Vermicomposting (Composting with Worms)

Redworms (commonly called red wigglers) and brown-nose worms can be used to compost food scraps. The worms live in paper or cardboard bedding into which kitchen scraps are placed. They eat both the bedding and the kitchen scraps and excrete worm castings.

Worm castings are often referred to as "black gold". Vermicompost makes an excellent organic fertilizer.

Worm bins do not smell because the worms eat the rotting or smelly portion of the food in their bin. As long as the bins are not overfed, there is no rotting food left to make an odor.

A Basic Approach to Vermicomposting

1. Either buy or build a wood or plastic container. When choosing a home for your worms, remember that worms hate light and require a temperature between 40 to 80 degrees F to survive. The bin will need aeration so the worms can breath. Plan on one square foot of surface for each pound of garbage per week. A 10-gallon plastic tub with a lid that snaps shut would be a good choice. Punch 1/8" holes about 1 " apart around the sides of the bin to provide air for the worms.
   
   There are numerous vendors of vermicomposting systems, such as the Can-O-Worms™ system shown below. The best option would be to recycle something like an old dresser drawer, trunk, or discarded barrel.
   

2. Add bedding to the worm bin until the bin is 1/3 full. Suitable bedding materials include shredded newspaper and cardboard, shredded fall leaves, dead plants, sawdust, peat moss, compost and aged manure. If convenient, vary the bedding in the bin as much as possible, to provide more nutrients for the worms, thus creating richer compost. Moisten the dry bedding materials before putting them in the bin, so that the overall moisture level is like a wrung-out sponge.

3. Add a couple of handfuls of sand or soil to provide necessary grit for the worm's digestion of food.

4. Add approximately a pound of worms for each pound of food scraps you plan to compost each week. The two types of earthworms best suited to worm composting are redworms: Eisenia foetida (commonly known as red wiggler, brandling, or manure worm) and Lumbricus rubellus (also called the dung worm).

   Consider purchasing your worms regionally. Two local vendors are listed below.

   Crow Worm Farm
   4808 FM 2135
   Cleburne, TX 76031
   (817) 558-4221

   Rabbit Hill Farm
   288 SW CR0020
   Corsicana, TX 75110
   (903) 872-4289

5. Add an appropriate amount of food scraps and cover with approximately 2 inches of bedding to discourage pests. Store food scraps in a sealed container, refrigerated if possible.

6. Approximately every week, repeat step 5 as materials come available.

Materials to Avoid in the Vermicompost Bin

• Meats, dairy products, oily foods, and grains
• Droppings from meat-eating animals
• Colored inks as some contain traces of toxic metals

Harvesting the Vermicompost

In about 6 months, a healthy worm bin will be ready to harvest. There are many methods of separating the worms from the finished compost. The quickest is to simply move the finished compost over to one side of the bin and place fresh bedding and food waste in the space created. The worms will gradually move over and the finished compost can be skimmed off as needed.

You could also dump the entire contents of the bin onto a large plastic sheet and separate the worms manually. Watch out for the tiny, lemon-shaped worm cocoons and try to return them to the worm bin. Mix a little of the finished compost in with the new bedding to start the cycle again.

Mix finished compost with soil at a ratio of 1 to 4 or use vermicompost as a top dress for houseplants by adding ¼ inch of castings to the top of the soil surface every 45 to 60 days.