I am excited to announce that it is time to harvest that “black gold” that is such a super fertilizer for the garden! See how to set up a vermicomposting bin here. Patience is not one of my strong suits, so I was so thrilled to be able to harvest my earthworm castings after a LONG 10 weeks. Hopefully it will be worth the wait. You might be asking, What is the best way to harvest this black gold? Good question. I will tell you how Heather at The Texas Worm Ranch told me to pan this black gold. I trust she knows what she is talking about because she is the main wrangler at her Ponderosa of worms The Texas Worm Ranch. Visit the Texas Worm Ranch here.http://txwormranch.com/
Heather at the Texas Worm Ranch. Red Wigglers
At the ranch they let vibration work for them. They have a huge vibrating machine that shifts the compost and worms from the “black gold” aka earthworm castings. After that they put the mixture into a wire mesh tumbler that further separates this valuable garden fertilizer. While it is undoubtedly nice to have all this separated for you at the touch of a button, the home gardener does not have it so lucky. We have to find a way of sifting this valuable “black gold” for ourselves.
#1 Way to harvest Black Gold: Sift it baby!
In comes my handy dandy homemade sifter to save the day. Here are step by step instructions on how to build a earthworm castings sifter for yourself.
Step one: Use scrap lumber to make a frame to fit on a bin/storage container of some sort to harvest your “black gold”. I cut down some wood I had from pallets and added blocks for support in each corner.
pieces cut, ready to assemble attaching wire mesh to frame.
Step two: Cover the frame you made with 1/4 inch hard ware cloth. I attached mine with staples.
Now that you have your sifter built, here comes the fun part! Shovel some castings/compost on the metal mesh that you have made and pan for gold, “black gold” that is! This takes a shaking, shifting, body moving dynamic that you might not be prepared for.
It struck me as I wiggled, vibrated, shifted and shook that this is probably just what the ” ready to get rich quick” gold rush miners felt. This is what I felt; feel the burn, feel it some more, burning is getting a tad intense, finally ask a friend to spell you. Let me just point out here that it is NOT JUST ANY friend that will “shake the sh**t for you! Thank you, Sam for getting in the spirit of the whole situation and finding the humor in panning for “black gold”. You are my best garden buddy forever and always!
Let me just point out here that gardening, including shifting, shaking and otherwise gyrating, work out into a very nice weight loss program. One day at the community garden, I could tell it pained my friend Charles to see me working so hard. Even though I could appreciate Charles’ gentlemanly attitude, one day I held out my palm, signaling stop, and said to him; “Charles back off and let me get my garden work out. People pay hundreds of dollars at a gym for this.” This habitual exercise combined with the eating of the veggies you produce, works out in you favor, or maybe your spouse’s favor. However you want to look at it.
#2 Way to harvest Black Gold: Phototropic
If you are not feeling like a work out or building a sifter, than another way to separate this fertilizer would involve the word phototropic.
This is just a complicated way of saying that these squirmy critters hate the light so burrow to the bottom of the pile. Once they are all hunkered down away from the light you can remove the bulk of compost above them and return the handful of wiggly worms on the bottom back to the bin.
#3 Way to harvest Black Gold: Feed em!
Save up those food scraps, because you are going to need em. Place a good amound of food scraps on one side of your vermicomposting bin. Wait about an hour, until all your worms have moved to the buffet and harvest the black gold from the other side of the bin. Eureka! Black Gold!
#4 Way to harvest Black Gold: Bananas anyone?
I bet you didn’t know that red wigglers are crazy for bananas! Well, now you know. Open up a banana, eat half & lay it in your bin. Wait about an hour, until your worms are heavy into a banana feast. Lift out the banana & harvest the big clump of worms under it. Put these worms in another container & repeat the banana bait trap. After you have most of the worms harvested, you can enjoy your Black Gold!
All that’s left is to start your bin again & wait another 10-8wks to get more wonderful garden greatness! Add fresh partially composted material on the bottom of the bin, place your worms in, add a handful of veggie scraps in the middle and the damp shredded newspapers on top. Don’t forget to mark your calendar 10 weeks out to remind you it is time to pan gold again.
Now that you have this “black gold” all separated it out, what is the best way to put it to use?
The expert worm wrangler, Heather, told me to use my earth worm castings in the following ways:
- In seed starting or containers, mix your soil mix with 10-20% of the mix as worm castings.
- In gardens, 10 lbs per 100 square foot is appropriate(for a 4′ x 8′ raised bed I calculated 3 lbs)
- To boost garden plants, a handful each month near the root zone is helpful.
I myself plan to use this first batch to start some seedlings for Spring planting. I will do a batch of seedlings with “black gold” and one with out because I love a good experiment.
Over all the creation of a vermicomposting bin has been a great addition to the homestead. A big shout out to Heather at the Texas Worm Ranch for helping me be successful at this! Follow the link here and check out the Ranch. They have everything to get you started.
I hope you are getting lots of Black Gold this Spring! As for me I am rich! Dash
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