The red wiggler worms are wiggly-knights in shining armor when it comes to their work of creating compost. They work tirelessly to turn all food scraps into rich, black humus for your garden.
Several years ago, when my dad told me that he had taken up worm composting, I was horrified. I didn’t want to look at the worms or take care of them when he was out of town.
Despite their unsavory image, I eventually became fond of worms. I turned to worm composting – or vermicomposting – several years ago. Though I had been an avid gardener for years, hauling garden waste and turning compost piles suddenly became very hard for me.
I needed an easy, affordable, and low-maintenance way to keep composting. In the example of my dad, I discovered that a couple of pounds of wriggling worms could turn kitchen scraps into nutrient – rich compost in about 60 days. There was little or no order, and no heavy lifting. And best of all, his worms made compost in a compact container right in his own home.
I’ve been doing vermicomposting now for 5 years. I get incredible compost in a very short time and it is so simple and easy.
No sorting, mixing, monitoring moisture and carbon/nitrogen ratios. All I do is just feed the worms and watch my food scraps disappear.
So when people ask me now if I have a pet, I’m not really sure what to say. That’s because I’ve got worms living in my basement.
When I first started out, I bought a small plastic tub and drilled holes in it and hot – glued screen pieces down to keep the worms in. The worms in the little bin were great, but couldn’t handle a lot of volume. So I committed to can- o- worms and have never looked back.
The can-o-worms is a tiered vertical system. It has trays that leads to easier worm casting harvesting. And, it fits right in my basement, next to my food shelf.
While I tried to maintain a regular feeding schedule when I started worm composting, I have learned that red wigglers are very adaptable and will eventually eat whatever is available.
But, they have their own preferences too and avoid certain foods for as long as possible.
For the most part, they enjoy the usual trimmings such as apple cores, potato peels, banana peels. But they absolutely HATE onions. If I put an onion in the bin, they will move away from it and eat everything else first.
Yes, an onion will take forever to compost while a strawberry will only last a day or two. My worms like mushy scraps. That’s probably because they have no teeth. Until the scraps start getting broken down by bacteria, the worms can not eat them…even a nice, sweet piece of watermelon rind. And I have noticed that they are eating less when it is cold than when it is warm.
My worms stay in my basement year round. I keep a bucket under my sink to keep my scraps in. I have a coffee can at work to keep the coffee grounds in. They get a mix of coffee grounds and veggie/fruit scraps.
I don’t mix them in. I just put the scraps on top or to one side and then put the coffee grounds on top. My worms have an affection for Coffee grounds and tea. It’s so easy for me to overfeed them with these luxuries. I try not to, though fat worms are good.
By the way, the optimum temperature for worms is 60-80 Fahrenheit. When the temperature is 55 degrees they are still active. When the temperature drops to 50 degrees, they nearly stop eating.
Want to know more?
Do this:
Click on the blog link above to find more posts; And,
If you want to ask a question, click on the contact link above and send me your question. Or,
Post a comment for me to respond to. And,
Follow me and tweet me in the Tweeter and Facebook links up above on the right side.
Yours truly for a great garden with outstanding veggies and flowers.
Polly-organic gardener
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I love my worms, too. And I am generally a bit squeamish with crawly things but worms are great as they do so much good work.
I don’t give my worms onions but also notice that they don’t care much for lots of broccoli. So, they are generally much happier in summer than winter. I keep them outside, too, so they slow down in winter which is when I try to feed them fruit often.
Thanks for this great post. Let’s encourage more worm lovers.