Make Your Own Worm Compost System

Vermiculture, or worm composting, allows you to compost your food waste faster than you ever imagined, while producing the highest quality compost and fertilizing liquid. Best of all, it's self-contained and nearly odorless!

Steps

 * 1) Obtain a worm bin.
 * 2) *These can be purchased from many online vendors or your local gardening or farm supply store.
 * 3) *You can build your own. Use rubber storage totes, galvanized tubs, wood, or plastic.
 * 4) **[[Image:Worm bin 8255.jpg|thumb|A wooden bin.]]Material: Rubber is cheap, easy to use and durable. Galvanized tubs are somewhat costly but will last forever.  Wood will eventually be eaten, and plastic cracks easily, but either will do in a pinch.  Some people prefer wooden compost worm bins because they may breathe better and absorb excess moisture, which can be hazardous to the worms.  Just don't use chemically-treated wood, which may be dangerous to worms or leach harmful chemicals into your compost. 5-gallon plastic buckets now for sale by most hardware stores can be used - especially if you live in an apartment.  Clean the big 5-gallon soap buckets thoroughly and let them sit for a day or so filled with clean water before using as a worm bin.
 * 5) **[[Image:Drilling 2893.jpg|thumb|Drilling holes to ventilate a rubber tub.]]Ventilation: Your bin should be well-ventilated, with several 1/8 inch (3mm) holes 4 inches (100mm) from the bottom (otherwise the worms will stay at the bottom of the bin and you may drown your worms). For example, you can build a worm bin out of a large plastic tub with several dozen small holes drilled out on the bottom and sides. Untreated wooden bins are naturally ventilated because of structure of wood.
 * 6) **Size: The larger you make the container, the more worms it can sustain. Estimate 1 pound (0.45kg) of worms (1,200) for every square foot of surface area.  The maximum productive depth for your bin is 24 inches (61cm) deep because composting worms will not go further down than that.
 * 7) **Cover: The bin should have a cover to prevent light from getting in and to prevent the compost from drying out. Choose or make a lid that can be removed if your compost is too wet.  Use a canvas tarp, doubled over and bungee-corded on, or kept in place with wood.  Burlap sacks also work well, and can be watered directly.
 * 8) *Use 4 old car tires: To make a four-tire wormery, create a base from old bricks or flagstones (must be flat and with as few cracks as possible). Place a layer of heavy newspaper on top of the bricks. Stuff four old tires with newspapers. Pile the tires on top of each other, with the first tire on the Sunday newspaper. Put some scrunched up paper or cardboard in the bottom to soak up any excess liquid. Fill the entire wormery with organic material (semi-composted is best). Add the composting worms (tiger or brandling species are best).  Use a piece of board weighed down with bricks as a lid. The lid must be big enough to stop rain getting in. Harvest a tire's worth of fertilizer roughly every 8 weeks (during warm months).
 * 9) [[Image:Newspaper bedding (for worms) 9979.jpg|thumb|Shredded newspaper for worm bedding.]] Prepare the box for worms. Fill your bin with thin strips of unbleached corrugated cardboard or shredded newspaper, straw, dry grass, or some similar material.  This provides a source of fiber to the worms and keeps the bin well-ventilated.  Sprinkle a handful of dirt on top, and thoroughly moisten.  Allow the water to soak in for at least a day before adding worms.  You can also use Canadian peat moss, which is more expensive but yields a loamier vermicompost.
 * 10) [[Image:Box of worms 6665.jpg|thumb|Worms arrive.]]Get worms. There are several varieties of worms that that are bred and sold commercially for vermicomposting; just digging up earthworms from your backyard is not recommended.  The Internet or local gardening club is your best bet for finding a worm vendor near you.  The worms most often used, Eisenia foetida (Red Wigglers), are about 4 inches long, mainly red along the body with a yellow tail.  Another variety to consider are Eisenia hortensis, known as "European Night crawlers."  They do not reproduce quite as fast as the red wigglers, but grow to be larger, eat courser paper and cardboard better, and seem to be heartier. They are also better fishing worms when they do reach full size.  However, with any non-native species, it is important not to allow them to reach the wild.  Their voracious appetites and reproductive rates (especially among the red wigglers) have been known to upset the delicate balance of the hardwood forests by consuming the leaf litter too quickly.  This event leaves too little leaf letter to slowly incubate the hard shelled nuts and leads to excessive erosion as well as negatively affecting the pH of the soil.  So, do your best to keep them confined!
 * 11) [[Image:Newspaper & worm food 200.jpg|thumb|Feed your worms fruit and vegetable scraps and refresh the bedding as necessary.]] Maintain your bin. Keeping your bin elevated off the ground, using bricks, cinder blocks, or whatever is convenient will help speed composting and keep your worms happy. Worms are capable of escaping almost anything, but if you keep your worms fed and properly damp, they should not try to escape.  A light in the same area will ensure your worms stay put.  Sprinkle the surface with water every other day.  Feed your worms vegetable scraps at least once a week.  Feeding lightly and often will produce more worms (which is good when starting a new bin) and large amounts fed less often will fatten your worms (good for fishing).  Add more cardboard, shredded newspaper, hay, or other fibrous material once a month, or as needed.  Your worms will reduce everything in your bin quickly.  You will start with a full bin of compost or paper/cardboard, and soon it will be half full.  This is the time to add fibrous material.
 * 12) Harvest the compost, using one of the following techniques.
 * 13) *[[Image:The hand of god 2275.jpg|thumb|Pull back the top layers of bedding to harvest the compost or check progress.]]Put on rubber gloves, and move any large un-composted vegetable matter to one side. Then, with your gloved hands, gently scoop a section of worms and compost mixture onto a brightly lit piece of newspaper or plastic wrap.  Scrape off the compost in layers.  Wait a while giving the worms time to burrow into the center of the mound.  Eventually you will end up with a pile of compost next to a pile of worms.  Return the worms to the bin, do whatever you want with the compost, and repeat.
 * 14) *If you prefer a hands-off technique, simply push the contents of the bin all to one side and add fresh food, water, dirt, and bedding to the empty space. The worms will slowly migrate over on their own. This requires much more patience, of course.
 * 15) *The last technique is to use a separator.
 * 16) **Barrel separators are expensive and available on the internet.
 * 17) **You can also make your own shaker box.
 * 18)  [[Image:First harvest, 16.3 lbs 5975.jpg|thumb|The result.]]Apply the harvested compost to plants, or use it to make worm castings tea.

Tips

 * [[Image:3 bin worm composter 6159.jpg|thumb|Multiple worm bins, stacked.]]If you have two bins, it can be a bit easier to get at your compost. Fill one bin and start the next. When you want to get at the compost, move the uncomposted matter from bin one to bin two and use all the finished compost. Bin two, the now-active bin, becomes full and then bin one becomes the active bin again.
 * [[Image:Hatched 5804.jpg|thumb|Worm food.]] Egg shells in your bin increase the calcium content of the compost you produce. Worms also seem to like to curl up in them.  To be most effective, eggshells must be dried out and finely ground (with a mortar and pestle or a rolling pin) before their addition to a bin.  Use raw eggshells, not cooked.
 * [[Image:Tea for two 1457.jpg|thumb|More worm food.]] You can throw your coffee grounds, unbleached filters, and used teabags (remember to remove the staple!) right in the bin.
 * The smaller you chop up/crush the food, the faster the worms will eat it. (And the faster your bin will produce compost.)  Although some home-scale worm keepers use blenders to puree food scraps, others believe vermiculture should be a low-carbon-footprint endeavor and thus use little or no electricity.
 * [[Image:Bricks and light 9133.jpg|thumb|Bricks and a tray. The lamp is to encourage worms to burrow deeper.]]If you would like to collect the water (liquid fertilizer) produced by watering your worms, place a tray under the compost bin. Otherwise, the ground under the bin will become terrifically fertile.  An elevated bin (either on bricks, or a bin with built-in legs) sitting in a tray of water will also prevent ants and other unwanted critters from getting into the bin.
 * Remember that a worm bin is a tiny ecosystem. Don't attempt to remove the other critters living in your worm bin, they are helpers.  However, do remove centipedes: Centipedes are carnivores, and eat baby worms and worm eggs.
 * Shredded paper junk mail, egg cartons, cereal boxes, and pizza boxes all make excellent bedding (avoid glossy paper). Always soak household paper waste bedding for at least 12 hours before adding it to the bin, and thoroughly squeeze out the water first.  Don't shred junk mail envelopes unless you remove the plastic windows!  Worms won't eat plastic, and picking hundreds of shredded plastic window panes out of otherwise beautiful compost is a vermiculturist's nightmare.
 * Pre-composted cow manure is a great food for worms. Just be sure to bury it at least 3 inches deep.  Rabbit, sheep, and goat droppings do not require pre-composting and their addition makes outstanding vermicompost.
 * Green food increases nitrogen in your finished compost. Examples are: green grass, beet tops, carrot tops, philodendron leaves, fresh cut clover or alfalfa.
 * Brown food increases carbon and phosphate in your finished product. Examples are: paper, cardboard, wood chips, leaves, bread.  If adding fresh lawn grass, be certain chemicals have not been added to the lawn.  Lawn chemicals are deadly to the ecosystem in the bin.
 * [[Image:Worm bin feeding time 6782.jpg|thumb|Feeding time.]]A balanced diet makes for a healthy bin, healthy worms and a great finished product.
 * Finely ground and moistened grains (flour, oatmeal, etc.) are eaten the fastest, followed by fruits, grass, leaves, cardboard, paperboard (cereal boxes), white paper, cotton products, and magazines (slick paper). Wood takes the longest (up to a year or more).
 * Calcium carbonate works well to solve most problems. Be sure to use calcium carbonate (e.g., powdered limestone) and not quicklime (calcium oxide).

Warnings

 * Do not feed your worms meat, dairy products, eggs, or oily foods.
 * Go easy on the citrus rinds. You can add them, but remember that they're acidic. If possible, a little at a time with plenty of other matter.
 * Don't allow your bin to dry out. If there are enough holes at the bottom, your worms are not likely to drown, but they will die without water.
 * Some varieties of worms may be sensitive to the oils or pH of your skin. Internet forum posts by active vermicomposters indicate that handling their worms seems to not yield any negative effects.
 * Extremes of temperatures are deadly for worms- about 50 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal. Don't place a worm bin in direct sunlight or out in the cold.  Sustained frosts will kill your worms.  If this is an issue in your area, move outdoor bins into a garage or shed during winter.  If bringing your worm bin indoors during the winter is not possible add a small heating pad as follows: push the matter away from one side, place the pad up against that side, then backfill onto the pad. Run the wire out to an extension, plug it in and leave the pad set on low - or medium in particularly cold weather.  This will prevent freezing in winter.
 * Don't allow your worm bin to heat up past 90 degrees. You will cook your worms -- something no one should smell.
 * Large amounts of green feeds (grass, alfalfa, etc.) heat up quickly and should be added lightly.
 * Fresh (uncomposted) cow manure contains harmful pathogens and should not be used. It will also heat the bin to deadly levels and kill your worms.
 * Powdered limestone will create carbon dioxide in your bins and suffocate your worms if the bins are not well ventilated. Use sparingly only if absolutely necessary and stir your bin every few days following adding.

Related Tips and Steps

 * How to Build a Compost Bin
 * How to Use Your Home Built Tumble Composter to Create Rich Compost
 * How to Build a Tumbling Composter
 * How to Find Inexpensive Mulch
 * How to Look After Houseplants
 * How to Create Urban Rainforests
 * How to Make Worm Castings Tea