My Winter Worm Bed

February 23, 2010

Winter Worm Bed
The ‘Winter Worm Windrow’ is doing very well – hoping to start harvesting worms from it soon!


Howdy folks – it’s been ages since my last blog post! Sorry about that.

I just wanted to write a little about my winter worm composting bed. Those of you who follow my other sites may already know that I’ve been testing out various (outdoor) winter worm composting systems for the last few years. For whatever reason, I get a kick out of challenging myself in this manner, and it’s certainly been fun!

After a fairly rocky start (primarily due to letting things slide over the holiday season), my windrow bed has definitely made a nice comeback! Temperatures in the middle of bed have been up over 20 C for the better part of a month now. When I dug around in the bed a few days ago I was happy to see that the Red Worm population appears to be thriving as well.

Red Worms

I am hoping to start harvesting worms from the bed fairly soon, so if you are interested in ordering some worms (or have been on my waiting list), you may be in luck in the next week or so!
8)

[tags]worm composting, vermicomposting, winter composting, windrow, worm bed, red worms[/tags]

Comments

4 Responses to “My Winter Worm Bed”

  1. angela anderson on March 6th, 2010 4:51 pm

    winter composting… I live in northern canada – whitehorse yukon to be precise. your definition of winter might be a bit different than mine. where are you doing your testing of winter worm composting? what are some of the temperatures you get through the winter?

  2. Bentley on March 13th, 2010 3:11 pm

    Hi Angela – sorry for the delay!
    Yeah, I suspect that winter composting would be a tad different in Yukon! I live in Southern Ontario. We can get down to -20 or -30 (but not in recent years it seems).
    Up north you would need a LOT of insulation, a LOT of waste materials, and likely some artificial assistance

  3. Henry on December 23rd, 2010 4:18 am

    Hello, thanks for the great site. I am interested in using your trench vermicomposting method at a prison where I will soon be helping to run a small farm. Can you give me some info on how you harvest worms from your trench and you winter trench? Also, would it work to dig out the vermi compost from the trench so that I can spread it around the farm beds?? I like your system because it is cheap, simple, and can process a large amount of food scraps but I am worried about losing my worms and the finished vermicompost. Any thoughts? feel free to email me at the address provided if it is easier than commenting here. Thanks

  4. Carole on September 19th, 2013 4:13 am

    This is for Angela from Whitehorse. I’m in Whitehorse also and very new to composting. I’d be interested to know if you’ve tried it, and whether you use worms. If so, I wouldn’t mind being in contact to exchange info. Just go to my blog and leave a comment. Thanks a bunch!

    Another northern girl!

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