Sustaining a Worm Bin
To achieve healthy, organic soil (a.k.a. Black Gold) from worm composting, gardeners and gardenistas have to keep their worms happy and alive. This sounds simple, but worms can be quite particular and Florida’s climate can create issues for worm composting bins. In this post, I will share how to produce Black Gold in three months by sustaining your worm compost bin with ideal temperatures, moisture, lighting, and food.
It’s Getting Hot in Here (que Nelly Song)
Red wigglers, which are your ideal worm buddies for composting, need to live in conditions between 40 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. In my experience, this can be the number one reason Worm Compost projects in Florida aren’t successful. Florida is typically warm, some call it hot, nine months out of the year. Many homeowners assume a spot in the shade will be sufficient for their bin, but a temperature controlled area that is continuously kept within the ideal temperature range is best for worms. You don’t want to cook your worms before you even get started.
Light
The ideal worm bin is made of dark so no light filters through and has a lid. (Refer to my previous post DIY Worm Compost Bin to discover how to build your own on a shoestring budget.) Keep your worm bin in a dark environment with a lid. Most worms will burrow in the top six inches of soil because they prefer darker conditions.
Moisture
Worms need water, but don’t need to be swimming. The bedding and overall consistency for a worm bin should be damp, like a wrung out sponge, but not dripping or soaking wet. Worms actually breathe through their skin - interesting, huh? So, if the worms are in super wet conditions, they will drown. Yikes!!
Air Flow
Any type of compost project needs air to effectively decompose, but oxygen is especially important for the vitality of worms in composting bins. This is why if creating your own bin, air holes are an essential step in the building process. First, worms need oxygen to breathe. When worms breathe, they generate carbon dioxide. If there is too much build up of carbon dioxide within the compost bin, it will deprive worms of oxygen.
Did you know worms don’t actually eat your food or yard scraps? Nope. Worms survive off the microbes from the decomposition of the kitchen or garden waste.
Noise & Vibration
Worms are not a fan of parties. They don’t like loud noises or vibrations. The top of the dryer in your laundry room is not a good spot to keep your worm compost bin. Worms prefer to live in dark, quiet spots.
What to Feed & What not to Feed
Nitrogen is an essential food element for worms. Think of this as the “green” for the compost bin. I bring chemistry up because worm food doesn’t exactly have to be food, because worms technically don’t eat your food. Worms eat the microbes produced by the decaying scraps of kitchen or yard waste.
If you’ve done any type of internet research about worm composting, there is a lot of mixed advice about what is ideal to feed the worms. From my experience, adding the wrong kitchen scraps can cause the bin to become smelly, attract pests, or even start growing unwanted sprouts or mold.
Below is a short list of ideal worm foods:
Vegetables (without seeds)
Fruits (without seeds)
Oatmeal
Grits
Coffee grounds
Grass clippings
Green or brown leaves
Deadheaded/pruned flowers
Peat moss
Coconut coir
Below is a list of foods to avoid adding:
Meat
Fish
Milk products
Onion
Shallots
Garlic
Greasy or oily foods
As with any new hobby or project, mistakes can happen. It’s common to experience smells with your worm compost bin. If you start experiencing smells, seeing pests or random sprouts, one or more of the conditions covered above is not right. To troubleshoot, start by addressing one at a time so you know what to do, or how to maintain the bin differently in the future.
If your worms are happy, they will repopulate. With the best conditions, worms can double their population within 90 days. If gardeners and gardenistas sustain their worm composting bins using best practices, they will get twice as many worms to make more rich, organic Black Gold that will pump up any garden.