Worm towers are one of the best options for beginners who are just starting vermicomposting. They’re easy to set up and clean. We can’t mention worm towers without mentioning VermiHut!
VermiHut is an exceptional worm farm for beginners. Due to its stackable 5-tray design, you can easily assemble it and adjust its capacity to your liking. It’s extremely durable, which means it’ll last you a lifetime.
Still, you don’t want to buy your forever worm farm without understanding what you’re getting! So, keep reading our comprehensive VermiHut review to know all bout the worm farm.
What Is VermiHut Worm Farm?
VermiHut is the vermicomposting tray solution from Vermitec. The 5-tray worm farm can efficiently get rid of organic waste. This isn’t limited to kitchen waste, but you can use it to compost animal waste, dirt, paper, and cardboard.
Not only does VermiHut reduce your carbon footprint, but it also gives you excellent organic fertilizer. Even if you don’t have a garden, you might gift your supply to a gardening-lover, or even sell it at the farmer’s market!
Many people dislike the idea of composting due to the smell. After all, you basically put food in a tray to rot. Yet, vermicomposting is different.
As the name suggests, worm farms rely on compost worms to eat waste in as little time as possible. So, your worm tower will be completely odorless.
How Does VermiHut Worm Farm Work?
VermiHut is incredibly simple to use. All you have to do is place the worm bedding, worms, and food scraps into the topmost tray, then let the worms work their magic!
When the compost worms eat the waste, they’ll expel liquid and castings. If you use the correct bedding material for the worm farm, the liquid fertilizer will automatically drain into the collecting tray. Then, you can harvest it through the spigot.
The self-draining bedding will also compress the worm castings into the bottom-most tray. This means you can simply harvest it from one tray, instead of raking through five different trays.
Worm castings are significantly beneficial for your garden. You might even consider them to be liquid gold!
Pros of VermiHut Worm Farm
Here are all the reasons why VermiHut is the perfect worm farm for beginners and experts alike:
Easy to Use
VermiHut is the ideal worm farm for beginners. You can assemble it in only minutes, even if you have no experience with worm towers.
That’s because VermiHut consists of a set of trays, which you can easily stack on top of each other. The worm farm also has sturdy legs, so you won’t need to worry about accidentally knocking it over!
The best part is that it has everything you’ll need to set up your worm farm.
Here’s everything that you’ll find in your VermiHut worm composting kit:
- User manual
- Worm feeding instructions
- Coconut fiber mat
- Coconut coir bedding
- Ant trappers
- Bucket for collecting worm tea
Large Capacity
If you’re looking for a worm farm to compost all your kitchen waste, VermiHut will have sufficient space and more. The worm farm’s capacity is a whopping 40 liters.
The trays are significantly deep, leading to comfortable and happy compost worms.
As for the composting capacity, VermiHut can typically host about 10 pounds of compost worms, which consume half their weight in organic waste daily. So, the farm can compost five pounds per day.
It’s recommended that you start with only ½ a pound of worms. The worms will then reproduce until they reach the farm’s maximum capacity.
Don’t worry about overpopulation, though. The worms will only reproduce to the farm’s capacity.
Expandable
You can adjust the size of your worm farm to your liking. This is particularly great if you’re new to composting. That’s because you’ll get to start with a manageable five-tray worm tower, which will still be more than enough to compost your organic waste.
Then, as you gain experience, or if the size of your family increases, you can expand the worm population by adding two extra trays.
Vermin-Free
The major issue with composting bins is all the insects and vermin that you might find lurking about. However, this isn’t a concern when it comes to VermiHut.
Vermin are typically attracted to strong odors. Yet, VermiHut is completely odorless, granted you don’t overfeed the worms!
Moreover, the compost bin is equipped with ant trappers, preventing any insects from entering your farm and disrupting the environment.
Unique Components
VermiHut isn’t your average worm composter. Instead, it includes distinct features that make worm composting much easier.
M-Board
To start, VermiHut’s base tray includes a worm-saving tray, also known as an M-board. A common harvesting problem is finding worms within the liquid collection tray. So, you’ll have to individually remove the worms from the tea, and remove the castings with a shovel.
Naturally, this can seem intimidating for beginners, especially since you don’t want to harm your precious worms.
Luckily, the M-board works as a worm ladder, helping your tiny friends climb back up the trays. It also prevents food scraps or bedding material from falling into the liquid.
That’s not all! The M-board contains multiple air holes, providing extra air circulation to the tray system.
V-Board
You shouldn’t expect any odor from your VermiHut worm farm. The trays are sturdy with plenty of space, meaning that the worms will compost your food waste in only hours.
However, VermiHut introduced extra odor-preventing technology in their new designs. This includes a coconut mat and a special V-board built into the air-vented lid.
Both components provide moisture control, extra ventilation, and deodorizing features.
Cons of VermiHut Worm Farm
Though VermiHut is a superb worm farm, it has some drawbacks, including:
Size
VermiHut is bulky, to say the least. Its dimensions are 17 × 17 × 15, and that’s with five trays only. As for its weight, it weighs 13 lbs when empty.
In addition, the worm farm has a set of sturdy “shoes,” keeping it anchored to the ground. You can transform the shoes into ant trappers by filling them with water.
Accordingly, moving your worm farm from one location to another would be incredibly difficult. So, you need to be careful when choosing its location.
Though the farm’s odorless operation means that it’s excellent as an indoor worm compost bin, it needs plenty of space. This means VermiHut might not be suitable if you live in a small apartment.
Design
At first glance, you might mistake VermiHut for a trash bin! While this means the worm farm can blend seamlessly outdoors, it isn’t particularly easy on the eyes indoors.
VermiHut comes in only three color options, green, dark green, and terracotta.
Not only is the farm’s design far from sleek, but it makes harvesting quite uncomfortable. The 5-tray design doesn’t have tall enough base legs. You’ll need to bend down to reach the harvesting tray, which would be significantly heavy.
How to Use VermiHut Worm Farm
There’s no denying that VermiHut is one of the best worm composters on the market. While the worm tower is beginner-friendly, here are step-by-step instructions to help you along your vermicomposting journey:
- Assemble the Farm
Fortunately, you’ll find assembly instructions with your VermiHut kit. The instructions will include all the parts and how to set up your farm.
That said, you can actually get by without reading the assembly instructions! VermiHut’s stackable tray design is straightforward. All you should do is put the tray one on top of the other, and your worm farm will be ready!
As for the spigot, you can simply install it by twisting the provided nut. It should sit flush with the collecting tray, so there’ll be no leakage. For extra security, you can fill the collecting tray with water and check if the spigot works properly!
- Set the Bedding
Healthy bedding is crucial for your worm farm. After all, it’s the environment in which your worms live, eat, and compost!
Generally, you can choose between the following bedding materials:
- Aged compost
- Shredded newspaper
- Shredded cardboard
- Soil
- Coconut coir
That said, VermiHut already includes a coconut mat in the V-board system. So, it only makes sense to use coconut coir as bedding.
It’s perfect for beginners, as it requires minimal maintenance. It’s also self-draining, which means the compost liquid and castings will automatically drain into the collecting tray.
If you’re going for coconut coir bedding, it should be moist at all times. While you won’t need to aerate or clean it as often, it’s crucial to place the coir in water before setting it in the trays.
- Place the Compost Worms in the Farm
Once you’ve chosen a location for your compost bin, installed it, and prepped the bedding, it’s time to place the worms. Simply put the worms in the topmost tray.
There’s no need to worry if the worms appear sluggish at first. That’s because they’re recuperating from the trip as well as adjusting to their new home.
Give your compost worms a couple of hours to adapt to the environment, then begin feeding them!
The 5-tray compost can house 10 lbs of worms. If you add two extra trays, your worm population can expand to 14 lbs.
You don’t have to add the worms, though. Instead, the worms present in the tray will reproduce.
Ideal compost worm choices include:
- Tiger worms (Eisenia foetida)
- Red worms (Lumbricus rubellus)
- Indian blue worms (Perionyx excavatus)
- Feed the Worms
Now it’s time to start composting your kitchen waste. It’s crucial to understand that all the waste you’re getting rid of ends up being your worm’s diet.
Accordingly, you should pay attention to what you’re feeding the worms. Not only will your worms be healthier, but you’ll also end up with high-quality compost.
Here’s what you should feed your compost worms:
- Leftover vegetables
- Tea leaves and coffee grounds
- Shredded paper
- Crushed eggshells
Alternatively, you should avoid composting the following:
- Acidic food such as citrus and fruit peel
- Spicy food, onions, and garlic
- Animal waste, especially if you’re planning to use the liquid as vegetable fertilizer
- Processed wheat products such as bread and pasta
- Harvest the Worm Tea and Castings
Lastly, you can harvest the compost liquid and the castings. Harvesting the liquid is simple, as you can just turn on the spigot.
As for the worm castings, you should carefully remove the bottom-most tray. Then, place it on the top, so it becomes the new feeding tray.
Using a rake, stir through the tray gently. This will help the worms move to the following tray, so you can harvest the worm castings.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I replace worm bedding?
After about six to seven months, your worm tower will be mostly castings with very little bedding. Even if you regularly harvest the casting, the amount of bedding won’t be sufficient to support the worms.
Accordingly, you should replace the entire bedding every six months.
To do this, you’ll need to remove the top six inches of the bedding, including the worms. Then, dump the rest of the bedding, ensuring there are no worms in it.
Is it normal for worm farms to smell?
It’s a common misconception that worm farms should smell. However, worm farms, especially VermiHut, are odorless. The reason is that worms go through the food scraps pretty quickly.
VermiHut also has plenty of odor-preventing technologies for maximum aeration of the trays and minimal smell.
If your worm farm begins to smell, it means there’s rotting food in the trays. This can be due to overfeeding the worms, or not replacing the bedding.
Conclusion
If our VermiHut review proved one thing, it’s that the worm tower is ideal for beginners. It’s simple to use, customizable, odorless, and vermin-free. Additionally, the worm farm kit includes everything you need to start composting.
That said, you might not like a couple of aspects of the worm farm. For starters, it’s pretty bulky, making it an eyesore wherever you place it. It’s also heavy, without any supports keeping it off the ground. So, you might strain your back trying to harvest the castings!