Vermi-composting, food scrap recycling with worms, can help reduce the amount
of trash that enters our landfills and provide nutritious potted plant material.
Even if you don’t have lots of time or outdoor space, you can still compost
your food wastes year round with the help of some hungry red worms!
First select a location. Basements are great because they are dark and dry,
but any space can be utilized, so long as temperatures are between 40-80 degrees
F. Be sure to keep bins away from windows and heaters.
Plastic storage bins
with lids (2 x 3 x 1ft.) make great worm bins. Make sure the bin is clean by
rinsing it to remove any residues which may be harmful to the worms.
Drill
at least 10 quarter-inch holes in the top, around the top of the sides of the
bin, and the bottom for air circulation. If the contents get too wet, drill more
holes.
Raise the bin on bricks or wooden blocks, and place a tray underneath
to capture excess liquid which can be used as liquid plant fertilizer.
What to use for bedding?
First you need to make a comfortable home for your
worms, which means making some bedding for them. Instead of soil, composting
red worms live in moist newspaper bedding or peat moss. Like soil, both materials
provide air, water, and food for the worms.
If you use newspaper:
Using about
50 pages, tear newspaper into 1/2" to 1" strips. Avoid using colored
print, which may be toxic to the worms.
Place newspaper strips into a large plastic
garbage bag or container. Add water until bedding feels like a damp sponge, moist
but not dripping. Add dry strips if it gets too wet.
Add the strips to the bin,
making sure bedding is fluffy (not packed down) to provide air for the worms.
Bin should be 3/4 full of wet newspaper strips.
Sprinkle 2-4 cups of soil (outdoor
soil, potting soil, or sand) in the bin, which will introduce beneficial microorganisms
and aid the worms' digestive process.
How many worms?
For every pound of food waste you generate per day, get two
pounds of worms (roughly 2000 worms). If you are unable to get this many worms
to start with, reduce the amount of food waste while the worm population increases.
How to feed them?
Cut or break food scraps into small pieces; the smaller,
the better.
Measure the amount of food. Feed worms approximately 3 times their weight
per week. Monitor the bin every week to see if the worms are or are not eating
the food. Adjust feeding levels accordingly. (If you start with two pound of
worms, add 6 pounds of food per week.)
Bury food scraps in the bin. Lift up bedding, add food scraps, then cover
food with bedding. Bury successive loads in different locations in the bin.
How
to maintain your bin?
Place a full sheet of dry newspaper on top of the bedding.
This will help maintain the moisture balance, keep any possible odors in the
bin, and help prevent fruit flies from making a home in the bin. Replace this
sheet frequently if fruit flies are present, or if bin gets too wet. Cover with
lid.
FEED, WATER and FLUFF!!! To keep worms happy, feed them about once a week.
If bedding dries up, spray with water. (If bedding gets too wet, add dry newspaper
strips.) Fluff up bedding once a week so the worms get enough air.
If you have
the correct ratio of surface area to worms to food scraps, there is little to
do, other than add food, until about two and a half months have passed. By then,
there should be little or no original bedding visible in the bin, and the contents
will be brown and earthy looking worm castings. The contents will have substantially
decreased in bulk too.
It is important to separate the worms from the finished
compost, otherwise the worms will begin to die. The quickest is to move the finished
compost over to one side of the bin, place new bedding in the space created,
and put food waste in the new bedding. The worms will gradually move over and
the finished compost can be skimmed off as needed.
What to do with the compost?
The compost can be mixed with potting soil and
used for houseplants and patio containers. It is an excellent mulch (spread in
a layer on top of the soil) for potted plants. If it is screened, it can be added
for potting mixes for seedlings, and finely sprinkled on a lawn as a conditioner.
lt can be used directly in the garden, either dug into the soil or used as a
mulch.
The most common problem is unpleasant, strong odours which are caused
by lack of oxygen in the compost due to overloading with food waste so that the
food sits around too long, and the bin contents become too wet. The solution
is to stop adding food waste until the worms and micro-organisms have broken
down what food is in there, and to gently stir up the entire contents to allow
more air in. Check the drainage holes to make sure they are not blocked. Drill
more holes if necessary. Worms will drown if their surroundings become too wet.
Worms have been known to crawl out of the bedding and onto the sides and lid
if conditions are wrong for them. If the moisture level seems alright, the bedding
may be too acidic. This can happen if you add a lot of citrus peels and other
acidic foods. Adjust by adding a little garden lime and cutting down on acidic
wastes.
Fruit flies can be an occasional nuisance. Discourage them by always
burying the food waste and not overloading. Keep a plastic sheet or piece of
old carpet or sacking on the surface of the compost in the bin. If flies are
still persistent, move the bin to a location where flies will not be bothersome.
A few friendly spiders nearby will help control fly problems!
