Harvesting worm castings from your Hungry Bin

Learn how to harvest worm castings from your Hungry Bin with Leo Murray from Why Waste, NZ.
When you feed your food scraps to worms you create natural fertiliser filled with beneficial microbes, which is far superior to chemical fertilisers. You can utilise that amazing fertility to grow food. Food sovereignty is the most important thing for communities facing an uncertain future and growing your own is the best way to develop resilience for so many reasons.
Why Waste rents and manages worm farms to households and businesses, transforming food waste into fertile soil and reducing landfill waste by up to half.
A benefit of renting a managed worm farm from Why Waste is that they will harvesting castings for you to use. As a customer, all you have to do is open the lid and put the waste in. However, even if you are a customer you might like to have a go at harvesting yourself, and maybe even get the kids involved.
If you don’t have a worm farm, or if you have one that isn’t operating optimally go to www.whywaste.co.nz for a professionally serviced worm farm that runs optimally with guaranteed success.

[@OvenBakedCookie]

Great stuff man, I'm just getting into composting/worm farming now. I didn't know how useful this is! Reducing waste + creating great fertiliser.

[@vickibee8451]

Are you using shredded cardboard for bedding? If so, what kind of shredder and where can i get one?

[@xxnotmuchxx]

would it be better to cover the casting from the sun using woodchips or whatnot so that sun doesnt kill the bacteria?

[@dadnar7615]

I dig the bin and the hat!

[@melaniefreeman3378]

How long does it take fresh waste to become this compost?

[@martysgarden]

three months or more Melanie😀

[@lungfei3757]

For a brand new flow through worm bin probably take a year.

[@martysgarden]

@@lungfei3757 yes, depending on the materials, how many worms and climate. Mine took six months the first time.

[@kylieek89]

Is there anything I can do to lower the number of worms that sit in the casting? Not sure why but my worm farm was doing really great but now, it hardly produces any juice and there are a lot of worms in the bottom..... I've had to put the casting back onto the top previously due to the large number of worms. Thanks!

[@joemontgomery860]

I’ve had the exact same problem! And I’ve done the same thing! I had better compost when I just threw everything into a huge old whiskey barrel and sifted it from time to time. This is getting disappointing and I’m sorry no one answered your comment for some advice.

[@Trenscendent]

@@joemontgomery860 you both need to wait longer between harvesting each brick of castings. The worms will leave once everything is processed and it's all just castings. The fact there's lots still in that area means there is still a lot of unprocessed organic material.

[@joemontgomery860]

@@Trenscendent I never see anything else in the castings but the worms and dirt. You mean in the composter itself? The gray is very full when I unlatch it. :/

[@sandy5149]

@@joemontgomery860 You can also put the castings in a box and add a bucket whith holes in the bottom on top. Then you feed in the bucket and after a few days most of the worms should be in the bucket

[@joemontgomery860]

@@sandy5149 wouldn’t the castings fall through as well?

[@tiffanynarveson230]

When do you know it is time to harvest castings?

[@AJsGreenTopics]

The scraps turn to brown soil.

[@brianboe3774]

Search Captain Matt for a larger more successful worm farm .. he does continuous flow bins

[@BigBadJooDooDaddy]

Purchased ours in October and will give it a few more months, but we tried to harvest some castings and EVERYTHING FELL OUT OF THE BOTTOM. Maybe the castings weren't compacted sufficiently but this is a pricey item ($400) and thus far, there is much to recommend it. Filling it is easy, it is mobile, it doesn't smell and it produces a good quantity of tea. But I tried contacting the company and never got any reply. Has anyone had a similar experience with this?

[@subtropicalsteph]

Probably just needed to give it more time to compact. I read that you should expect to harvest castings after about 8 weeks.

[@JB-tp8hu]

When transferring my old compost to the hungry bin for the first time the ENTIRE bottom dropped out of the hungry bin - I'm talking not just the tray that's supposed to come out but the clips themselves ripped out from where they attach to the upper portion - was so disappointed and still no word from the company after 2 months. I glued it all back together and put bricks underneath to support the bottom. Fingers crossed it all holds together on my first harvest.