Worm Composting

With the latest cold snap over the past several weeks many have asked for ideas on keeping their worm bin or worm farm warm. There are a number of ways to assist in accomplishing this depending on your individual situation.

Of course the most obvious is to try and relocate your worm bin if possible. If your home is a little cool, and your worm bin is inside, try locating it by a heat vent. Do not block off the heating vent but rather enable the worm bin to absorb some of the heat when the heater is running.

Be sure your worm bin is not sitting on the cold floor nor on anything that is a good conductor of the cold if on a cold floor. A good trick is to either use a couple small Tupperware type containers on the four corners of the bin or old egg cartons to support the worm bin.

If your worm bin is in a garage or basement which stays a little cool, you can first try to build a worm bin heater which I have previously posted. You can find the post here.

Another way to help keep your worms warm is to add more green products such as your vegetable scraps which will produce heat as they decompose. Now I need to add a word of caution here as if you add to much, the acidic levels will increase for one as well as you may end up heating the worm farm too much, hence cooking your worms.

The best way to accomplish heating your worm bin this way is to dig out a trench on one side of your bin. I would not take up more than ¼ of the worm bin for the trench in case something goes wrong, the worms will still have plenty of room to be comfortable in.

Add some layers in here starting with some shredded newspaper and or cardboard so as to absorb some of the liquid which may form from decomposing scraps as you will be adding extra here.

Next add a layer of vegetable scraps. Follow this up with a layer of shredded newspaper and cardboard as well as some spent coffee grinds if you wish. Follow up by sprinkling some finely crushed eggshells.

You can repeat these steps until the trench is about level with the surrounding bedding. Top off with some damp shredded newspaper and cardboard and keep it damp to help eliminate any odor that may try to escape from the decomposing scraps. Once the food begins to break down, the worms should begin to move into this area to keep warmer.

A few tips to speed up the heating process are to first use a blender or other machine to pulverize your vegetable scraps. This helps to speed up the decomposition process as the scraps can decompose faster as well as give more surface area for microorganisms to attach too.

A second tip is to freeze your food scraps and thaw out prior to adding to your worm bin. Be sure the thawed scraps are also at room temperature before adding. The freezing helps to modify the molecular structure enabling the decomposition to have a head start as well as break down faster.

By chance if the acid levels begin to increase in your worm bin, the fastest way to help neutralize it is to use some hardwood ashes or even charcoal ashes from the grill. Use moderately as a little goes a long way.

Good luck in your worm farming adventures,

Bruce

P.S. Be sure to sign up for your free issues of the Worm Composting Newsletter.

I have received a number of emails asking why I state the African nightcrawlers must be raised in temperatures of 70 degrees to 85 degrees Fahrenheit when other sites state that they can live in temperatures of 60 degrees, some 45 degrees and others state they can survive freezing temperatures during the overnight hours.

Let me begin that many websites offering information, not just African nightcrawlers but other worms as well, do not even raise worms. Rather, they simply use a drop ship company or companies to fill and ship all of their customer orders. That being said, I personally raise red wigglers, African nightcrawlers, European nightcrawlers, Alabama Jumpers and Mealworms. I also have two dogs

Why would some websites state that you can raise African nightcrawlers in colder temperatures? Your guess is as good as mine however many probably due to lack of knowledge and experience. I have seen a number of websites which have literally copied and pasted, word for word from other websites.

Rather than me simply restating what I have before, which is in direct conflict with some other websites, I figured I would prove it to you so as there would be no question in your mind. I decided to run an experiment which by the way I had informed a friend would only last 24 hours due to my experience in raising worms. After all, as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Now before I proceed, let me inform you that the last picture is kind of graphic which may not be suitable for some…

That being said, I decided to use a refrigerator which I store mealworms prior to shipping which is set at a constant 48 degrees Fahrenheit. Now mind you, I only used four good and healthy 6 – 8 inch African nightcrawler worms since I did not wish to waste a bunch, which by the way I hated to part with

You can see the four worms in the bait cup, which I then placed some castings which were straight from the original bin I had pulled the four worms from. You will notice the worms look in great shape. I proceeded to place the African nightcrawlers into the refrigerator at 7:48pm January 1, 2010.

Now for any skeptics out there, I used my automotive multimeter which also has a built in thermometer that I now use full time on my worm bins as it is easy to read the temperature especially when your eyes begin to deteriorate as mine have. As you can see when I placed the sensor on the end of the wire inside the refrigerator with the door shut, the reading was at 48 degrees Fahrenheit.

I checked on the worms 12 hours later and they were already just about dead as they had begun to discolor turning a pale white towards the tail ends. Basically the circulation to the tail end of the worms has either stopped or slowed considerably. Mind you twelve hours is basically the time for an overnight temperature. At this point, even if the temperatures had risen up to the eighties, these four worms would not have made it as they were already too far gone.

I did not get a picture of this stage as I found out the batteries in the camera had run too low, hence I placed them on the charger.

I had some running to do this evening, January 2, 2010, hence I checked on the worms a little later than I had anticipated. I pulled the worms out of the refrigerator at 8:29pm just about 24 hours and 49 minutes since the experiment had begun.

As you can see from the picture below, the African nightcrawlers are dead. The pale white color has spread throughout their bodies while a bulging red color separates the paler areas. These worms are not only dead but have been for a while since they are now beginning to decompose.

One major item to notice is the fact that all four worms are the same. In other words, the temperature did not affect 25% or 50% but rather 100% of the worms!

Even if you tried to raise African nightcrawlers at 60 degrees Fahrenheit they would die, most likely surviving up to a week before keeling over, however the end result would be the same.

This is mainly why I state the African nightcrawler needs 70 degrees minimum. In fact, this is the low end of the spectrum. If you really want your Africana nightcrawlers become active and prolific, get the internal worm bin temperature up to 80 – 85 degrees Fahrenheit, which is what they prefer!

I hope this helps to clarify first the temperature range by which you want to raise your African nightcrawlers and secondly that I will not throw you a bunch of misinformation, but rather facts from my years of experience in raising worms.

Now go and tuck your worms in for the night to keep them warm

Bruce

I get asked many times a month, how much food I should feed my red wiggler worms as well as African and European nightcrawlers. There are many variables which come into play, hence each environment is different.

For example, if your worm bin internal temperature is at 60 degrees Fahrenheit your worms will be less active, hence eating less food. This is also a reason I do not recommend refrigerating red wiggler worms, African nightcrawlers, European nightcrawlers or Alabama Jumpers. As they become less active and eat less they begin to get thinner and leaner, which is not what fishermen and women want.

Moisture and pH levels will also affect your worms and how much they will eat.

Red wigglers can eat half their body weight per day in decomposed food scraps, shredded paper products… under the correct conditions. So one pound of red wiggler composting worms can eat half a pound of food a day under ideal conditions in a homeowner style worm bin. In a larger style bin, 32 square foot continuous flow system for instance, under ideal conditions; red wigglers have been known to consume more food per day.

Now your African nightcrawlers and Alabama Jumpers are probably your most ferocious eaters. The ones on our farm indoors are fed daily under ideal conditions. Now I do not feed these guys food scraps but have shifted to Purina Worm Chow as their main diet. I do not have to run out constantly to pick up scraps and manure from local vendors some of which is smells pretty bad. African nightcrawlers are not as big a composting worm as the red wiggler on food scraps; however are excellent manure worm. I do not recommend chicken manure, however rabbit manure is superb as it does not require the process of heating. Horse or cow manure is also excellent however be sure the manure has been heated prior and that the animals have not been on de-wormer.

Now grain mix differs from food scraps as you do not want to feed your worms ½ a pound of Worm Chow per one pound of worms. You simply sprinkle on the surface area and do not mix in or the bin will become sour and begin to kill off your worms. Not only do the African nightcrawlers devour the chow, but damp shredded newspaper which we keep on the surface area and replace as needed. This ends up turning into the dark, rich worm castings known as “Black Gold”.

European nightcrawlers one of the favorite worms by those that fish, are also another good manure worm and are not as great on food scraps as the red wiggler. They also do not have the ferocious appetite as the African nightcrawler. I feed them with the grain mix by Purina, however anywhere from once every day or two while maintaining less feed in each bin compared to the African nightcrawler. The European nightcrawler bin is probably the easiest to sour by adding too much food. Do not expect these worms to eat as much, however they are extremely prolific and do produce a nice worm castings.

This should give you a good basis as where to begin feeding your worms, however keep in mind the conditions of your worm bin due play a large role in how much to feed your worms.

pH plays an important role in many things in life from milk, brewing beer to gardening and swimming pools. The pH scale is actually the measurement of hydrogen ions concentration. The more hydrogen ions, the more acidic a material is.

Understanding the pH Scale:

pH reading of 7 is neutral and is in the middle of the scale of 0 to 14.

Anything from 0 to 6 would be low, however is actually high in acid. OK, don’t ask me to make sense out of this, as I did not create the scale

Anything from 8 through 14 on the pH scale is high as the alkaline level is high!

Confused yet???

Just remember, 0 – 6, acidic = low, 8 – 14, alkaline = high, while 7 is neutral

Many people assume the pH meter is linear such as a thermometer, hence they believe a pH level of 6 is very close to a pH level of 7. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The pH scale is logarithmic. Without all the mathematical explanations and simply put, a soil with a pH level of 6 is ten times more acidic than a pH level of 7.

For your worm bin the ideal pH level is 6.5 and can vary slightly, more towards the neutral zone of 7.

To raise the pH, being it is too acidic, 0 – 6, you can use agricultural lime or other alkaline material; however this takes a bit of time to level the pH. Another trick is to use hardwood ash. Since this is powdery, it acts very quickly, however a little goes a long way so do not over mix!

In order to lower your pH level, 8 – 14, in your worm bin, you will need to add acid based material. You can add peat moss, hardwood sawdust or some fresh spent coffee grounds.

To maintain a neutral pH balance in your worm bin, finely crushed eggshells will do the trick as well as keep expenses down.

Reducing the Acidic Level of Peat Moss:

Soaking peat moss will NOT reduce the acidic level as many websites offering worms would have you believe. If we could balance the pH simply by adding water we would all have perfectly balanced pH flower beds, gardens and yards after watering  ;-)

Peat moss by itself is acidic as low as 3.0 on the pH scale and should be neutralized prior to adding to a worm bin. The way to reduce the acid level in peat moss is to apply one of the above mentioned, preferably hardwood ash as it is quick acting. The best method is to add a little in with the dry peat moss and mix thoroughly prior to adding water for soaking. Turn the soaking peat moss a couple times a day to insure that the alkaline material used is dispersed evenly.

Why Peat Moss Needs to Be Soaked For 48 Hours:

Soaking peat moss for 48 hours is required due to the nature of the peat moss. It acts as a sponge in slow motion, some fibers absorbing the water quicker than other fibers. If you soak for less than the 48 hour recommended time period, your bedding will begin to dry out rapidly and be difficult to moisten to the correct level of 70% to 75% moisture content.

This will occur as the result of not all the peat moss having time to absorb moisture, hence sharing the existing moisture throughout. The dry peat moss fibers will absorb some of the moisture from the wet peat moss fibers hence drying out the wet fibers, eventually leaving all fibers shy of the correct moisture content.

Well there you have it, a short lesson in pH levels as well as why you need to soak peat moss prior to adding to your worm bin!

Good Luck in Your Vermiculture Adventures

Bruce Galle

Lately I have received numerous emails where folks have had worms trying to escape from their worm bins; hence I decided to give some assistance to prevent these little Houdini’s from escaping

The first thing is to check a few things such as temperature, pH and moisture levels of your worm bin. If any or a combination of the previously listed are off, your worms maybe trying to get out of unfavorable conditions, in search of greener pastures. If this is true, you will want to rectify the problem so as not to end up killing off your worms.

Temperature plays a vital role not just in keeping your worms happy and the rate at which your food scraps will begin to breakdown permitting growth of beneficial microbes for your worms. An ideal temperature is 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit inside the bedding material of your worm bin.  If you add to many green products to your worm bin, raising the pH level, the temperature will also increase, heating the bin, potentially to high.

If your pH is off, usually the result of being too acidic, eliminate adding anymore green scraps to your worm bin for a while until you rectify to an acceptable pH level of 6 to 7. You could add some agricultural lime or crushed egg shells to assist in lowering and maintaining proper pH levels. Also add more brown products for a while such as shredded newspapers and cardboard.

Moisture levels are a common issue as the food scraps added to the worm bin release additional moisture as they decompose. This is especially true for certain fruits and vegetables such as cucumbers, melons… This is probably one of the most common reasons I hear from people having an issue with worms trying to escape. Moisture levels should be approximately 70% to 75%, no matter which type of worm you are raising, red wigglers, African nightcrawlers or European nightcrawlers.

To begin drying the worm bin and to assist in keeping your worms from escaping, add some shredded newspaper to the top few inches of your worm bin. Worms prefer not to crawl through dry newspaper; hence usually this will keep many of them below the dry paper.

Another trick is to leave the lid off in a room where you can leave the light on. This serves a dual purpose. The first permits more ventilation, hence allowing your worm bin to dry out faster. Secondly, the light helps to keep the worms from poking their heads out as light disturbs them, hence keeping them down inside the bedding.

The last trick I have been meaning to post, something I tried a while back with effectiveness, is to build a flap under the lid of your worm bin.

Basically you need strips of newspaper approximately 6 inches wide. Next crease the strips in lengthwise so as the 6 inch strips now or folded in half, 3 inches wide as in the photographs below.

Tear off a few smaller pieces to cover your four corners. Then use longer strips for the remaining four sides of your worm bin.

Carefully place your worm bin lid on top and snap down into place.

Be sure to check daily for worms stuck up on the underside of the newspaper that are trying to escape. Simply place them back on the top of the bedding in the center of the worm bin.

If your worm bin is to moist or in the event numerous worms get caught up on the underside of the newspaper, replace the flapped newspaper when it becomes to damp, as it will lay down on the side of your worm bin, allowing worms to crawl out again.

Good luck in your vermiculture adventures,

Bruce Galle