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 How do you know when to turn the bin?
Inevitably someone asks, “How often do you turn your bins?”
And my answer is, “It depends…”
It depends on the bin. The newer the bin the more often, until I get a feel for the bin.
It’s something you figure out depending on what kind of food waste you are feeding your worms. The more moisture you put in the bin the more often you need to turn the bin.
It doesn’t hurt the worms. They appreciate the air.
The older the bin the less “mixing” of the bedding you want to do (the top material with the bottom material).
The closer I get to harvesting I actually take the top portion of the bin out and turn the lower portion without mixing any of the fresh bedding and food stock into the bottom material.
When it’s time to harvest, the bottom material comes out and the top material goes back in the bottom, start adding fresh bedding to build the bin back up a layer at a time. By the time the material reaches the top of the bin, it’s time to harvest again.
This process keeps you intimately involved with every aspect of your worm bin. I’ve been known to turn the bin as often as once a week.
Christy
Handle your organic waste the way Nature intended.
http://www.vermiculturenorthwest.com/
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 You got a stink, you got a problem! In the world of composting, there is more than one flavor of stink. When you get the chance to smell them you will never forget and will be able to indentify them immediately, without a doubt.
First, there is the inevitable stink of rotting food.
Second, you have the smell of anaerobic bacteria.
Both smells develop because of the lack of oxygen. If you were to leave your food waste bucket open to the air you would not have the stink associated with rotting food (except at the lower levels where the air can not reach). However, then you would have to contend with the flies, maggots, fruit flies and all the other critters attracted to rotting food.
The stink of anaerobic bacteria is so foul and if present in a worm bin and left unaddressed will kill your worms. If you have this kind of stink you have a problem which needs to be addressed immediately. This is the reason I advocate stirring the bin on a regular basis – to incorporate air to the lower levels and to check the conditions of the lower portions of the bin. Once air is present the anaerobic bacteria cannot survive and will die off.
In all of my bins that I have a catch tray and a spigot, I leave the spigot open at all times. This keeps the liquid from building up in the bottom tray where the conditions can become anaerobic easily. This liquid has a great deal of particulate matter in it which will continue to compost and if there is not enough air will go anaerobic. My liquid drips into big 5 gallon buckets which use to get filtered at least twice. Over the years I have found the balance with my bins and have very little leachate off my bins. It is not a valuable enough product to spend my time on. It gets dumped on the nearest plantings available which just happens to be a Silver Lace Vine covering the south side of my worm shed.
The ideal process for the worm bin is to find the perfect balance of moisture for your worms without any leachate at all. People who worm bin compost looking for the leachate are missing the value of the worm bin which is the castings. The castings are at the bottom of your bin, which is the part that goes anaerobic if your bin is too heavily laden with moisture without the proper ventilation. You risk contaminating your castings. This is a crime!
Christy
Handle your organic waste the way Nature intended.
http://www.vermiculturenorthwest.com/
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 When researching information on worm bin composting, there are several areas where you come across conflicting information. And I don’t mean just deviations of thought, I mean polar opposites!
Usually, and this is when I pay attention, the opposite opinion, as it pertains to the worm bin, comes from someone who has expereinced hands on and is sharing this experience.
Recently I have come across a discussion just like this as it pertains to orange peel.
Those of you who have gone through my worm bin composting e-course know that I advise not overloading your worm bin with citrus peel. A few peels here and there are not detrimental.
Here is a quote that I found quite interesting from one of the groups I am involved in that shares worm bin know how:
Orange peels don’t kill worms directly. The peels are very anti-bacterial–this is one reason they were so prized in the Middle Ages. So, when you put any citrus peels in the bin–whether chopped up or not–they will be killing and repelling the bacteria and micro-organisms.
This is important because those tiny things produce what the worms eat. Worms don’t eat citrus peels as food. Without the micro-organisms (I’m not saying bacteria on purpose as it seems new forms are being discovered monthly), none of the food would get broken down into pieces the worms can consume. [Keep in mind: waste is food]
Adding anything acidic, such as orange peels, will alter the pH or acidity/ alkalinity of the bin. This also has a huge affect on the micro-organisms.
This whole acidity/ alkalinity thing is one major problem with chemical fertilizers–they alter the pH so greatly, the micro-organisms and the worms move out (or die). Then the soil must have increasing amounts of the chemical fertilizer to support plant life, just as a drug addict must have more and more.
And here is where the polar opposite comes in from a fellow worm bin composter and that composter’s personal experience:
My worms tolerate citrus peels very well, and also onion and garlic
waste.
But I don’t put them in very often. Actually daily, I empty orange
peels into one of the worm bins, but I have 9 active bins going, and
each bin gets fed food waste once every 9 or 10 days. The rest of the
bulk food is made up with coffee grounds, aged grass clippings,
zucchini, and right now, or soon to be chopped PUMPKINS.
Afer the orange peels have molded, the worms move right in on them.
So, what does this mean? It has been said that worms do not actually eat the food waste we place into the bin, but the bacteria, fungi, and all the microscopic life that is busy decomposing that food waste.
Citrus decomposes. All organic matter decomposes. Therefore we have to assume that the worms will handle citrus in the worm bin. However, I believe that if too much citrus is added to the worm bin at one time that the conditions in the bin would change and affect your worm population before the citrus got to the point that the worms would consider it food.
Now, I am not a scientist. I am a worm farmer and have been worm bin composting for 11 years. I say in worm bin composting as in all things in life – “All things in moderation.”
Don’t worry about a few orange peels going into the worm bin (the amount will depend on the size of the bin). But if you have family over and decide to do fresh squeezed OJ for breakfast, don’t dump all those orange peels into the worm bin. Make the trip out to the compost pile, or as this person suggests:
The potassium in the orange and other citrus peals is good for rose bushes and bannana trees. I cut them up fine then just throw them on top and they break down into the soil.
Well, that’s it for now. I am going to be putting together a series of posts on “other critters in the worm bin”, (read this as pests), so stay tuned.
Christy
Handle your organic waste the way Nature intended.
http://www.vermiculturenorthwest.com/
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A new subscriber has recently moved to Peru, where they grow sugarcane. Here is his story…
I’m from California and have moved to Patapo Peru. I’ve acquired a ranch/farm out in the country. The area is full of little subsistence farms and very tired soil. I have plenty of water though. And yes, the now “gringoized” (as in an indoor bathroom) adobe is cool and comfortable. There are adobe walls around my home site and I have lots more adobe for building.
With a very low labor rate I have lots of help for my new buildings. The weather here is never “cold” but can get pretty warm in summer (December January March).
There is a lot of sugar cane grown here and after they harvest, they burn huge piles of the stuff. I think it would make better compost but I’m not sure. I think it would work for worm bedding as well.
What are your thought?
Thanks in advance for your comments.
Joel
PS This is information the local folks can use. People here are always on the edge of hunger. I’m trying to bring some empowerment to them with natural gardening and animal husbandry techniques. I can use all the help I can get.
Some quick research has led me to believe that as worm bedding the sugarcane waste would not be a good choice. Information indicates the material is unpredictable and can heat up considerably.
However, this kind of material would work nicely in a conventional compost pile and once the material has composted it could then make a nice addition to the worm bin.
No matter what the material is, once it has been composted it can go in the worm bin.
Christy
Handle your organic waste the way Nature intended.
http://www.vermiculturenorthwest.com/
Are you receiving my newsletter? If not you should be.
If you have access to manure, consider it as an excellent source for worm bedding. But it must be handled properly or you could be putting your worms in harms way.
I have received request for information from one of my subscribers to my Worm Bin Composting Course.
Here are her questions:
My worms said they’re already ready to move on, so preparing new bin. The old bedding is already gorgeous dark stuff  And the worms are climbing to the top, so time to move, right? Does that seem right? Most of what I read usually gives longer times. Maybe mine is too shallow and they compost it all faster?
Main question is – what to do with horse manure before using it in the worm bin.
About a month ago I got a small box of it from a guy down the street and it’s been sitting on my back patio. The horses had been dewormed 3 wks before that. It’s dry, so it needs to soak, right? Not sure of the ratio of manure to carbon material. Can you direct me to the info?
There is no set in stone time to move your worms. If you have the right set up, ie. a worm tower, you are free to move your worms whenever you want. The difference will be the amount of castings that will be in your finished material. The longer the worms work it, the more castings.
The amount of time it takes for worms to work is unique to each system. It depends on many factors. The size of bin in relation to the amount of worms and how ideal you keep the system – temp, moisture…and how you feed. The worms will consume bedding material in relation to how much fresh “food stock” you provide.
I have recently made a post on my blog about using manure.
http://wormbincomposting.blogspot.com/2009/10/lets-talk-shit-i-mean-manure.html
However, I will elaborate for your specific questions.
One of the main reasons manure is a perfect bedding for worms is that you don’t have to worry about C – N ratios. The material has a near perfect balance already. Moisture is the biggest concern.
If the material has been sitting dry then you want to put it into something that you can wet it down and let the excess moisture runoff. Make sure that ALL the manure absorbs moisture. Then you need to let it sit and make sure it is not going to heat up. It is always best to let the manure sit in a composting state at least 3 months if not 6. That means it needs to have moisture and air incorporated into the material.
If the manure is manure pooped from the horses three weeks after worming I don’t think there should be any worming chemicals in the poop. There is mixed info on that anyway, since the worms that the worming chemicals target are different from the composting worms. Just always a good idea to let the material compost at least 3 – 6 months. I usually get a load in the fall that I let sit over winter and use in the spring/summer. Then another load in the spring I use in the winter/fall.
But everyone has their own set up. Just make sure the material is not going to compost further after you add your worms and start adding other bedding and food stock. The temps could kill your worms.
Hopes this helps. As a final note in regards to your setup – I always listen to my worms. If they are telling me they are happy I don’t change a thing. Why mess with success. If your bin works for you and keeps the worms happy you’re doing everything right.
Christy
Are you receiving my newsletter? If not you should be.
Manure is my bedding of choice for starting a worm bin.
I mean, think about it. What is the other name for red worms…manure worms.
You dig around in a healthy pile of composted manure, no matter what kind and you are going to find red worms.
So let’s look at some guidlines about manure if that is a route you want to take.
- Any type of manure will do – horse, cow, pig, llama, alpaca, rabbit, zoo doo… Stay away from domesticated animal and bagged retail manure.
- If the source is questionable (ie. medicines or other ingredients otherwise not natural) then you will want to let the manure set for 6 months.
- Non-composted manure or fresh manure should not be used for bedding. The main reason is because the bedding will start heating up and this will surely kill your worms.
- Manure that has been removed from stalls should not be used as this will contain high concentrations of urine and salts. Worms will not like that.
- When I set up my manure for composting I build a three sided bin out of old pallets and pile the manure inside. This creates a pile much like a conventional compost pile and will allow the material to heat up, killing pathogens and weed seeds.
- I try to control the moisture in the pile much like that of a conventional compost pile as well. If needed I will cover the pile to prevent too much moisture leaching out nuturients or creating an anaerobic condition in the bottom of the pile.
- You’ll notice when a pile is fresh there aren’t too many other critters hanging out. Once these other critters start moving in I figure it’s ready for the worms.
- With a new bin started with manure, you don’t mix it up too much or you will get active composting happening. Just add food stock the first three months in small amounts, then you can start layering in different bedding material. Always be mindful of composting. Things can get real hot real fast and fry all the inhabitants.
- Other bedding materials I layer in after the first 3 months – shredded newspaper, leaves, grass clippings (sparingly).
Has this created more questions than answers for you. Send them to me and we will answer them together.
Happy worming,
Christy Ruffner
http://www.vermiculturenorthwest.com/
 Worm Factory® 360
New product online now
Decomposing food smells sour and stinky. Anaerobic smells past that. It smells like death, food death.
 If something just smells like rotting bad food your okay. Anaerobic is a smell you probably haven’t smelled until you have a bin that’s gone anaerobic. Usually that smell will be at the bottom of the bin where there is no air and it’s too wet. When you get a whiff of it you will know, it will send a panic into your worming being.
I wish I could send a smell electronically. But if the food just smells like it’s rotting you’re okay, especially if it is in the top layers where it can get air.
Food that is smelly and molding is starting to decompose. That’s when the worms will really go after it. Just make sure and bury it with a layer of bedding.
Most importantly, as I always say, take your cues from your worms. If they appear to be thriving and happy you’re okay. But you need to get your hands and nose into the bin. Don’t just go by what you see on the top layer. Get to the bottom of things as they say, at least once a week, especially until you really feel comfortable with what you’re doing. Don’t worry; the worms will do fine with that. The will appreciate the air you are incorporating into the worm bin, especially if you have an anaerobic situation developing. Air is the best fix for anaerobic.
Happy worming,
Christy
VermiCultureNorthwest.com
Welcome to my first official post on my VermiCultureNorthwest.com worm blog.
I hope to share my knowledge and passion with you on the pages of this blog.
Questions encouraged.
Happy to be here.
Christy
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