How to set up a worm bin?
The goal of having a worm bin is to create worm casting. It is the fancy word for worm poop. The worms will eat and digest what you provide them, and in return, the worms will produce one of the most amazing fertilizers for your landscape or garden. Here are the steps to follow to get the best worm casting.
Get some worms
There are a lot of species of earthworms on Earth. You don't want to grab any worms and put them in a worm bin. There are three different groups of earthworms:
- The anecic worms create vertical galleries to eat the mineral in the soil.
- The endogeic worms create horizontal galleries and consume the topsoil.
- The epigeic worms live on top of the topsoil in leaf litter.
The worms we are dealing with to produce worm casting for your landscape or garden are the epigeic or composting worms. Those worms thrive in compost piles or eat the manure they can find in nature. These are the species of composting worms you want to get for your worm bin you can easily find online:
- Red Wiggler
- European nightcrawlers
- African nightcrawlers
You can start a small bin with 1000 worms which are about a pound or 500 grams. They will reproduce if they are happy with the environment.
Now you have to provide the right environment for your worms.
Get a bin for the worms.
Like every discipline, it is better to start small, with just one bin that you master. Then you expand.
You want to get a shallow bin with a lid and not transparent because worms detest the light.
Get a bin of 10 to 20 us gallons, or 40 to 70 liters will do the job. If you want to have a bigger operation, get more bins.
It is critical for your operation to be a cold and SHALLOW process to master in the long run, so don't use a trash can.
If the material heats up too much the worms can die.
Get some bedding.
Worms have to live in bedding because that is where they thrive in nature. The worms breathe through their skin. Your composting worms need to have oxygen and moisture to thrive. That is what the bedding will provide. That is how you can control the moisture level and oxygen level of your bin. Here is some bedding that you can get for your worms:
- Shredded paper.
- Cardboard with no paint.
- Finished and well-cured compost.
- Coconut coir.
- Leaves.
Now that you have your bedding fill half of the bin and make sure it is shredded. That is how you will create oxygen pockets for your worms. They will also eat the bedding faster.
Make sure that you soak it in water before you add it. If the content of the bin is too dry, add some moist bedding. That is how you control the moisture of your bin and why bedding is so important. A worm bin that is too humid will attract bugs or flies.
Get the food for the worms.
Here is the secret to avoiding your bin to SMELL BAD. If your bin is well-managed it WILL NOT SMELL.
The one rule to follow with the feeding is: DON'T OVERFEED.
Worms eat half their weight a day. So set up a schedule for them to eat for 3 to 4 days and feed them twice a week. This is why it is good to start with 1000 worms, they will take less time to break down the food than 100.
What can you feed your worms:
- Kitchen waste, they love fruits.
- Yard weeds only the greens and no seeds.
- Fresh leaves with no disease.
- Garden waste.
- Pre-composted organic matter that has already heated up and that will be cured.
- There is a lot more you could feed worms with, but I won't list them all here. That is part of the fun with worms, to find out what to feed them.
What you don't want to feed them: lime, oranges, or onions, no dairy products, no meat products.
Some people will raise soldier flies larvae that will eat about everything, and a lot faster than worms. Those are not a foe for your worm bin, but if there are more flies larvae than worms, they will compete with the worms for food.
To avoid unwanted visitors in the bin, you MUST COVER it with a blanket or cardboard and a lid always on.
To feed your worms always put the food on top of the bin and let them consume all of it. When they are done keep going. Feeding a worm bin is not a fix-it-and-forget-about-it process. The more you have a schedule for it, the less trouble you will have with your worm bin.
Get some soil.
Between your bedding and your food, you want to put some soil.
The point of adding soil to a worm bin is for the beneficial microbes that will be generated to spread easier after being harvested. When you will apply the casting the fertilizer you have created will already be adapted to its destination.
If you do not know if your garden soil is any good, you can go buy some finished compost at your garden center. Especially if you have indoor plants that will grow in that medium, get the microbes used to it.
You also can go collect a sample of your best garden soil and feed it to your worms. If you want to fertilize your garden, the microbes will then thrive in the soil of your garden. If you do not have a garden yet, go to a nearby forest and collect some soil.
Get the minerals.
This is a little more technical part that you can think about when starting a worm bin.
Let's just say you have to make a soil analysis of your garden. Your report has arrived and it says it is missing nutrients. This is where your worm bin can be very useful.
If for example, you lack phosphorus, then you can add minerals or vegetals that have phosphorus.
Some people say worms need grits, you can add grits for worms.
It depends on what your garden needs and what you are trying to achieve.
Put the worm's bin in a safe place.
The temperature inside your worm bin should always be around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Too hot over 90 degrees, the worms will die, too cold and they will eat slower. If it is freezing outside the worms will freeze too, they are made of water.
Don't let the rain flood your bin, it will ruin all your work. So the bin has to be covered at all times.
Open the bin several times a week to let air into it. It is ok to drill holes in the top of the bin. If your worms are happy they won't escape.
More about me.
I am Nicole, I have dedicated the past decade to mastering composting on a small scale to create homemade compost. All the compost that is created goes to our landscape. I have started to practice Vermicomposting to reduce our food waste, feed some livestock, and create aerated compost tea for our garden.
Feel free to contribute to #Compostodon and share your experiences with the community.
It would also be great to have a #Wormodon for a community dedicated to vermicomposting.
Thank you.