Let me guess. You wandered into the far reaches of the internet recently and found out that there are people out there who keep plastic bins of worms in their homes and feed them scraps from their kitchens. And now you think you might want to too.
Also known as vermicomposting or vermiculture, cultivating a worm bin can help you keep your food waste out of landfills and give you nutrient-rich compost to apply to your garden and houseplants.
Without delay, let’s wriggle into the world of vermiculture.
What Is Worm Composting?
Worm composting uses worms to break down organic material, such as food scraps, shredded paper, and other kitchen scraps, and turn it into nutrient-rich compost. The process is entirely natural and takes place when the worms ingest the materials and excrete the compost, commonly referred to as vermicompost, or worm castings.
Don’t think of it as worm poop. Think of it as a way of using worms to recycle food scraps and similar materials and create a material that can be used in various ways. The process mimics the natural decomposition of organic waste in nature, but speeds it up and concentrates nutrients into the materials in the worm composter (yes, the poop).
In nature, these nutrients are more spread out, which could give the compost in a bin even more nutrients than what occurs in nature, though this will depend on the food waste and other materials added to the worm composter. To make worm compost, you’ll not only need the worms and organic materials to add, but also a worm bin, which is specifically designed to encourage the worms to thrive and break down the food scraps and other organic materials.
Aside from the initial setup, there is little maintenance involved besides adding green and brown materials for the worms to eat, tracking down any worms that manage to escape (yes, this happens), and removing the finished compost when the worms have done their jobs.
Why Compost With Worms?
The environmental benefits of composting are significant. Composting is known to reduce the amount of waste that makes its way to landfills, thereby reducing the carbon emissions they’re responsible for. But why compost with worms, specifically?
Vermiposting offers multiple benefits compared to its alternatives:
- Speed—Red wiggler worms break down organic matter much faster than other forms of composting, letting you use the finished product quicker.
- Less odor—Because of how fast red worms break down the waste, it has less of a chance to develop a smell, making this a more odor-free approach than alternatives.
- Versatility—Some forms of composting can only be done outdoors. Vermicomposting can be done indoors or outdoors.
- Better-quality compost—Vermicompost contains more nutrients than the end result created through other types of composting, thanks to the mucus and bacteria inside the worms. That makes it a better material to add to your garden or field.
- Compost tea—Vermicomposting produces a liquid called “leachate” at the bottom of the bin. This worm tea can be applied to plants, as well, for a highly concentrated nutritious liquid fertilizer.
What to Consider When Choosing a Worm Composting Bin
When you first start composting worms, you’ll need to choose between the four types of worm composters.
Bins
Worm composting bins are any type of container designed for the worms to thrive and compost your materials. These may look similar to a trash bin or that bin you keep all of your holiday decor in. You can even adapt household objects, such as your actual trash bin, and turn them into a worm compost bin. They function exactly like other compost bins, but you must put holes in them to let oxygen flow for the worms.
While you can buy these from various retailers, you can also make your own compost bin with a container. If possible, opt for a compost bin made out of recycled or sustainable materials. If you already have a container, it could be as simple as adding ventilation holes to the bin. You can drill these holes near the top and cover them with a thin mesh to help keep fruit flies out. You should also consider adding drainage holes to the bottom and placing a deep tray beneath the bin, to allow the worm tea to drain out of the bin.
Flow throughs
Flow throughs, or continuous flow vermicomposting, can be used to compost indoors or outdoors, with the food scraps and similar matter you add flowing downward through the bin. Fresh food scraps make their way through the bin and by the time they reach the bottom they should be close to being finished compost.
This approach lets you simply empty the bottom of the flow through to collect your compost. While vermicomposting itself may seem complicated, flow throughs are quite simple to use and involve several trays with perforated bottoms that let the worms migrate upwards to obtain waste above once they’re done with the material in the tray they’re already in. As they do, they’ll leave excrete compost available for harvest in the lower trays.
Stackables
Stackable worm bins are exactly what you’d expect—worm bins that can easily be stacked on top of each other as the worms eat their way upwards. The first tray is known as the bottom bin and is where you can find the compost collecting over time.
As the worms make their way up the worm farm through perforated holes in the stacks—similar to flow throughs—you can start segregating the various bins based on how far along in the process they are. The worms will leave their castings in one bin before moving onto the next bin, letting you remove one stack and emptying its contents before placing it back on top of the stack.
With this approach, you can keep composting without interrupting the process or needing to empty the entirety of the worm bin.
Bed
If you’ve ever seen worm composting outdoors and noticed some cinder blocks, lumber, and similar materials laid out across a relatively wide area, then you’ve come across bed worm composting. By nature, these worm composting beds are outdoors and feature man-made walls about 18 inches in depth that wrap around the entirety of the bed.
The worms and materials you’re composting can be placed above bare ground, but it could be worth adding a mesh or similar material as a way to protect from pests. It should also make sure the worms stay in the compost bed. The exact size of this worm farm will depend on how much space you have, as well as the amount of food you’ll be composting every week. The average household shouldn’t need anything too large.
How to Compost With Worms
Here are some worm composting basics for you to keep in mind. You’ll put most of your effort into choosing the right bin for you, as well as making sure you’re adding the right materials to the compost pile. Once you’ve bought—or made—your compost bin, you’ll need to follow a few simple steps to start composting.
The first step is to make sure your bin is ready, which you can do by adding dry bedding material to the bottom of the bin. As mentioned above, you can use different bedding material to help kick-start the process. Once you’ve added your fresh bedding material, it’s time to add your worms and the compostable materials.
Make sure you have a decent amount of vegetable matter and other organic waste to add when you first add the worms, so they can start breaking down the materials while you get about creating more waste. If you add the worms too long before you add waste, they will starve.
You can add new food waste and other materials as you go. As you add more waste, you’ll find more and more compost at the bottom of the bin. You’ll need to harvest your compost before you add fresh bedding and repeat the process.
Although you don’t usually need to mix a worm farm, monthly aeration can’t hurt because it will add more oxygen to the mix. To determine when the compost is finished and ready to be harvested you should make sure it’s dry, has a dark color, and resembles soil with many of its properties.
Worm selection
The type of worms you choose for composting makes a significant difference. Red wiggler worms are the best option because of their ability to get through a lot of organic materials quickly. They’re known to eat half their weight in kitchen waste and similar materials every day, so they’ll be perfectly able to get through an average household’s kitchen scraps and other materials.
Red wigglers also don’t seem to mind living in composting bins and unlike other types of earthworms won’t try to burrow out of the bin. As long as you provide adequate food for them to live on, which they’ll then turn into compost, the red wigglers will be happy. How many worms you’ll need for your compost bin depends on how much food waste your household generates.
Ten pounds of red wigglers can get through about five pounds of organic material, so base the number of worms on how much you typically throw out. You wouldn’t want to give them too much food or too little. Collect your food and kitchen waste over the course of a week and weigh it. Your worms should weigh about twice that, and you can get these from bait shops or online.
What type of bedding is best?
When you’re putting together your worm composting bin, you’ll need to add bedding before placing the worms and adding organic materials inside. You’ll also need to add more fresh bedding when you empty out the compost and start again. Several materials are ideal for worm bedding:
- Straw
- Shredded cardboard
- Leaves
- Egg cartons
- Aged compost
- Coco fiber
- Shredded paper
Which one you should use depends on whether you’re composting outdoors or indoors. If you’re doing so indoors, for example, it may be worth leaving out the straw and leaves, as these can introduce outside insects that you’d rather keep outside.
Where to put your worm bin
When you’re getting your new worm bin, you’ll need to figure out where to put it. Both indoors and outdoors have pros and cons, but that doesn’t mean that each type of worm composter is recommended for both. Worm composting beds are only effective outdoors, for example. Depending on the type of worm bin, you can raise your worm farm outside or inside, even in an apartment.
One of the largest factors in figuring out where to place your worm bin is space. If you’re limited on space, you’ll need a smaller worm bin, meaning you can compost a smaller amount of food scraps and other waste. You’ll need to strike a careful balance between size and the amount of space it takes up.
If you’re placing the worm composting bin indoors, it’s worth keeping it in the kitchen, provided you have the space. Doing so lets you place your food waste and other organic matter into the compost bin faster and easier, making it a more practical choice.
If you’re placing your worm composting bin outdoors, you shouldn’t need to worry about any odor too much, as it’ll trail off in the breeze, but you do need to ensure you put it in a spot that’s not in direct sun or going to get too hot or too cold. This is one downside of a worm farm. The worms are alive and need to be cared for.
What should you feed your worms?
You can feed your red worms all kinds of organic material, mostly food and kitchen scraps you normally throw out. You want to have an equal ratio of brown materials (paper, cardboard, dried plant matter, etc.) and green materials (fruit and vegetable waste, coffee grounds, etc.) to keep the ratio of carbon and nitrogen even and to prevent fruit flies. More specifically, you can compost the following materials in worm bins:
- Tea bags
- Coffee grounds and filters
- Vegetable waste
- Raw fruit
- Orange peels
- Cardboard, uncoated and cut up into small pieces
- Hair and fur
- Shredded newspapers
- Yard waste
- Grass clippings
- Eggshells
- Sawdust
- Tea bags
- Wood chips
- Food scraps
You should avoid adding diseased or insect-riddent plants to your worm compost bin. These will not only spread to the materials in the pile, but may kill off the worms. For more information, read my articles about what to compost and what not to compost.
Harvesting Your Finished Compost
At a certain point, you’ll need to start harvesting your finished compost. There are two methods for harvesting compost from a worm bin, depending on the type of composter you use—the lure method and the dump method.
Lure method
The lure method is the easier of the two, but you will have to move the organic materials around a bit. Move your worm bin contents to one side, then add new material to the other side.
The worms, being hungry, will naturally make their way to that side of the bin over the following two weeks, letting you empty out the other half of its compost.
The food lures the worms to one side of the bin, hence the name. Any worms that come out with the removed compost can be placed safely back into the worm composting bin.
Dump method
The dump method doesn’t involve any waiting around to harvest your worm compost, but you’ll need to put more effort into harvesting. With this approach, you’ll need to empty your compost pile onto a large sheet before arranging it into small mounds. Since the worms prefer being in the dark, they’ll bury themselves as low as possible in these mounds, letting you harvest the top.
Once you’ve done so, you can repeat the process several times until you’ve gotten as much of the material as possible before preparing your worm compost bin again and placing the worms back inside.
Where Can I Use Compost?
Compost can be put to a range of uses, most notably in agriculture, as the material is known to boost the productivity of soil while reversing soil degradation. As a result, fields can grow more crops while needing fewer resources. Compost isn’t only valuable to farmers, though. It’s also good for multiple other uses:
- As a mulch alternative
- To make compost tea by steeping the compost into a concentrated liquid
- Feeding fall perennials and spring bulbs
- Making lawns appear lusher and greener
- Encouraging flower beds to blossom for longer
- As a potting soil
Worm Composting: Wrapping Up
Worm composting is an effective and fun way to deal with your fruit and vegetable scraps and other kitchen waste without needing to dedicate a lot of space to the practice. While it takes a bit of effort, vermicomposting is a long-term solution to reducing your environmental impact while making your garden and houseplants healthier.
So help turn global warming into “global worming.” Start a worm bin today! With a bit of time and effort, you’ll reap the rewards.