Taking care of your worm bin

 The only worms you should use for the worm bin are the 'Red Wiggler' worms or also called 'Eisenia fetida' which are native European worms, all the other worms will not eat your garbage.
Red Wigglers thrive in organic waste and because they live close to the surface in their natural environment they can't really take colder then 40° F and not hotter weather then 90° F.
You still probably should try to avoid adding the Red Wigglers to the outdoor environment or compost pile, even the possibility of them surviving outside is rather rare but in mild winter areas there is a slight possibility they could survive in compost bins.
The worms are actually a bit sensitive to the cold or heat and you should take them into the house or garage if the outdoor temperature drops below 40° F or you might loose them. They also will stop feeding if they are too cold or hot, so keep them in the shade during the summer.

There are many places you can get Red Wiggler worms, you probably can even find a local person raising worms near where you live, the best time to get your worms are supposed to be spring or fall, but where I live we have cooler summers and I got mine in early summer and had no problems.

Before you put your worms in your newly built bin, you need to prepare your bedding. You need enough bedding to fill your bin 3/4 full with bedding, leaving the 1" louvered vents exposed.
Worms need damp but not wet bedding, a good and cheap worm bedding is a mixture of shredded newspaper and wood shavings. You will get less of crawling/flying critters that way. Stay away from Cedar bedding, which is toxic to many animals and it is advisable not to use colored print paper or office paper, because those inks are often toxic. Newspaper nowadays is printed with soybean based ink which shouldn't cause problems. I even would stay away from bleached paper I just don't think that will be good for the worms. Other bedding possibilities are sawdust, cardboard, straw (chopped into small pieces), shredded fall leaves, compost or aged manure or a combination of those. A variety of bedding material will give the worms more different nutrients, but they will be fine just with newspaper shreds and wood chips.

You have to soak the wood chips overnight in a bucket of water to make sure they can take up the water. Shred the paper into 1/2"-1" strips, put it into a 5 gallon bucket or garden tub and carefully wet the paper, turning it frequently until it is moist but not dripping wet. Then mix the drained wood chips with the paper and fill your bin #2 (the one with the drainage holes), to below the vents with the mixture making sure not to cover the vents. The worms need the air in the bin. Don't pack the bedding in, fill it loosely to add air spaces for the worms it also helps control the odor.
If you think your bedding got a bit to wet, you might want to let it drain for a few hours before you add your worms to it.
It is beneficial for the worms digestive system to add a hand-full of garden dirt or sand. Now you are ready to add your worms. Just spread them with the dirt they came in over your bedding, they will crawl in on their own.
So now your worms are in the bin you need to feed them, but you do not want to feed them too much or you will get a huge smelly mess and the worms might die.
The formula to figure out the pounds of food per week you size bin can handle is:

Width of bin x length of bin (sqft) is equal to pounds of food per week.

So if you have a bin that measures 1' wide by 1 1/2' long it can handle about   1 1/2 lbs of food per week.
When you add the food try to create a pattern by burying the food in a new place every 4-6 times. Avoid disturbing the bedding when you bury it, because it might make it heat up like compost in your compost bin and the worms will have no place to escape the heat.

What can you feed the worms? If it is vegetative matter you pretty much can add it all. Potato peels, vegetable scraps, fruit scraps and peels (including from citrus peels in small amounts), coffee grounds (paper filter included) or tea leaves/bags, and pulverized egg shells. You should not add meats, dairy, fatty food. Some say no grain, because of problem with flies or rodents, but I don't think a bit of old bread, Corn meal or oat meal here and there causes much problem, just don't add too much.

Drain the compost tea liquid often, check it daily after you add new bedding, less frequent later. You can pick up both bins and shake them back and forth, if you hear a sloshing sound you should drain some of the liquid. I use mine mixed half with water to water my house plant, but you could also use it full strength to give it to your vegetable plants outside. If the liquid smells foul, like very rotten food don't use it and flush it down the toilet.

As the materials in the bin break down into compost, you need to add more fresh bedding on top. You need to be able to bury your food under the bedding, so it is important to keep adding as it decomposes.

You can harvest your compost when the bin material looks brown and crumbly, similar to coffee grounds. It should smell like nice forest floor. It probably will take about six months from the time of bin set-up until you can harvest the worm castings
To harvest you can empty the contents of the bin on a plastic sheet or tarp (you need to drain all the compost liquid first) remove all visible food scraps which you set aside to add later to the new bedding. Worms avoid light so they always will burrow down into the compost. To separate them  from the bedding you just have to wait a short time, then remove the 3"  top layer of the compost without the worms. Wait again until they burrow down and repeat the same every 5 - 10 minutes. In the end you have very little compost with a pile of worms. Re-bed Bin #2, add worms with the little compost to the bin, reassemble the bin setup and bury the leftover food scraps inside the new bedding.

You also can gently move the worm compost to one side of the bin, fill the other half with the fresh bedding and wait a day or two until the worms have moved to the new bedding, then remove the worm compost and fill the bin up with more of the new bedding. This does work much better if you have a larger bin, but it still is worth a try for the much easier and less messier technique.

Now you can use the harvested compost in your vegetable garden, or add it to your house plants as fertilizer.

If you have a problem with little flies inside your bin, which might be fruit flies, this can be prevented by laying a piece of cardboard over the bedding, inside the bin. Fruit flies don't like to lay their eggs on the smooth surface of the cardboard so this breaks their life cycle.
You might have Fungus gnats which are attracted to moist organic matter, like found in worm bins. They don't respond to the same technique as with fruit flies but can be trapped with a sticky trap made for gnats inside the bin. Sometimes if you get gnats in your house plants putting sand on top of the soil is supposed to prevent them laying their eggs, the same might work in the worm bin.

What could cause your worms death?
1)Bedding too dry, which leaves no moisture for the worms can cause them to die. Bedding needs to be moist like a wrung out sponge.
2)Too much water, causes them to drown. Use the spigot to drain the liquid more often. A layer of coco peat fiber at the bottom of the bin can absorb excess moisture.
3) Not enough air, will suffocate the worms. Keep the bedding fluffy and keep vents clear of bedding.
4)Too much acid is toxic and can burn the delicate skin of worms. Avoid adding too much citrus scraps.
5) Digging to much around in the bin will cause the food and bedding to heat up like a compost pile, heat will kill the worms.
6) Sun will heat up the box and kill the worms. Keep the box out of the sun. In hot climates it is advised to keep them out of over 90° F temperature.
7) Too cold. Worms start dying off in temperatures under 40° F.
8) Harvest compost when ready, the worm's castings are toxic to the worms.

So, this is all the information you need to keep your worm bin going and your worms happy.
I promised it won't be hard.

Part one: How to build your worm bin

Composting with worms-building a worm bin

I wanted to get a worm bin for a long time, so last year I finally built one after I came across a nice bin design which was using Rubbermaid bins you can easily get at any Target or Hardware store. Making your own is just the right thing for the person who wants to try worm composting without making a big financial commitment.

 

What are the benefits of worm composting?

For one the worms can recycle your kitchen-waste into one of the best soil amendments nature gives us, which are the worm castings, during the winter when your compost pile outside slows down or stops composting. Worm castings are supposed to have 7 times the nutrients than your outdoor produced compost. There is no turning and no watering, although you are supposed to keep it at a certain moisture level, not too wet and not to dry. You also will get some nice compost tea, which you can drain to water your house plants with.

I am diluting the compost tea half with water and water my house plants with that, since it seems to be so rich and my houseplants are responding nicely to it.

Another benefit is, you can do it indoors or outdoors, as long the temperature is between 40° and 80° F, which allows even apartment dwellers a way to compost their kitchen waste.

And if you like to go fishing, you will have always a nice supply of worms for that, because if the worms are happy, they will happily reproduce but there is only so much room in the bins for worms. And you also need to periodically separate the worms from the finished compost or they could die off. You can  pass on the left over worms you don't need to other people interested in trying worm composting or your fishermen friends, or add them to your compost pile. Or you could just make a second bin if you have the room.

Some people advise to get your Red Wigglers from outdoors, but the worms you will get outside are certain to be Night Crawlers and they thrive only in unimproved soils they’re NOT adaptable to worm bins and will die in them. They are the typical bait worm and are an invasive species introduced to the Americas. The Red Wigglers or Eisenia fetida for compost bins is also an European import but will not survive outside temperatures below 40 degrees or higher then 90, so are no thread to the environment. 

Let me show you how my bin is made.

Here are the parts you need, you should be able to get them all at your hardware/garden store:

  -2 solid color Rubbermaid bins, which need to be at least 14" deep. They need to nest into each other and still leave some room on the bottom for the compost tea to drain into.

  -2 - 2" screened louvered vents

  -10 - 1" screened louvered vents (we couldn't find 1" vents, so we used 6 - 2" sized, half the amount recommended)

  -O-ring hose washer

  -1 Male hose adapter, 3/4" x 1/2"

  -1 Metal hose shut-off valve, spigot

-Teflon plumbers tape

tools:

  -Motor drill

  -1/4" drill bit (regular)

  -1" drill bit (blade type)

  -2" drill bit (cup type)

  -measuring tape

Assembly of the worm bin:

Bin#2: Installing the screened louvered vents and drainage holes

 *Before you drill the holes, you should make an indentation with the 1" drill bit point to help guide the drill. You will have less slippage that way.

 *Turn the bin upside down and drill about 20 - 1/4" holes in the bottom of that bin, which will be for drainage.

Make sure to remove all bits of plastic residue from the holes, so they are clean and free of plastic curls. The plastic chips could make your worms sick.

 *Turn the bin on it's side and drill 5 - 1" holes if you have the 1" vents, or 3 -2" holes if you use the larger vents, along the upper edge, use the 2" cup type drill bit for the larger size. Locate the holes 1 3/4" from the top edge, spacing each hole about 3" apart.

 *do the same on the other side of bin

 *Now you need to insert the louvered vents into the holes from the outside of the bin

 *Make sure the vents are flush with the outside wall

Bin #1 Install the shut off valve spigot

 * Drill a 1" hole right at the center, end wall (the smaller side of bin) one half inch from the bottom of that bin

 *Stretch and push the O-ring onto the threaded end of the male hose adapter

 *You need to make sure the O-ring is in the groove all the way to the end of the male hose adapter

 *Wrap the threaded end of the male hose adapter with Teflon plumber's tape, which will make it fit tight and prevent leakage

 *From the outside of the bin, screw the shut off valve/spigot on to the male hose adapter tightly

 *The valve/spigot control know should be on the topside of the spigot so you can use it easily. Keep the spigot always in the closed position so you won't have the compost tea leak out.

 Lid # 2: Installing the screened louvered vents

 *Take the lid of the bin #2 and place on top of the #2 bin.

 *Mark two locations of the lid for the 2" louvered vents. A good place to put them is in the middle of the bin which is a bit indented. You do not want to put the holes across the border area from the indentation to the smooth area. The vents would not fit properly then.

 *Drill the 2" holes carefully into the lid using the cup drill bit.

 *Again clean off any plastic residue or plastic curls

 *Insert the 2" louvered vents from the outside of the bin, just as you did the side vents

 *Assemble the bin according to the picture of the finished bin at the beginning of this article. Stacking Bin #2 inside the Bin #1. Put the lid with the vents on the top bin.

Don't snap it closed, just lay it loosely on top of bin.

Use the other lid #1 as a drip tray underneath the whole set up. It helps to put two or three bricks underneath the bins to raise them up higher, it makes the job of draining the compost tea into your water can or container you are using easier.

So now you have your very own, home built worm bin and you are ready to get some Red wigglers and start composting. In my next post I will share how you prepare your bins for the resident worms and how to care for them. I promise it will be easy

part two: Taking care of your worm bin

Composting and sustainable living

Composting to me is a big part of being a responsible gardener, it is an important part of becoming sustainable. Composting my garden scrap, my chicken manure keeps everything I produce in my yard and I recycle it right back into my garden. It is the perfect cycle of life. The more compost I make, the less I have to get from outside my doors. The less fuel is needed to sustain my garden, the better it is for the environment.

Even though in my community all the yard waste gets recycled into garden compost and I also can purchase the garden compost from my local composting facility, I think my homemade compost is much better then what I can buy there. These large composting facilities are not just composting yard waste, they get most of their compostables from the forest and wood industry, which means it is very heavy on wood, very little green vegetative matter in there. Too much wood in compost throws the balance of nutrients out of order. I was not too pleased with the quality of the purchased compost. I know we can produce better soil at home.

I have gone through different composting set ups, since ever I had a garden. When I first started, money was still tight so we couldn't afford any of those new recycled plastic compost bins. But you actually don't need them to be successful in composting. It is more important what you put in the bins then what kind of bin you use. Back then my husband was able to get some wooden crates and wood pallets, so we easily put two together with steel ties from the hardware store, with the help of the rabbits we were raising then, we made some wonderful compost for this garden. When we started our first garden this compost in just 2 years turned the barren, clay, compacted soil into a rich, dark vegetable garden soil.

I am using now several bins and have them on both sides of the yard because we have a large double lot on a hillside which made it difficult to haul all the yard waste from one side of the yard to the other.

In my vegetable garden I use 2 wire bins which we wrap inside with cardboard, so the yard waste does not fall through. The cardboard is compostable so does not contaminate your compost.
I use another bin just like those right next to my chicken yard to collect the chicken-manure and the yard waste until I can shred it and use it. 
They sit in a corner of the yard which does not get as much sun and in the winter is a bit cooler then the rest of the vegetable garden, so not very useful for growing.

 I also have another bin which right now sits temporary outside of the vegetable garden area, because I have to first move the old in-ground sprinkler you see in the picture to make room for it. It is a green, made of recycled plastic bin and I will be using it to finish the almost finished compost.




After I have collected enough material in the first wire bin, I use bin # 2 in the vegetable garden to start the compost, layering the different vegetative materials in the proper amounts. As it starts composting down, which usually is by the time my first bin has collected again enough material for my next batch. I scratch the partially composted material through a wire sieve made of  hardware cloth into bin # 3 and throw the stuff which still needs more composting back into the same bin it came from. After the bin # 3 is almost done composting, but still shows some non composted material I again sieve it through a finer hardware cloth into the plastic bin # 4 to finish it off. This for me eliminates a lot of the constant turning the compost and works just fine for me. I get some nice looking compost with it and now since I have my chickens it will be even better dirt for my garden.

My other 2 compost bins I have on the other side of my upper garden.
This garden is mostly ornamental aside of a herb garden and is closer to my house, this is where I put all my vegetable scrap from the kitchen and what ever compostable clippings are coming from my upper garden. It makes it a lot easier to clean up the upper garden and because it is close to the house I don't have to walk through the whole yard in the winter rains just to throw my kitchen scrap in it.