Vermiculture Worm Composting For Beginners

If your worm bin becomes smelly or looks overstuffed, discontinue feeding to ensure maximum processing capacity is met by your worms.

Moisture and Oxygen: Excess moisture (pooled water) blocks oxygen flow while too little will trigger anaerobic processes that lead to strong odors and fruit flies. By layering faster decomposing green material with higher carbon brown materials such as bark or sawdust, these issues can be reduced significantly.

Essential Supplies

Vermiculture (worm composting) requires only minimal supplies to get underway. To achieve maximum success, your bin should be located in a dark location that won’t be disturbed and away from high traffic areas such as kitchen, laundry room or garage.

Worms prefer a moist but not wet environment in order to thrive, making shredded newspaper an excellent bedding material. By adding soil for “grit”, worms will have more support in digesting food waste efficiently. Avoid mixing fresh cow, horse or chicken manure into your bin as this emits gases that raise temperatures within it and could kill all of the worms quickly.

Feed the worms once every week with small quantities of food scraps; too much added at one time may overwhelm their capacity and the food will begin rotting, which creates foul odors as well as attract bugs and bacteria.

Many people choose to harvest worm castings when they are ready by shifting all of the material to one side of their bin and adding food on top; then waiting for the worms to migrate over and start processing it. Unfortunately, this method requires more labor intensive and larger bin space; typically performed during fall so as to take advantage of worms’ ability to digest fruit and vegetable matter.

Worms

Step one in worm composting is finding an appropriate container to hold food scraps and worms. There are specialized worm bins on the market or you could make your own using non-toxic materials like plastic totes, wooden bins or stackable towers with holes for drainage and ventilation – the right size of bin should hold around 1 lb of food waste per lb of worms you have.

Bins will require a designated spot. Avoid direct sunlight and store in an environment free from strong odors that could disturb their inhabitants.

Start by providing bedding and food for worms in a bin. They should start eating up waste quickly, producing compost in roughly three-four months, which should then be raked off onto one side of the bin for easy disposal while new bedding and food is added to the other side of it.

Bedding should be dark, moist and coarse material such as newspaper or cardboard scraps, coconut coir, hay or straw for optimal worm farming conditions. To create this ideal environment, soak a large quantity of shredded newspaper or cardboard in water until damp before drying it off again. Sawdust or sand can also provide useful grit that helps your worms grind up paper waste more efficiently; to maintain optimal results add sawdust or sand as often as needed or periodically for best results.

Bedding

Worms need bedding made of moistened newspaper or paper towel shreddeds that has been fluffed up. You could also add garden soil as “grit”, which helps them break down food in their gizzards more effectively.

Bins should be large enough to contain both your worms and bedding, with a secure lid to keep out rain and predators like raccoons. When keeping indoor worm compost, an attic, laundry room, garage or basement usually makes for good conditions; when keeping outdoor wigglers it is wiser to place the bin on the north side of a shed or deck to provide maximum protection from extreme heat or cold.

Feed your worms vegetable scraps that have been chopped into smaller pieces, fruit rinds or pieces of melons as treats – anything but meat, dairy or fatty foods which attract pests or produce offensive odors!

As soon as you add food, place it gently within the bedding layer, adding fluffed-up newspaper on top. Worms will create trails through all layers of food and bedding to circulate oxygen more effectively and reduce odors; when they have finished feeding on all old food add new bedding and food into your bin.

Food

As worms can feed off of many things, for the best results feed them the equivalent of half their weight each day. Begin slowly before gradually increasing it until your worms are processing waste at an effective pace. Chopping or pureeing food scraps before placing them in your bin makes digestion simpler for them.

At its best, a compost bin should feature an even distribution of materials rich in both carbon and nitrogen – dry leaves and small twigs are great carbon sources, while shredded paper and cardboard make great nitrogen sources. Just be wary when including citrus peel or juice as these acidic substances could harm worms!

Other kitchen scraps suitable for vermiculture worm compost systems include cooked rice, coffee grounds, tea bags, eggshells (crushed), and nutshells. However, it is important that any meat, dairy products, or fish be removed first and pre-composted before adding them to the bin.

When adding fresh food scraps to the bin, dig down through the bedding layer and pile them up into small piles in the center of the bin for easy worm access. Cover all new food with a thick layer of fluffy bedding to complete their environment.

Water

Worms thrive in humid environments. To maximize performance, keep a spray bottle on hand to spritz bedding when it becomes dry – this will reduce odors and accelerate composting processes.

Bedding material should fill one-third to one-half of the bin. Standard materials for bedding include shredded newspaper, cardboard, coconut coir and straw; this bedding provides dark and moist conditions for worms to live in while helping absorb any extra water that accumulates in their environment. Food scraps should be placed directly atop of this bedding material for optimal results.

Feed your worms only occasionally to avoid creating an offensively smelly compost bin. Aim for feeding a small amount weekly; your worms will eventually find their way down through layers of food and bedding to produce nutritious worm tea that can be used as plant fertilizer or to enrich potting mixes.

To ensure the worms in your new compost bin are content, place it under bright lighting for at least the first night. This will encourage them to move down toward where it is darker, decreasing the likelihood of mass jailbreak attempts from their first attempt at escape. You’ll also get an idea of how many are present and whether or not they appear healthy enough to take up residence in their new home.

Troubleshooting

The red wiggler (Eisenia fetida) worm is ideal for vermiculture and this form of composting, as it is easily available, inexpensive and temperature tolerant – ideal qualities in both composting and bait applications. Furthermore, its great at breaking down organic matter.

As with anything new, adding worms can sometimes present issues, but there are easy solutions available for troubleshooting issues with their introduction into your environment and home. Common problems include foul odors, overfeeding, and excess moisture levels.

Odors from worm bins usually indicate they’re getting too much food and not digesting it quickly enough, or haven’t broken down what was put in. If the smell persists, try cutting up food scraps into smaller pieces or decreasing how much you add to your bin.

Moisture levels in worm bins are often an issue, particularly in regions with very cold winters or very warm summers. To keep moisture at a manageable level, add a layer of dry bedding material such as egg crates, newspaper or cardboard shavings into your bin – this could include egg cartons, newspaper and/or cardboard scraps.

Once you understand the fundamentals of vermiculture, expanding to larger scale projects should be simple. This is especially useful if your plan involves using the worms to process waste from businesses, schools or local government entities; Michigan Soilworks and JetSpeed both provide equipment designed specifically to handle larger volumes of worms and castings; eventually though you’ll want to become skilled in hot thermophilic (composting without worms) techniques so as to efficiently dispose of large volumes of waste.