I have been interested in vermicomposting since I started getting into the trenches of gardening. Vermicomposting is a type of compost using worms. Worm castings, the end goal of vermicompost, is gold for the garden. With a little bit of knowledge, a couple of set up items, and a collection of kitchen and garden scraps, you too can have (relatively) free garden gold! This may be an emerging trend in the world of gardening, but it is a tried and true method. I have put together some questions and answers on how to get started. From many, many articles and hours upon hours of videos, this is my conclusion!
What type of Worms?
Although you can use a variety of worms for vermicomposting, red wigglers are the ones most commonly used. They may not be the most aggressive eaters of all the worms, but they are the most tolerable for a large selection of climates. Here in Ohio where it gets very cold, these worms(kept in the garage) will do just fine. When the temperature starts to rise they are the least likely to have issues as well. They like to sit between 55 degrees - 85 degrees.
Troubleshooting your vermicompost:
If your worms are sluggish, less food is moved around, or your worms are clustered together at the bottom or sides, it is most likely a temperature problem.
For cold, place them on a warming mat or move them to a basement or inside. You can also try wrapping the bin in some sort of thermal protection to retain heat.
For hot, you can add a frozen water bottle to the bottom of the bin, freeze the next feeding before placing it in, or move it to a cooler location out of the sun.
If your worms are clumped together at the top of the bin or are trying to escape, it's most likely too wet or the environment is anaerobic.
If the bin has a drain, check for excess liquid and drain.
Add a layer of dry bedding material to the bin and gently stir it in. Reduce the amount of high-moisture food scraps until the moisture level balances out.
Make sure the whole bin is evenly moist, mixing gently but thoroughly. The compost should feel like a wrung out damp sponge.
Seeing mites? Leave the lid off for a bit, and allow for drainage. You can use food-grade diatomaceous earth to control mite population
If your worms are inactive and appear slightly shriveled, your bin may be too dry.
Add moist bedding to the bin.
Add melons to their feed.
You can also spray their compost with small amounts of water. Mix thoroughly!
If your worm bin has a bad smell and you see a presence of fruit flies/other pests it may be a pH imbalance.
You can add crushed egg shells, wood ash, or garden lime into your bin to raise the pH if it’s too low.
You can add citrus peels, or vinegar soaked bread to lower the pH if it's too high.
A healthy balance of brown and green material, limiting problematic food scraps, and keeping soil moisture level will naturally keep pH balanced.
Bedding for your worms:
Many people use shredded newspaper, shredded cardboard(you can use soiled cardboard for this), and coco coir. You can also use dry leaves and grass, depleted potting soil, natural fiber textiles, and dead plants. Since worms have a gizzard and not teeth, it's good to add some sort of grit. Some people use sand, many people use pulverized egg shells, coffee grounds, or crushed oyster shells. Normally, you will want this bedding to have the same dampness as a squeezed out damp sponge.
Housing your worms:
You can keep your worms outside, in your kitchen, garage, or basement. You can put them anywhere convenient, as long as they are kept between 55 degrees and 85 degrees. I plan to keep mine in our garage.
A Rubbermaid bin, fancy wooden towers, or the worm bag works well. As long as what you use is dark and the conditions are fair, they will settle in just fine. I will be using a storage bin.
Make sure whatever you use has holes or is without a lid. If your bin doesn’t have a lid, I suggest covering it with some burlap or other breathable fibers. Worms need air to breathe! I will be drilling between 28-44 holes throughout the top of the bin, each ⅛” to achieve this.
If you are worried about too much liquid in your worm bin, go ahead and use something with a drainage hole or drill one yourself. I will be skipping this step since I read that the right balance of moisture in your bin prevents worm juice, or “worm leachate.”
Feeding your worms:
There are many combinations you can use to feed your worms. Based on all the research I did, this is what I will be doing for my worms. This isn’t necessarily the “best way,” to do it, rather it is a combination of the most widely used methods other vermicompost farmers use.
First, you pull back some of their bedding. Put a layer of fresh bedding, layer of food scraps, sprinkle the top with pulverized egg, coffee grounds, and ground oats/other grains. Then cover lightly with previous bedding. Depending on their feed, you will either keep their new bedding dry or dampen it.
Fruits & Veggies: All fruits and veggies can be fed to worms. Freezing your scraps prior to feeding your worms will kill any fruit fly eggs.
Limit spicy foods, garlic, onions, high acidic fruits and veggies like tomatoes and oranges.
When feeding melons, especially previously frozen or old melons that are extra juicy, be sparing and keep your new bedding dry.
Mix together fruits and veggies, dry and wet. This balance will keep your worms happy.
Do not feed them meats, dairy, oil, or foods with high salt content!
When you start your vermicompost, start your feeding with a small handful. Wait about 5-7 days and check how much food is left. If about 10%-20% is left, do not change the amount of feed. Once you see less than that, you can increase your feed by a small amount. If you see more than 20% left after 7 days, then decrease your feed by a small amount. As your colony grows you will be able to increase the amount of scraps.
When can you harvest the compost?
It depends on a lot of different circumstances. How many worms do you have? How big is the bin you are harvesting? 1,000 worms will make about 5-6 ounces of compost every few days.
For general harvesting, look for these signs in your compost:
Your vermicompost will be a deep, dark brown color.
It will have a uniform texture.
It will smell mild and earthy.
Your worms will slow down in their reproduction.
Your worms will look smaller and there will be fewer cocoons present.
I am choosing to try side to side migration for harvesting. Once my worm bin is established and about ready to harvest, I will be waiting 2 weeks to feed. Putting fresh bedding and new food on one side of the container, I will give the worms a week to migrate. Most worms, if not all, should be on the other side by the time I harvest the compost. I will carefully shovel the compost onto a screen where I sift it out to prevent missed chunks from going into my garden and to keep extra worms in their bin.
I am hoping this experiment is successful. A lot of people love their worms and keep them for many years. I hope I’m the same. It’s almost as addictive as gardening itself. If you want to give this a try, let us know in the comments! If you have anything to add, let the community know.
Happy gardening and take care,
Jacqueline Marie
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