Worm Update!

Welcome to my Worm Update, a follow-up to Vermicomposting, Part I!

Unfortunately, despite my best efforts to take care of my new little friends, they kept on trying to escape.


For days, I tried adjusting numerous factors including:

• The amount of food
• The amount of bedding
• The humidity
  

I even made an emergency run one night to get more newspaper to add to my bedding.

But no matter what I did, my adjustments somehow did not click, and my worms were everywhere.

Sadly, I wasn't able to figure out what I was doing wrong; and eventually, many of my worms reached the end of their days on my floor, while the remaining worms in the worm bin dried up from dehydration because I had decreased the moisture too much. (As I mentioned in my vermicomposting post, the bedding needs to start off moist because worms breathe through their skin).

At the time, I was really upset about my failed attempt at vermicomposting, especially because of my past gardening and farming experiences, and I have done outdoor composting in the past without a problem!

But I have accepted the fact that vermicomposting is not for me, at least for the time being. I would love to have a second try at vermicomposting. But, I have also come to the realization that, at the moment, my small apartment does not have the capacity to keep such a large vermicomposting bin.

So, I have donated my worm bin to the greenhouse of BU's wonderful Organic Gardening Collective (O.G.C.).


Luckily, Lisa Gross from The Urban Homesteaders' League also gave me some extra worms, and I was happy to drop them off at the greenhouse as well.

What a serious looking composter.

Although I am a bit disappointed to not vermicompost myself, I know that I can always vermicompost at the O.G.C., compost at my friends' outdoor composting bins, and compost at the Whole Foods on Prospect St. in Cambridge. In addition, next year I will be living in a house, and we plan to have an outdoor composting bin there. For those of you who have a backyard, outdoor composting bins are subsidized by many towns, such as in Boston, Cambridge, and Brookline!

Even though I will no longer be vermicomposting in my apartment, vermicomposting may still be for you! Often you can remedy the second time around what you did wrong the first time. And the third time is always a charm! Tip: the holes that you drill in your worm bin should be smaller than your worms so that they can't escape. (This should have been the case for me, but clearly something went wrong).

Ask Ryan, who taught The Urban Homesteaders' League's workshop on Vermicomposting, your indoor composting questions at compostboy[at]yahoo.com. Or if you purchase the book Worms Eat My Garbage, 100+ pages of vermicomposting knowledge will be yours.

More reasons to vermicompost - did you know that:
In 2008, Americans generated 250 million tons of trash. (source: EPA's 2008 MSW Facts and Figures). Of this,

• ~12.7 % is made of food scraps
• 800 thousands of tons of food scraps were recovered (or composted) in municipal solid waste
  
• 30,990 thousands of tons of food scraps were discarded in the municipal waste stream, and this number has been on the rise since 1960. (Source: EPA's MSW Data Tables 2008).
• Aka, ~97.5% of disposed food waste was sent to landfills in 2008

So if you haven't started yet, let's reduce our waste and compost!

Vermicomposting, Part I

A few weeks ago I had the chance to attend the Urban Homesteaders' League's Vermicomposting Extravaganza workshop with Ryan Gray. And last Saturday, I finally received my worms! Before the workshop I didn't realize how easy and simple vermicomposting actually is, and I am very excited to start!

Vermicomposting is a method using earthworms to turn food/organic waste into nutrient-rich compost. Vermicompost contains worm castings, bedding materials, and organic wastes at various stages of decomposition, and contains worms at various stages of development and other microorganisms associated with the composting process (2). Worm castings, or worm poop, is the end product formed after the earthworms break down organic materials. Worm castings contains many beneficial microbes and nutrients and is a very nutrient-rich plant fertilizer (2).
Vermicomposting is perfect for those living in urban areas. And if you are composting correctly, the compost bin shouldn't even smell at all!

What do you need to begin vermicomposting?

• A container with a lid
• Bedding material, such as shredded newspaper. Ink should be soy-based!
• Moisture (ex. water in a spray bottle)
• Redworms aka red wigglers or Eisenia fetida (Get them from a friend, or order them online, such as from WormWoman).

Shredding the newspaper

Photo courtesy of Lisa Gross

Directions

• Drill ventilation holes around the top sides of the bin and on the lid. (The worms need oxygen to breathe. And drill small holes so your worms don't escape!)

Drilling the ventilation holes
Photo courtesy of Lisa Gross

It's all about teamwork
Photo courtesy of Lisa Gross

• Completely FILL your bin with bedding, such as shredded newspaper. Ryan recommends to shred the newspaper thin, around ¼ to ½ inch thick.
• Worms breathe through their skin, so the bedding needs to be moist. Spray the newspaper so that it's "fluffy and damp," but not soaking. You don't want your worms to drown!

• Add the redworms and some food scraps to the bottom of your bin and let them get to work!
• Be careful about OVERFEEDING your worms. You want to avoid the odors of rotting food, and you want to give the worms enough room to move around as they get adjusted in their new home!
• Once your worms begin reproducing and become assimilated to their environment, you can begin feeding them more. Have excess food scraps? Refrigerate or freeze them for later!
• You can add more bedding if it gets low, and be cautious that the bin doesn't become too moist.
• Every few months, harvest your fertilizer! One easy way to do this is to put food scraps on one side of your bin to attract the majority of your worms (or you can also do this on the ground on top of some spread out newspaper/plastic). Once you've gathered /separated your compost and picked out any extra worms hiding inside, add some new bedding to your bin and you can begin the process all over again!

Sources: Ryan, myself, here, and here

A Word About Temperature:

• Redworms are happiest at ~60-75 degrees F, but they can survive at temperatures of 50-80 degrees F.

DO compost

• Raw vegetable products
• PLAIN, cooked vegetable products (no oil added, etc.)
• Eggshells (it's recommend to rinse them first)
• Cereals and oatmeal
• Coffee grounds
• Tea bags
• Beans
• Newspaper (with soy-based ink!)

DON'T compost

• Meat, chicken, dairy, or fish products
• Oily/greasy foods

BE CAUTIOUS with:

• Non-citrus fruits (they are completely compostable, but they may smell more and attract more flies)
• Citrus fruits- at a minimum, or just avoid them!
• Bread- at a minimum

Tip

• The smaller the food scraps/the larger the surface area of your food, the easier it will be for the worms to break it down! They "lick" rather than chew.

Some of Ryan's Recommended Sources:

• An indispensable book: Worms Eat My Garbage by Mary Appelhof
• Worms as Recyclers
• Wormpoop.com
• Brochure: Here's the Dirt: Worm Composting
• Once you've got your bin going, join your fellow vermicomposters here!

-Fun fact: Worms eat over half their body weight in organic matter a day.

What to do with your food scraps that aren't good for your redworms, or what to do if you aren't up for vermicomposting just yet?

• Whole Foods on Prospect St. in Cambridge accepts compost in their public recycling center at the back of their parking lot!

Vermicomposting is a wonderful way to recycle your food and to create some very healthy and nutrient-rich soil!

Have questions for Ryan about vermicomposting? Contact him at compostboy[at]yahoo.com.

Thanks to Ryan for a great workshop, great information, and for breaking down vermicomposting into a simple and easy process. Thanks to Erik Zornik as well, who also provided some great tips. And of course, thanks to the Urban Homesteaders' League for hosting this workshop. Look forward to an upcoming blog post on Worm Updates in the next few weeks!