Lessons Learned: Month Three of Worm Bin # 1

Ironically soon after painting a reminder to have patience regarding my worm bin, I had the biggest distraction of my life (Welcome, Erin Elizabeth!) and neglected the poor thing for several weeks. When I finally popped the lid, I was stunned by the drastic changes.

Obviously, there was little to nothing left of the food scraps I had last fed them. Well over half of the contents of the bin had turned into pure castings, and my worm population had increased significantly. Moisture content was a little high, however, and I could see right away I would need to do things a little differently next time.

I'm pretty anxious to start over with fresh materiel, and an improved bin system, so yesterday I just jumped right in to the sorting process. Unfortunately, I'm stuck picking out some large chunks of bedding that were not shredded small enough as I occasionally added new bedding. I think next time around I'm going to have to be much more conscientiousness about the size of the materiel and food I put in there.It took me forever, but I was able to send a bag of nice, fresh vermicompost home with my mother. Here are a few tips I've learned along the way:

• Worms really actually do not favor the citrus. I thought maybe that was just a nit picky suggestion, but no...it's true.
• If you plan to add eggshells, do crush them very small beforehand. It was really inconvenient having to pick through large chunks of shell in my finished product.
• Punch enough air holes in your  worm bin, especially if you are using a plastic tub. You want to control the moisture content as much as you can, and plastic makes that difficult enough. You don't want to end up with mud, and you don't want to "drown" your worms.
• Keep your food scraps in a container on the counter for a few days before adding them to your worm bin, it will help speed up the feeding process. Your worms are not eating the scraps, they are eating what happens as the scraps begin to decompose.
• Don't choose a hot day to sort your worms from your product. Choose a day that is bright, but preferably not cloudless and sunny. 
• Don't be careless when it comes to maintaining your worm bin, but, relax! I made many mistakes along the way and still ended up with some pretty good product. 

Don't Feed The Worms!

After days and days of eager anticipation, the little cardboard box had finally arrived. Tucking it happily under one arm, I practically skipped back from my mailbox and plopped it on the counter. The first order of events was to tell my husband all about it over Skype. This I did, with many exclamation marks and smiles.

Ten minutes later I was sheepishly explaining to him that I was afraid to open my box. It had never even crossed my mind that I might be squeamish about this, but there I was, warily circling the package and completely unable to bring myself to touch it. I suppose it's somewhat understandable. It did, in fact, contain 1,000...wiggling...worms.

I've had an urge to try my hand at vermicomposting for a few years now. It started out as a concept when I lived on 2.5 acres with my family, and is a reality now that I have an adorable little apartment balcony in the city.

Vermicomposting is pretty simple and can be modified to work anywhere. Your kitchen, your balcony, a corner of the garden. It's basically composting with worms. Because the Red Wiggler can consume it's own weight each day, it's much faster than regular composting. The castings left behind create a highly productive fertilizer, which has been referred to as the "richest compost ever known." Compared to average topsoil, worm castings have five times more nitrogen, 7 times more phosphorus, and 11 times more potassium. The pH is also a perfect balance of 7.

I did finally open the box. After my husband informed me that they were merely tiny princes a long way from home with a mind to get some fresh air, I felt much calmer about the whole affair and dumped them into their new home. "Home" consisted of a small Rubbermaid tub with ventilation, bedding, and food scraps I'd buried in there the previous week.

Though I researched like crazy before I even ordered my little colony of worms, I've discovered that the application of my hastily gotten wisdom is a teeny bit more complicated in real life.

For one thing, I could hardly contain my curiosity about everything that was happening in there, so I ended up mixing the system more than I should have. At least, it looks messier than I would like. I may also have over fed them a bit, because my bin has a slight odor and it's a bit too damp in there. Theoretically your bin will be odorless if maintained properly.

As long as I let them be for awhile, without disturbing or feeding them, hopefully everything will be fine. To remind myself not to peek when I have the urge, I've made a sign to hang over the worm bin.

James 1:4

Eventually if I get the system going pretty well, I might try to turn this into a mini business. The finished product is sometimes referred to as "Black Gold" and can be sold at farmer's markets and garden nurseries around the area. This first run is just my little experiment. They're more like pets than resources at this point. It might just turn out to be a crazy idea, but I'm going to have alot of fun in the meantime.

Reference:

vermicomposting.com
unclejimswormfarm.com
Manual of On-Farm Vermicomposting and Vermiculture By Glenn Munroe