How to harvest worm castings

by Dianne
(Hobart, Australia)

I just transferred all my worms out of a tray that was about 10 cm deep into a 3 layer set up with the working area 40-50 cm deep and I wound up with all three layers pretty much full.

My objective of course is to remove the vermicast that I have let accumulate in there for probably too long.
I notice in your pictures the vermicast looks quite light. What I transferred was heavy and kinda of thick.

Do you suggest that I try to sort and separate the worms from the vermicast by hand - and try to get to one working tray? Or will the worms move up to the top tray by themselves so that I can remove the bottom tray with vermicast?
Should I try pouring water through the whole assembly or try aerating??
Thanks for your help
dianne

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May 21, 2015
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starstarstarstarstar 		Can you help me to write about composting?
by: Anonymous

Awesome blog! How much time did you spend to make such a wonderful site? Why have you chosen WORM COMPOSING as your main blog idea?


Could you advice me or consult how to write so great articles? Amanda
Aug 26, 2013
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starstarstarstar 		How to harvest vermicast / worm castings
by: Stephan

Hello Dianne,

thank you for your great question! You touched on an area of worm composting that many people are interested in. "How to separate the worms from the worm castings,?"

We do have a page on our site that explains how to harvest worm castings.
The page url is : www.worm-composting-help.com/harvest-worm-castings.html

This page will explain to you how to harvest your worm castings from a 3 bin worm farm.

If you intend to harvest your worm castings by manually separating the worms from the vermicast you have to do it in a different way which is still quite simple.

Stop feeding the worm farm for about 4 weeks and then dump the content of your worm farm on a sunny day onto a table outside.

Shape the worm castings that are containing your worms into a cone shaped pile and wait for about 10 minutes.

Now remove the outer layers of the castings from the cone till you see worms appear. The worms will straight away dig deeper into the pile of castings to escape the sun light.

Wait for another ten minutes before you remove more worm castings. Remove vermicast till you get to the worms again and wait for another 10 minutes.

Repeat this process till you end up with all the worms on one side and a pile of vermicast on the other.

Place your worms back into their prepared worm bin and use your worm castings for your garden!


Worm castings can hold a lot of moisture and will therefore become quite heavy once they are saturated with water. It might be a good idea to aerate the vermicast a bit before yo want to harvest.

I hope this will clarify a few things for you.

Kind regards and happy worming

Stephan

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