Worm Composting

Worm composting is a technique we can use to recycle some of our food waste into a soil conditioner that is rich and dark. One advantage to worm composting is it can be done outdoors or indoors. Composting with worms indoors allows apartment or condo dwellers a method of composting. This type of composting is accomplished in a container that is filled with bedding that is moistened, and some redworms. The worms and micro-organisms will eventually turn your food waste into rich compost.

To get started you need to buy, build, or find an old wood or plastic container with holes in the bottom for drainage and circulation. You next fill the box with the moistened bedding, and worms; now you want to bury the food waste inside the bedding and add about a cup of sand or soil as grit for the digestive process for the worms. Wood containers are much more absorbent than plastic, plastic will still work but it tends to leave the compost too wet. Your wood container can be an old trunk, a barrel, or any unused dresser drawer. It should be 8-12 inches deep and allow a square foot of surface area for each pound of weekly food waste. You need to drill 8 to 12 holes, depending on the size of the worm composting bins, no larger than 1/4" in the bottom for drainage and aeration. If a plastic container is used you may need more drainage holes especially if the contents get too wet. Now place the container or bin on blocks or bricks for air circulation; a tray should be placed underneath to capture any excess liquid, which you can use as a liquid plant fertilizer.

Worms like a dark, moist environment so it is best to cover your indoor container with a sheet of dark plastic or burlap sacking. If your bin is outdoors you can use a solid lid to help keep out rain or any unwanted scavengers. You can place your worm bin in a shed, garage, basement, balcony or even your kitchen counter. It also needs to be out of the hot sun, cold, and heavy rain. If you temperature falls below 40 degrees you should move the bin indoors.

Suitable moist bedding material that can be used includes shredded newspaper and cardboard, chopped-up straw or other dead plants, seaweed, shredded fall leaves, or dried grass clippings. You can also vary the bedding in the container so as to provide the worms more nutrients and to build richer compost. Do not forget to add soil or sand for the worms' digestion. The moisture level of the bedding material should be similar to a sponge that has had the water squeezed out. By carefully lifting the bedding you can create air spaces for circulation.

Redworms, also known as red wiggler, brandling and manure worms, are the best suited to composting. The reason they are better for composting is because they flourish on organic material, such as your food waste. You are going to need 2 pounds of redworms, about 2,000, for a pound of food waste a day. If you have a problem acquiring this many worms just reduce the amount of waste until their population grows. Redworms will be sexually mature in 60-90 days and then produce cocoons that take 21 days to hatch babies. Once they start to breed they can deposit two to three cocoons in a week with 2 babies per cocoon. The population of worms generally will not exceed the container size due to the amount of room and food.

The redworms in your indoor worm composting bin will eat food scraps such as vegetable and fruit peels, tea bags, coffee grounds and granulated egg shells. In order to avoid potential problems with rodents do not give your worms meats, oily foods, dairy products, or grains to compost. Remember to move aside the bedding so you can deeply bury the food waste and then cover it back up with the bedding. After about six weeks, you should notice that the bedding is a lot darker with worm castings. After 2-1/2 months have gone by there may still be some original bedding visible along with earthy-looking, brown worm castings.Even though you are still adding food waste regularly, the volume of the bedding will slowly decrease. The more the bedding is converted the more your worms will start to suffer so now is a good time to do a little compost harvesting.

The easiest way is to move the completed compost to one side of the container, place new bedding in the now open space along with some food waste. The worms will slowly move to the fresh bedding area with the food waste and you can now harvest the completed compost. New damp bedding can now be added to the remainder of the container. Worm composting is not difficult but you could end up with some unpleasant odors. If this happens it probably means there is an overload of food waste; if so gently stir the contents to allow for more air circulation and do not add any more waste until the worms have broken down everything in the bin.