Feeding Your Worms–Do’s and Don’t's
You’ve set up your worm bin, the worms are in, for the next few months all you have to do is feed them the right things in the proper amounts until it is time to harvest the casts. Is the right or wrong? I have found this to be true for the most part. What is missing here is what do the worms like and in what amounts. They like and love organic foods, just like all the of the things people eat, only with even greater variety. Organic includes everything that is alive or ever was alive. Just like humans, Eisenia fetida appreciate plenty of fiber and a varied diet. They don’t have to be told to eat their vegetables, in fact, those are some of their favorite foods. Keep in mind you are not only feeding the worms, but also the thousands of microscopic organisms which are breaking down the food for the worms. These organisms can only work on the food surfaces they can reach, so the finer you chop your kitchen waste, the faster it will be consumed and the easier it is for the decomposers in the bin to do their jobs. But if you don’t, eventually they will break it down but it will take longer to be consumed by the worms. You may recall, that in a previous blog I mentioned placing the wastes in a covered pail, in the sun and letting them all become soupy. The worms love this as they can consume it faster. This does have the ick factor to it, as it might have an unsavory aroma to it, but I do know that the worms here love to have their food delivered in the way.
Killing Worms With Kindness:
One of your most difficult tasks will be to restrain yourself from overfeeding your worms in their bin. Temptation abounds and it is hard to resist as your organics pile up in your kitchen compost container. It’s summer and the family got together with the neighbors for a picnic and watermelon fest. What do you do with all those rinds, the leftover potatoe salad, the hotdogs and hamburgers the kids didn’t finish? Or, you just finished peeling and pitting a lug full of peaches to can them for winter desserts, here you are with a huge bowl of trimmings. Now, it’s Thanksgiving and it was your turn to cook, wouldn’t the worms just love these extra treats? Well, maybe they would, but not all at once. You have several alternatives:
1. freeze the excess to gradullay feed the worms at a later time.
2. place it in your active compost pile.
3. dig a hole and dump it in, cover it back up and worms in the soil will find it.
4. if you live in an apartment and haven’t any other choice, put it in the trash or turn on the disposal.
This last item is my least favorite choice, as you are wasting that organic resource, wasting the water and electricity. I happily said goodbye to my disposal more than 15 years ago. What freedom I have now!
Probably more worms in their bins at homes are lost to overfeeding than almost any other factor. Worms in the wild don’t have this problem because they are free to roam. If there is a big body decomposing in the woods, they can wait until it is their turn at the food chain and come and go at will. In the worm bin, if excess food is anaerobically decomposing, there is nowhere for the worms to escape to. They are trapped.
If you find consistently you have more food than the worms can handle, get a larger bin or start a second one. There isn’t any rule that says you are limited to only one bin. I highly recommend to all my clients, that they have a worm annex on hand, just in case a worm bin emergency happens. This can be anything you have on hand in your home or garage. An old sweater box, a Rubbermaid container or anything which has been drilled out beforehand, so you are ready for all contingencies and have a safe place to transfer the worms in a hurry, if you have to.
To Recap:
> your worms in your bin will love all organic foods, just like you do.
> overfeeding will kill your worms, always have a plan in place should you need one for excess worm food.
> killing your worms with kindness is NOT your goal.
I will cover the foods which can safely be placed into your bin and which could pose a problem for you or the worms next time.
Until then, please:
Enjoy your worms as they have much to teach you about their likes and dislikes!
~Shel
You are a very talented blogger, and I absolutely enjoy reading your posts.
My cousin recommended this blog and she was totally right keep up the fantastic work
I’ve read that you can combine traditional composting with vermicomposting. Meaning, you could pre-compost your material for a few weeks or less and then feed that to the worms (this sounds a bit like your “ick factor” bucket but on a larger scale).
From what I’ve read this results in a cleaner, more stable, and broken down food for the worms to eat. If that is the case, do you think it would be less difficult to overfeed your worms? Would I be able to feed the worms bigger portions with less frequency?
I’m processing quite a bit of waste but am limited by space. I’d like to be able to empty the pre-composted material into a bin with bedding and worms and place the bin on a shelf to make room for the next week’s batch. These bins will likely be pallet-sized and lifted by forklift so I wouldn’t want to take them down more than once a month if I can avoid it.
I’ve done a lot of research on this the last few weeks and haven’t found many people willing to share. Thank you for your detailed posts!
Yes, if you give the worms larger portion at one time and have enough bedding to mitigate over heating of the bin, you can feed them less frequently.