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    "I hope it convinces you that you, too, can vermicompost, and that this simple process with the funny name is a lot easier to do than you thought. After all, if worms eat my garbage, they will eat yours, too."

Locating the Worms

    The species of worm used for vermicompostinghas a number of common names: red worms, red wigglers, manure worms, or brandlingworms. Redworms are healthy and active as long as they are kept above freezing andbelow 85°. Even if the air temperature gets above 85°, their moist beddingwill be cooled by evaporation as long as air circulation is adequate. They are mostactive and will consume the most waste between 55-77°--room temperatures. Redwormsneed to live in a moist environment but must breath air through their skin. Keepingtheir bedding damp is rarely the problem; preventing it from becoming waterloggedand airless can be a difficulty.

    In the South or along the Pacific coastwhere things never freeze solid, worms may be kept outside in a shallow shaded pit(as long as the spot does not become flooded) or in a box in the garage or patio.In the North, worms are kept in a container that may be located anywhere with goodventilation and temperatures that stay above freezing but do not get too hot. Goodspots for a worm box are under the kitchen sink, in the utility room, or in the basement.The kitchen, being the source of the worm's food, is the most convenient, exceptfor the danger of temporary odors.

    If you have one, a basement may bethe best location because it is out of the way. While you are learning to manageyour worms there may be occasional short-term odor problems or fruit flies; thesewon't be nearly as objectionable if the box is below the house. Then too, a vermicompostercan only exist in a complex ecology of soil animals. A few of these may exit thebox and be harmlessly found about the kitchen. Ultra-fastidious housekeepers mayfind this objectionable. Basements also tend to maintain a cooler temperature insummer. However, it is less convenient to take the compost bucket down to the basementevery few days.


Containers

    Redworms need to breathe oxygen, butin deep containers bedding can pack down and become airless, temporarily preventingthe worms from eating the bottom material. This might not be so serious because youwill stir up the box from time to time when adding new food. But anaerobic decompositionsmells bad. If aerobic conditions are maintained, the odor from a worm box is veryslight and not particularly objectionable. I notice the box's odor only when I amadding new garbage and get my nose up close while stirring the material. A shallowbox will be better aerated because it exposes much more surface area. Worm bins shouldbe from eight to twelve inches deep.

    I constructed my own box out of someold plywood. A top is not needed because the worms will not crawl out. In fact, whenworm composting is done outdoors in shallow pits, few redworms exit the bottom byentering the soil because there is little there for them to eat. Because air flowis vital, numerous holes between 1/4 and 1/2 inch in diameter should be made in thebottom and the box must then have small legs or cleats about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inchthick to hold it up enough to let air flow beneath. Having a drip-catcher--a largecookie tray works well--is essential. Worms can also be kept in plastic containers(like dish pans) with holes punched in the bottom. As this book is being written,one mail-order garden supply company even sells a tidy-looking 19" by 24"by about 12" deep green plastic vermicomposting bin with drip pan, lid, andan initial supply of worms and bedding. If worm composting becomes more popular,others will follow suit.

    Unless you are very strong do not constructa box larger than 2 x 4 feet because they will need to be lifted from time to time.Wooden boxes should last three or four years. If built of plywood, use an exteriorgrade to prevent delamination. It is not advisable to make containers from rot-resistantredwood or cedar because the natural oils that prevent rotting also may be toxicto worms. Sealed with polyurethane, epoxy, or other non-toxic waterproofing material,worm boxes should last quite a bit longer.

    How big a box or how many boxes doyou need? Each cubic foot of worm box can process about one pound of kitchen garbageeach week. Naturally, some weeks more garbage will go into the box than others. Theworms will adjust to such changes. You can estimate box size by a weekly averageamount of garbage over a three month time span. My own home-garden-supplied kitchenfeeds two "vegetableatarian" adults. Being year-round gardeners, our kitchendiscards a lot of trimmings that would never leave a supermarket and we throw outas "old," salad greens that are still fresher than most people buy in thestore. I'd say our 2-1/2 gallon compost bucket is dumped twice a week in winter andthree times in summer. From May through September while the garden is "on,"a single, 2 foot x 4 foot by 12 inch tall (8 cubic foot) box is not enough for us.


Bedding

    Bedding is a high C/N material thatholds moisture, provides an aerobic medium worms can exist in, and allows you tobury the garbage in the box. The best beddings are also light and airy, helping tomaintain aerobic conditions. Bedding must not be toxic to worms because they'll eventuallyeat it. Bedding starts out dry and must be first soaked in water and then squeezedout until it is merely very damp. Several ordinary materials make fine bedding. Youmay use a single material bedding or may come to prefer mixtures.

    If you have a power shredder, you cangrind corrugated cardboard boxes. Handling ground up cardboard indoors may be a littledusty until you moisten it. Shredded cardboard is sold in bulk as insulation butthis material has been treated with a fire retardant that is toxic. Gasoline-poweredshredders can also grind up cereal straw or spoiled grass hay (if it is dry and brittle).Alfalfa hay will decompose too rapidly.

    Similarly, shredded newsprint makesfine bedding. The ink is not toxic, being made from carbon black and oil. By tearingwith the grain, entire newspaper sections can rapidly be ripped into inch-wide shredsby hand. Other shredded paper may be available from banks, offices, or universitiesthat may dispose of documents.

    Ground-up leaves make terrific bedding.Here a power shredder is not necessary. An ordinary lawnmower is capable of choppingand bagging large volumes of dry leaves in short order. These may be prepared oncea year and stored dry in plastic garbage bags until needed. A few 30-gallon bagswill handle your vermicomposting for an entire year. However, dry leaves may be alittle slower than other materials to rehydrate.

    Peat moss is widely used as beddingby commercial worm growers. It is very acid and contains other substances harmfulto worms that are first removed by soaking the moss for a few hours and then hand-squeezingthe soggy moss until it is damp. Then a little lime is added to adjust the pH.


Soil

    Redworms are heat-tolerant litter dwellersthat find little to eat in soil. Mixing large quantities of soil into worm beddingmakes a very heavy box. However, the digestive system of worms grinds food usingsoil particles as the abrasive grit in the same way birds "chew" in theircrop. A big handful of added soil will improve a worm box. A couple of tablespoonfulsof powdered agricultural lime does the same thing while adding additional calciumto nourish the worms.


Redworms

    The scientific name of the speciesused in vermicomposting is Eisenia foetida. They may be purchased by mailfrom breeders, from bait stores, and these days, even from mail-order garden supplycompanies. Redworms may also be collected from compost and manure piles after theyhave heated and are cooling.

    Nightcrawlers and common garden wormsplay a very important part in the creation and maintenance of soil fertility. Butthese species are soil dwellers that require cool conditions. They cannot survivein a shallow worm box at room temperatures.

    Redworms are capable of very rapidreproduction at room temperatures in a worm box. They lay eggs encased in a lemon-shapedcocoon about the size of a grain of rice from which baby worms will hatch. The cocoonsstart out pearly white but as the baby worms develop over a three week period, theeggs change color to yellow, then light brown, and finally are reddish when the babiesare ready to hatch. Normally, two or three young worms emerge from a cocoon.

    Hatchlings are whitish and semi-transparentand about one-half inch long. It would take about 150,000 hatchlings to weigh onepound. A redworm hatchling will grow at an explosive rate and reach sexual maturityin four to six weeks. Once it begins breeding a redworm makes two to three cocoonsa week for six months to a year; or, one breeding worm can make about 100 babiesin six months. And the babies are breeding about three months after the first eggsare laid.

    Though this reproductive rate is notthe equal of yeast (capable of doubling every twenty minutes), still a several-hundred-foldincrease every six months is amazingly fast. When vermicomposting, the worm populationincrease is limited by available food and space and by the worms' own waste productsor casts. Worm casts are slightly toxic to worms. When a new box starts out withfresh bedding it contains no casts. As time goes on, the bedding is gradually brokendown by cellulose-eating microorganisms whose decay products are consumed by theworms and the box gradually fills with casts.

    As the proportion of casts increases,reproduction slows, and mature worms begin to die. However, you will almost neversee a dead worm in a worm box because their high-protein bodies are rapidly decomposed.You will quickly recognize worm casts. Once the bedding has been consumed and thebox contains only worms, worm casts, and fresh garbage it is necessary to empty thecasts, replace the bedding, and start the cycle over. How to do this will be explainedin a moment. But first, how many worms will you need to begin vermicomposting?

    You could start with a few dozen redworms,patiently begin by feeding them tiny quantities of garbage and in six months to ayear have a box full. However, you'll almost certainly want to begin with a systemthat can consume all or most of your kitchen garbage right away. So for startersyou'll need to obtain two pounds of worms for each pound of garbage you'll put intothe box each day. Suppose in an average week your kitchen compost bucket takes inseven pounds of waste or about one gallon. That averages one pound per day. You'llneed about two pounds of worms.

    You'll also need a box that holds sixor seven cubic feet, or about 2 x 3 feet by 12 inches deep. Each pound of worms needsthree or four cubic feet of bedding. A better way to estimate box size is to figurethat one cubic foot of worm bin can digest about one pound of kitchen waste a weekwithout going anaerobic and smelling bad.

    Redworms are small and consequentlyworm growers sell them by the pound. There are about 1,000 mature breeders to thepound of young redworms. Bait dealers prefer to sell only the largest sizes or theircustomers complain. "Red wigglers" from a bait store may only count 600to the pound. Worm raisers will sell "pit run" that costs much less. Thisis a mix of worms of all sizes and ages. Often the largest sizes will have alreadybeen separated out for sale as fish bait. That's perfectly okay. Since hatchlingsrun 150,000 to the pound and mature worms count about 600-700, the population ofa pound of pit run can vary greatly. A reasonable pit run estimate is 2,000 to thepound.

    Actually it doesn't matter what thenumber is, it is their weight that determines how much they'll eat. Redworms eatslightly more than their weight in food every day. If that is so, why did I recommendfirst starting vermicomposting with two pounds of worms for every pound of garbage?Because the worms you'll buy will not be used to living in the kind of bedding you'llgive them nor adjusted to the mix of garbage you'll feed them. Initially there maybe some losses. After a few weeks the surviving worms will have adjusted.

    Most people have little tolerance foroutright failure. But if they have a record of successes behind them, minor glitcheswon't stop them. So it is vital to start with enough worms. The only time vermicompostingbecomes odoriferous is when the worms are fed too much. If they quickly eat allthe food that they are given the system runs remarkably smoothly and makes no offense.Please keep that in mind since there may well be some short-lived problems untilyou learn to gauge their intake.


Setting Up a Worm Box

    Redworms need a damp but not soggyenvironment with a moisture content more or less 75 percent by weight. But beddingmaterial starts out very dry. So weigh the bedding and then add three times thatweight of water. The rule to remember here is "a pint's a pound the world 'round,"or one gallon of water weighs about eight pounds. As a gauge, it takes 1 to 1-1/2pounds of dry bedding for each cubic foot of box.

    Preparing bedding material can be amessy job The best container is probably an empty garbage can, though in a pinchit can be done in a kitchen sink or a couple of five gallon plastic buckets. Cautiouslyput half the (probably dusty) bedding in the mixing container. Add about one-halfthe needed water and mix thoroughly. Then add two handfuls of soil, the rest of thebedding, and the balance of the water. Continue mixing until all the water has beenabsorbed. Then spread the material evenly through your empty worm box. If you'vemeasured correctly no water should leak out the bottom vent holes and the beddingshould not drip when a handful is squeezed moderately hard.

    Then add the worms. Spread your redwormsover the surface of the bedding. They'll burrow under the surface to avoid the lightand in a few minutes will be gone. Then add garbage. When you do this the first time,I suggest that you spread the garbage over the entire surface and mix it in usinga three-tined hand cultivator. This is the best tool to work the box with becausethe rounded points won't cut worms.

    Then cover the box. Mary Applehof suggestsusing a black plastic sheet slightly smaller than the inside dimensions of the container.Black material keeps out light and allows the worms to be active right on the surface.You may find that a plastic covering retains too much moisture and overly restrictsair flow. When I covered my worm box with plastic it dripped too much. But then,most of what I feed the worms is fresh vegetable material that runs 80-90 percentwater. Other households may feed dryer material like stale bread and leftovers. I'vefound that on our diet it is better to keep the box in a dimly lit place and to usea single sheet of newspaper folded to the inside dimensions of the box as a loosecover that encourages aeration, somewhat reduces light on the surface, and lessensmoisture loss yet does not completely stop it.


Feeding the Worms

    Redworms will thrive on any kind ofvegetable waste you create while preparing food. Here's a partial list to consider:potato peelings, citrus rinds, the outer leaves of lettuce and cabbage, spinach stems,cabbage and cauliflower cores, celery butts, plate scrapings, spoiled food like oldbaked beans, moldy cheese and other leftovers, tea bags, egg shells, juicer pulp.The worms' absolute favorite seems to be used coffee grounds though these can fermentand make a sour smell.

    Drip coffee lovers can put the filtersin too. This extra paper merely supplements the bedding. Large pieces of vegetablematter can take a long time to be digested. Before tossing cabbage or cauliflowercores or celery butts into the compost bucket, cut them up into finer chunks or thinslices. It is not necessary to grind the garbage. Everything will break down eventually.

    Putting meat products into a worm boxmay be a mistake. The odors from decaying meat can be foul and it has been knownto attract mice and rats. Small quantities cut up finely and well dispersed willdigest neatly. Bones are slow to decompose in a worm box. If you spread the wormcasts as compost it may not look attractive containing whitened, picked-clean bones.Chicken bones are soft and may disappear during vermicomposting. If you could grindbones before sending them to the worm bin, they would make valuable additions toyour compost. Avoid putting non-biodegradable items like plastic, bottle caps, rubberbands, aluminum foil, and glass into the worm box.

    Do not let your cat use the worm binas a litter box.. The odor of cat urine would soon become intolerable while the urineis so high in nitrogen that it might kill some worms. Most seriously, cat manurecan transmit the cysts of a protozoan disease organism called Toxoplasma gondii,although most cats do not carry the disease. These parasites may also be harboredin adult humans without them feeling any ill effects. However, transmitted from motherto developing fetus, Toxoplasma gondii can cause brain damage. You are goingto handle the contents of your worm bin and won't want to take a chance on beinginfected with these parasites.

    Most people use some sort of plasticjar, recycled half- gallon yogurt tub, empty waxed paper milk carton, or similarthing to hold kitchen garbage. Odors develop when anaerobic decomposition begins.If the holding tub is getting high, don't cover it, feed it to the worms.

    It is neater to add garbage in spotsrather than mixing it throughout the bin. When feeding garbage into the worm bin,lift the cover, pull back the bedding with a three-tine hand cultivator, and makea hole about the size of your garbage container. Dump the waste into that hole andcover it with an inch or so of bedding. The whole operation only takes a few minutes.A few days later the kitchen compost bucket will again be ready. Make and fill anotherhole adjacent to the first. Methodically go around the box this way. By the timeyou get back to the first spot the garbage will have become unrecognizable, the spotwill seem to contain mostly worm casts and bedding, and will not give off stronglyunpleasant odors when disturbed.


Seasonal Overloads

    On festive occasions, holidays, andduring canning season it is easy to overload the digestive capacity of a worm bin.The problem will correct itself without doing anything but you may not be willingto live with anaerobic odors for a week or two. One simple way to accelerate the"healing" of an anaerobic box is to fluff it up with your hand cultivator.

    Vegetableatarian households greatlyincrease the amount of organic waste they generate during summer. So do people whocan or freeze when the garden is "on." One vermicomposting solution tothis seasonal overload is to start up a second, summertime-only outdoor worm binin the garage or other shaded location. Appelhof uses an old, leaky galvanized washtubfor this purpose. The tub gets a few inches of fresh bedding and then is inoculatedwith a gallon of working vermicompost from the original bin. Extra garbage goes inall summer. Mary says:

    "I have used for a "worm bin annex" an old leaky galvanized washtub, kept outside near the garage. During canning season the grape pulp, corn cobs, corn husks, bean cuttings and other fall harvest residues went into the container. It got soggy when it rained and the worms got huge from all the food and moisture. We brought it inside at about the time of the first frost. The worms kept working the material until there was no food left. After six to eight months, the only identifiable remains were a few corn cobs, squash seeds, tomato skins and some undecomposed corn husks. The rest was an excellent batch of worm castings and a very few hardy, undernourished worms."

Vacations

    Going away from home for a few weeksis not a problem. The worms will simply continue eating the garbage left in the bin.Eventually their food supply will decline enough that the population will drop. Thiswill remedy itself as soon as you begin feeding the bin again. If a month or moreis going to pass without adding food or if the house will be unheated during a winter"sabbatical," you should give your worms to a friend to care for.


Fruit Flies

    Fruit flies can, on occasion, be avery annoying problem if you keep the worm bins in your house. They will not be presentall the time nor in every house at any time but when they are present they are anuisance. Fruit flies aren't unsanitary, they don't bite or seek out people to bother.They seek out over-ripe fruit and fruit pulp. Usually, fruit flies will hover aroundthe food source that interests them. In high summer we have accepted having a fewshare our kitchen along with the enormous spread of ripe and ripening tomatoes atopthe kitchen counter. When we're making fresh "V-7" juice on demand throughoutthe day, they tend to congregate over the juicer's discharge pail that holds a mixtureof vegetable pulps. If your worm bin contains these types of materials, fruit fliesmay find it attractive.

    Appelhof suggests sucking them up witha vacuum cleaner hose if their numbers become annoying. Fruit flies are a good reasonfor those of Teutonic tidiness to vermicompost in the basement or outside the houseif possible.


Maintenance

    After a new bin has been running fora few weeks, you'll see the bedding becoming darker and will spot individual wormcasts. Even though food is steadily added, the bedding will gradually vanish. Extensivedecomposition of the bedding by other small soil animals and microorganisms beginsto be significant.

    As worm casts become a larger proportionof the bin, conditions deteriorate for the worms. Eventually the worms suffer andtheir number and activity begins to drop off. Differences in bedding, temperature,moisture, and the composition of your kitchen's garbage will control how long ittakes but eventually you must separate the worms from their castings and put theminto fresh bedding. If you're using vermicomposting year-round, it probably willbe necessary to regenerate the box about once every four months.

    There are a number of methods for separatingredworms from their castings.

    Hand sorting works well aftera worm box has first been allowed to run down a bit. The worms are not fed untilalmost all their food has been consumed and they are living in nearly pure castings.Then lay out a thick sheet of plastic at least four feet square on the ground, floor,or on a table and dump the contents of the worm box on it.

    Make six to nine cone-shaped piles.You'll see worms all over. If you're working inside, make sure there is bright lightin the room. The worms will move into the center of each pile. Wait five minutesor so and then delicately scrape off the surface of each conical heap, one afteranother. By the time you finish with the last pile the worms will have retreatedfurther and you can begin with the first heap again.

    You repeat this procedure, graduallyscraping away casts until there is not much left of the conical heaps. In a surprisinglyshort time, the worms will all be squirming in the center of a small pile of castings.There is no need to completely separate the worms from all the castings. You cannow gather up the worms and place them in fresh bedding to start anew without furtherinconvenience for another four months. Use the vermicompost on house plants, in thegarden, or save it for later.

    Hand sorting is particularly usefulif you want to give a few pounds of redworms to a friend.

    Dividing the box is another,simpler method. You simply remove about two-thirds of the box's contents and spreadit on the garden. Then refill the box with fresh bedding and distribute the remainingworms, castings, and food still in the box. Plenty of worms and egg cocoons willremain to populate the box. The worms that you dumped on the garden will probablynot survive there.

    A better method of dividing a box preventswasting so many worms. All of the box's contents are pushed to one side, leavingone-third to one-half of the box empty. New bedding and fresh food are put on the"new" side. No food is given to the "old" side for a month orso. By that time virtually all the worms will have migrated to the "new"side. Then the "old" side may be emptied and refilled with fresh bedding.

    People in the North may want to usea worm box primarily in winter when other composting methods are inconvenient orimpossible. In this case, start feeding the bin heavily from fall through springand then let it run without much new food until mid-summer. By that time there willbe only a few worms left alive in a box of castings. The worms may then be separatedfrom their castings, the box recharged with bedding and the remaining worms can befed just enough to increase rapidly so that by autumn there will again be enoughto eat all your winter garbage.


Garbage Can Composting

    Here's a large-capacity vermicompostingsystem for vegetableatarians and big families. It might even have sufficient digestivecapacity for serious juice makers. You'll need two or three, 20 to 30 gallon garbagecans, metal or plastic. In two of them drill numerous half-inch diameter holes frombottom to top and in the lid as well. The third can is used as a tidy way to holdextra dry bedding.

    Begin the process with about 10 inchesof moist bedding material and worms on the bottom of the first can. Add garbage ontop without mixing it in and occasionally sprinkle a thin layer of fresh bedding.

    Eventually the first can will be fullthough it will digest hundreds of gallons of garbage before that happens. When finallyfull, the bulk of its contents will be finished worm casts and will contain few ifany worms. Most of the remaining activity will be on the surface where there is freshfood and more air. Filling the first can may take six months to a year. Then, startthe second can by transferring the top few inches of the first, which contains mostof the worms, into a few inches of fresh bedding on the bottom of the second can.I'd wait another month for the worms left in the initial can to finish digestingall the remaining garbage. Then, you have 25 to 30 gallons of worm casts ready tobe used as compost.

    Painting the inside of metal cans withordinary enamel when they have been emptied will greatly extend their life. Reallyhigh-volume kitchens might run two vermicomposting garbage cans at once.



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