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Harvesting the Compost:
As time passes the bedding, along with the food waste, is converted into worm compost (castings), it becomes heavier, more compact and changes to a dark brown soil-like material. This stage is usually reached within 3 to 4 months. The quality of the worms' environment is diminished, as they have effectively fouled it with their manure. For the health of the worms and continued efficient wormery operation it is time to remove some, or all, of the finished compost. There are several ways of doing this .
Tip the entire bin contents onto a plastic sheet or a concreted area (best done outside).
Spread the compost out to form a layer about 100mm thick. The worms dislike light and burrow deeper into the compost to avoid it. Using this fact, it's easy over a period of about half an hour, to slowly remove the compost layers, until eventually you have a mass of wriggling worms which can be added back into the worm bin containing new bedding.
Be careful that the worms don't dry out. You may wish to manually separate out the worms. Children usually love this! Watch for small worms and the tiny (average around 4mm) yellow/pink oval shaped cocoons, which may contain baby worms.
You may prefer to simply move the finished compost over to one side of the bin, place fresh bedding in the space created, and add food waste to the new bedding only.
The worms will gradually move over and the compost can then be removed. At this stage you may wish to start extra worm bins or give some worms to a friend.
Using Your Compost
Finished worm compost is nutrient rich and as such is an excellent material for top-dressing container plants and as an ingredient in potting mixes. It can also be used in the garden, a handful mixed into the soil when transplanting vegetables etc gives plants a good start. Use in small amounts.
Compost used as part of a potting mix or as a topdressing around potted plants should not contain worms as they tend to upset the functioning of the potting media.
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