Hi All,

I have two vermicomposting bins active, and they are going great. The bins are large plastic bins with holes in the bottom so that worms can enter, and holes in the lid to allow rainwater to keep the bin moist.

This has worked out REALLY well, and I have an amazing amount of worms (red wrigglers and others) eating up all my kitchen waste.

The question I have is, now what ?

It is going to get too cold for the worms and the composting to continue, however the bins still contain uncomposted waste. One thought that I have on how to use all this is:

- Simply dig two holes in my vegetable garden, and dump this bins in. This will allow the worms to continue eating and composting, and eventually disperse into my garden. This will also allow me to restart the bins with a new crop of chopped up leaves. Questions I have on this approach are: should I move some of the worms dumped in the garden back into the new crop of leaves, or just wait for new worms to enter the bin?

Suggestions welcome, Thanks!

I have a similar setup. I just move my bin to what ever area I want the worms to be, and let it set there. Once it gets too cold, they crawl out the bottom and into the soil. I leave the compost in the bin until spring and then spread it and add new stuff to the bin.

@JT2, You don't say where you are, but red wigglers (composting worms) can't survive freezing temperatures, in a bin or in freezing soil outside, but their eggs can. If you dump your bin in your veggie garden for the winter they'll die if it freezes, but you'll have new ones from the eggs when the weather warms in the spring. @cwhitt, do you ever see red wigglers survive your winters?

Here is an article about protecting them outdoors. Apparently not foolproof, but it makes sense. I'm not familiar with this source, so can't guarantee the accuracy. Most sites on the subject address worm bins in the cold, not worms in the soil.
https://gardenxo.com/can-compo...

@JT2 I have never noticed. They seem to disappear from my bin when the weather cools and then reappear in spring and especially later in summer when it gets warm. I just assumed they dug down deeper into the earth. They sure do make a lot of babies in my bin. I have never seen any dead ones though. I guess I should pay more attention.

@JT2 interesting article. It appears I am doing some things right for winter. My bin is in my patio flower bed and the patio is protected by a fence. I also pack the bin in the fall with a bunch of dry vegetable matter - all the way to over flowing. And I leave the bin where it is and don't move it until spring. So they can move out the bottom of the bin if they want if they get too cold, but are still protected by the bin itself. So perhaps they do survive.

I've been raising composting red worms in my shop (stat set to 50F in winter) for the last couple years doing some Vermicomposting experiments. I bought ~2 thousand worms from a local guy but it appears they're also available online. Very easy to setup:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
I give the worms veg scraps (sometimes whipped into a slurry shake), egg shells, coffee grounds and also a mix of flour, corn meal and ground oats feeding them about once per week.

I've been populating 5 gallon buckets with some worms creating worm tower compost bins (free range worms) per videos like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
This has been a convenient way to 3-season compost but I'll be building a larger outside compost bin this season. I've been moving the compost/worm castings from the towers to enrich the soil during Spring planting then restarting the bin using captive worms. I don't know if the worm guys survive our relatively mild winters or not. Hence the handful catch & release.

I just made a 1/4" screen sifter to harvest castings for the 1st time as an amendment to my new greenhouse soil. I couldn't find 1/8" hardware cloth in a small amount so ended up buying a gold pan sifter which some folks say they've used to separate the worm eggs from the castings. I'm giving this harvest a go today using the bright light technique to make the worms seek darkness lower down in the bins (light up the tote, wait 20 minutes for the worms to head down, scrape the top layer, sift and repeat). Seems reasonable...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008B0TJAI/

The worms make great pets as they never complain and don't require much ongoing effort. They happily stay in the totes but it is important to keep them fed as I had a worm riot one time when I forgot their meal. Fortunately they stayed inside the tote. Garden on..