“Are there plans out there on how to build a tumbler to use in worm production?” ~ Doug H
Hi Doug
I’m going to assume you are talking about a ‘compost tumbler’.
Last week I provided some links that may be helpful for anyone interested in building their own rotary worm harvester – if this is in fact what you are referring to, you might want to check out my response from last week.
I do know that quite a few people are wondering if compost tumblers can be used for vermicomposting, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to tackle this topic.
For starters – to answer your question Doug, while I haven’t actually found “plans”, I have come across some interesting videos relating to the topic of building your own tumbler.
We’ll chat about some of these before I get into the topic of using a tumbler for vermicomposting.
Here are links to three videos that should help you get pointed in the right direction:
1) http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=FcPz4XF-yUM
An excellent video put together by the “Urban Homessteaders”, demonstrating how to create a high quality tumbler in your yard.
2) http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=StU-qNizI8g
This one shows a really nice looking machine-driven system, but unfortunately doesn’t provide instructions for how to put it together yourself.
3) http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=6HfKFeAOnp4
Quick video showing a relatively simple design for a homemade compost tumbler – again, not really any instructions, but given the simplicity of the design it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out.
Now for the bad news (haha) – compost tumblers do not really make the best vermicomposting bins. Worms don’t like being tossed around very much (to say the least), plus these drums can heat up very quickly, especially if placed in a sunny location.
I WOULD however highly recommend using one to create your own “worm food” though.
Throw in a bunch of food waste, along with a lot of shredded cardboard and/or other absorbent ‘brown’ materials and let it sit for a week or two (making sure to turn your tumbler periodically). You should end up with a nicely decomposed mix of materials that will be readily consumed by your worms!
i built a 3000 litre compost tumbler and lived in it for 2 weeks with 500 worms…..it was fine until the tumbling started….i broke both of my arms and legs and had to be taken to hospital….the worms didnt think much of it either