Vermicomposting What am I doing wrong

Need some help!! I have been Vermicomposting for over two year now. I started with 2000 red wigglers and use a single bin with lots of holes in the bottom and sides. I feed them leaves, melon, squash, oatmeal, rice, alfalfa, banana peels, apples, egg shells, mangos, avocados, cabbage, lettuces, cardboard... stuff like that. I do not put in oranges, lemons, meat, bread, onions,... I think they eat really well yet I don't think they eat enough! I keep the bin in the shade with the lid off so they don't fry. Keep it moist.

I can not get my bin full of worms. I see lots of babies but the bin should be a lot fuller them it is. I have a lot of worm poop... but not a lot or worms!! And they are all over the bin to spite me feeding on one side.

Any advice???

I have been reading a lot on how to maintain worm bins and I commonly read that worms will not over populate the bin. This may mean that in your case the bin is not big enough for the worms to produce in larger numbers. Try separating the bin into two separate bins and see if that helps the worms double in number? I must also say that I have not been vermicomposting for very long (about two weeks) but I have put many hours and days into researching care and life cycles of worms.

Thank you for you suggestion but the bin is no where close to being over populated. I thought about that. You are kind for trying to help. I was thinking I might not be keeping it moist enough. I never have water in the tray.

Rhap...it doesn't sound to me that you are doing anything wrong. Worm to Food ratios dictate the emergence of young worms, which tells me you are doing okay.

Tell us why you only feed on one side of the bin. I rotate sides and feed about three to four times a week. Blending food with water helps worms to process the food more easily. Add some molded gread to the mix as well. Worms will devoure the molded food more quickly and reproduce faster if that's you goal.

Are you using the worms for anything other than vermicomposting. I feed worms to fish as well as transplant them to the garden. Although it is said red wigglers are not garden worms, they will function for a season or more in holes duig for plants like tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers and pumpkins if you add plenty of compost and some vermicompost as well.

I am top dressing some transplanted strawberries with a mix of coffee grounds, and vermicompost from both indoor and outdoor composting bins and I include red wigglers as well. After mixing in the top dressing I add straw around the base of the plants. Whenever I pull back the straw to check for weeds I notice some of the red wigglers near the surface as well as numerous tiny holes which indicate they are doing the same thing as native earth worms which are just beginning to come on in my garden. So don't be fooled by people who tell you that you can not use red wigglers as garden worms. Some have even survived our harsh winters.

morgan.

morgan, thanks for trying to help.

Tell us why you only feed on one side of the bin...---> I feed on one side at a time. I wait until the food is gone. Then I feed again. That is about every two weeks. They will get a cantaloupe rind, a few banana peels, some avocado skins and what ever fruit has gone bad. Most have a good amount to mold on them so I would think that would do better then what they are doing in number. I was told not to add in more food until the food is gone from the last feed.

Are you using the worms for anything other than vermicomposting...--> Nope just vermicomposting. I have spoils worms. They are not fish food. I have lost of red wigglers in the garden. They seem to do fine.

Two weeks is a long time between feedings. I rotate from side to side several times a week on each side with a blender of half water and half food sources including a variety of peelings, egg shells, rotten fruit., coffee grounds, etc. I mark which side I will fed next with a chop stick down in the corner of the bin. A couple of days gives the worms time to migrate to the food source and not be disturbed while feeding and breeding. I never disturb the area which had last been fed until it is time to feed again. If there is still some residual food it's not a problem. You can adjust accordingly. Feeding whole rinds or peelings will take longer for the worms to digest though.

I do not believe in poking hole in my bins. Too messy. Experience will tell you how much water to add and collecting leach ate for plants is just not my idea of fun. Worm tea is a much better idea and not that difficult.

I had not made worm tea because I would be killing the baby worms. I thought that might be defeating my goal... a bin full of worms. Am I misguided?

I started making worm food in the blender. We will see if they are happy with "worm souffle". Blended spinach, banana peels, avocado, mango peels, cantaloupe with the seeds. They should be happy campers.

I am going to feed them every other day assuming there is not food that I can see. But blended you would not see if the food is gone... or would you?
Rhapsody

The only thing you need to be concerned with is if the residual food has gone anaerobic. The odor would be offensive and that tells you to back off the feeding. Make sure all the blended food is covered. Otherwise you could have a fly problem. Excess food can also lead to other critters invading you worm bin but the same rule applies...just back off the food for a while.

You can use your media for all types of things. Sacrificing a few worms is no big deal. They will replace themselves as necessary. I plan on taking my 8 year old granddaughter yellow perch fishing later next month and I will be taking as many worms as I can collect out of my four indoor bins. I make a well in the center of each bin and feed there. After a couple of days I dig out the wells and dump the worms into a large Styrofoam worm box. I should have several thousand worms large enough to use a bait. The residual worms are then used to start another worm bin.

mraider3 ~ Thank you for responding. I will keep in mind your suggestion on feeding. Seems there are a few bugs in the bin that I can not get rid of. Not many but some. As for sacrificing a few worms not being any big deal... my ideology is much different then most... very life is a big deal! Happy fishing and Happy Monday.

Just saw this post and wonder if you solved your low population of worms....because I think I know the answer: predators. You keep the lid off so it's probably become a feeder for birds, possum and whoever else wants a snack. Always keep on the lid.

Ps Getting ready to cut back brugs, do you want a stick of Ecuador pink or frosty pink? Can't recall if I asked you before. They may be too commn since I know you have some more rare.

Judy ~ Too hot to keep the lid on! No fried worms for me. The blended food bust the worm count but also the maggots.. back to whole foods.

About the brugs. I never cut them back. I am in zone 10B... They just grow! Think I need to?

Rhapsody

I have an out door bin, and a worm factory 360 inside. I keep a thermometer in my outdoor bin. I keep my food scraps in freezer until I'm ready to feed my worms.(Once a week) Make sure that they have an equal amount of ripped up cardboard or paper to food scraps (Mine seem to prefer hand ripped paper to paper from the shredder). Mine also love coconut coir, and I put a handful of pumice in once a month. I started with a pound at the end of May, and I have at least 4 times that going off what they eat. I keep it quite moist. I always have liquid coming out the bottom of the indoor bin, but I just put the babies back. Can you put a screen or some dark netting over the top? It would keep flies and birds out.

I can use/ put a net over the top but the maggots are in the tray at the bottom.

Rhapsody, sounds like you need to monitor the bin environment more closely to try and determine the exact nature of the problem. If you're raising red wigglers (Ensenia fetida), you should check the pH, temperature and moisture levels. Ideal conditions for breeding are:
pH: 7 - 8
moisture: approx 80%
temp: 72-79F for best breeding conditions but will survive 38F-90F

If using a different variety of worm then some of these conditions will vary for optimum reproduction.

You can get a pretty cheap pH/moisture probe at big-box stores to give you a good approximation of those conditions. For temp, I use a compost thermometer which can be easily found online or in some feed/garden stores. Worms can handle alkaline (high pH) but cannot tolerate acidic (low pH) and slightly-acidic is likely to kill young'uns more quickly than the adults.

If your pH is low (acidic), sprinkle some dolomite or garden lime on the surface of your bin. Dolomite is much like garden lime, with additional benefit of containing magnesium. The lime will raise the pH and also help the worms with digestion. A little bit of sand sprinkled in with each feeding also helps with digestion. Worms need grit to digest food, much like chickens.

If you want to check your rate of reproduction, I would suggest getting a second bin, then separate out the adult worms into the new bin and just feed that bin. That will leave your cocoons and babies in the first bin (nursery) so that you can monitor the survival rate of your baby worms. Of course, once you start to see worms in the nursery bin, you'll need to start feeding that one as well. I always move adults to a new bin about every 2 to 3 mos so that I can monitor population growth. With a total of 3 bins you can keep them in rotation and should have a huge population within 6 mos to a year if you maintain proper conditions and don't have problems with predators.