STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

I've done worms, and I highly recommend it for your (BF's) setup. I made my own bins as Elle mentioned, and I had three bins because I was ambitious. One is fine to start with, though. They reproduce well when conditions are good, so you may end up with more.

You'll find great resources online too if you search for "vermiculture," and I'm almost embarrassed to tell you I have a book on this, called 'Recycle with worms: the Red Wiggler Connection' by Shelley C. Grossman and Toby Weitzel, but I'll sum up for you.

A plastic dish pan (kitty litterbox size?) is fine, with a tight-fitting lid. All I could find was clear bins, but I kept them in the deep shade, and you should too, if not indoors. A garage or covered parking area is fine if it's convenient for you. Any sun at all beating down on the box will fry the poor things - that's how mine all died last year. I was remodelling extensively, and even though I explained that the worms were PETS and not to be messed with, somehow the bins got moved into the sun and they died. (SO sad. Fred had just been elected mayor of Bin 2, and Mary and the twins were getting over the flu, and then that happened.)

But enough about me - back to you. Get a bin, and drill small holes in the bottom and sides of the bin, every 3-4 inches. 1/4 inch is about right. Aeration is everyone's friend. Don't drill holes in the top though.

Line the bottom with shredded paper to about halfway up. If you have a shredder at home, or access to shredded paper at the office, you're all set. I bought a cheap shredder at Staples just for the worms, so they got all the credit card solicitations. Worms are not really particular about inks and dyes, but the cleaner the better for obvious reasons.

You want to wet the paper to the consistency of a wrung-out sponge. Bottled or filtered water would be best to avoid any chlorine, or let the wet paper sit for 24 hours so any vapors are released. Think of the paper bedding as the worms' playground, where all the nesting and mating will happen. Keep it nice and fluffy with air pockets and spaces for them to crawl, not a solid mass of damp paper, because these worms are not really diggers or burrowers. (More on that later.)

Next, add a handful or two of garden dirt - not sterile potting soil, but natural, sandy, clay-y, local dirt. They need this for digestion and the bin's ecosystem needs this too. Real dirt has microbial bacteria that are necessary for the worms' work and for good clean decomposition. If your condo's landscaping/grounds are too manicured, maybe a friend can give you some yard dirt in a gallon jar or bag.

Now add your worms, about a half pound or so of red wigglers. Close the lid, and let them get used to life for a few days. Red wigglers, a fisherman's prized bait, are what you want - not ordinary garden earthworms. Red wigglers live on moist decomposing material just below the top of the soil surface. Earthworms, unlike red wigglers, are able to burrow and live deep within the soil if needed. YOUR worms won't be like that. Yours will be Eisenia fetida. Gardening stores should have them, or farmers' markets, or you can order online if all else fails.

In about 2-3 days, start feeding them. Push back a corner of the paper bedding and bury your food scraps. Repeat as necessary, burying your garbage in a new spot each time. After about a week, I guarantee you these animals will suddenly become beloved pets. You may want to weigh, not eyeball, your garbage. A half-pound of worms should eat a quarter pound of food daily, but don't overfeed. You can freeze your abundance and add it gradually. If you find you have too much to give, get a second bin. Keep in mind the finer you can chop/grind your scraps, the happier and faster they work. They do have teeny-tiny mouths.

Here's what they do and don't eat:

DO:

All raw fruit and vegetable scraps (with certain exceptions)
Cooked leftover vegetables
Eggshells, finely ground up
Plain unsalted nuts and legumes (peas, beans, etc.), ground up
Grains, including bread, oatmeal and such
Coffee grounds and whole teabags, minus any staples
Plain cooked pasta or rice
Fats from pure vegetable sources (such as olive oil or peanut oil)


DON'T

Meat and dairy, including fats derived from them, such as butter. If you've steamed veggies and added a little pat of butter, you can rinse it off and feed it to them, but no excessive amounts. Don't be feeding them butter every day for a week.
Salt
Vinegar (rinse off leftover salad if it has dressing on it. Again, a little is OK, but no excessive amounts.)
Alcohol
Citrus
Onion peels (mine never touched the stuff. I don't know why. They did fine with onion flesh, but left the papery skin/husks intact)
Fruit pits (they won't be interested in the challenge)

Also avoid rotten foods, not because they won't eat them eventually, but because a worm bin doesn't heat up high enough to kill bad organisms, and anyway, it might smell bad. This applies to overfeeding. If your bins are indoors or in an area where people congregate, you'll want to be careful of smells. Bad smells are usually a sign that something is wrong.

Unlike regular composting, with vermiculture you don't turn or agitate the bin, you just keep an eye on the proportion of food vs bedding and moisture vs dryness. In a sense, you actually want to prevent normal thermophyllic garden composting. There are lots of potential problems with easy solutions, too much to go into here, but a good internet FAQ should cover them.

In 4-6 months plan on harvesting all the poo and possibly starting a second bin. If the worms are attempting to escape, crawling up the sides or on the lid, it's a good sign the population has expanded and they're hunting for more food. That's a good time to harvest too.

When you're ready, you want to prepare all new bedding and maybe even have another bin ready. Wear rubber gloves since the meaty oils on your skin can be lethal. Then dump the bin on a plastic tablecloth and divide the rubbish into 6 or 8 piles or so. It's good to do this in a bright, sunny location. Trash the old bedding.

Let the piles sit while you rinse out the bin and add the new bedding and more dirt. By the time you come back to your piles, the worms have dived for cover and the castings (poo) will be at the top of the pile. Some little bits of eggshells or paper and such are okay, just remove the poo from the top of the piles and the worms will keep trying to re-bury themselves. You'll repeat the process of plucking the poo from the piles and letting the worms settle a few more times. Then just put a half-pound of worms back in the original bin with the new bedding, put the excess guys in a new bin, and start over. Or give your excess worms to a neighbor or someone you know who loves to fish.











-- Edited by Suasoria at 18:37, 2007-03-02