Play It Safe, Start Slow: 1/2 lb per square foot Worms aren't cheap, so I'd much rather see a newbie start a new worm bin with about 1/2 lb per square foot. For
It really depends on the size of the worm bin. For most average sized domestic worm bins, we would suggest you start with 1 lb. (approximately 800 - 1000) mixed sized worms. If the worm bin is larger, or you are composting food scraps for four or more adult persons, we would recommend 2 lbs.
You'll need approximately 1 cubic foot of bin space and 1 pound of food waste for each pound of worms you maintain. (There are about 1,000 worms per pound.) Be sure to follow this rule to avoid an overloaded or undernourished system.
Mary Appelhof, author of “Worms Eat My Garbage” recommends two pounds of worms — about 2,000 wigglers — for every pound per day of food waste. To figure out how much food waste your household generates, monitor it for a week and divide it by seven.
Ordinary garden worms or earthworms are not suitable for worm farms and will die. Worms are sold in boxes of 500 or 1000, this is the best way to get your farm going. A thousand worms are ideal for a DIY worm farm. These types of worms are generally Reds, Tigers or Blues and are often just sold as composting worms.
Worms can eat half their weight everyday. 1000 worms weigh 250g, therefore if you start your worm farm with 1000 worms you should be able to add approximately 125g of food scraps per day, nearly 1kg per week.
How often do worms breed? The breeding cycle is approximately 27 days from mating to laying eggs. Worms can double in population every 60 days.
Play It Safe, Start Slow: 1/2 lb per square foot
Worms aren't cheap, so I'd much rather see a newbie start a new worm bin with about 1/2 lb per square foot. For Red Wigglers, this is 2 lbs, or about 1600-2000 worms. For European Nightcrawlers, 2 lbs will equal about 600-800 worms.
Don't overfeed!
If you add more food than the worms can eat it may go rancid and create a toxic, smelly environment. As a rule of thumb, add food when about half of the previous feed has been eaten, and spread it out in a layer of no more than 50mm thick.
Worm bins can also become overcrowded if they aren't managed properly. If too much food is added, or the bin becomes too hot or cold, then it's time to divide it. This will provide more space for each worm and make sure that there are enough nutrients in each bin to keep your worms happy and healthy.
Go big with a multi-bin system
Stack the second box on top of the first box, and prepare bedding material and food. Over time, the worms will migrate upwards into the second box, allowing you to harvest the compost from the bottom bin as you wish.
Worms are ready to breed once they mature from 50 to 90 days. Earthworms are hermaphrodites; they can be male or female (a great advantage!). They can perform both male and female functions and mate every 7 to 10 days. The mating process takes around 24 hours.
Moisture – Pour 1 litre of water through your worm farm each week to keep it moist, but not too wet.
Too many earthworms can damage delicate root systems and burrow too close to the surface, causing the soil to become unstable.
Treat everyone in the family with worming tablets. It's a good idea to keep children home from school or child care if they have worms. Prevent worm infections with good personal hygiene and household cleaning.
Worms will eat anything that was once living, Leftover vegetable scraps, fruit and vegetable peelings. Tea leaves / bags and coffee grounds.
Carrot peelings, potato skins, broccoli and cauliflower stalks, lettuce, kale, even onion peels (in limited quantities) are perfect for the worm bin.
Unlike other pets, you can leave worm farms unattended for weeks at a time. Worms will happily eat wet shredded paper for up to 6 weeks!
Just like people, composting worms have an ideal temperature range. The worm bin and bedding help regulate the temperature. When the air temperature is below 54 degrees Fahrenheit, worms slow down. Below freezing, they can die.
Fluff up the bedding once a week to keep the bedding from becoming dense. If the bin begins to have a bad odor, you may be adding too much food. Fluff up again, and stop feeding for a while to let the worms catch up on their eating.
After about 2 months rich, dark worm castings will be building up and worm juice will start to accumulate at the bottom of the worm farm. Worm castings and compost are the best soil conditioners. Castings should be dug into recently watered soil, or watered in when added.
Contrary to popular belief, worms cut in half don't actually turn into two new worms. To a biologist, 'worm' refers to many, quite different organisms. The ability to re-grow body parts differs enormously between them, although tails are generally easier to re-grow.