Vermicompost is an alternative way of decomposing your food waste and scraps using worms. One pound of worms can handle three pounds of material a week. The worms eat the organic material and excrete nutrient rich humus resulting in dark organic soil, perfect for gardening.
Why Vermicompost
• Like normal composting, vermicomposting keeps your food waste and scraps from entering the landfills as garbage
• save money on garbage pickup
• Controls what goes into your soil
• Educational
• Fun
• Produces worms for fishing
• Can compost all year around in cold climates
Steps to a healthy vermicompost
• Find a small to medium sized bin (reuse plastic bin or old fish tanks)
• Poke air holes into bottom of container
• Fill bin ¾ full of bedding
o For bedding use strips of newspaper and peat moss
o Add water until bedding is moist throughout
• Place red worms on top of bedding and cover the bin
o Worms can be found online or from a local vermicompost bin
• Bury the organic material
o Avoid meats, dairy products and kitty litter
o Cut food scraps into small pieces
o Vegetables and greens are best
o Bury the scraps on alternating sides of the bin
• When extracting the humus, sort out worms and insert them back into bin
• Feed worms about once a week
• Monitor moisture daily
I just started composting a few weeks ago. However, I've been thinking that the worm compost idea might work out even better for me, because most of the scraps I have are from the kitchen instead of garden waste. I've been concerned that my compost will have far too much nitrogen compared to carbon, and it sounds like vermicomposting is more suited to this. About how long does it take for the scraps to turn into humus?
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