Worm composting how long

As the top drys the water wicks into it. If the water is not gone in a day I add shredded toilet paper or paper towel rolls into the water pool. Too much moisture has not been a problem.

Super Food Recipe For Worms. Collect fresh seaweed from beach. Rinse in fresh water to remove sand and salt. Cut into appropriate sized pieces and run through food processor adding water as required until a slurry as desired.

Add to worms fresh or freeze for later. Use an ice cube container for easy retrieval and serve thawed — or frozen on a hot day. Also washed seaweed can be sun dried and cut into pieces and stored for later use. Proper ventilation is as important as drainage. I drilled several holes in the bottom and lid and layered the bottom and lid with household screen. I put close to worms on the bin a few days ago and when I just checked the bin I could not find any worms anywhere.

Any suggestions as to what happened? Looking for some information, my work has a couple worm bins in the basement and they recently changed their paper for menus to waterproof, it has an acrylic coating of some sort to make so.

Hi, How can I harvest worms from my housing complex? Can I keep the ground water melon pulp in my backyard where we have very damp place? I have x4 50L compost bins. I cover the top of each bin w layers of newspaper tucked in at the sides silly- but, like tucking a baby in.

They have been doing well. I aerate the bin with a compost mate every 2 weeks. Recently there has been an accumulation of tiny white wrigglers? Any other suggestions. Mist the cloth until it is wet but without water puddling. We have cut worm infestation into our two worm compost bins and would appreciate recommendations on how to: 1 get rid of the cut worms, and 2 restore the red wriggler worms which seem to have been depleted?

Thank you. I just looked in my worm farm and my 3 levels are empty, few worms and almost no castings, where could they have gone? I have placed in my worm bin about worms. I have had the bin for approximately 3 months. I have no casting and it appears the worms are decreasing. They are not crawling out. I have no worm tea at bottom I have use coconut coir as bedding with some shredded egg cartons.

I have fed them consistently but it appears the food is not being eaten consistently. I have seen some of the worms have passed away they appear to be broken into pieces. Wondering if the bin is too dry or ph wrong.

Not sure If anyone has some advice I would appreciate. I would like to develop a organic home garden. I am new at this but eager to learn. I have been using composting worms for 2 years now with a layered hotel and have between layers going at a time. Is this wrong? Will they, therefore, die if i introduce them to soil? My worms procreate vigoursly and there is no way that I could keep them all. Am I doing it all wrong? Put them back again making sure i covered drainage holes with brown paper.

So far so good. Is there any way of limiting the number of worms? I thought the small box and limited feeding would cause them to limit reproduction. Thoughts on how to disrupt wormy canoodling? I have been getting red wrigglers from the local bait shop. What happens if you populate the worm farm with different types of worms? New raised bed garden area question. They require an aerobic environment.

I just putted a worm in my toy watering can but the watering can was too small and I thought they would die. We do not recommend that you add worms to the tumbler type composters, as they work on heat and rotation. Both of which worms do not like very much. If you do not rotate it and leave it in the shade, then you can certainly use that. You may even rotate it periodically to allow oxygen in and to mix the compost.

Gently turning it occasionally will not harm the worms. Last year I recently thinned out a section of sugar cane growing in my backyard. Rather than throw away all the rooted cane plants I dug up, I transferred them to 3 gal. To my surprise, within about 6 months there were significant populations of earthworms embedded into the root ball and soil of virtually every sugarcane transplants I had in the pots.

Shaking out each pot revealed a small number of medium-sized earthworms, a few larger ones here and there. I had irrigation to keep pots moist, and apparently the worms crawled up through the ground into the small drainage holes at bottom of each pot. I am guess that soil conditions that favor sugarcane are also the same kind of soil that earthworms will prefer.

Internet is a good place to rip off people. This compost can then be used to grow plants. To understand why vermicompost is good for plants, remember that the worms are eating nutrient-rich fruit and vegetable scraps, and turning them into nutrient-rich compost. For millions of years, worms have been hard at work breaking down organic materials and returning nutrients to the soil. By bringing a worm bin into the classroom, you are simulating the worm's role in nature.

Though worms could eat any organic material, certain foods are better for the classroom worm bin. We recommend using only raw fruit and vegetable scraps.

Stay away from meats, oils and dairy products, which are more complex materials than fruits and vegetables. Thus, they take longer to break down and can attract pests. Cooked foods are often oily or buttery, which can also attract pests.

Avoid orange rinds and other citrus fruits, which are too acidic, and can attract fruit flies. Try to use a variety of materials. We have found the more vegetable matter, the better the worm bin. Stay away from onions and broccoli which tend to have a strong odor. Setting up a worm bin is easy. All you need is a box, moist newspaper strips, and worms.

To figure out how to set up a worm bin, first consider what worms need to live. If your bin provides what worms need, then it will be successful. Worms need moisture, air, food, darkness, and warm but not hot temperatures.

Bedding, made of newspaper strips or leaves, will hold moisture and contain air spaces essential to worms. You should use red worms or red wigglers in the worm bin, which can be ordered from a worm farm and mailed to your school. The scientific name for the two commonly used red worms are Eisenia foetida and Lumbricus rubellus. When choosing a container in which to compost with worms, you should keep in mind the amount of food scraps you wish to compost, and where the bin will be located.

A good size bin for the classroom is a 5- to gallon box or approximately 24" X 18" X 8". Leachate does not have magical powers anymore than other types of compost tea. Vermicompost is much like other kinds of compost. There is no scientific evidence to show that it is a superior product, as so many claim. On the other hand it is a very suitable organic source to add to gardens. Like all organic sources it will provide some immediate release of nutrients, and then go on to provide more nutrients long term.

It will also improve soil structure since it adds organic matter, but too much organic matter can also be a problem. This is very informative and I learned a lot while reading it. Thanks for sharing this article. Really appreciate your article and approach to discussion.

Related, I added my first vermicompost product to raised garden bed this spring and early results are terrible compared to bed amended with chicken manure at same time.

Thus I am searching for what is wrong with my supposed black gold. Your article may be the answer. I just set up my worm composter and got my worms via the post office. The worms showed up dead. A couple were moving, yet by far most were simply not moving and were in a major mass. They additionally smelled truly unpleasant.

I put them in the composter in any case. Would it be a good idea for me to have done that or toss them out? You will see in a couple of days — if some survive, they should help decompose the dead ones. Why would phosphorus be higher in vermicompost versus regular compost? Pretty much the same inputs in both. More leaching in outdoor compost but most of the phosphorus is going to be bound in that much organic material. I would guess that the measurement of the P to get the NPK value is not measuring all of the P in the sample.

In my opinion, the main advantage of vermicomposting is that worms bioturbate and aerate. Thanks for all your work with the site. That said, the volume of usable compost produced is not that material. Good day to all. A lot of design should go into the process and that, off course, must happen before you even choose the format.

Planning include knowing the amount of weekly food waste so as to calculate the correct number of worms, then the necessary surface area of the worm farm. Plus, the type of bin to use, like the continuous flow systems that make harvesting easy.

I have two regular outdoor compost bins, a leaf mulch pile and an indoor worm bin. I made the bin myself from large plastic storage totes just drilled some holes for air. Only had to acquire worms once, and their descendants multiplied- still have plenty five years later!

I did this once- topdressing a few pots, I thought it would be good for them, and regretted it later. Outdoor composting in a bin can be difficult in areas with fluctuating temperatures as the lids freeze closed. Outdoor composting is not allowed in some jurisdictions because it can attract bears, coyotes and other animals.

I have both an outdoor compost bin and an indoor worm bin. I find the outdoor bin takes a long time to fully compost so I often transfer some of the compost from my outdoor bin to my worm bin. I try to avoid putting onions in the worm bin because they do smell. I also avoid putting citrus peel in the worm bin as I read it is too acidic and can burn the worms. I tend to put those things in the municipal compost bin. I found this article well, abstract arguing that vermicomposting produces less greenhouse gases than traditional composting.

I am looking for a way to do indoor composting in an apartment. Vermicomposting is not really composting — it is not nearly as complete a job as normal composting.

It does not produce as many greenhouse gases, which should be no surprise. How many greenhouse gases are produced once the worm casts are put into soil to complete their composting process? Here is another study that also measured greenhouse gases.

In this case they clearly measured the worm bin and not decomposition after the vermicomposting process. Boy, I love your analyses! I strongly advocate vermicomposting for the following reasons. I use the Can-of-Worms bin from Australia and once introduced 20 pounds of rotting, smelly vegetables into an an active bin. Once the cover was on, no smell whatsoever. Whether due to the worms, castings present, very tiny holes in the vents…? A very cool ecosystem that thrives.

Our household throws away one small bag of trash per week. Thanks for your great and informative website — I look forward to obtaining your books and following new topics. All the best! Again, false! The whole point is to use vermicompost as a soil builder. What better way then include lots of the worms also. They will create generations of worms for years and years. What is so difficult about putting a bunch of worms into your regular compost outside and let it do its thing with your yard waste?

Worms love to reproduce, get some free from the community garden center, let them do their thing and no money spent. Building Soil requires lots of diverse inputs, vermicompost is just another tool.

As you note, there is something good about it. The native worms on your property are not the ones recommended by vermicompost people — so yes you have to buy them. If you dump your worms into the garden along with the vermicompost, they will die and you need to buy more. Pardon the time lapse, Robert, but am really curious about your comment that vermicompost worms will die in the garden.

Why is that? Freezing although not an issue for me, in zone 10b? The soil compost mixtures were made up based on volume and there is no indication that they were normalized for nutrient content. It is not clear how easy the results can be interpreted. Consequently, it seemed likely that MSW vermicompost provided other biological inputs such as plant growth regulators PGRs and plant growth hormones PGHs , which could have a considerably positive effect on the growth and yields of P.

Worm compost is often blended with other organic material that may have a lot of silt sized particles. This can reducing drainage as the organic matter decays. A common example in CA in rice hulls. Always important to distinguish between permanent landscape that will not have regular additions of amendment and gardens that are tilled. Plant exudates and root debris will dwarf any exogenous OM additions on a permanent landscape. Pavlis, My post should be eliminated since I realized only after posting it that I had missed the subject completely, I.

A bad smell can also signal a moisture problem. Too much rotting waste can create a lot of humidity, which will soak the bin and make it a little too damp for the worms. Add some dry cardboard and paper bedding to help balance things out and get the bedding back to a spongy moisture level.

This will include moisture, temperature, and possibly even infestations. If the bin is too dry, add some water. Check for insect larvae or other issues under the top layer of bedding.

If you notice insects, eggs, or even furry creatures, take the bin outside and harvest the castings. This is a good time to clean out the bin and remove any rotting food or old bedding. Start off fresh and put the worms back in their home. If you had a rodent invader, hold the lid down with bungee cords or rocks. Helping your worm compost thrive: amendments If troubleshooting fails to correct your problem, consider adjusting your worm bedding with one of the following amendments: Material Purpose Coconut coir Balances out nitrogen-rich materials like kitchen scraps and grass clippings, controls moisture, and improves quality of worm castings.

Harvesting your finished compost: lure vs. This is a good time to clean out any unwanted bits and add new, fresh bedding. Where can I use worm compost? Caring for your worms If conditions are right in your composter, your red worms will breed when they are over two months old. Responses 2 Worm Composting Basics for Beginners - 2. About the Author Nicole Faires Nicole Faires is an urban farmer and best-selling author of books on sustainable agriculture and food policy.

From Our Shop. Eartheasy Dual Tray Worm Composter. Subpod In-Ground Composting System. Composting Worms - European Nightcrawlers. Worm Factory Composter. Worm Factory Refill Kit. Coconut Coir. Related Articles. Load More. Coconut coir. Balances out nitrogen-rich materials like kitchen scraps and grass clippings, controls moisture, and improves quality of worm castings.