Worm Bin Fun

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

My worm bin has been a source of fun for the past three years. The worm compost allows me to use up food scraps and the dark compost goes right back into the garden--kind of a table to farm to table cycle. Mid-summer I used some of the worm compost in a half-barrel planter. I didn't dig it in or plant it right away and within a week some sprouts shot up. I decided to let the sprouts grow there to see what would happen. Here's what grew: 

July 8: Initial cotyledons, the first pair of leaves growing from the seeds in the worm compost. I have no idea what is growing but there are a lot of them. 

Jul8 cotyledons

July 15: True leaves emerge. I identify this as a tomato! 

Jul15 true leaves

July 20: Plants getting bigger. 

Jul29 bigger

August 9. Tomato plants after thinning. 

photos by Jennifer Ward
photos by Jennifer Ward

August 25. The plants are growing slower than others I planted earlier in the summer but still growing. 

Aug25 growing

September 12. I wasn't sure if the plants would grow fruit but today: Flowers! 

sep12 flowers

October 9. Three tiny green tomatoes. The barrels are in an area that isn't getting much sun anymore so growth has slowed considerably. They stayed green through October. 


Source URL: https://www.ccfruitandnuts.ucanr.edu/blog/under-solano-sun/article/worm-bin-fun