Basics of Vermicomposting
The species of worm used for vermicomposting has a number of common names: red worms, red wigglers, manure worms, or brandling worms. Good spots for a worm box are under the kitchen sink, in the utility room, or in the basement.
Redworms need to breathe oxygen, but in deep containers bedding can pack down and become airless, temporarily preventing the worms from eating the bottom material. If aerobic conditions are maintained, the odor from a worm box is very slight and not particularly objectionable. Worm bins should be from eight to twelve inches deep.
A top is not needed because the worms will not crawl out.
Sealed with polyurethane, epoxy, or other non-toxic waterproofing material, worm boxes should last quite a bit longer.
How big a box or how many boxes do you need? Each cubic foot of worm box can process about one pound of kitchen garbage each week. The worms will adjust to such changes.
Bedding is a high C/N material that holds moisture, provides an aerobic medium worms can exist in, and allows you to bury the garbage in the box. Bedding must not be toxic to worms because they'll eventually eat it. Several ordinary materials make fine bedding. If you have a power shredder, you can grind corrugated cardboard boxes. Shredded newsprint makes fine bedding. Ground-up leaves make terrific bedding. Peat moss is widely used as bedding by commercial worm growers. Mixing large quantities of soil into worm bedding makes a very heavy box. A big handful of added soil will improve a worm box. Redworms are capable of very rapid reproduction at room temperatures in a worm box. Normally, two or three young worms emerge from a cocoon.
Worm casts are slightly toxic to worms. When a new box starts out with fresh bedding it contains no casts. As time goes on, the bedding is gradually broken down by cellulose-eating microorganisms whose decay products are consumed by the worms and the box gradually fills with casts.
You will quickly recognize worm casts. Once the bedding has been consumed and the box contains only worms, worm casts, and fresh garbage it is necessary to empty the casts, replace the bedding, and start the cycle over. So for starters you'll need to obtain two pounds of worms for each pound of garbage you'll put into the box each day. You'll need about two pounds of worms.
Each pound of worms needs three or four cubic feet of bedding. Redworms are small and consequently worm growers sell them by the pound. Worm raisers will sell "pit run" that costs much less. This is a mix of worms of all sizes and ages. After a few weeks the surviving worms will have adjusted.
The only time vermicomposting becomes odoriferous is when the worms are fed too much. Setting Up a Worm Box
Redworms need a damp but not soggy environment with a moisture content more or less 75 percent by weight. But bedding material starts out very dry. As a gauge, it takes 1 to 1-1/2 pounds of dry bedding for each cubic foot of box.
Then spread the material evenly through your empty worm box. Then add the worms. Then add garbage. Then cover the box. When I covered my worm box with plastic it dripped too much. But then, most of what I feed the worms is fresh vegetable material that runs 80-90 percent water. Feeding the Worms
Redworms will thrive on any kind of vegetable waste you create while preparing food. Putting meat products into a worm box may be a mistake. Bones are slow to decompose in a worm box. If you spread the worm casts as compost it may not look attractive containing whitened, picked-clean bones. Avoid putting non-biodegradable items like plastic, bottle caps, rubber bands, aluminum foil, and glass into the worm box.
Do not let your cat use the worm bin as a litter box.. If the holding tub is getting high, don't cover it, feed it to the worms.
When feeding garbage into the worm bin, lift the cover, pull back the bedding with a three-tine hand cultivator, and make a hole about the size of your garbage container. The worms kept working the material until there was no food left. The rest was an excellent batch of worm castings and a very few hardy, undernourished worms."
The worms will simply continue eating the garbage left in the bin.
Fruit flies can, on occasion, be a very annoying problem if you keep the worm bins in your house. If your worm bin contains these types of materials, fruit flies may find it attractive.
As worm casts become a larger proportion of the bin, conditions deteriorate for the worms. Differences in bedding, temperature, moisture, and the composition of your kitchen's garbage will control how long it takes but eventually you must separate the worms from their castings and put them into fresh bedding. Hand sorting works well after a worm box has first been allowed to run down a bit. You'll see worms all over. The worms will move into the center of each pile. Then refill the box with fresh bedding and distribute the remaining worms, castings, and food still in the box. Plenty of worms and egg cocoons will remain to populate the box. The worms that you dumped on the garden will probably not survive there.
A better method of dividing a box prevents wasting so many worms. By that time virtually all the worms will have migrated to the "new" side. People in the North may want to use a worm box primarily in winter when other composting methods are inconvenient or impossible. By that time there will be only a few worms left alive in a box of castings. Begin the process with about 10 inches of moist bedding material and worms on the bottom of the first can. When finally full, the bulk of its contents will be finished worm casts and will contain few if any worms.
This is a summary of a longer article here.
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