Red Wiggler Worms and Composting
Author Ellen Vande Visse
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Let Worms Eat Your Garbage
Make Vermi-compost with Red Wiggler Worms
by Ellen Vande Visse
Got garbage?
Why not let worms transform your food waste into garden gold?
Here’s how to enjoy worm composting indoors—without odor.
1. Choose a location: Do you have a place indoors within a temperature range of 58f to 78F? Composting worms are fussy and will freeze outdoors.
2. Choose a worm bin. Make one or buy one. Find used ones on line. Find new ones at a store such as AK Mill & Feed, or on line. Also see the next article.
3. Prepare your bin with bedding of moistened strips of brown paper bags, newspaper, cardboard, office paper, or plain newsprint. Or buy coir and soak it. Wood shavings are fine if they’re from a sawmill, not from linear lumber.
4. Get worms Not just any old earthworm! You want compost worms =Manure worms=Red Wigglers= Redworms=all are Eisenia foetida. European night crawlers (Eisenia hortensis) are also fine. How many? Start with ½ to 1 lb of worms. One cup = ½ lb and is roughly 800 to 1000 mature composting worms. See the next article for sources.
5. Feed your workers As your worm population grows, gradually increase food portions to 2-3 cups per week of kitchen waste and vegetable trimmings such as: lettuce, potato peels, leftovers, tea bags, coffee grounds, apple cores, carrot tops, grains, bread in tiny pieces, citrus rinds, onion skins, used paper towels, crushed egg shells (no need to dry them), and even meat, fish, oils in small amounts. Add a layer of moistened bedding with each feeding.
Avoid: Meat, bones, fats & oil in large quantities, spices, pet feces, anything poisonous, hazardous, or non-compostable, plastic stickers on vegetables & fruits, windows in business envelopes, and coffee filters that have a polyester component. Also avoid grass, weeds, and leaves, etc. from outdoors to avoid importing slugs.
HINT: To prevent house flies, fungus gnats, and fruit flies—freeze your containers of food waste for 3 days at 100F & then thaw and feed your worms. This helps kill unseen fly eggs that might be hitchhiking.
6. Expect other normal inhabitants. Besides the worms (& microbes that you can’t see), enjoy the fascinating, beneficial presence of soil food web members like springtails, mites, tiny white “worms” called “pot worms” or enchytraeids. Truly, they are harmless.
7. When do I get worm compost? In about 3-5 months you’ll be harvesting rich worm castings or vermicast. Mix 1 part vermicast to 3 parts ProMix for a healthy potting medium. Your plants will love it!
8. Problems? It’s essential to manage the bin moisture. If it’s too wet, mix in more dry bedding. If too dry, compost worms can’t function very well. If you do experience flies or gnats, sprinkle some Mosquito Bits granules on the surface of your bin material.
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To learn about more about vermiculture feedstocks, bin styles, worm tea, and pest management, take Ellen’s free class through Mat-Su Borough’s Solid Waste Division, offered in spring and fall. Watch for dates posted on their Facebook page or on this website under CLASSES.