I feed my indoor grow waste and kitchen scraps/coffee grounds/egg shells to my worm bin. Its a great way to reduce waste and create fertilizer at the same time. As a bonus you know exactly what went into creating your worm castings, and after the initial investment it costs nothing but a few minutes a week or less.
Cannabis leaves break down in a worm bin insanely fast if you freeze and crush them first, so if you need to be subtle its a great way to get rid of the excess plant material with little risk. Also a bin with a lid will mask the scent pretty well. I have onion breaking down in mine but you would never know unless I dug it out to show you and I dont keep a lid on my bin. A properly cared for bin will smell like earth right after a rainstorm and not much else.
Frozen banana peels before I buried them
7 Likes
I currently use 40# of worm castings for each grow. I don’t vermicompost, I purchase it from the outfit where I get my Roots Organic soil.
I did vermicompost in the late 70’s and early 80’s. It was very interesting. My favorite things to feed the worms was melon rinds and coffee grounds.
8 Likes
I give mine a lot of coffee grounds too. I actually have to in order to keep a light “hot” compost going. I also use the used wet grounds(2L at a time) to cover the surface of the bedding because its so dry here and I dont want to add water everyday. I have tropical worms and the warmer temperature keeps them happier. The bin is plenty deep so they can run from any hot spots if they were to form.
I crush/grind most of them but the worms seem to love to hang out inside of half egg shells, whether they are on the surface or buried. Avocado shells too.
What do you think is the most important piece of advice you would have from your experience?
5 Likes
It sounds to me like you have it well in hand.
For folks new to vermicomposting I would suggest the following:
- Keep them fed - when the colony is established they consume a lot of food.
- Keep them warm - find the ideal temperature for your specific worms. I raised red wrigglers - 55 - 70 F, I kept them at 60 F.
- Keep the bed covered to keep light out and moisture in. Worms don’t like light. I used bright light to separate the worms from castings.
- Keep them moist but not too wet. Their whole body is a mucous membrane and must remain moist at all times.
6 Likes
I have african night crawlers, so they like it a bit warmer. I think the bin runs a couple degrees above ambient. I measured the bin at ~75f yesterday. I think they tolerate up to 85f or so and prefer ~77f. I have to keep the bin inside the house to keep them warm enough.
Because they are african night crawlers, I actually have to keep a light on them 24/7 or else they leave the bin. Its not a bedding condition problem, no worm balls, smells good, but if the light goes out they explore. Im still working on a long term solution to this. I do keep a layer of flat cardboard on top so its not like they are bathing in light 24/7. I have yet to decide how Im going to go about harvesting.
Your 4th point is what took me the longest to get ideal. In my dry environment a “wrung out sponge” level of moisture wasnt enough. These worms like to be wet. No water pooling or anything, just properly soaked.
Im still pretty new to vermicomposting so Im trying to just absorb as much info as possible from as many sources as possible. Thank you.
2 Likes
LOL That is one of the reasons that I selected red wrigglers. All of the night crawler that I looked into tend to wander around if given the chance.
It sounds like your setup is getting the job done.
For collecting (harvesting) the worm castings, I would spread the bed contents on a tarp, about 1 to 2 inches in depth. I then put a bright light on to drive the worms down. I would scrape the castings from the top surface when the worms were at the bottom. The worms would then get split some going back into the composting bed with the excess going to outside.
2 Likes
yeah its a pain. the internet said they would calm down eventually but that is not my experience so far
2 Likes
There was no internet to ask in the 70’s. I find that I get as many wrong answers from the internet as right ones. It depends upon your exact query whether the answer is useful. Sometimes it is nearly impossible and you must actually do your own research.
2 Likes
