrier to help plants grow in soil where the pH levels are too high or too low. This is the best way to create healthy soil.

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Manual Harvesting

Manual harvesting of worm castings is when you want to collect only small amounts of vermicast a few days after the compost pile is stocked with worms.

The pile may not be fully decomposed yet, but, you can get some of what has been.

This method is simple: Gather the vermicast by hand or with a trowel then transfer it directly into a container.

During this process, you might need to pick out a few worms individually and return them to the compost bin.

Radius Garden Ergonomic Aluminum Hand Trowel

Edward Tools Garden Heavy Duty Carbon Steel Garden Hand Trowel

Bulk Harvesting Using A Pyramid Type Heap

This works by gathering the compost and forming a pyramid or a cone-like heap within the composting bin in a part exposed to some light or a light source.

This method of harvesting vermicompost takes advantage of the worm’s natural sensitivity to heat and light. Once the pyramid is exposed to light, the worms will move deeper into the pyramid.

Then you can start collecting the vermicompost from the top, bottom, and sides by hand or trowel.

Screening Or Sieving

If you want to harvest vermicompost any time of the day or night, this method will work without the need for sunlight. It also has the advantage of separating the vermicompost, substrates, and worms from each other with ease.

You can do it manually by using the same tools that people use to screen out rough sand for masonry. This tool is made of fine mesh wire nailed on wood (for easy handling).

Position the screener above a container or flat surface then transfer a small portion of the pile into the sifter. Shake the screener so that the fine vermicompost falls onto the flat surface or container. The same way you might sift flour for a recipe or strain liquid.

Tinyroots 12”-Diameter Stainless Steel Frame Soil Sieve Set

Tierra Garden Fine Galvanized Mesh Garden Sieve

Below is what I used. I felt the holes were a little bit big, as many worms fell through. It did keep out the uncomposted items, and let the compost fall through easily, but, I also found it inhumane.

I read that worms can’t feel, but, I have a hard time making that actually compute in my head. Another thing I read is that they run from heat, and light, and are uncomfortable in dry situations – I don’t know how that can be true yet, they can’t feel…

The Stackable Tray Method

You can use a stackable tray system or a work tower in your bin. Add a new tray with fresh bedding and fresh food so the worms migrate towards that tray and out of the tray with the finished compost.

This process will take some time to complete, as the worms have to move homes. So, it could take a couple of weeks to get most of them moved to their new home.

At this point, the bottom tray will be worm free. You can start harvesting the compost and start all over again by adding the removed tray back to the top.

Worm Factory Additional Composting Bin Trays

Worm Factory Worm Composting Tray

Migrating The Earthworms

Although it’s not the easiest method, migrating the earthworms first before harvesting is one of the cleanest method to use when harvesting vermicompost.

Once the worms detect another food source, they will abandon the pile with no food left and move to the pile with the new food.

This works similar to the stackable tray method. The method is simple: Add new food to move the earthworms from the current pile they’re in to another pile.

Move the old bedding to one side of the bin and add the new worm bedding and food to the other side of the bin.

Another technique is to construct a new enclosure next to the one with the harvest-ready compost in a way that the two enclosures are butted up to each other with a natural way for the worms to move from one to the other.

The new enclosure should be filled with new and fresh vermicomposting bedding and food.

Once the worms moved to the new bin and the old one is free of worms, it is easier to harvest the vermicompost using a trowel.

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Once you have your vermicompost, you can use it in many different ways! It can be used both indoors and out as a natural fertilizer for your plants, vegetables, grass, or trees.

Since it’s richer than other compost, a little goes a very long way. This is an excellent way to achieve strong plant growth as well as strong root growth. This organic material is much better than any chemical fertilizers as the final product proves.

Your vermicompost is also good in making liquid organic fertilizers. Not only does it provide more essential nutrients and beneficial nutrients to your vegetable garden or flower bed, it also suppresses leaf diseases and repels bugs, when the liquid mixture is sprayed directly onto the leaves. Don’t spray it full strength, it needs to be diluted 1 to 4 cups of liquid to 1 gallon of water

To make a liquid fertilizer with your vermicompost, you can use an aerator to aerate the compost tea. A simpler, also effective, method is to use a paper coffee filter and add about a quarter cup of you earthworm castings and tie the coffee filter up tightly with twine to hold the high-quality castings in.

Add your “tea bag” to 1 gallon of water and let it “steep” overnight, don’t heat it up, just let it sit. You can stir it if you want to aerate it a bit over the time it sits, but, it’s not a deal breaker, if you don’t.

You can use your worm casting tea as a slow-release fertilizer, once a week, or as a foliar spray to nourish and protect the foliage, or just to water your plants – it won’t hurt them just don’t over-water them.

Which harvesting method do you think you prefer?

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