First, check out the rest of the web.
You should go to the Links page, where I try to give you a bit of a guided tour of worm how-to on the web.
I plan to be doing my own multi-media extravaganza production on Worm How-To in the near future. Until then,
this is what I have for you. This site is about providing you with a lot more details than just throwing up yet
another how-to guide based on
Mary Applehof's excellent Book.
What do I know that they don't? Not much.
Please remember that I am a beginner at this stuff. I am clever, sure, but there's no substitute for
experience. So I feel obligated to stick to passing along what I've been told.
So here I try to compile "best practices", if they exist, and as I am able to interpret them, and share that with you.
Please check out the Bins page
You should consider your goals in worm-keeping because the kind of worm home you choose should be tailored
to your goals. That's what the Bins page is for. This How-To page covers all different kinds of bins,
with specific advice as needed for different types, so it will be helpful if you know what kind of bin you're
going to be using.
What Successful Worm-Keepers Do
Keeping worms is easy and most people are successful. It's not tricky. Then again, like anything, the more you know
the better. Wormgineering is about stocking you up with more than enough know-how, allowing you to take full
advantage of not only the inherent ease of worm-keeping, but the experience of those who came before. Like anything,
mistakes CAN be made, and people have already made them - surely there's nothing wrong with you avoiding those same errors?
In addition to preventing mistakes, I'm also trying to put you in position to maximize your ability to achieve your goals.
Commonly Used Worm Bin Types
Three Types are widely used:
- Multiple Level Tray Stacks (Multi-Tray Worm Homes)
- Plastic Bins with Ventilation
- Wooden Boxes with Ventilation
This site is focused on the city dweller and indoor worm bins. The bins noted as for outdoor use have extra features as compared
to indoor units - rain shedding being the main thing, but also maybe better materials. I don't see why they would not work
well indoors, but at the same time they are large capacity. Still, maybe an apartment building's tennants pool their food waste
and use one of these rugged units in the basement.
Update, June 1 2009:
I wrote this whole page just before I started to invent the WormMaster. What I've done is designed a way to match or exceed
the multi-tray systems for convenience and function by creating a sophisticated but low cost way to convert the tried and true
plastic tote bin into a powerhouse garbage processor. I'm just lightly editing the discussion to include my own product line.
The following list indicates that if you are going to purchase a ready-to-go individual- or family-sized worm home (and not
a do-it-yourself one), then it's either a multi-tray system or a Plastic Tote type bin.
A Complete Round-up of Commercially Made Worm Homes
Here are all the different choices I've found so far.
My WormGin™ product line is brand spanking new, so it is only available on my site. Once it catches on in the market, I'll be
looking for distributors.
- WormGin™ -
Plastic tote bin system which expands for worm population growth, with a feeder system to make life easy for you and your worms.
From Oregon.
The next four are available from multiple sites, the links are to the actual manufacturer's website.
- The Worm Factory -
Rectangular trays, with a flat roof. Apparently the top seller. From Washington State.
- Can o Worms -
Round trays. From Australia.
- Gusanito Worm Bin System -
Rectangular trays, with a peaked roof, OK for outdoor duty. From Washington State.
- Tumbleweed Worm Farm -
NOT trays, this is a bin-within-a-bin set-up. From Australia.
The following are basically exclusive to their websites, which may or may not be the manufacturer. The last three in this group of 8 may not
be designed with worms in mind, but my guess is they would work great.
- Worm Composter -
From www.wackyworldsof.com, a nifty-looking bucket-in-a-bucket system
- Garden Gourmet -
From www.unclejimswormfarm.com, an attractive system, why so obscure?
- Worm Lab -
From the National Gardening Association (www.garden.org), a single bin set-up
- Tumbleweed Worm Farm Composter -
From www.naturesharmonyllc.com, a large box, very unlike the other Tumbleweed product
- Worm Bungalow -
From www.composters.com - A HUGE capacity set-up
- Soil Saver -
A large capacity outdoor unit from Planet Natural, a good looking design that seems to accomodate Red Wigglers
- Backyard Composter -
Also from Planet Natural, a HUGE capacity outdoor unit. Wormgineer wants one.
- Wishing Well -
From www.gardenworms.com, large capacity, for outdoor use
Here is an educational kit from Fisher Science
- Worm-A-Way Kit
From www.fishersci.com (productId=678393), another single bin set-up
Last and least, a worm torture chamber for the little human monsters among us :D
- Worm Vue Wonders
From Montessori Services, a miniature worm bin with a clear side for observation.
If you've decided you want a commercial Multi-Level Worm Home . . .
. . . then you are looking at either The Worm Factory, Gusanito or Can O' Worms. I'd like to review each, but I do not
have the experience with them needed for that review to mean much. Also, this is not meant to be
a shopper's guide. I'll just take a quick stab at typical prices and you can go from there.
Update, June 1 2009:
While not a shopper's guide per se, my business strategy is to build my growth on well-informed, happy customers, and I think
people will see superior value in my products. Also, this site, with its original primary and secondary missions of explosive growth
in worm-keeping in Portland and everywhere else, will remain intact, and the original concept here is thriftiness in set-up and
maintenance. So that's why I'm showing you all your options. If you like one of the alternatives, go for it.
Update, June 1 2009:
My competitor's products do not suck. I just thought I could do better, and I believe I've pulled it off. So I'm not going to bad-mouth
their products here. Still, in order to explain the improvements I offer, I need to explain some of the shortcomings I believe
I've identified in the competition. Fair enough? What I've done is separate my worm advocacy and my commercial efforts into two
URLs. If the page you're reading is on 'wormgineer.com' then I will not be trashing my competition in any way. If you're on
'worm-gin.com' then you are looking at my commercial site, where you can learn more about why you should go with the WormGin™
I should mention that I've left one option off the list. You can find a 4-tray system for ~$100
on eBay, made out of Cedar. I've read that worms hate cedar, and I don't like torturing worms, so if
what I've read is true, I cannot recommend this unit. Too bad, otherwise this looks like a quality product
from a very well-meaning worm guy. If you think cedar is fine, check out
www.pollardworms.com
and eBay.
Four-tray models of TWF run $110 List Price, $90 typical; Gusanito is what, maybe $20 less, and COW is $105-$140,
all before shipping. You're on your own from there, I'll just add that if you are still paranoid about
buying things online, I don't know what to tell you, because you really shouldn't be. Some sites are fancier
than others, but even the simpler sites have shopping carts which are secure and the vast vast majority of
sales go forward flawlessly and to everyone's complete satisfaction. It is very mature and reliable technology.
The internet depends on it, so it has to be good.
For folks here in the Portland area, I will follow up with an overview of local availabilty at some point, hopefully soon.
That will probably happen at the same time as I release plans for worm bins.
Do It Yourself (DIY) Worm Homes
Please remember how easy and cheap it is to get set up in worm-keeping! Don't let all my words make you think otherwise!
If you can find an unused plastic bin and find a way to poke holes in it without hurting yourself, you're halfway home.
(Most of the rest is tearing up newspaper into strips)
That is also true if you can find or build a wooden box: you can get going with a custom-sized solution with as much
simplicity or as many features as you want.
For now, for bin construction, I need to refer you to the other How-To guides on the web, see the
Links page.
Two reasons: The main mission of this site calls for a standardized plastic tote bin to be deployed as a hatchery,
which is going to be a bit different than a weekly-fed vermicycling worm bin. I need to develop the how-to for both versions
and release them at the same time, and I have neither one ready for publication yet. Also, I need to wrap up the plans for
the DIY wooden bins I'll be introducing.
Plastic Worm Bins
I will give you a quickie description of my recommended DIY set-up for a plastic tote worm bin:
- Not too small: 15 Gallon Size minimum, 18-20 Gallon Size is the target. Must include a tight-fitting lid.
- If you have a good tray for catching leachate or tea, go ahead and put holes in the bottom, they are mostly
for drainage but help with aeration as well. Make sure the tray is going to be easy to handle and will catch
all the drippings - don't put holes in the bottom that the tray can't cover.
- If you don't have a good tray for catching leachate or tea, don't put holes in the bottom. Holes in the
bottom help aeration, but are mostly for drainage. A tray may be more trouble than it's worth, especially
if you are confident that you're not going to drown your worms (by knowing how wet is too wet).
Or, if you set the bin on some blocks, you can put a single drain hole in one bottom corner with a small container
under the hole, to hopefully prevent drowning the worms.
- You also may want to leave holes out of the lid. Any unscreened hole is an opening for fruit flies,
which are not typically a problem if you bury the food properly, but maybe you want to be extra careful
in preventing fruit flies. If you don't put holes in the lid, to stay with this strategy the holes in the
sides should not be too high (not above the top of the bedding).
- Holes in the sides! Lots and lots of holes! As long as you don't put your worm food too close to
the sides, fruit flies are not going to be able to get in and feed and then get back out: they have
to navigate all that bedding, and that's not their thing. You'll want to know how deep you will be
keeping your bedding, and place most or all of your holes below the top of the bedding.
- I'd recommend 1/4 inch diameter holes if you're using a drill motor. Cordless drills are great,
and I'm thinking most people, including city types, have one. With a drill or any other kind of tool you use to
poke the holes, PLEASE BE CAREFUL! No bleeding on the worms, please.
- You don't have to get too carried away on the number of holes. Ventilation is very important, but
I'd say that an upper limit would be, like, 15 holes on each short end, and 25 holes on each long end.
Some people might say this is excessive, but like I said, ventilation is very important and
you won't need more than that. You'll want to drill them at different heights: low, medium and high.
- Fruit flies are actually not usually a problem, I suspect that often has to do with other sources of food
than the worm bin. So feel free to drill holes above the level of the bedding to improve ventilation. An 1/8" hole
is big enough for a fruit fly to get through, but they have a hard time finding their way out.
The key is to
keep the food buried so that fruit flies cannot lay their eggs it it, which is NOT a good thing.
- That's about it. I am assuming you are reading the other guides I'm pointing you to, and hoping my additions
here are helpful. You have a box ready to go, let's move on to what goes in it.
Wooden Worm Bins
Most of the plans you can find on the internet are for very simple boxes indeed. I can see nothing wrong with these boxes,
I am sure they work great. What I am interested in is providing plans that make things even easier and more customized for you.
I have the engineering
software, tools and expertise to do that. It's just a matter of getting it done, and getting this website up and running has been
the higher priority. In other words: "Coming Soon!" (You've read that one before, I'll wager). Please make sure you sign up on the
mailing list
for updates, that is how I will announce the release of the plans for DIY wooden box worm homes.
Best Practices in Commonly Used Worm Bin Types
Perhaps the best place to start is to understand that you CAN kill your worms.
You can dry them out, you can cook them, you can freeze them, you can drown them, you can poison them and you can starve them.
But you are not a big old worm-bully, so you're not going to do any of those, right? No, you're not, and here's why: if you
keep them indoors enough so that they are always between 55 and 86 dF (13 to 30 dC), follow directions on moisture content
(ideally keep between 70% and 90% moisture) and feed them enough normal kitchen scraps, you've got all of those covered. The
one thing I omitted on the death list is maintaining the pH. No worries, it's easy, people sometimes freak out about understanding
pH, please don't do that, OK? It's easy to understand, and easy to deal with.
The Bin
The Bedding
The Food
Layering
Supplements
Feeding
Maintenance & Harvesting
The Bin
Everything starts with the bin you choose. That's why I have an entire
Worm Bins
page talking about matching your Bin to
your goals and circumstances, and I have the above section as well. I'll move on, assuming that you've either chosen your
bin type, or that you want to read more How-To stuff first, which is what follows.
The Bedding
When I first started looking at Red Wigglers, I had a lot of questions about bedding. Worms are worms, and your food waste is
going to be what it will be, that's kind of the whole idea for many folks. So the thing you have the most choice over is the bedding.
What is Worm Bedding?
You can't just throw the worms on top of a pile of food. The worms need to be able to move in and out of the food and they
need to stay below the surface of whatever they're in. So there needs to be something else besides food, simply to provide
the worms with a place to be. It's just like any animal you keep: fish need water, lizards need a surface, birds need air.
Worms need something loose and organic and moist to squirm around in, something close to their natural habitat.
Let's look at the natural habitat for Red Wigglers. My understanding is that they are essentially a "Manure Worm", but they are thrilled
to work on rotting fruit and vegetables whenever they get a chance. They evolved before mankind and our vegetable gardens and
fruit orchards, but manure
has been around at least since mammals came on the scene. (I have not been able to find a good estimate of when Red Wigglers came to exist.)
But even after their food sources diversified, Red Wigglers still have had to deal with isolated pockets of food. As a result, when they
have plenty of food, they multiply rapidly and make cocoons. They apparently will start making cocoons even faster if they sense the
food supply is running out.
As a "manure worm" then, the manure is the bedding. It is also the food. It is very important to know that Red Wigglers need
AGED MANURE ONLY!
This applies to cow and horse manure for sure. Other manures, like rabbit, do not need aging. Fresh Cow Manure is too "hot"
for our worms, meaning that the stuff is too concentrated in organics and nutrients and has an existing microbial population
that needs to do its work before the worms take their turn and finish it. When people are talking about using cow manure
to feed and bed their worms, everyone should be aware that they are talking about stuff that has aged a year or so. Once aged, cow manure
is commonly used as the sole food and bedding for vermiculture operations, with maybe a few supplements such as lime and grit.
There are other materials that can serve as both food and bedding. Amazingly enough, they include corrugated cardboard and
newspaper. Neither are nearly as good as aged manure, but worms can actually survive on just cardboard or just newspaper. Not
all animals eat their bedding, but worms do. (Actually, worms eat the wee beasties that eat the bedding.) It turns out that the
glue used in cardboard makes for good but limited worm food, and that newsprint has enough nutrition to keep them going, just barely.
What Should I Use For Worm Bedding?
For our urban worm bins, newspaper is the way to go - at least until all the newspapers go out of business :-( The grocery store
does not carry aged manure, and cardboard is a lot harder to prepare for use as bedding. Newsprint is easy to find and easy to
tear into strips, and it works great as a bedding in combination with food waste.
The other great worm bedding material is coconut coir (the husk material from coconuts). It absorbs and holds moisture, which
is a great thing for the worms. It doesn't get compacted like newspaper can, worms can get where they want to go much more easily.
Coir is not free like newspaper, but it's not all that expensive either. My understanding is that it is completely renewable,
so it's a 'green' product, even with the transportation involved in getting into your worm bin. It's not really worm food, but it
does get converted into castings along with everything else.
Leaves would seem to be a good bedding material, but for the plastic-tote type bin or for the vermicomposter, not really.
The woody part of the leaves takes a long time to break down, and get in the way of reaping a nice harvest of castings. They
aren't really going to help the soil a whole lot anyway. To use leaves, you really need to let them break down naturally
first. So collecting autumn leaves for a new worm bin is not a good idea (even though that is a great time of year to
start a bin to get castings by spring). You can collect them and store them and eventually
you will have a decent worm bedding. In the big picture, leaves are better in a hot compost pile.
I will be assuming that folks are using newspaper torn into ~ 1 inch wide strips as their bedding material. Any addition of coconut
coir is a good idea, right up to using 100% coir. I'll be developing guidelines on the math page to help you get the amount of
water right when you use either newspaper or coir or both.
Do I Need To Replace The Bedding Over Time?
YES! Dang, I almost forgot to mention that!
It is important to replenish the bedding over time. (I assume newspaper strips
but feel free to add as much coconut coir as you want).
There are two basic ways to do it,
and you can do both. First is to put some bedding (not a lot) in with the food, which works pretty well because the juices
soak into the paper
and that sets up a full meal deal for a worm. Secondly, you will find that your top layer of shredded paper will break down
over time, so occasionally (monthly?) you will want to throw in a whole new layer of top bedding. This works nicely because
when you feed a simple bin (this discussion does not cover the tray systems - follow the manufacturer's directions) you grab
a big handful of basically clean shredded newspaper (the top bedding layer), dump the food in and throw the handful on top,
and you're outta there.
(You might find that you cannot resist digging around in there, I think it's fun, and it's a good way to monitor your worms.)
The Food
The idea behind vermicycling is that the worms are expected to handle whatever food waste you give them, as long as you don't give
them the bad stuff like meat and dairy. If you also want to keep the worm population up, and produce more castings over time, you
are going to want to feed the worms enough and feed regularly. If your family eats veggies a lot and regularly, things should
balance out nicely. If you go long periods without producing food waste, you can starve your worms. Now, if you over-feed the worm bin,
that's when things get stinky and buggy, unless the food is kept sealed from your living space, but even then you'll need to stop
feeding for a while to let them catch up.
Should you feed perfectly good human food to worms just to keep their population up? Shouldn't that food
go to a food bank or something? Good question: it looks like we have our first moral dilemma with worm-keeping. This
question is one of many reasons why I decided to define terms on this site:
Vermiculture,
Vermicomposting and
Vermicycling are all types of
Vermipractice.
A worm home set up for the purpose of vermicycling - using worms to dispose of food waste - without much regard
to the production of worms (vermiculture) or their castings (vermicomposting) should not, in my opinion and by my
definitions, be fed human food regularly just to maintain their population. Doing so is not true to the purpose of diverting
that food's carbon from making greenhouse gases to making plant-loving organic carbon.
If you are trying to raise worms, in the big picture of climate change mitigation, using food waste is a highly preferred
way to feed your babies, especially if they are being raised for the future purpose of vermicycling. At the same time,
manure emits methane if left to rot completely, so using worms to deal with manure makes sense too. I've read that
worms raised on manure may take some time to adapt to food waste, but that their babies adapt great, so while that
may test the patience of the beginning worm-keeper, it does get the job done.
To return from the lofty world of moral dilemmas, here is my all-purpose answer: You committed to taking care of these critters
and you should want them to thrive. It's OK to feed them to keep them thriving. To stay as green with your vermipractice
as possible, use simple commodity foods, not high-value stuff like fresh produce. Cooked rice is easy and has high food value.
If you are going to suddenly stop producing food waste for some reason,I would expect that you could talk to a produce manager at
your regular grocer and get a nice quanity of trimmings.
Feed a bunch of that to tide them over until you return to your normal routine.
When does Human Food Become Worm Food?
Whether manure or food waste, what we commonly refer to as worm food is not what the worms eat. Worms don't eat what we
feed them! They eat the microbes, nematodes and other wee beasties that are eating the food we put in the worm bin. Food
waste in the absense of critters just sits there: decaying food is all about microorganisms reducing that complicated organic
matter back down into simpler stuff. Worms eat the guys who do the initial consumption of the food matter. This is not what I
would call "rotting" by the way - rotting is what happens when you leave the food sealed up and nature is forced to slowly
break the food matter down without oxygen - anaerobic critters instead of our friends who hang out with worms.
So the food waste you put in your bin is typically not immediately available to the worms. It has to sit a bit first and then
get munched by bacteria and other critters.
Also, food chopped into little pieces is going to reduce faster simply because of the amount of surface area available
for the critters to munch on increases dramatically when you chop it up.
Many people who have been keeping worms for a long time will chop up their food and store it in an air-tight container for
a few days or a week before giving it to the worms. Now you know why. If you don't want to chop up the waste, I don't blame
you one little tiny bit: "Hey, can these worms do the job or not? Do they need pampering now?" :-)
No, you don't need to
chop and "pre-rot" the food for them: you can bury large chunks of fresh food in the bedding without problems. But if you're the
kind of person who likes trying advanced techniques even when still a beginner at something, chopping the food up is a good
trick. Another trick:
keep dry bedding (newspaper strips) handy for wiping out the juices from containers of food waste,
and then bury that bedding with the food.
Layering
Back to straight-up how-to stuff in a second. First, remember that bedding is about providing our Red Wigglers a "place to be"
- the bedding is their world, and the rotting food is their sustenance. Worms eat a lot, but they have other things on their agenda than
just dinner parties. They like to move around, and they're good at it because they are mostly muscle. They like to move into the food
area and then back out into the bedding. They like to cruise the strip and find other worms to party with. They entertain
themselves pretty well, but they like it when their world has some variety in texture, moisture and temperature. Keep this in
mind when you start layering the stuff in the bin, and as you maintain it down the road.
Hey, before I forget to mention it: you will be adding water to your dry bedding, and your chlorinated city water is
not good for worms - all critters hate chlorine - so you will need to put some water in a bucket or large bowl
and let it sit in the open for a day. The chlorine will naturally leave the water, but make sure you give it enough time:
at least 18 hours.
From the human perspective, the purpose of bedding is to isolate the rotting food from our living space. I suspect most people
would be shocked to learn how effective newspaper and other bedding can be at making sure you get no nasty aromas from your
worm bin. Our layering strategy is going to make sure we get the bin off to a good start so that the decaying food gets processed
by the worms' food chain instead of it just plain rotting, which could cause a stink.
The first layer of bedding is going to provide a volume of material into which the juices of decaying food can be absorbed, ready
for a worm to process. This food-soaked layer of bedding on the bottom will eventually become a layer of finished castings. Making
sure that happens, especially in a plastic bin without drainage, is where controlling the moisture content becomes important, in terms
of not having too much water in the bottom, excluding the worms. Even so, make sure this first layer is not too dry, there is a lot more
dry bedding to go in and an over-moist bin is an error on a later step.
For the bottom layer, I recommend a 3-inch thick layer of wet newspaper strips and/or coir.
The idea is to count the newsprint pages or weigh the dry newspaper, calculate and then measure out the water, dip the paper
in it, and only use the measured amount of water. I'll have my guidelines for exactly how much water to use very soon.
After the first layer is in is a good time to scatter whatever supplements you are going to use on top in a thin layer
so that the stuff is available through the whole area of the bin.
The next layer is food. Spread it out, or if you have a large bin, split it into separate piles. Don't let it get
within an inch or so of the sides, that area needs to be bedding so that flies don't have access to the food via the
ventilation holes in the sides. Even though the worms can't eat fresh food, you don't need to start off with "rotting"
food. You can if you want, but the worms take a couple days to settle into their new home before they start eating
anyway, and the food will decay a bit while they do that.
The food layer should not be thicker than about 2 inches to start with, an inch is probably better. Keep it away from
the sides.
Place another layer of wet bedding on top of the food layer, again weighing or counting the dry newspaper and measuring out the water.
Supplements
One thing for sure needs to be added: some source of grit. Our worms need it to grind up their food in their crop.
I've run across several other supplement recommendations, but I have not yet done my engineering investigation and
analysis on them. I have a personal theory that a bit of aged steer manure is a nice booster. Native soil and rock
phosphate have been mentioned. The packing material your worms come in is expected to have the important starter
critters up and down the food chain. If this is in doubt, for sure try to at least get some semi-finished
vermicompost to get things well-started.
When I get done doing my homework on Supplements, I'll be back to finish this section properly.
Feeding
Some say you should feed daily. I like feeding weekly. From what I know so far, it doesn't matter much. Bury it at
least two inches deep, more if your bedding is especially well aerated (loose). If your bin is bigger than a
20 gallon size plastic tote, you can put food in different spots, even setting up a scheduled rotation. Even with
a regular size bin, you can feed at alternate ends, or instead you can feed in one end only so that they always have
bedding on the other end to retreat to.
More feeding advice will be offered as I gain experience and learn from the forums. For more wormgineering-type
discussion, make sure you read the section named 'The Food' above.
Maintenance & Harvesting
When you feed, you have a chance to look inside the bedding and try to get an idea of how things are going. This is
the most basic maintenance task: Observe when Feeding. Observing gives you a chance to react and avert problems.
Knowing how to react takes experience, and unfortunately I don't yet have the level of experience needed to provide
a set of guidelines. "More Later" . . . "Coming Soon"
Remember that when it comes to harvesting castings, it takes many months for ANY setup to start
producing them. Plus, the how-to of harvesting castings depends on your setup and the history of the worm bin - the
food, bedding and health of your worms. So I'm not able to discuss it in detail here.
The same goes for harvesting worms. Plus,
I personally would rather not mess up a perfectly good worm bin just to get a squirm of worms in my hands to admire. So
I have to assume worms are being harvested to start worm bins.
But if you are going to start up a worm bin, when it comes to the biological package, you need a lot more than just worms. The more I
learn, the more I think that buying worms a thousand at a time is not the way to go. What you want is a miniature worm bed,
with all the other critters in abundance, so that when they go into your bin, they ALL are able to ramp up their numbers
to match the bin. Worms provided with all their buddies, and hopefully some cocoons besides, are called "Bed-Run" worms.
I am very fortunate that my worm supplier, Walter at
www.wegotworms4u.com
sells true bed run worms. The guy is genuine: he wants your worm bin to succeed and really goes the extra mile to take care of
his customers. On top of that, his price is THE BEST YOU WILL FIND (post on the forums if you disagree) and shipping is cheap!
I honestly don't know another source that even comes close in value. Way to go Walter!
