Checking bottom layers

[elleyfant]

I got my wormery May(ish) last year, and I harvested the bottom two layers today. I was so excited!!!

But.. the bottom two layers were probably a bit on the wet side, the layer above was really really wet, and the layer above that is where I'm currently putting in food (4 in total). That layer I've been managing the moisture with, and I kind of assumed all the lower levels would be ok. Bit of an oversight.. The sump had water in, but it's never got that high, certainly never had enough to get any coming out the tap when opened. Do you know why the water wouldn't drain to the sump?

I put the really wet layer back with some shredded paper and wood pellets (left over unused cat litter) to soak it up. I guess I should be periodically checking all the layers for moisture??. Any tips and similar experiences?? 

This may be why my worms didn't seem too happy before maybe..

[WormyMcWormerson]

What do you have covering the mesh on the bottom tray? I use polyester weed barrier (they ate the cotton shirt I previously used!) and get 500-1000 ml of liquid per week, feeding over a kilogram of scraps per week. The level usually isn't high enough to come out of the tap without tipping the wormery slightly. 

My bottom tray is quite wet, too, since it receives the drainage from the other 3 trays. The castings smell fine and everything is well broken down, though. If they're too wet I spread them out on a tarpaulin to let them dry out for a while or store them in a bucket lined with newspaper and with lots of air holes/the lid left ajar.

[elleyfant]

I can't remember what I put in tbh - either paper or cardboard. Either way - it's long gone. I left all the trays in over the winter because it's supposed to be better for planting the seeds in if it's not been stored away from worms. I don't feed them anywhere near as much as you... Just starting to up the amount again now it's getting warmer. But whilst the bottom two trays were wet, it was the one above the bottom two that had the "standing water" in it - the one immediately below the top level where I put the food. It's like it wasn't draining through at all.

Do you know where WillyWorm is? Is he ok? I'm hoping he's just on holiday, but he's usually on the forum all the time - hoping nothing bad has happened

[WillyWorm]

I can't remember what I put in tbh - either paper or cardboard.  Either way - it's long gone.  I left all the trays in over the winter because it's supposed to be better for planting the seeds in if it's not been stored away from worms.  I don't feed them anywhere near as much as you...  Just starting to up the amount again now it's getting warmer.  But whilst the bottom two trays were wet, it was the one above the bottom two that had the "standing water" in it - the one immediately below the top level where I put the food.  It's like it wasn't draining through at all.

Do you know where WillyWorm is?  Is he ok?  I'm hoping he's just on holiday, but he's usually on the forum all the time - hoping nothing bad has happened

Hi elleyfant, I'm fit and well, thanks for your concern. I've not been around much because the forum has been so quiet, nice to see there is still some life left lol.
Having standing water in a tray is a concern. That amount of water would indicate your bin is close too or is anaerobic (without oxygen). This can occur when all the gaps in the bedding are filled with moisture. If you have not all ready done so you should "fluff up the bedding" use your hands or a small hand fork to open up the bedding, this will introduce some air and encourage the liquid to drain. I would repeat this everyday for a few days or until the compost returns to a damp (like a wrung out sponge) state. Because you now have a spare tray I would be tempted to split your wet tray and put half into another tray, top the trays up with shredded corrugated cardboard. Your worms can use the glue as food and the corrugations will allow extra air flow. 

Elley did you manage to move your worm bins inside or are they still outside? The fact that the tray one from the top is the one with "standing" water in is interesting. If your bin is still outside this excessive wetting may be explained by something I noticed with my bin on a wet afternoon last autumn. When my bins are outside I put clips round the lid to stop it blowing away. I noticed that when it rains the water runs off the roof and meets the lip joining the roof and top tray. Very little water gets in there because the lip of the roof is the same size as the lip on the tray, so it run over the side and lands on the lip of level 2 here there is a space between the two trays, this is to ventilate the tray and to allow the top tray to drop inside the lower tray as the bedding is broken down by the worms (it is like this on every level). Anyway the rain water can find easy assess at this point, when it lands on the lip there is nothing to stop it from dropping inside. Because a lot of the moisture gets into the bin at this point and a lot misses the lip on the next levels there is less water to infiltrate lower levels which result in no puddles for them. This problem can occur at anytime even with summer rain. The answer if your bin is outside is to cover your bin with a plastic sheet when rain is expected. 
The other way your bin can get excessively wet is due to feeding wet food. This maybe the food itself is very wet or the way it is prepared adds more water e.g boiling and liquidising. If you are using wet food then try to mix it with some dry bedding at the time you are feeding it. Try to find ways to reduce the moisture content in the food e.g allow it to drain.

The reason nothing comes out of the tap when you open it is due to one or two reasons 1) the liquid is below the level of the tap. Or 2) as you will see a lot of castings also end up in the sump these can block the tap (it's easy to unblock with a thin stick or piece of wire)

My worm bin currently generates about 100ml (less than a quarter of a pint) of liquid a week. I am not a fan of leachate and view them as "robbers" of goodness from my finished castings. Pilkington in his book "Composting with Worms" views them as potentially dangerous, he recommends dumping leachate into the compost bin in the garden.  


HTH
Willy 

[elleyfant]

Hmm. Interesting thanks Willy. I moved the wormery to the greenhouse for the winter, so rain shouldn't be a problem. But before this, it was outside with two old compost bags on the top and a stone on the lid to keep them in place. I think this is reasonably effective, but some rain may be able to get in at the front on a lower layer especially if the wind had blown it open. I had put the bags on top ever since I had a water problem before. I reckon I probably never properly checked the lower layers after that ? The sump just doesn't have enough water in to drain..

For food, I tend to just put in raw. And add dry stuff like sawdust (essentially) and shredded paper. I do try to keep an eye on the top layee for moisture and assumed if that was ok, the others would be too..

I mixed a load of shredded paper in with the wet layer. So it should be aerated, I will check again to see how it's looking now.

[WillyWorm]

Good luck finding where the moisture is coming from. Please keep us updated.

[WormyMcWormerson]

My garden seems to like the leachate! If the wormery only had one layer, I probably wouldn't use it, but it has no odour and has filtered through 3 layers of castings before getting to the sump. I only use it on well established plants, though.

[WillyWorm]

Hi Wormy, I think you are right, there is a lot of nutrients and goodness in leachate which should not be wasted. It's seems you are also a little cautious about the way in which you use it, "no smell" and "only on mature plants" you did not mention if you diluted it and if so to what degree? I think we should be cautious, many well respected worm heads are saying the jury is out on this subject. 
My main point about leachate is that it is robbing my casting of goodness??. If I want a liquid feed I can easily make a brew of compost/casting tea, and avoid all the dangers that some people are highlighting. You did say that your leachate passes through 3 levels of casting before you collect it. How much do you collect per week, two pints may be? If it takes 12 weeks from kitchen scraps to finished castings, that's three gallons, how much goodness will have been removed from castings in that time.?
My personal rules for leachate are: 1) avoid them 2) when I get them (which I do) check for smell. 3) aerate them (by putting them in a 6 pint milk bottle and shake). 4) dilute to 15 to 1 or more. 5) only use on the soil around plants (rarely use in veg garden). 

Willy

[WormyMcWormerson]

Yes, it gets diluted, but only by about a half. I probably average ~750ml a week, depending on the moisture content of the scraps they've been fed. Quite happy to give it to the less delicate plants such as potatoes, bulbs and hardy herbs, or even just whack it on the comfrey patch (used to make fertiliser tea).

The potential nutrient loss is why I am loath to just discard the leachate: even the liquid from my bokashi bins gets used in the garden (though diluted to about 2 tsp per litre!). Much rather keep all of these nutrients in the garden than flush them down the drain. We also compost as much garden waste as possible to encourage a more closed loop nutrient cycle. 

A little nutrient loss doesn't concern me too much; the castings only get used at a maximum 20% of seedling/potting mix along with plenty of other nutrient sources, and I am more interested in their disease resistance and root promoting benefits than their ability to provide NPK etc.

It would be interesting to get a chemical and bacterial analysis of leachate, to see what's actually in it!

[WillyWorm]

Hi Wormy, I think you are right, there is a lot of nutrients and goodness in leachate which should not be wasted. It's seems you are also a little cautious about the way in which you use it, "no smell" and "only on mature plants" you did not mention if you diluted it and if so to what degree? I think we should be cautious, many well respected worm heads are saying the jury is out on this subject. 
My main point about leachate is that it is robbing my casting of goodness??. If I want a liquid feed I can easily make a brew of compost/casting tea, and avoid all the dangers that some people are highlighting. You did say that your leachate passes through 3 levels of casting before you collect it. How much do you collect per week, two pints may be? If it takes 12 weeks from kitchen scraps to finished castings, that's three gallons, how much goodness will have been removed from castings in that time.?
My personal rules for leachate are: 1) avoid them 2) when I get them (which I do) check for smell. 3) aerate them (by putting them in a 6 pint milk bottle and shake). 4) dilute to 15 to 1 or more. 5) only use on the soil around plants (rarely use in veg garden). 

Willy

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Sorry don't know why that reply came up again. 
Like you I'm always trying to close that loop. Recently I've started doing a lot more fungal composting in order to use more of the carbons I can't use in the compost bins. 

Have fun
Wily