Vermiculture

Vermiculture refers to the care and feeding of worms. Vermicomposting refers to raising worms to generate valuable worm castings by feeding them compostable materials.

Worms are amazing at breaking plant and animal materials into the best compost available while improving soil structure. While worms prefer temperatures between 60 and 80°F, they can tolerate 40 to 90°F. Anything hotter or colder than that and the worms may be harmed and feeding is slowed.

Raised in artificial beds, worms provide high quality fertilizer by eating the equivalent of their bodyweight in yard and kitchen waste each day. Properly maintained worm beds do not have a smell. According to the EPA, 20-30% of the material currently found in landfills could be used more productively as compost and worm food.

Red wiggler (Public Domain)

You can put worms to work for you, even in an apartment, using these simple steps:

1. Get a container. You can buy readymade worm bins or you can make your own. Those big covered plastic bins (2’ x 3’) work well, as do 5-gallon buckets. You can also use a wooden box, just make sure it is not made with pressure treated lumber, which contains toxins. You can find many different design ideas online or at your local library. Your worm bin will need drainage holes, or a slightly raised floor and a spigot. The liquid that comes out of your worm bin holds many valuable plant nutrients, but it may need to be diluted to avoid burning plant roots. If a plastic container is used, be sure there are ventilation holes.
2. Add bedding. To a worm, bedding can be shredded newspaper, printer paper, or even cardboard, just avoid using waxed or colored material. Moisten the shredded material, but not to the point of being soggy. Put the bedding in the container a couple of days before adding worms, as it may get very warm, at first. Moisture levels must be maintained between 70 to 80% for worm health.
3. Add worms. Red wigglers (Eisenia fetida) and redworms (Lumbricus rubellus) are the best worms for home composting and you can get them online or at your local bait shop. The earthworms you find in the garden are not well suited to vermiculture - they need the wide open spaces of your garden. If your worm bin will be exposed to higher temperatures, you may want to use Indian blues (Perionyx excavatus). You will want to start with one pound of worms. A family of four will need two pounds. Just make sure you do not introduce invasive Asian jumping worms into the mix!
4. Feed your worms. Worms can be fed every day, twice a week, or once a week. Simply place the food under an inch or two of bedding. You can feed your worms moldy bread, tea bags, coffee grounds and paper filters, eggshells, paper towels (free of cleaning chemicals), pasta, and any other kitchen or yard waste. Do not feed meat, bones, oil, or dairy products to your worms.
5. Maintenance. Every couple of months, you will need to care for your worm bin and harvest the worm castings. To do this, dump everything out on a tarp. Leave the pile alone for a few minutes and go wash the tub, dry it, and add fresh bedding. Then, take the old bedding and add it to your outdoor compost pile or use it as a mulch or top dressing in the garden. When you come back to the tarp, your worms will have clumped together, trying to avoid the light. Collect the top of the pile, push everything into a smaller mound, and wait for the worms to hide again. Repeat as needed until the majority of your nutrient rich worm castings have been harvested.
6. Remove the largest worms and share them with friends, use them for fish bait, or feed them to your chickens. Return the smaller, younger worms (and any seed casings), back to the worm bin and start over. Everything left on the tarp is worth its weight in gold to your garden and house plants.

You can raise worms under your kitchen sink, in the garage, outside, or pretty much any place you want, as long as the temperatures are reasonable. The nice thing about raising worms is, even if you totally fail the first time around, you still have valuable compost for your plants!