Worms Deepening our Connection to Food and Soil

Worm Digest, through its website and quarterly newspaper, teaches people how redworms can convert organic waste into
valuable fertilizer via a process known as worm composting, or vermicomposting. Whether it’s plans for your first worm bin,
some troubleshooting advice, or a system to handle an entire business’ food scraps, Worm Digest is your resource.

The Art of Small-scale Turning Garbage

Vermicomposting: into Gold
A Bin to Call Home Beds for Their Little Heads
A simple box or bin is all you’ll need to Bed your redworms down in any
get started. A worm bin is any shallow (12"- carbon-rich bedding. In combination
15" tall) bin, typically of wood or plastic, with nitrogen-rich food waste, bedding
with a lid and plenty of holes for aeration provides a balanced diet for the bin
and drainage. The size of the bin will ecosystem. Newspaper is a good,
depend on what you eat — or, rather, widely available bedding material, as
what you don’t eat. Worm wisdom is office paper. Simply shred paper
says you’ll need roughly one square into strips 1" wide or thinner. Coir
foot of surface area per pound of weekly (shredded coconut husk fiber) is
food waste. Either weigh your scraps or use the following esti- becoming popular and chopped straw or
mate: a household of two requires a bin with four or so square shredded brown leaves will work well. Mixing more than one
feet of surface area. Rubbermaid tubs come in many sizes and type of bedding helps to promote better aeration. Water your
work well (wash plastic residues out before using them). Do-it- bedding until it’s as damp as a wrung-out sponge and fill your
yourselfers can construct a box with 1/2" exterior-grade plywood. bin within a few inches of the top with bedding (don’t com-
pact it, though). Now set your worms on top and watch them
Aeration is Key to Keeping Redworms Happy wiggle downward, moving away from any light.
Next, drill aeration holes, 1/4"-1/2" in diameter, in rows 2"
from the bottom and 2" from the upper edge of the bin. This Finding Your Little Waste Managers
will promote air flow throughout the bin and keep your Giving your bin a good start requires a pound or more of
microorganisms, larger compost critters and redworms happy. redworms (for a small bin of two square feet in area). Eisenia
If you don’t want to create your own bin, there are many fetida — the species name for the common redworm sold by
your local worm farmer or fishing supply store. A pound is
roughly a thousand worms and costs about $15 plus postage.
You could pick them yourself from a (cool) compost heap or
manure pile, but it might take all day!
Do not confuse these epigeic (surface-dwelling) earth-
worms with those that burrow in the soil (anecic and endo-
geic). Nightcrawlers and other soil-dwelling worms require a
soil environment to survive and are definitely not adaptable
to your worm bin’s environment. Conversely, redworms will
only live in garden beds that have been mulched with a good
layer of decaying organic matter.
designs and models available for purchase. Worm Digest has
published reviews of home-scale worm bins in issue #23 and Bon Appétit, Friends!
of larger bins in issue #24. All reviews are available in the bin It’s best to feed your new pets lightly for the first couple of
reviews section of our website at www.wormdigest.org. weeks. An ecosystem needs to form within the bedding and
Your bin can be kept indoors near the source of food waste food waste. As the populations of bacteria, fungi, microor-
or in the garage or outdoors. The bedding temperature should ganisms and other critters increases, the bin will be able to
be kept between 40°-85°F, and the system will process waste process more. You can jump-start the process by mixing a
fastest when bedding stays between 65°-75°F. bucketful of material from another worm bin or compost
pile into your bedding when you set up your worm bin. After “Stink” in a worm bin is a sign that too little oxygen is
this start-up period, you can feed your new pets after each reaching part or all of the worm bin system. If you find an
meal, once a day, even once a week. They’ll eat most foods, area that stinks, where food waste and/or bedding are very
though you’ll want to leave out meat, dairy and fats, which wet or compacted, you’ll want to mix in more dry bedding.
have a tendency to putrefy. See how easy it is to care for these Stink may also happen where there is too much nitrogen-
new pets? As a very rough guide, your worms will eat half rich material in one place. Again, add more bedding to bal-
their weight in food waste (and bedding!) each day, and ance the situation.
increase in population to about a pound per square foot area.
Because worms have no teeth, they rely on bacteria and Harvesting the Gold
fungi (the primary decomposers) to begin growing on and After operating your bin for three to five months (or even
consuming the organic waste first. The smaller the pieces of more if you prefer dark, very finished-looking vermicom-
food waste, the more quickly it will be available to bacteria post), it’s time to harvest your bin. Dump out the contents
and fungi. So, chop your scraps, but don’t blenderize them, onto a plastic-covered table in daylight or under a bright
as a slurry tends to lock out oxygen and cause a stink! Always lamp and form many small piles of material. The worms will
bury food several inches deep in the bedding, and either dive down, and in a few minutes you can remove a small
spread it out or feed in a pattern, choosing a new spot for amount of vermicompost, free of worms. Ten minutes later,
each feeding. Finally, add bedding now and then to maintain the worms in each pile will have gone down again and you
a several-inch layer on top. can continue to remove the vermicompost. When you’re fin-
ished, rebed the worms and you’re done!
What are Those?! The vermicompost you harvest can be used directly in your
As you continue to operate your worm bin, you’ll begin to garden or on your houseplants. It’s an excellent fertilizer that
notice many other inhabitants. Among the most commonly- you can use sparingly. Because it the comes from an earth-
seen ones are Colembola. These are tiny, white crawling worm, however, it will not burn plants if you use more. Mixing
insects that eat decaying it with coir (coconut husk fiber), topsoil, compost and vermi-
matter. Some are called culite or perlite in equal amounts creates a good potting soil.
“springtails” because of their
tiny spring-like organ, (a The following are a few of our educational resources. Visit our
“fercula”) at the back of their website’s Corner Market for a complete listing. You may order
abdomen that allows them online or directly from our office. All prices are U.S. postpaid.
to jump quickly. You’ll likely
also see hoards of tiny round Our WormEBook is our 90-plus-page electronic book on worm
red, brown or white mites, composting. A full description is found at www.wormdigest.org
especially where there’s fruit
Mites are generally found on the sur-
scraps. There may be sow A subscription to Worm Digest’s 24-page newspaper costs $14
face, and are among the most numerous bugs or “roly polys” and per year ($12 electronic sub.) and brings you the best current
inhabitants of the worm bin. short, skinny white worms information about worms and worm composting. Individual
called potworms (a different species than redworms). Another back issues are $3.50 each. Topic sets include four issues on
possible visitor is the soldier fly maggot, which appears a dirty a subject, bound, including: The Worm Business, Home &
white/ grey, is segmented and about 1/2" long. While ugly, Garden, and Schoolworms. $12 each.
they’re also a voracious consumer in your worm bin system.
Fruit flies are a very common nuisance in the bin and bury- Worms Eat My Garbage, by Mary Appelhof (176 pgs.), is the
ing food waste helps to reduce their numbers. All these crit- foremost practical guide to small-scale vermicomposting. $13.
ters work to decompose what you feed your bin ecosystem.
They live and work there because conditions are good for Worms Eat Our Garbage: Classroom Activities for a Better
them and their only interest is in decaying organic matter — Environment, by Mary Appelhof (215 pgs.) Over 160 activities
they won’t bother your house or garden plants. for grades 4-8 in this excellent resource manual. $25.

Troubleshooting Your Bin The Worm Cafe: Mid-Scale Vermicomposting of Lunchroom

Your worm bin ecosystem is pretty easy to maintain and Wastes by Binet Payne (180 pgs.), explains the operation of a
keep on track. It should smell good. Now and then it helps to school-wide cafeteria waste vermicomposting project. $34.
check for and remove excess moisture that may collect in the
bottom of your bin (particularly common in plastic bins). Worm Bin Creatures Alive Through a Microscope, a 31-
Standing liquid will promote the growth of anaerobes, whose minute video by Warren Hatch, shows us springtails, mites,
by-products stink, and is not good for plants. Wooden bins bacteria, fungi & more. $28.
“breathe” and will tend to experience more drying than plas-
tic bins, particularly in dryer climates, and so may require ©2002 Worm Digest. Feel free to copy and share this flyer with
occasional rewetting. everyone! Worm Digest is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

www.wormdigest.org • [email protected]
PO Box 544, Eugene, OR 97440-0544 • Tel/Fax 541-485-0456