worms and my hotbin

What is a hot bin? It sounds intriguing and a very cosy home for worms!

I’ve tried to use a wormery in my garden but it just didn’t work. I think the climate here (NE Scotland) is too cold.

I have a hotbin but don't normally find worms in it as it is too hot when active. Sometimes there are some small ones on the inside of the lid.

I have never brought my hotbin up to maximum temperature, I would say warm rather than hot. The worms obviously loved it, I must have grown hundreds of worms. It is just an insulated container with incoming air, a door at the bottom and an opening lid. I only ever feed my hotbin with fresh veg peelings and chopped plant material, shredded paper and the bark. Good stuff for worm -growing

My garden had no worms when I started in may, it now has worms but I need to increase that popuation massively to have healthy soil

Are these worms earthworms or something else?

tiger worms are compost dwellers and earthworms are soil dwellers. Tiger worms eat the plant material and paper and turn it into fine black compost

www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=726

I am going to have to separate the worms out when I take the compost from the bottom. I think I can just about run the 2 mini bins, being on my own and having a limited supply of veggies. It will be easier when my garden establishes. No messing, I will have to pick the worms out with bare fingers, don`t want to squash them

Rather than picking the worms out by hand, if you empty out the bin and spread it out a bit on a solid surface or tarpaulin ( or else the worms will dig down!) then put a black bin liner ( or similar) over the middle of it, the worms will gather under the plastic within 24 hours. Then fold bag smaller and leave again... repeat a few times and you will have a tight colony of worms to collect and return to the bin.
Just make sure the surface is not in the sun or the lil' wrigglers will fry!!

Hi Crafty. I'm considering a hotbin and have been reading a lot of info about them. I'm a bit concerned about having enough shredded paper to add as this seems important for this type of composter. Do you find that a problem?

SueD you do need to keep the wormer out of the direct wind and sun, they take a little time to get going but once the are away the worms multiply massively. I have an old outdoor chair cover that I put over the wormer in the winter. It’s a very pleasing way to reduce waste and improve the soil!

ooh thanks Fleur, that is very good advice, will save me hours picking them out carefully one at a time.

ScaredyKatt, I am blushing but I had the best produce on the whole of the allotment site that I used to belong to. Everyone else used raw horse manure, I never used manure, I only used comfrey (bocking 14) and gave it 3 cuts a year, leaving some for the masses of bumblebees that the flowers attracted. The cuts went into my large size hotbin and they were a super additive, heated the bin up very quickly and I got black gold about 3 times a year, enough for my allotment because I rotated beds. I never added any worms but the bin was one wriggly heap

Now I have 2 active mini hotbins and the reason I use papershreds right now is because I cannot, on my own, provide enough vegetable scrapings. I don`t use any cooked food. I use amazon wrapping material often, it makes nice shreds and I shred any letters etc. All it really needs is vegetable matter and a handful of composted bark every so often, this is easily found in big bags and it isn`t too heavy

I can report back that the worms seem to be thriving and are taking the materials down at a very fast rate. I put anything I can into it, always using my secateurs and chopping small. Last addition were rose prunings and today, veg from making veg juice. I may change tack slightly and do as Fleur suggests when I empty the first bin. I will add those worms to the worms in bin 2, otherwise I just cannot keep up right now. It will change completely when my new garden potager establishes