This is a very effective way
to process food scraps without composting directly. Certainly suitable for the household that
produces a modest amount of organic waste.
Well managed and it is also odor free.
Sensibly toss some dirt on any fresh load of waste and it is good to
go. Then once in a long while toss it
over to mix up. Made easy, it will stay
easy.
And as posted, the end
product is a supply of worm castings ready to blend into a new soil base.
In other words this is an
excellent additional to the tool kit of any home gardener who maintains a
number of potted plants.
Vermiculture: How To Build A Worm
Bin the Cheap and Easy Way
25th July 2013
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about using worms to create compost. The
official term for this is “Vermicomposting” and the great thing about it is
that it is clean and tidy and does not take up a lot of space. For folks that
have small yards or live in apartments, this is ideal. Plus, if need be,
vermicomposting can even be done indoors. Imagine composting in on your porch,
a deck or even in your laundry room!
Now that I have you excited about composting
with worms – and specifically red worms – I would like to provide you with
instructions for building the cheapest worm bin imaginable. It is built out of
commonly available supplies and is so easy, even a novice handyman
(handyperson?) can do it.
The Cheap and Easy Worm Bin
Materials:
Here are the materials you will need to build
your worm bin.
* Two
8 to 10 gallon plastic storage bins
* Drill
(with 1/4″ and 1/16″ bits) for making drainage and ventilation holes
* Newspaper
* About one pound
of red wiggler worms
The bins should be opaque and not clear. This
is because worms like to live in the dark and will not thrive if there is any
light coming into their home.
Also, although you could use larger bins, they
will be too doggone heavy to lift once they are full of nicely composted worm
castings. Stick with the smaller 8 to 10 gallon size. These will set you back
about $5 each.
Putting it all together:
1. Drill about twenty evenly spaced 1/4
inch holes in the bottom of each bin. These holes will provide drainage and
allow the worms to crawl into the second bin when you are ready to harvest the
castings.
2. Drill ventilation holes about 1 – 1 ½
inches apart on each side of the bin near the top edge using the 1/16 inch bit.
Also drill about 30 small holes in the top of one of the lids.
Note: You are going to need to build two bins although in
the beginning, only one will be used.
3. Prepare some nice bedding for the
worms by shredding some newspaper into 1 inch strips. Worms need bedding that
is moist but not soggy.
Moisten the newspaper by soaking it in water
and then squeezing out the excess water. Easier still, fill a spray bottle with
water and spritz the shredded newspaper until it is nice and damp. This might
take a while because you will want to fluff it up as you go but it will prevent
the worm bedding from getting too soggy.
4. Cover the bottom of the bin with 3 to
4 inches of the moist newspaper. Continue to fluff it up so that it is nice and
airy. If you have any old leaves or leaf litter, that can be added also. Throw
in a handful of dirt for “grit” to help the worms digest their food.
5. Add your worms to the bedding.
6. Cut a piece of cardboard to fit over
the bedding, and get it wet. Then cover the bedding with the cardboard. Worms
love cardboard and it will break down within months.
7. Place your bin in a well-ventilated
area such as a laundry room, garage, balcony, under the kitchen sink, or
outside in the shade. Place the bin on top of blocks or bricks or upside down
plastic containers to allow for drainage. You can use the lid of the second bin
as a tray to catch any moisture that may drain from the bin. This “worm tea” is
a great liquid fertilizer that can be used right away on your indoor or outdoor
plants.
8. Feed your worms slowly at first. As
the worms multiply, you can begin to add more food. Gently bury the food in a
different section of the bin each week, under the cardboard. The worms will
follow the food scraps around the bin. Burying the food scraps will help to
keep fruit flies away.
The Skinny on Worm Food
What do worms like to
eat? Worms are vegetarians. They like green stuff mostly and absolutely no meat
and no dairy. That means no bones, no grease and no anything with grease.
On the other hand, almost anything else that
would normally go down the garbage disposal can go into your worm bin. Just
don’t be surprised if you notice that some foods will be eaten faster than
others. Worms have their preferences just like we do.
|
Worms LOVE This Stuff
|
Worms HATE This Stuff
|
Worms LIKE brown stuff too!
|
|
Breads & Grains
|
Dairy Products
|
Newspaper
|
|
Cereal
|
Fats
|
Office paper
|
|
Coffee grounds & filters
|
Meats
|
Leaves
|
|
Fruits & vegetables
|
Oils
|
Cardboard
|
|
Tea bags
|
Paper towels
|
|
|
Fruit & veggie peels
|
TP rolls
|
|
|
Rice & Pasta
|
When the Worm Bin is Full
When the first bin is full and there are no
recognizable food scraps left, it is time to split the bin so you can begin the
harvest.
Place new bedding
material in the second bin and place the bin directly on the compost surface of
the first bin. Bury your food scraps to the bedding of the second bin. In one
to two months, most of the worms will have moved to the second bin in search of
food. (Remember those little drill holes we made at the onset?)
Now the first bin will contain (almost) worm
free vermicompost. There may be a few straggler worms left in the first bin.
These can be gently lifted out of the bin and placed in the new bin or you can
simply add them to your garden along with the new compost.
If you don’t care about creating a second
harvest down the road, you can skip the step where you split the bin. The worm
population will adapt to the amount of space and food available and things will
remain stable until you decide to remove the compost and begin the process all
over again.
Troubleshooting
|
Problem
|
Probable Cause
|
Solution
|
|
Worms are dying or trying to escape
|
Too wet
|
Add more bedding
|
|
Too dry
|
Moisten bedding
|
|
|
Bedding is used up
|
Harvest your bin
|
|
|
Bin stinks!
|
Not enough air
|
Drill more ventilation holes
|
|
Too much food
|
Do not feed for 1-2 weeks
|
|
|
Too wet
|
Add more bedding
|
|
|
Fruit Flies
|
Exposed food
|
Bury food in bedding
|
A Note About the Worms
Here in the Pacific Northwest, you can gather
your own red worms. All you need to do is to put out a large piece of wet
cardboard on your lawn or garden at night. The red worms live in the top 3
inches of organic material and like to come up and feast on the wet cardboard. In
the morning, lift up cardboard to gather your red worms.
Elsewhere, or if you don’t have a lawn or
suitable garden, you can purchase worms. Be sure to ask for “red wigglers”.
According to Chris
Benedict, a Regional Extension Specialist at Washington
State University, an earthworm can consume about 1/2 of its
weight each day. He says, for example:
If your food waste
averages 1/2 pound per day, you will need 1 pound of worms or a 2:1 ratio.
There are roughly 500 worms in one pound. If you start out with less than one
pound, don’t worry they multiply very quickly. Just adjust the amount that you
feed them in accordance with the size of your worm population.
The Final Word
Imagine how easy it would be to create organic
compost for your garden without having to trek to an obscure corner of your
backyard in order to carry your food scraps to the compost bin. Instead, why
not let red worms eat your food wastes? In a matter of months and not
years, you will end up with one of the best soil amendments out there, namely
worm castings.
My thanks to Chris
Benedict who provided inspiration and gave me permission to use his ideas and
his photos in this article. In addition, he has provided this link for building
a more advanced, wooden worm bin: Build a Worm Compost Bin.
If your have not done
so already, read Learn to Love Worms with Vermicomposting.
And after that? My guess is that you will want to go out and get some materials
so that you can build your own worm bin!
Enjoy your next adventure through common sense and thoughtful
preparation!
Gaye
About Gaye Levy
Gaye Levy, also known
as the Survival Woman, grew up and attended
school in the Greater Seattle area. After spending many years as an executive
in the software industry, she started a specialized accounting practice
offering contract CFO work to emerging high tech and service industries. She
has now abandoned city life and has moved to a serenely beautiful rural area on
an island in NW Washington State. She lives and teaches the principles of a
sustainable and self-reliant lifestyle through her website at BackdoorSurvival.com.
At Backdoor Survival, Gaye speaks her mind and
delivers her message of prepping with optimism and grace, regardless of the
uncertain times and mayhem swirling around us.
You can find Gaye
through her website at Backdoor Survival,
on the Backdoor
Survival Page on Facebook, and as Survival Woman on Twitter.
If you have not done so already, please be sure to like Backdoor Survival on Facebook to be updated every time there is an
awesome new article, news byte, or free survival, prepping or homesteading book
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will receive a free, downloadable copy of Gaye’s e-book The Emergency Food Buyer’s Guide.
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