Where do I start?

I have about 50-pounds of Coffee Grounds. I want to get started vermicomposting. Can I put some of the Coffee Grounds in a 5-gallon bucket and put worms in there? I could keep them in my garage.

I bought a dozen Night Crawlers and am going to add it to the mix unless someone says otherwise. I'll put some potting soil down first (w/ out fertlizer added) then add the Coffee Grounds.

Here they are.

Dean...Not wanting to bust your bubble friend, but coffee grounds have little or no worm food value. Typically vermiculture media also substitutes as a food source. DG'ers have suggested using coffee grounds in their compost bins which makes good since to me. Most of the commercial growers I have spoken with use peat moss as their media of choice.

morgan

Morgan,

Okay, I was mistaken then. I thought Coffee Grounds were great for worms. I'll have to get some peat moss then.

you can still use coffe grounds they just need other stuff to eat to

fieldsems, I'm confused. I bought some peat moss. Now I can feed them coffee grounds?

It's not hard at all soak your peat moss for 24 hrs then drain mix your coffee grounds in with your peat moss and add your worms. Check out my website kentuckylakeredworms.com or go to mraiders blog all good info to get you started.

Like Dean I am just starting out. What would be your suggestion for just starting a worm bin?

Bear

Thanks for the link...

When I first started I went cheap the only thing I bought was peat moss and my worms. I used a 55 gallon plastic drum drilled some drainage holes in the bottom added some peat moss after soaking it then added my worms. I did a trench in the media when I feed mine and bury the food to cut down on flies I also cover my beds with wet newspaper which they love. But any container will do and you can have them inside or out mine are outside in a shed. Hope this helps.

Thanks, fieldsems, I'm starting small w/ a 5-gallon bucket. It seems like their hanging out towards the top. I guess I need to put some wet newspaper on top of them.

Make sure your media is not to wet worms can drown that may be why their at the top

Okay, their wandering around now. I put them in moistened peatmoss as the bedding medium. I fed them some bread and some lanky seedlings (I had to throw out). They don't seem to be eating either one. Do they eat the peatmoss? I have a sheet of moist newspaper on top. When I raise it up to look at them there is usally one that will escape downwards. Oh, these are supposed to be nightcrawlers (sold as bait). Though I'm unsure of which ones they are (after doing a little research).

When starting a new bin, remember it's a biosphere in there. I've been farming worms for a few years now, and recently I'm learning to expand to mid-scale- my newest bin started with 20 pounds of worms (see the attached pic for scale- that small bin is a Can O Worms).

Here's how I start a brand new, small bin:

--Block of coir (I think peat is too acidic)

--1 or 2 pounds of worms ( I prefer 2 pounds)

--Finely shredded newspaper or non-glossy junk mail for top bedding- soaked in water first, squeezed out and then fluffed up. Since wet paper has a tendancy to compact, it needs to be fluffed up as much as possible. Otherwise, it will create anaerobic conditions in your bin. (Some people use leaves as top-bedding, but I have no personal experience with it. I use worms to reduce household garbage, and live in an apartment with no yard.)

--Very important for new bins, and usually an omitted step-- a few handfuls of leaf mould, or real, healthy garden soil (not the sterilized stuff from a bag) to establish the biosphere. You want the beneficial microrganisms found in there. Worms eat food very slowly and with difficulty if it's just them doing it. You don't want ants, centepedes, or other easily visable critters, just tiny critters like microscopic fungi, earthworm mites, and springtails. These guys help break down food so the worms can eat it.

--A bin needs 3 things always- to be well-aerated, quite damp, and dark.

(An aside: Remember that a bin is imitating a European forest floor [moist, dark, and temperate]. I say European because the worms we use in bins are not native to the Americas. European forest floors are free of small plant undergrowth, precisely because of those worms. American forests are full of plant undergrowth because of the lack of native worms. Where nightcrawlers and other fishing worms, including esenia fetida, have been dumped out of cans by fishermen on fishing trips, it's decimating US forests, particularly in the northern Midwest. They are considered an invasive species, and it's radically changing US forest biology. Ok, I'll step off my soapbox now.)

In a new bin, it's critical that food is added very slowly and in very small amounts. For the first 6 months, worms need to adjust to their environment, and new food should not be added until old food is completely eaten. Overfeeding a bin, espeically in the beginning, is a sure path to bad bin health and worm death.

The cardinal rule of bin health: All manner of trouble in a bin can be solved by removing food and adding new, damp top bedding.

I feed my worms primarily bunny poop, as well as kitchen waste. I keep rabbits, and the worms devour their droppings. Most large-scale worm keepers use *pre-composted* (very important) animal manure as both bedding and food. (There shouldn't be as much of a line between the two, since worms also eat bedding. But in a small bin, damp bedding regulates and maintains favorable living conditions.)

These days, I'm learning to bokashi my food waste before feeding it to my worms, and I think that will be the key to taking my operation successfully to mid-scale. There is a great thread on bokashi and worms in DG's Soil and Composting section, started by Garden Mermaid.

ilexwhite,

I haven't seen my worms in several days time. My question is, should I disturb the bedding to look for them? I want to know if they are still alive. Thanks, for all the information I'll add a little composted manure and some shredded junk mail.

I forgot to say you have a nice setup there. How much worm castings do you harvest? Where do you keep your bunnies if you live in a apartment?

Dean, it's ok to gently dig around in the bin to check on your worms. Worms often burrow if it's too dry in the bin- they are trying to conserve moisture by sticking together. If dryness is the problem, add lots of fluffy wet bedding to the top. You really can't ever have too much top bedding, as long as it doesn't get compacted. Adding composted manure (under the top bedding) would probably draw them to the top, too. Worms love, LOVE finished manure.

Some worm farmers give a moisture guideline of being able to squeeze two drops of water from a generous handful of bedding, but it depends on where your bin is kept. If it's indoors, a bin can be *slightly* drier than that.

Is your bin outside? What kind of bin is it? How's the general health of the biosphere in there?

---
My big bin is new- just got it in January. Got it from Worm Wigwam. When it's up and humming, it will produce about 75 pounds of castings a week. My first plan is to sell some of it at our local farmer's market. I'm kicking around a few other ideas, too, like teaming up with a gardening or lawn care service to help get them off the petroleum fertilizers as well as give their customers a green choice.

My house rabbits are free-range, but they are litter box trained. I separate out their poop with a slotted cat litter scoop. So far, I haven't had to pre-compost it, but I'm adding it in tiny amounts, and I have a very healthy population of earthworm mites. They are first on the scene when new poop (or any food, for that matter) is added. The worms don't show up for a couple of days.

The small bin has become my experimenting bin. Even though it's a totally different set-up, I'm trying different methods of feeding to accelerate castings production. I'm new to bokashi, but it seems to work very, very well. Once the big bin is running at peak, I'll start collecting food waste from a nearby restaurant and probably bokashi it before it goes in the big bin.

Dean, I just read an earlier post from you. Are you using nightcrawlers, Lumbricus terrestris? If so, that's your problem right there- they aren't composting worms, they are deep burrowers, anecic worms, and build permanent burrows. You want red wigglers, Eisenia fetida, epigeic worms, for vermicomposting. In the wild, they live near the surface, in leaf mould and under manure piles. You'll want to start with at least a pound, or about 1,000 worms. Two pounds is even better.

There are other epigeic worms used for vermicomposting, but red wigglers are the easiest for new worm composters to work with because they are fairly adaptable to a range of conditions. They are also the most commonly sold in the continental US.

A great book for new worm composters is "Worms Eat My Garbage", by Mary Appelhof. Fair to say that she's the godmother of vermicomposting in the US. She covers pretty much all a new vermicomposter needs to know.

ilexwhite, yes, I'm using nightcrawlers. I bought them at a local conveince store sold as bait. Where did you buy your redwigglers from? My bin is inside, it is just an experiment, so I am using a 5-gallon bucket for now. The general health of the Bioshphere? I did have a slice of bread and a half a plum ontop that I dumped out. I dug around and found the worms, they still look healthy.

Wow, 75lbs a week, huh, no kidding! Thats a good idea, to sale to lawncare service, they can use the castings to make Verimicompost Aerated Teas.

Yes, I'm familiar with Bokashi, but have, yet to use it. It's nice cause you can compost many things w/ it.

You can't use nightcrawlers. They are not surface worms and won't do the job. You need to get Eisenia fetida.

You can buy red wigglers by the pound online. I'd recommend Happy D Ranch for your worms. In the shipment, they include a lot of helpful information. But! Before you buy worms, I'd strongly recommend that you read the book I mentioned, "Worms Eat My Garbage". There is a real learning curve with worm composting.

My bad for not reading the whole thread first. Sorry.

Thanks, for the information. I'm pricing worms now. I'll look into buying the book.

I want to start a worm bin in the house. WM actually has worms already. Both nightcrawlers and red wigglers. Kind of pricey I think, but maybe not. I just shredded 2 13 gallon kitchen trash bags of paper and will use it to bed my degu and baby chicken cages. Is it alright to use the soiled paper from the cages in the worm bed? I already have peatmoss. I can get coffee grounds but have also heard that corn meal is a good food for the worms. I want to feed some of my kitchen scraps and the scrapings from the bottom of the degu cage. Degus are small rodents much like gerbils if that gives you any idea what their droppings are like. They are strict vegetarians. And can I use small amounts of cat or dog feces mixed with peatmoss which is what I use a lot of the time for the litter boxes. Oh yes, I want to use some 6" deep bus tubs like eateries use for the boxes. I can put lids on them and poke holes in them. Or I could use storage tubs and put a crumpled chicken wire floor in it.

Any advice would be greatly appreciately.

Hi Leaflady- you should never use cat and dog poop to feed worms. It's chock-full of some pretty dangerous pathogens. A general rule for vermicomposting: never feed worms what you wouldn't feed an ordinary home-scale compost pile.

What is WM? Is that where you are getting your worms from? Nightcrawlers are not composting worms- stick with the red wigglers. Nightcrawlers won't do the job and will die in a bin. You shouldn't mix worm species in a bin anyway- they don't get along and will stage a "worm run". I'd highly recommend that you buy worms from a seller that specializes in composting worms, so you get all one species. Happy D Ranch is a great company to do your worm business with, and they include a lot of very helpful fliers in the shipment.

If you are starting a brand-new bin, it's best not to feed it at all for a few weeks. Worms need time to adjust to their new environment.

Chicken litter should be hot-composted first. It's very high in ammonia and an ordinary bin can't "breathe" enough to off-gas that. The degu litter is probably fine. Just start with very small amounts and watch it carefully. Don't add any more food until the old "new" food is gone. Keep it moist- I'd pre-soak it first if there is a lot of paper. That's the best rule to follow with any bin- any new food should be added slowly and in small amounts. Always keep a lot of damp, fluffy bedding on top of the food. And never, ever overfeed a bin.

Cornmeal is common food for worms- a lot of worm growers use it to fatten worms sold to fishermen. But if you're raising worms for their castings to feed your soil, worms need a balanced diet. Vegetable- based kitchen scraps of all kinds are great, provided they are chopped finely. Some people use blenders, but I don't. I try to keep my worm farming as non-electric as possible.

Remember that Eisenia fetida are manure worms- that's their favorite food. But in a bin environment, uncomposted manure can heat up and kill the worms, and the worms can't escape the hostile environment. Odors can be a big problem, too. If you feed herbivorous animal poop, feed it ONLY in small amounts. Large herbivorous animals' manure, such as horse and cow, absolutely must be hot composted first; otherwise it will heat up in a bin and kill your worms. Plus, horse and cow poop is full of fly maggots, not a good creature to introduce to an indoor bin. Hot composting kills the maggots and any other unwanted creatures in there. I'd only feed cow manure if you know both the cow and the farmer personally- commercial dairy poop is very dangerous stuff since Big Ag has choosen to turn cows into cannibalistic omnivores. Small herbivores' poop, such as sheep, goat and rabbit, can be fed directly (without pre-composting) to a bin, but only in thin layers/ small amounts, and again, only of you know the animals personally and know what they are fed. Don't feed more of the small animal, un-composted manure until ALL of the prior fed manure is completely gone- it will sink into the bin and heat up. (Believe me- I know this from personal experience!)

If you add a handful or two of healthy garden soil or leaf mould to your bin, you will get the beneficial microorganisms that help worms in the wild break down their food. Worms have a hard time eating food without these helpers. Don't add ants or centipedes, though. They will eat the worms.

Thanks for the info. I think I'll just toss the shredded paper into the compost pile or use it as mulch on top of layers of cardbord and under something heavy so it can't fly away when it drys out. I've had enough experience with chasing sheets if newspaper all over the yard on windy days when they dried out.

What are the temperature ranges for red wigglers? I plan on keeping them in my garage and I'm afraid it may get to hot for them during the summer.

Red wigglers in bins are healthiest and happiest in a "human-indoor" temperature of about 70F. They will tolerate temperature swings from about 45F to 85F (in the shade!). Any hotter and they will fry. Unless you live in a temperate climate, worm bins really are best kept in a controlled environment.

ilexwhite, thanks for your reply. You have been quite helpful.

Yeah!!! I finally got my pound of red wigglers!

Dean, congratulations on receiving your 1,000 pink babies from the worm stork. Good luck!

Thanks! They were huddled in a mass in the middle of some peat moss. I put them in the bin to get some rest from their trip. LOL!!

Dean,

So, now that your worms are rested up, how are they doing?

Pamgarden, last night I discovered lots of fruit flies hanging around the bin. I think I didn't bury some watermelon rinds deep enough in the bin. I also noticed that there were worms on top of the bedding. I was concerened because I thought something might be wrong. I pulled out the top portion of paper bedding to examine more closely. They have quite a number of what appears to be egg casings. I guess their still doing okay. I don't know if I should start another bin?

Dean, Congraulations, sounds like you have some very happy and active worms. Ilex would be able to advise on whether a new bin should be started.

Thanks Pam!

Dean, if you see a lot of egg cases, it is an excellent time to start a new bin. Worms will just keep reproducing until they don't have any more room, but if you give them more space, they'll fill it. Sounds like you're doing everything right.

Thanks, ilexwhite, I'll set up a new bin. How do you suggest I harvest the castings if there are so many egg casings?

This message was edited Apr 3, 2008 11:07 AM

Congratulations, Dean-- You've discovered the bane of all home-scale worm farmers. Most worm farmers pick them out by hand. Some build a screen of some sort. At one point, I built one based on a soil sifting design I found in an old farm implements book, but it didn't work very well. I experemented with a small batch. The castings were too wet and just balled up in the sifting action. After the castings dried, they turned to powder and were difficult to re-wet, not to mention plain-old unattractive (important to me, because of resale value- I want my castings to look "store-bought").

The best screens for separating egg cases seem to be based on a strong jarring/snapping motion rather than a sifting motion. I suspect that a commercial vibrating machine (with a few levels of screens with different screen holes) would work well, too.

Look at this video if you get a chance- the whole video is long, but the separating screen shows up at about 5:30 in the second video (click the arrow to get to the second video). He has built a two-level screen- one catches worms, and one catches egg cases.

http://www.thewormguy.org/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=20&MMN_position=37:37

If you are handy with small machines and can come up with a better solution to this problem, especially for the home scale worm farmer, I'm all ears! No tool currently exists like this for home-scale worm farmers.

I have yet to find a better way for small home-scale operations than picking as many out by hand as you can (in a flat pan and in small amounts, such as cookie sheet) and just letting the rest go. I figure the worms will make more. And if the castings are well-dried, the cases don't survive anyway.

Turns out there was a problem after all. Though, I did find some egg casings it dosen't look like I have a pound of worms anymore. I suppose it was the peat moss and compost I had added to the bin. I removed the worms and added some shredded paper to two new bins and am trying to salvage what I have left. I can't belive I might have killed some! I read the book Worms Eat My Garbage! How hard could be?

Any thoughts you could give would be helpful.