1) 1 lb of worms will eat 1/2 to 1 lb of kitchen waste each day. 1 square foot of bin surface area will support 1 to 2 lb of worms. The general rule of thumb is to have 1 square foot of bin surface area for each person in your family. This would be a pretty big bin to start with. I would start smaller and let the worms grow into several bins, or one larger one. You won't be feeding all of your scraps from day 1.

2) In general, if it was once alive, it can be fed to a worm. There are exceptions.

salty foods
oils/fat
meat
dairy

I would also go easy on the grains, since they tend to go moldy. A small amount of mold is healthy for the bin. A large amount is a nuisance.

Some people say not to feed onions or citrus. My worms do fine with both. When in doubt, start with a small amount in one corner of the bin, and see how the worms react.

Yard waste may or may not work. Avoid anything that would take forever to break down, or has been sprayed with pesticides. Weed seeds will not break down in a worm bin. What is often done is the yard waste is composted, and the partially finished compost is fed to the worms. The fallen fruit should be fine, if it has not been sprayed.

Keep in mind when you're trying to figure out how much they 'can' eat is that the food items you put in there are not the food they are after. The food they are really after are the micro-organisms that cause organic material to break down. (1) They will 're-eat' OM that was pooped out by other worms since if those micro-organisms are present. (2) Items that take longer to break down tend to take longer.

Leaves are great. The fruits are great because they tend to break down quickly (especially after being cut into smaller pieces) but they contain a lot of water. Excess water may cause odors so you may need to manage between how much fruit and how quickly it is being broken down by the worms. The fruit that is overripe and has already fallen from the tree should do great in a worm bin. If you can store them in a freezer so that you can use them as needed, that would be ideal.

When I poke through my bin and look under a large piece of fruit that has had a few days to decompose I generally see a large mass of worms (especially small ones) crawling below and inside the fruit.

Go easy on yard waste because it heats up your bin and kill all worms.

Another thing about yard waste is that you should be aware of what you are putting in your yard. Grass clippings are good for your worm bin. If you use chemical fertilizers or pesticides I would be concerned about that going into your bin. Also, deafworm mentioned heating of the bins. Fresh leaves, grass clippings, etc. (high nitrogen items) in large quantities can heat up as they decompose. If left to dry out (high carbon items) you have less to worry about, they can serve as good bedding materials and it's better than sending it to landfill. I have 6 bags of leaves in my garage drying right now, great thing about fall is that it gives me access to a lot of free bedding.

Don't count on them eating a full 1/2 pound a day unless its perfect conditons
It is way easier than bringig out the scraps in the winter and you have some nice compost come spring

The 1/2 pound generally speaks to how much much material an average worm might chew through in a day. If you were able to watch one worm crawl around on an average day he might go through 1/2 pound of material but he won't crawl up to the apple slice you put in there yesterday and eat 1/2 pound of it. Some worms will take 'bites' out of the outside of that apple slice that have the juicy micro-organisms growing in it. The 'bite marks' would now be exposed to allow more micro-organisms to colonize that part and eventually get eaten. That original worm would move on through the bedding, eating other organism filled stuff.

Hi,

(1)
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For the 1/2 a day, i agree with others this information is generally speaking and in practice it's not really possible, at least in a domestic worm bin, im still waiting to someone to show me this :P.

First of all, lets get rid of how many worms can be in a specific surface, its to confusing, first no bodies can really know how many worm it has at certain point in a certain surface, we can estimate it but it's not reliable. Furthermore the number of worms also depends of the organic matter you feed them, not only on the surface.

According to my experience, I think the rule of thumb is this: 1 pound of waste PER square foot PER week. And this is when your bin is up and running, not at startup. In good condition we can do better, maybe even reach 2 pound, but this is not the average.

So in your case i would suggest a 4 square foot worm bin at least, it should be find.
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My biggest issue with vermicomposting and fresh fruit/vegetable scraps is the possible attraction of insects.

Maybe these items are better composted in a traditional outside bin first? In fact, from what I have read this is what industrial vermicomposters do with cow manure.

My traditional outside composter bin has centipedes, millipedes, sow bugs, ants, spiders, slugs, BSFL aside from fungus gnats and fruit flies. I wouldn't want those other pests in the house too.
I don't think cow manure would attrack as many insects, but than again, I don't want to have manure in my kitchen either.
Now I only have to battle fungus gnats as with the colder weather, the fruit flies are gone.

I don't mind horse manure in my dining room, but I think my fungus gnats came in with the manure.

As for pre-composting cow manure, I think it is done for three reasons:

1) The heat will kill pathogens.
2) The heat will kill weed seeds.
3) The heat could kill the worms.

Wow I haven't checked this thread in a few days. So many replies! Thanks for clearing all this up for me. Insects shouldn't really be a problem because I'm planning on putting it in a corner in my garage so nobody has to smell it if it does ever start to stink.

homer, you realize that if your bin START to stink, it's gone anaerobic which is NOT good.
It is not the same situation as when you put in smelly stuff like manure.

I have fed horse manure, and it doesn't stink. What smells are the strongly flavored food scraps, like onion, broccoli, cabbage, etc. The smell goes away after a couple of days.

Doesn't it go anaerobic when you add too much stuff? And if you stop adding stuff for a few days the smell goes away when the worms eat everything? That's what I was thinking based on what I've read.

I still haven't put the thing together yet, or get worms for that matter. Does anybody know of a reliable source for worms?

Depends where you live, it would be more ideal if you could find a supplier near where you live. Less travel time would mean less chance of something to go wrong in transit. Even better if you can pick them up yourself. I live in AB Canada and got mine from BC. May not be ideal for you depending on where you are.

vermicomposters.com forum has a discussion thread on the subject of worm suppliers that has quite a few posts from all around. You can also add to the thread with whatever state you are in and there is probably a good chance that there is someone nearby.

http://vermicomposters.ning.com/forum/topics/worm-suppliers

Go to the forums section and third from the top is a discussion thread called Worm Suppliers.

Thank you for that link rom. Very useful information.

I saw a post about a flow through bin made out of a plastic garbage can or a 55 gallon drum. This seemed a lot easier to maintain and to harvest the castings when it's all done. I think I'm going to do this method instead because I have 2 big drums sitting in storage not being used for anything.

If you're making a big one put some thought on where it will be. When you fill a large one up it can be a pain to move.

I don't really think I would need to move it ever, because of the flow through design, harvesting would be easy and I could just put what I harvest in a wheelbarrow and cart it off to where it needs to be used. I might use a garbage can with wheels on the bottom, then there wouldn't be any problem moving it if needed. I still think that the corner in my garage will be it's final home.

homer: how cold does it get in winter?

I think the lowest last year was about -10 or so. That's about regular. My garage is heated, and stays between 60 and 80 degrees all year round.

Sounds like a flow through should do fine in your garage ... I'm kind of envious.

I just need stop dreaming about it and build it. I've told myself probably 40 times that I'm going to build it today and order the worms, but I always seem to skip over those 2 things.

Building it first may be better. Depending on where you order from, it may only be a few days before you get the worms. (1) you don't want to receive them before you are ready and (2) there is some advantage to preparing the bedding and putting some food in there several days before you add worms. This will allow the food items a chance to establish a good amount of micro-organisms so that the worms will not have to wait as long.

And if you still want it this year, you shouldn't wait too long because worm suppliers won't ship once it gets too cold. But I guess it depends where you are in US.

homer: you may have already seen these, but just in case you haven't:
gardenweb flow through bin

Scroll down and you will see another variation with the bottom grating oriented in a different direction & supported internally:
flow through variation

Although I did not use a garbage bin, I did recently build a DIY flow through. One thing I noted after reading about many other designs is that people often regretted making the space between grating bars too small. 1-1.5" is too small. Someone said commercial units had 3" gaps, so I made mine 2.5".

C'mon! Build it now. Then you entertain us with photos & stories. :-) I agree with rom that you should prep it before the worms come.

Here's my flow through:
my flow through

~Andrew

Andrew, I hadn't seen those, thanks. Good variations to consider :)

I still think the 55 gallon drum design is the most sturdy, however. I've got some really old plastic ones that are very tough and would hold up to the pressure of all the worms and food. I still haven't built it :) I'm in the process of digging up this year's potatoes, so after I do that, I'll get started on the bins. I did 2 20 foot rows and got 7 five gallon buckets full. Only 5 more to go...

Hi Andrew,

That's a good looking bin you've made. I was wondering about the spacing between your bamboo shoots. What do you put under it so the worms won't fall through?

I'm new to the subject and have done a lot of research on how to get started on vermicompost. After a lot of hesitation I think I'm over the thought of working with worms and bugs (yikes!)... I am thoroughly convinced that this is the right thing to do! :)

Sandra

Thanks, Sandra.

The gaps are approx. 2.5". Be sure to measure the gap itself rather than the distance between the center of each stick. I put 4 layers of newspaper on TOP of the bamboo and then about 3" of almost-ready compost on the paper before adding food, worms & bedding. The paper gets damp, but it's holding up even though I've got about 8" of material built up on top of it. No worms have fallen through yet. Eventually the paper will break apart - hopefully around the time of my first compost harvest.

I agree composting with worms and/or grubs is "the right thing to do". :-) Although the city I live in recycles food waste, I save them the trouble of driving it around when I compost myself. Besides, I then get to use the nice compost to add to the garden.

Hmph! I don't know if a worm bin is gonna happen until spring. I still haven't ordered any worms or set up a bin and there's 2 inches of snow outside! I guess I could still try. I haven't cleaned the corner of the garage where I plan to put the bin. Typing this, I realize that I should work on my procrastinating. Must have something to do with working the night shift!

homer, as a fellow procrastinator, I know exactly what you mean. Although next year will work, wouldn't it be nice to have a good batch of compost ready for Spring planting? Just a thought.

Ironically, I "waste" time on worms & grubs instead of focusing on more important projects. :-/

I was going to respond to this yesterday but was putting it off :) Just be sure to get the bin set up before you decide on putting worms in there. If you allow for the bedding to sit wet/moist in the bin before the worms arrive they'll have a more hospitable environment to dig into.