New composting invention - Subpod

Sell / Swap / Trade / Buy
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I know this isn’t specifically related to beekeeping, but it is related to growing your own fruit, veggies and plants in general in your own garden. And bees are part of that. :honeybee: It’s a great cause that we can all be part of. I bought one today :slight_smile:

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Subpods are launching on Indiegogo for an early bird special, and I thought some of you green thumbs might like the idea of it.

Simply put, the Subpod will allow you to have a composting system and worm farm directly in your garden, delivering nutrients directly to the roots of your plants where they are needed.

Subpods will improve the condition of your soil through its unique design.

The Subpod has been rigorously tested over the last 8 years to allow maximum efficiency of letting worms move freely in and out while keeping unwanted pests out.

At the top of the Subpod, we have designed a special mesh which allows air to flow in and out while being strong enough to keep out large critters such as rats, possums and anything else living in your garden. Worm mobility is key for this product and is actually what makes Subpod more advantageous over conventional systems.

The Subpod is made from water and food safe plastic which has a minimum life of 10 years in the soil without any leaching or degradation.

Another unique factor that makes the Subpod special is its unique interconnecting design that allows multiple modules to be added to cater to larger volumes of waste. The modular design, along with the bench seating aspect, makes it perfect for cafes and restaurants, as well as incorporating into your own garden. The Subpod can be buried into the ground, or made into an above-ground garden bed which you can sit on and enjoy the fruits of your labor :slight_smile:

The idea is mimicking nature where worms eat, roam, and spread nutrients. Worms are not confined to the Subpod, but learn to return there for feeding. As for getting full, it does not fill up as quickly as most systems because of the worm mobility, plus the worms and microbes are continuously eating. This keeps the compost levels low inside the Subpod. We find that you end up only needing to empty the contents a couple of times per year, or more if you would like to distribute your compost and worm castings throughout your garden.

In most systems, because you are creating worm castings in a confined area, you need to take them out and apply them to your garden. This is a two-step process. For Subpod, it is just the one step of composting and the soil biology does the rest! Of course, there are times when people will want to use worm castings in other areas of their garden, and we have designed the Subpod lid to allow for easy access to scoop out your worm castings.

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That looks easier than a pile on the ground or a tumbler. It’s clean looking too! Though I have a large Jora I would get this if I didn’t have composting set up in my home already. Though I am tempted!

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A neat variation of trench composting. It would work and there are other systems that do the same but his one is prettier.

Cheers
Rob.

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I’m happy with my “Worms Downunder” worm habitat. The thing about it is: while organic material is being consumed by compost worms & or BSFL, the liquid goes to the bottom where it can be captured, then used as a liquid fertilser. The worm castings can be retrieved from lower down, then used over a large area.

Anyway I wish Saadi every success with the campaign.

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You can capture worm juice from a Subpod too. Castings and juice can automatically flow out from the Subpod, or they can be manually taken out to spread around the garden.

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I think what I like best about it is that it’s an inexpensive method of getting buildings with large amounts of people to contribute to the health of the soil. Apartment buildings and condos just don’t have to participate in the health of the environment by design or requirements. I think it’s great!

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I’ll have to take a closer look at it. I thought that the pod had holes in it so that the worms come & go while distributing nutrients to the surrounding garden bed. Then I figured you’d have to remove the top unprocessed material in order to retrieve the worm castings from the bottom. Unless it comes with something you lift out that would contain the new stuff, before you remove the castings.

I agree with @Martha, it would be great where large amounts of people would contribute to the health of the soil & health of the environment.

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PS Faroe, they don’t say how many litres of waste it holds. However the space looks fairly big.

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Not big enough for @busso’ campers though! :smile:

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Being self-isolated I’ve decided to buy a worm farm for composting our small garden. “The worms eat your kitchen scraps and yard waste to make great soil” - what I was thinking. There are so many options to make your own “worm farm” from DIY to buy a whole kit with many (useful?) tools. My hands grow not from the right place, so I had the only option - to buy a ready-made unit. I was thinking about buying Hungry Bin because it has all that I need for this kind of farm, but after reading the very first post I have some doubts. Subpod seems easy to use and has many features…I will show this to my husband :grinning:

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Hi Jeff, Sorry, I seem to have missed some comments/questions.
Here’s the info regarding plumbing the Subpod/garden bed:

The worms will move in and out naturally dropping off their goods to the near-by roots of plants. However, over time the Subpod will get full with castings and compost.

Here are the instructions on how to collect the castings: https://growhub.subpod.com/posts/getting-started-with-subpod-how-to-collect-compost-from-subpod

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Here is the size and capacity of Subpod :slight_smile:

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Hi @Lornasa, Subpod had many benefits over traditional worm farms :slight_smile: Although all composting and worm farms are great :slight_smile:
We have launched our UK website now too :bug: Subpod – Subpod UK

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I sell the odd compost worm. I’d sell more if I marketed them properly. Anyway the other day a bloke came to buy 500 from me. As it turned out, he bought the worms to put into a subpod.

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I can imagine that many things that you sell are “odd” @JeffH… In a good way, of course! :rofl:

I miss @Faroe. Hope she is doing OK

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Hi Dawn, maybe us talking on this thread will flush her out.

cheers

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Hi Dawn, the odd compost worm dwindled down to nil until today. The bloke with the Subpod called in to buy another thousand. I don’t sell much else “odd” stuff. The odd stalk of sugar cane, as well as plants. The odd dragon fruit cutting.

We didn’t flush Faroe out, however by selling the odd stuff flushes out some lovely people. One Indian lady came for a second bunch of sugar cane stalks. She brought with her to give us a beautiful home cooked curry with rice & fresh roti.

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I use the jora but this looks like a great idea for in the winter when my usual compost tumbler is full and awaiting spring to use for soil amendment.

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You can do that a lot cheaper with a couple 5 gallon buckets and screw top lids. But yes, I have seen similar systems on youtube. I’ve thought of doing that myself. Still might.

Little history, there used to be ‘garbage holes’ in just about everyone’s yards when I was a kid. Metal lid with a lip you could step on to open it. It was a hole a foot or so deep, maybe deeper. Everyone tossed their garbage in. Garbage back then (In my area anyway) meant anything you could compost. Trash was things that were not garbage. So in reality, I’ve seen these things before they existed. :slight_smile: