Peasant Fare

What is Worm Bin Starter?

Worm Bin Starter is taken straight from a working worm bin and includes adult worms, baby worms, eggs, worm castings, and compost. It is a complete, functioning worm colony in miniature. Empty the contents gently into one corner of a new bin full of damp, fresh bedding. The worms will reproduce and migrate into the rest of the bin.

Bury kitchen scraps in the fresh bedding a little at a time. When the entire bin looks like moist, dark earth, it is time to harvest the worm compost and use it in your garden. This can take several months. A large bin may be harvested two or three times a year.

The more Starter you start with, the more quickly your bin will get up to speed.


Where do I get a worm bin?

There are a lot of plans on the internet for worm bins. The easiest and cheapest thing to do is to buy a ten- to eighteen-gallon opaque plastic bin and cut a few holes in the bottom, sides, and top for drainage and ventilation. Set the bin in a tray of dry sawdust to absorb the water that drains out.

Find a good bedding material.

My favorite bedding is sawdust from a lumber yard. It’s often free, stays fluffy, and dampens odor very well. (No plywood or treated lumber.) Chopped leaves, straw and hay also make excellent bedding. Straw decomposes quickly and doesn’t mat down. Some people use nothing but shredded oak leaves. I like to start with sawdust, then add a few handfuls of straw and some partially rotted leaves.

Cardboard and newspaper are handy and plentiful, but need to be shredded. Any kind of shredded paper will work (except glossy, coated stock). But I prefer to mix paper with other, fluffier material, because it’s important to have some air in the bin.

The bedding needs to be quite damp. Don’t let it dry out. If you have holes in the bottom of the bin for drainage, you won’t have to worry about it being too wet.

To begin, fill your container with bedding that has been thoroughly soaked and drained. Then mix about a cup of cornmeal, a quarter-cup of sugar, and some coffee grounds into a quart of warm water, and mix that into the bedding. This step is optional, especially if you’re using Worm Bin Starter rather than mail-order worms, but it will jump-start the kind of microbial life that the worms like to eat.

Then, gently empty the Worm Bin Starter into one corner of the bin. Don’t mix or stir the Starter into the bedding. The worms will continue to live happily in the Starter and will venture into the fresh bedding when they are ready. (They will also be healthier and reproduce better if you leave them alone.)

Bury kitchen waste in the bin a little bit at a time. It will probably take a couple of months for your worm population to expand to the point that it can keep up with daily additions of food scraps. The more Worm Bin Starter you start out with, the faster the process.

Where should I keep my worms?

I have kept worm bins under the kitchen sink, and it can be done, but if you have an outdoor space or garage, you’ll probably be happier. All kinds of tiny critters will end up living in there, and some people get fruit flies. Keep the bin covered and the waste buried, and keep the bin in a sheltered space outside of your living quarters.

The best temperature is around 70 degrees, 50 to 85 or so is acceptable, and even if the bin freezes solid, the eggs will probably hatch when it gets warmer. (I’ve had this happen to bins that wintered outside.) I’ve had good winter production in an unheated greenhouse. As long as the bin gets warm enough during the day to support microbial life, the worms will tolerate colder temperatures at night.

If you really want a worm bin and have only an apartment kitchen to keep them in, email me at peasantfare@gmail.com. It can be done.

Quick Do’s and Don’ts

Don’t overfeed the worms. Most people do. Be patient and let them catch up.
Don’t add worms to a compost tumbler. (I can’t believe people do this, but they do.)
Don’t try to get the worm bin to heat up by mixing “browns” and “greens”. Worm bins work by a different principle.
Don’t let the bin dry out.
Don’t allow water to stand in the bottom of the bin. It needs to drain.
Don’t let the bin sit in the sun.

Troubleshooting

Worms like to live in the dark and will not try to escape the bin under normal conditions. If a few worms crawl up to the sides of the bin, no big deal. If they’re all trying to get out, something is wrong. Best first aid is usually to make sure the bin is draining, add fresh damp bedding to the top of the bin, and stop feeding them for a week or two.