Curious about a truly green way to recycle your unwanted leftovers? Just feed them to the worms! Vermicomposting, or worm composting, allows your food waste to be composted (faster than you ever imagined), while producing the highest quality compost and organic fertilizing liquid on earth. Best of all, it's self-contained and nearly odorless. This is seriously living green!
Lets get started. Here is the steps:
~Location Location Location: To start your vermicomposting system, first select a location for your worm bin. Popular indoor spots are the kitchen, pantry, bathroom, mud room, laundry room, or basement. If you want to keep your worm bin outside, put it in the shade during the hot summer and shelter it from the cold in winter by placing it in a garage or carport, or putting hay bales around the bin to allow air to circulate around the bin, and keep it protected from flooding, because the worms can drown.
~Temperature: Worms will tolerate temperatures from 50° to 84°F, but 55° to 77°F is ideal.
~Obtaining a worm bin: Worm bins can be purchased from many online vendors or your local gardening or farm supply store. If you would rather build your own, refer to the listed steps below for material, ventilation, size, and cover suggestions:
- Material: Wooden, plastic or metal boxes or tubs may be used for your worm bin. Some people prefer wooden compost worm bins because they can breathe better and absorb excess moisture (moisture can be hazardous to the worms). If you do choose to use wood, avoid chemically-treated wood, which may be dangerous to worms or leach harmful chemicals into your compost.
- Ventilation: Your bin should be well-ventilated, with several 1/8 inch (3mm) holes 4 inches (100mm) from the bottom (otherwise the worms will stay at the bottom of the bin and drown). For example, you can build a worm bin out of a large plastic tub with several dozen small holes drilled out on the bottom and sides. Untreated wooden bins are naturally ventilated because of structure of wood.
- Size: The larger the container is that you choose, the more worms it can sustain. Estimate 1 pound (0.45kg) of worms (1,200) for every square foot of surface area. The maximum productive depth for your bin is 24 inches (61cm) deep because composting worms will not go further down than that.
- Cover: The bin should have a cover to prevent light from getting in and to prevent the compost from drying out. Choose or make a lid that can be removed if your compost is too wet. Use a canvas tarp, doubled over and bungee-corded on, or kept in place with wood. Burlap sacks also work well and can be watered directly.
~Preparing the box for the worms: Fill your bin with thin strips of unbleached corrugated cardboard or shredded newspaper, straw, dry grass, or some similar material. This provides a source of fiber to the worms and keeps the bin well-ventilated. Sprinkle a handful of dirt on top, and thoroughly moisten. Allow the water to soak in to the materials for at least a day before adding worms. You can also use Canadian peat moss, which is more expensive but yields a loamier vermin-compost.
~Getting the worms: There are several varieties of worms that that are bred and sold commercially for vermicomposting; digging up earthworms from your backyard is not recommended. The Internet or local gardening club is your best bet for finding a worm vendor near you. The worms most often used, Eisenia foetida (Red Wigglers), are about 4 inches long, mainly red along the body with a yellow tail. Another variety to consider is Eisenia hortensis, known as "European Night crawlers." They do not reproduce quite as fast as the red wigglers, but grow to be larger, consume courser paper and cardboard better, and seem to be heartier. Dendrobaena's are also a good choice. However, with any non-native species, it is important not to allow them to reach the wild. Their voracious appetites and reproductive rates (especially among the red wigglers) have been known to upset the delicate balance of the hardwood forests by consuming the leaf litter too quickly. This event leaves too little leaf letter to slowly incubate the hard shelled nuts and leads to excessive erosion as well as negatively affecting the pH of the soil. So, do your best to keep them confined!
~Maintaining the bin: Keeping your bin elevated off the ground, using bricks, cinder blocks, or whatever is convenient will help speed composting and keep your worms happy. Worms are capable of escaping almost anything, but if you keep your worms fed and properly damp, they should not try to escape. A light in the same area will ensure your worms stay put. Sprinkle the surface with water every other day. Feed your worms vegetable scraps at least once a week. Feeding lightly and often will produce more worms (which is good when starting a new bin). Feeding large amounts less often will fatten your worms. Add more cardboard, shredded newspaper, hay, or other fibrous material once a month, or as needed. Your worms will reduce everything in your bin quickly. You will start with a full bin of compost or paper/cardboard, and soon it will be half full. This is the time to add fibrous material.
~Harvesting the compost: By using one of the following techniques:
- Put on rubber gloves, and move any large uncomposted vegetable matter to one side. Then, with your gloved hands, gently scoop a section of worms and compost mixture onto a brightly lit piece of newspaper or plastic wrap. Scrape off the compost in layers. Wait a while giving the worms time to burrow into the center of the mound. Eventually you will end up with a pile of compost next to a pile of worms. Return the worms to the bin, do whatever you want with the compost, and repeat.
- If you prefer a hands-off technique, simply push the contents of the bin all to one side and add fresh food, water, dirt, and bedding to the empty space. The worms will slowly migrate over on their own. This requires much more patience of course.
- The last technique is to use a separator.
- Barrel separators are expensive and available on the internet.
- You can also make your own shaker box
- Finally, Apply the harvested compost to your plants. Its fascinating the difference a little worm poop can make on your plant's and garden's health and appearance.
Article written by Wiki How, edited by Local Green Circle
by Local Green Circle, February, 2010