Things You'll Need:
- Worm bin
- Bedding
- Worms
- Kitchen waste
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Step 1
Choose a location for your worms. Keep your worms between 55 and 77 degrees F; kitchens are often the perfect place. If your bin is in the kitchen, you can easily add scraps as they are created. However, you may prefer to keep your worms somewhere out of the way. Basements are ideal for moisture, but a closet, patio or spare room will also work. Just be sure your worm bin does not get too hot, cold or dry.
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Step 2
Purchase or build a worm bin. There are a variety of worm bins available online. They have multiple levels and trays for easy worm care and compost harvest. Build your own worm bin out of wood, or drill holes in the sides of a non-translucent plastic bin. Drill holes in the bottom to allow for more ventilation and to let excess moisture drain out. Place a tray underneath your worm bin to catch the run-off. The size of the worm bin should reflect the amount of kitchen waste you create. A good size to start with is 2-by-2 feet, and 1 foot deep. A wide, shallow worm bin gives you more area to bury your kitchen waste.
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Step 3
Fill your worm bin with bedding. The bedding gives the worms something to crawl around in, and it gives you a place to bury your kitchen waste. Paper is an inexpensive bedding. Use shredded cardboard, newspaper or any clean paper to create bedding for your worms. Another bedding option is autumn leaves, straw, cut grass or peat moss. Wood chips or sawdust are also suitable bedding. Add a handful of dirt, sand or coffee grounds to your bedding, and enough water to create a moist environment. JourneyToForever.org suggest adding a small amount of ground limestone or wood ash to the mix.
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Step 4
Add your worms. All earthworms are not created equal when it comes to vermicomposting. The best worms for the job are called "red worms" or "red wrigglers." They are smaller than night crawlers, red in color and have a striped appearance. Purchase these worms at a bait shop or on-line. Purchase enough worms to handle your kitchen waste, or buy fewer than needed and wait for them to reproduce enough to adequately decompose your garbage. If your compost bin smells bad, there is too much kitchen waste for your worms to handle. Either add more worms or put in less waste as you wait for your worms to multiply. Feed 1 lb. of worms about 1/2 lb. of kitchen scraps each day.
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Step 5
Feed your kitchen waste to your worms. Feed them daily, or save your kitchen (and yard) waste in a closed container and add it to your worm bin once a week. If you choose this method, your kitchen waste may start to smell. Remedy this by throwing some sawdust or wood chips into the waste container. While other compost methods strictly prohibit adding fats, meats and dairy items to your compost, a vermicomposter can handle a small amount of these items. Be sure to chop them up and spread them out. JourneyToForever.org states, "Broken chicken bones are okay, bigger bones won't break down but shouldn't cause problems either--they'll be picked clean." Rotate where you bury your kitchen waste for optimum composting.
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Step 6
Harvest your compost. Stop feeding your worms after a few months and let them sit for a couple more months. In this time, they will turn all of the bedding and waste into compost. This method will give you one windfall of compost at the cost of your worm supply, as most of them will die off as they run out of food to eat. As the worms run out of food they will consume the compost, eventually working all of the nutrients out of it. Harvest your compost before this happens. Alternately, you can keep your worm bin going by dumping the contents on a large piece of plastic and then gathering as many worms as you can to put into a fresh bin. Another method requires you create an area of fresh bedding and waste within your existing worm bin; after a couple of days, all of the worms will migrate to the fresh area, leaving the compost to be harvested. Similarly, you can set up a fresh worm bin and slowly transfer worms out of the original worm bin as they finish composting.
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Step 7
Use your compost as you would use any compost. Spread it around the base of your plants to replenish the soil and nourish your garden. JourneyToForever.org suggests you use about half of what you would normally use, as your vermicompost is more potent than regular compost. Also, when using vermicompost to pot seedlings, use it at a one to four ratio with soil. Mix 2 tbsp. of vermicompost with 1 l. of water to use as a liquid fertilizer.
