Reduce waste with the power of worms!

Vermicomposting?

WHis Vermicomposting?

HOW doesVermicomposting Work?

Vermicomposting is the art and science of using worms to transform your food waste into an incredibly powerful fertilizer for your plants. The worms work with billions of microorganisms to break down the waste. They just need a little help from you to establish the right conditions to make it happen. Vermicomposting is a fun way to live a little greener every day.

About two-thirds of the waste-stream that goes into the landfill is made up of organic materials that could be recycled. A lot of that waste is food scraps that can be transformed into something useful by feeding it to worms. Worms eat about one-half of their body weight every day, so they can make their way through a lot of “garbage” in a short period of time.

If you have children, it’s a great activity to teach them about ecosystems and get them interested in doing their part to help their environment—and most kids love to dig in the dirt and play with worms anyway.

Getting started is easy, and maintaining your bin and taking care of your worms does not require much time or any special skills—just a little attention and patience.

Worms are fascinating creatures. Charles Darwin studied them towards the end of his life, and he developed great admiration for them and their ability to process waste and nourish the soil. No matter what size house or apartment you live in, you can have a worm bin and keep it either indoors or outside. Turn the page to get started!

Get Your Worm Bin Started

Establishing Your BinCrumple the newspaper strips and mix them with the soil in your bin. Sprinkle the newspaper with water until it is moist, like a wrung out sponge.

Place your worms on their bedding, add a handful of fruit and vegetable scraps and cover with more shredded newspaper. Put the lid on the bin and let your worms acclimate to their new home for a couple of weeks before adding more food.

Feeding Your Worms and Maintaining Your BinOnce the worms have started to eat and the food is disappearing, add more food as you have it. A pound of worms will eat about ½ pound of food per day.

Feed your worms what you have left over. They will eat fruit and vegetable scraps, bread, grains, coffee grounds and filters, tea bags, paper napkins and paper towels. Scraps should be cut into chunks; the smaller the chunks, the faster they’ll decompose.

Avoid feeding your worms meat, dairy products and any-thing greasy.

Don’t worry if you can’t feed your worms for several days or a week. They will continue to work with what they have.

Keep the worms and food scraps covered with a 4 to 6 inch layer of crumpled moist shredded newspaper at all times.

Check the bin periodically to make sure the environment is moist, but not too moist. It should be like a wrung out sponge all the time if possible.

Troubleshooting If your bin is dry, moisten the layer of newspaper on top. If it is too wet, add a layer of torn cardboard egg cartons to soak up the excess moisture. Make sure your worms aren’t getting too hot in the summer or cold in the winter—they prefer conditions between 50 and 85 degrees. In the summer, put them in a shady spot and keep a moist layer of newspaper on top.

You will see other decomposers in the bin (and there are billions more that you can’t see), but it should be teeming with worms when you dig down a little. If you open your bin and a lot of fruit flies are buzzing around, your worms are getting more food than they can eat. Stop feeding them for a few days until they can catch up. Cover the food well with a thick layer of shredded newspaper, and the flies will go away. If everything is in balance, there will be no smell and no pests.

Your worms will probably eat more in the warmer months than in the winter. Eventually, they will eat everything, but it may take them a long time to go through citrus peels, fruit pits, egg shells and potatoes, but they love over-ripe fruit, coffee grounds and anything oozy.

Harvesting the Castings Castings are essentially worm poop, nature’s best fertilizer. After about 4-6 months, your worms will have created enough castings for you to harvest and feed to your garden or indoor plants. The easiest way to harvest the castings is to stop adding food for a week or so until most of it is gone. Then, under the sun or a bright light, dump the contents of your bin onto a big plastic sheet and build cone-shaped piles. Wait about ten minutes for the worms to burrow to the bottom to get away from the light. Then scoop off the outside layer of castings. Keep doing this until you have cleared away two-thirds of the castings. Keep an eye out for the tiny glossy round cocoons and put them back in the bin, so that the baby worms will hatch into a good environment.

Create a newspaper bed in your bin and add the worms, cocoons, leftover castings, food scraps and a layer of moist shredded newspaper and begin again!

Resources BooksWorms Eat My Garbage, by Mary Appelhof (available at the Co-op)

How to Make and Use Compost, by Nicky Scott (available at the Co-op)

The Earth Moved, by Amy Stewart

Web sites www.calrecycle.ca.gov www.wormwoman.comwww.thewormfarm.net www.composting101.com

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:A Bin Plastic storage containers work well, are inexpensive and readily available. Your bin should be about 12” deep, with a surface area of about 2 square feet (it doesn’t have to be exact). Poke 6 to 8 narrow holes in both the top and bottom of your bin and around the edge of the top.

WormsYou’ll need red wigglers, or Eisenia fetida; they are sold at bait shops and online (www.thewormfarm.net in Chico is one source). You should start your bin with one pound —about 1,000 worms. If you have friends with established worm bins, they may be able to give you some starter worms.

NewspaperShred the newspaper (black and white only) into 1-inch wide strips. Shred the paper lengthwise. This is another good project for the kids.

A handful of soil