“What is a fast and easy way to collect worm castings?”
This seems to be a question I see a lot through Facebook groups/pages and other websites on worm composting. I ask the same question myself all the time. With the busy lives we all seem to live these days, we all desire quick results.
Back on December 29, 2017, I wrote about a Worm Casting Harvester that I made from a metal wastebasket (Check out the post here: https://rickshobbygarage.com/how-to-make-a-worm-casting-harvester/). Some people say the holes are too small since they are only about an ⅛”. For the most part, I have found that it still works great for me, but the castings do need to be a little dryer than usual for them to properly filter through the screen, otherwise they start balling up during the tumbling process and you don’t get as many castings.
Since my worm bins have been a little more moist lately, that tumbling process has not been performing as well now as it did when I first created it. I am not going to retire it for those days when the castings are dryer in the hot summer days, but I did create another quick, inexpensive alternative to sifting the castings.
The holes in this sifter are a little bigger and allow most castings to fall through easier. Some castings still ball up, but no where near as many as the other method mentioned above. The down side so far is that more worms make it through the screen than they did with the metal wastebasket version. But the plus side is that I can quickly get the castings I need.
I put some castings in from the bin into the sifter and rock it back and forth over a plastic tote that will catch all the castings that fall through. I then pick the worms out and return them back to their bin. The balled up castings that did not make it through also get returned back into the worm bin. It is a fairly quick process and easy to do since the worms are on top of the sifted castings. If you must ask, as many have on other versions…yes, the worm cocoons do make it through. I do not know how to prevent that.
This sifter is pretty easy to make and is cheap to make.
Here is what I used:
- 1 fence board
- 8 1-⅝” long drywall screws
- 8 small screws to attach the screen
- 1 soffit vent, which I picked up from Lowes for a few bucks
That’s it!
Give it a try yourself and let me know your thoughts. What do you like and dislike about it?