black gold

I've been getting antsy to harvest the vermicompost. After three weeks away it looked like most of the bedding was consumed and there's very little room left, so I left the worms unfed for another week in preparation to move them into the empty bin. Have been shredding cardboard in the meantime. Soaked it overnight in bucket of fish water. Turns out I needn't have bothered. When I started really digging into the bin and turning things over, found a lot of carboard bedding still there. I was too far into the project at that point to quit, so kept going.

It was funny to see all the leggy seedlings that sprouted in the bin (from discarded hamster food):

There are two tiny baby worms on my finger on the right. I've found some even smaller.

I tried to use this method of making hills to let the worms sort themselves: they move down away from the light. But they weren't moving down much, every time I lifted the top handful off (after an hour at the longest wait) I ended up with clumps of worms. It was a bit overcast so I waited for the sun to come out- then they moved down into the piles, but it also got above 86° which can kill them. So then I was working quickly, to get done before the heat got worse. After trying a few different ways to sort the worms and lumps out, found it was easiest to work my hands through the pile on the ground, sorting clumps of unfinished compost and bedding by feel, then pick the worms out. In the end I sifted it all by hand. It was very tedious, but also kind of satisfying to hold loose handfuls of worms and feel their liveliness turning and tickling on my skin. Found tons of small worms and babies- tried to save every one but later when using the stuff rescued a few more. Didn't bother saving the eggs, that seemed pointless. They will surely make more.

When I put the worms and unfinished stuff back into the bin, fluffed up with the new prepared bedding, it was nearly full again! The amount of compost I got out filled about a third of the old bin.

I've already applied it, top-dressing all the plants (except those that will be repotted very soon). I hope they like the stuff and will reward me with health and new, vibrant growth! Seems like I need to wait longer before trying to harvest again, or give them more time to process everything (maybe leaving unfed a whole month?) I wouldn't mind if I only get one harvest a year, this amount was more than I needed for all my houseplants and tiny balcony garden. But I'd like to manage things so that it occurs in springtime, when the plants naturally have a growth spurt.

I helped my daughter repot and top-dress some of her plants too (future post) and the rest of this will go to my boyfriend's garden to give his hostas a boost.