Questions
- How many worms do I need?
- How big a bin will I need?
- What can I feed the worms?
- What pH and temperature should I keep my bin at?
- How much water do the worms need?
- What are castings and how do I use them?
- What is worm tea and how do I use it?
How many worms do I need to start composting at home?
This depends mainly on how much garbage your family generates. To determine how many pounds of garbage you produce in a day, weigh your food scraps each day for a week. Add each day's weight together and divide by seven (# of days in a week). This will give you a daily average. For example, if your family produces 14 pounds of garbage a week the equation would be 14/7=2. In this case the family produces an average of two pounds of garbage per day.
One pound of worms will eat about 1/2 a pound of garbage a day. This means that the family described above would need four pounds of worms to meet their composting needs.
How big a bin will I need?
This really depends on how much daily waste you want the worms to handle (see above question).
Most people agree that one square foot of surface area can support up to 4000 worms. However, it is believed that 2000-3000 is optimal. This means that in a 1 X 2 foot bin, one pound of worms could increase to over six pounds before needing more bin space or removal from the bin (for fishing, outdoor composting, etc.).
To put the last two questions into a practical application, if a family produces two pounds of organic waste a day, then they would need to start with a bin approximately 1 X 2 feet and four pounds of worms.
How many worms are in a pound?
Generally there are about 1000 worms in a pound, depending on their size. Bed-run worms include cocoons, babies, juviniles, and adults. Because of this, a pound of bed-run worms tends to have more worms than a pound of adults.
Bed-run?
This is just a term given to worms that live in a controlled bin.
What can I feed the worms?
Most of your fruit and vegetable scraps, tea bags, coffee grounds, eggshells, shredded newspaper and dry leaves would be good food for your worms. Avoid meats, dairy products, and animal excrement as they attract rodents and create unpleasant odors. If you bury the food, your bin should be odor-free.
What pH and temperature should I keep my bin at?
If you are using household waste, you will want to monitor the pH. Worms like a neutral pH (7), erring on the acidic side. You will want to balance acidic foods (e.g. citrus) with alkaline foods (e.g. eggshells).
You can monitor pH with a small pH tester. These are inexpensive and are available at most garden centers.
Redworms breed best in temperatures ranging from 55 degrees F. to 75 degrees F. They can survive at temperatures as low as 40 and as high as 80. You would need to pick a location that would ensure appropriate temperatures. If a bin gets too hot, watering it helps.
How much water do the worms need?
Since worms get oxygen from water through their skin, it is important to monitor moisture conditions. If it's too dry, the worms can't breathe. If it's too wet, they drown. A good measure of moisture that most worm farmers use is to take a handful of the bedding and squeeze it. If droplets of water squeeze out between your knuckles, the moisture is just right. No droplets, too dry. Streams of water, too wet.
What are worm castings and how do I use them?
Worm castings are the odorless excrement of worms and are prized by gardeners as an ideal soil enricher. Castings provide many of the essential nutrients needed for healthy plant life and are a totally organic, all natural soil amendment. Worm castings will not burn even the most delicate plants, yet provide a concentrated source of calcium, magnesium, nitrogen, phosphates, and potash in a form readily available to your plants. The worm's digestive system coats castings with polysaccharides which provide for optimum soil structure, maximizing aeration and water retention (necessary for a healthy root system). You can use them for annuals, perennials, seedlings, African violets, cacti and succulents.
Studies done at Ohio State University indicate that adding 10-20% castings to soil, compost, or other potting mixes results in optimum benefits. Higher concentrations show little continued improvement in plant and root growth and using a 100% castings makes the mixture too loose to support plant roots and retain water.
Castings can also be used as a top dressing fertilizer. However, since they can dry out and prevent water from reaching the plants roots, they should be kept well watered.
What is worm tea and how do I use it?
Worm tea is the leachate obtained from worm castings. It is made from castings that have been steeped in water to make a "tea." It has essentially the same benefits to plants as castings, but in liquid form. Some studies show worm tea may even be an effective deterrent to some insects, such as whiteflies and aphids.
Worm tea is not the leachate from your worm bin. This runoff is a compost tea, which we believe has many of the same benefits. Worm tea is extracted from pure worm castings.
Apply worm tea to the root zone of plants as often as you would a fertilizer. You may also spray it directly on plants as a foliar. It will not burn and can be applied full strength or diluted at a 1:10 ratio.