Agree mostly with annpat above - particularly that 'overwatering is the fastest way to fail.' You should not need to add water.

I'll restate slightly in a way I find useful (perhaps others will, too): 'too wet' is far worse than 'too dry' - worms will usually find what water they need and a partly covered bin won't usually go bone dry. Now, this does not mean that a bin should be bone dry, just that if you have any doubt, err on the side of a bit drier. (Note part of the problem with a bin that's too wet is lack of air)

My other rule of thumb: too much bedding is far better than too much food - too much bedding won't kill worms, too much food will. So if in doubt, hold back a bit on food, and add some bedding instead. Don't soak bedding beforehand, it will absorb some moisture from the bin.

In most simple terms: give them food, not too much; give them bedding, a lot; count on the food to give them water.

Note that by 'food' here I mean kitchen scraps, veggie and fruit bits, etc - they usually contain a lot of water. It's not entirely accurate a term as bedding is also edible to the worms after it's broken down some.

These two rules of thumb work together in several important ways - (i) bedding is usually somewhat dry, and holds/absorbs/buffers moisture - if bedding is fully wet, the bin has far too much water; (ii) bedding slowly breaking down is edible and the worms won't starve; (iii) most bedding has some structure to it, which helps with air movement/lowers risk of bin having anaerobic patches (smelly and dangerous to worms); (iv) bedding provides a buffer zone/safe haven to worms - places they can retreat to if conditions unwelcoming elsewhere.

The easiest way I've found to apply this: keep a thick-ish layer of bedding on top (couple inches or more); push aside to add food, push back. Add dry or only slightly damp, it absorbs water from below as water evaporates, and keep adding from time to time to keep the bedding layer thick. Also reduces odours and bugs like fruit flies. Having at least some shredded cardboard in the bedding helps with structure (air), keeps bedding from matting. If the bedding at the top is ever 'wet', then the bin below is far too wet. Drier bedding can be mixed below to absorb some water in the mass of the bin if too wet there, helps with air.

This approach is also pretty minimal from maintenance point of view - lots of bedding, make sure food additions don't lead to too-wet conditions. As you get comfortable with how it's working and health of worms, you can adjust the food/bedding ratio.

This might be a stupid question, but are vegetables cooked with oil ok for the worm bin? Leftover bell peppers, onions, etc cooked with a little bit of oil. Also, I read somewhere that onions, garlic, and citrus (oranges, lemons, limes, etc) are bad for the worms. Does this mean I can NEVER give these foods to the worms? We cook with onions a lot, and it would be very disappointing if that waste couldn't be used in the worm bin.

If your bin is new, go slowly with stuff that's not recommended - or don't put them in there at all. That said, probably every user of a worm bin has experimented a bit (sometimes ok, sometimes with very bad results).

Now, most everything can be or will be consumed by worms - IF they are 'pre-composted' enough in advance; the thing is, what's the point if stuff has to be thoroughly composted before giving it to the worms?

With enough space and bedding and time, you can add all those other things and the worms will (eventually) consume it, OR the stuff will breakdown on its own. The issue is, it may mean a far larger worm setup than needed or that you have room for - and sometimes still may have nuisance issues like odours, although lots and lots of bedding may keep those under control.

I'll use citrus as an example - worms actively avoid fresh citrus, mostly because of acidity and a compound in the peels. Both will eventually get neutralized - if you've ever seen the blue-ish mold on orange peels, that's a fungus (I believe) that breaks down the citrus compound in the peels. When mostly complete and soft and no longer acidic, worms will gladly consume that orange (and I guess that fungus, or whatever decomposed and ate that fungus). In the interim, that orange might get smelly and rancid and attract other nuisance denizens. Excess bedding helps partially absorb water (and some oils) and keeps some aeration to reduce anaerobic (smelly) decomposition. (Note this is roughly akin to how compost worms would approach in nature - they'd just avoid stuff they don't like and wait until well decomposed, or until other animals had pre-digested stuff for them in the form of manure).

The same basic issue exists with oily stuff, onion bits, garlic, and very sulfurous veggies (e.g. some cabbage/mustard family members). If worms don't like something, they stay away until other decomposing bacteria and fungus have pre-digested it for them. If the bin is big enough, there's enough bedding, and the foods have been chopped (to maximise air / avoid anaerobic conditions / speed decomposition), you might not have serious problems. But it may require more/bigger bins than practical.

It depends what you're doing vermicomposting for, too. If you want to reduce your waste and don't have room for an outdoor compost bin (or have municipal compost collection), and you have limited bin space, makes more sense - in my opinion - to maximise throughput of stuff the worms digest easily and add only small amounts of other stuff. If you have an outdoor bin, don't mess around and just put other stuff there.

But experiment and see what works for you (everyone does that, anyway). Do keep in mind that avoiding that 'other stuff' or keeping amounts minimal is especially important with new bins. Quantity and proportions matter greatly - a small amount of onion bits with other veggies or a bit of lemon peel in a large bin is very different than tossing an entire grapefruit in a small bin.

[Side note on my post above: I may have sounded a bit overly categorical in suggesting water can never be added, I mainly wanted to warn about excess water. It's okay to add slightly damp bedding, and if I were to add water, I'd do with a few squirts of a spray bottle and go slowly. But mostly only if the bin is truly dry.]

WOW...I feel a little overwhelmed after reading these comments. I just hope I don't do anything stupid and kill the worms. I should have mentioned my goals here. I'm not really trying to cut down on waste (although that is an added benefit I will appreciate). My main goal is to have a large population of worms that will produce tons of castings. Anyways thank you both for your advice Annpat and Armoured. I will avoid acidic foods like onions and citrus for a while (not really sure what 'established' means, though). Regarding the food, I was planning on using the blender. But you don't have to use it on everything, right? You mostly use it on fruit and vegetable peelings, yes? I assume you wouldn't have to blend stuff like coffee and tea. Also, does anyone use a continuous flow bin? Was watching some random worm video today talking about this. It looks interesting, but the bins are VERY expensive. So many questions here. I'm both nervous and excited at the same time...

Don't be overwhelmed, just go slow at first. I used "established" to mean the bins are working well and the worms doing okay - usually meaning a bin that's been in operation for a while (a couple months?) without problems.

You don't have to blend everything, or even anything, but chopped smaller or blended will help break down the food more quickly (both for the worms and for the associated bacteria and fungi that decompose stuff).

What do you want the large population of worms and castings for? Do you have other composting going on?

Complete waste of time and energy blending feed for worms. I especially hate hearing about people grinding up eggshells, because anyone, who knows anything, knows how much a cluster of worms like to gather and curl up together in an eggshell half. Worms do not need to have their food pre-masticated for them, despite what the faddists say.

Worms are easy. You really just need a container, some bedding, and some red wrigglers. Run your newspaper through a shredder, soak it in a bowl of water, lift it out, squish the water out and put the damp bedding into your bin. Fluff it. When you have a few inches of damp—-nowhere near wet—-bedding, toss in a few veggie peeling, coffee grounds, eggshells. Top that with some more damp bedding, because your food scraps always should be covered, then add your worms. Leave them alone for a week or two, open the bin, shove the newspaper aside, toss in a few peelings, some grounds, some eggshells. In about a month, you can start putting more stuff in.

Worms do not need drinking water. They only need the water to keep the bedding damp. I can’t think of a single time when I had to add water to a bin. Sometimes the bedding on the top gets dry, but if you were to check the lower regions, you’re probably going to find a ton of moist bedding. I’m not sure this is recommended, but I often overend my containers several times to mix things up a little.

The best way to get pure worm castings is to starve your worms. The worms will eventually eat all the bedding, then their dead fellows, and you will end up with pure castings...OR you can stack an unfed bin on top of another bin where there is fresh bedding and food and allow them to migrate. I guess. I haven’t done it. I’ve starved a bin once—-heartbreaking, but the results were gorgeous. After that, I just started releasing the bins into my garden each spring. We used to be wrongly taught that red worms can’t survive frozen winters. My yard is crawling with red worms now—-to the extent that I’m concerned that I introduced them—-and I can pry a piece of cardboard or carpet up outdoors in winter, bring in a few frozen red wrigglers, toss them in a new bin and watch them revive. I had to harvest frozen worms once when I decided that nothing would do but for me to give my 11-year-old nephew a worm bin for his February birthday. I had no other good ideas.

Something fun: Once you’ve learned how to identify a worm egg—-tiny brown or yellowish lemon-shaped kernels—-you’ll be able to easily spot them in a handful of soil from that day forward. Lemon-shaped is the key. Tiny points on the ends.

I actually didn’t starve ALL the worms. I hauled out what I could periodically and added them to a new bin.

I might be the only person who has ever bathed worms. I ruined my first bin by adding some duff from my woods. The next thing I knew I had a thriving bin of compatibly dwelling slugs and worms. I can not tell you how horrifying it was to remove the lid for the feedings. Worms burrow, slugs do not.

Because I didn’t know how easy redworms are to obtain, and because I didn’t know if slug eggs were clinging to everything, I ended up putting scoops of worms in water, then hauling them back out and putting the spanky-clean worms into a new, slug-free bin.

Personally I won't blend for composting. I used to make a bit of effort to chop down from larger sizes, but not much more than that. I have noticed juice pulp - esp the pomace from apples - made the worms go just crazy happy.

Someone who wants to maximize throughput or worms might take a different approach, though. And if they like blending scraps, no skin off my nose.

I also have found - despite what everyone says - worms survive cold winters; they come back when warm. And they'll live in ground and garden when left there - if they don't have food or right conditions, they'll just go dormant, and come back later. (I know going dormant isn't the exact term)

Mind, I've kept worms off and on for years, but now I just toss everything in a large outside bin; I prefer to encourage the worms outdoors... Moved and new place doesn't seem to have local redworms on the territory (old place nearby did, I didn't think to bring any). I want some worms for my pile but I'm sure not paying money for them, just need to find a manure pile.

armoured, I didn’t notice your post before mine. I shouldn’t address blending, because I’ve never done it. I do kind of break things up; I wouldn’t put in a whole cantaloup.

Like you, I’ve done vermicomposting on and off for years, and, like you, I’ve stopped. I have large earthworm populations in my garden that I’d prefer to encourage, but the two species don’t appear to compete.

Thanks annpat! I'm trying to encourage any worms, but right now it's the lack of compost worms in my compost areas I'm noticing (I've always just had them show up on their own before). I also don't find that earthworms/compost worms compete.

Best earthworm indicators I've found are dandelions; they seem to love those taproots. Let's them get down deep, I guess.

Not that I need another "hobby" to take up my time (so says the DW)... but besides the shear fun of it... how is vermicomposting any better then just composting.

Worm castings is what vermicomposting gets you. Though I've never intentionally tried it, several years ago a large colony of red wrigglers showed up in my compost and I seem to have them every year since. Must be like sourdough bread where I keep seeding the next generation of compost with them. Speaking of bread...do worms enjoy a green slice or two?

tj

https://www.redwormcomposting.com/reader-questions/moldy-bread-as-worm-food/

@nevermore: that's the thing, personally I don't think vermicomposting is that much better than just regular composting - except for the aspect that it can easily be done in a small contained environment indoors. Outdoors, happy to see the redworms because they seem to help break things down a bit faster and to a more even consistency (they're 'macro' level), and I just like the worms. Proponents also make all sorts of claims about beneficial aspects of the worm castings; these may be a bit exaggerated - they're good soil amendments and lots of biological life in them but they're also not magical.

As for bread: I think bread is fine in compost and worm bins - in worm bins, just don't overdo it (as with many things in worm bins).

As for 'moldy' stuff in bins and the redwormcomposting notes: first, lots of fungi do not reproduce by means of fruiting bodies (what we think of as mushrooms). This is true, for example, of penicillin-type fungi, or many/most of the blue-green molds on bread and citrus skins; they have spores that float off in air when disturbed.

In any case, fungi are both unavoidable (they're everywhere) and essential to decomposition in compost (vermicompost or regular compost). How to keep 'under control'? A layer of bedding on top works to keep the spores etc in the main body of the vermicompost.

Also, not everything that looks like hyphae/mycellium is actually fungus - actinomycetes spread in a similar way. I've seen them spread like crazy over cardboard/bedding in certain conditions - all for the good as they also decompose stuff. I don't really understand why redwormcomposting thinks mycellium need to be broken up, that's part of how fungi break stuff down, but if you want to physically break them up, by all means.

One note, some people can be allergic to spores and some are dangerous if inhaled - common sense up to and including masks especially for immuno-compromised people if you're going to be mixing things up, gloves on hands a good idea too, cuts and scratches can get infected - neither of these points specific to fungi of course.

Where is a good place to buy red wigglers? I just want to make sure that what I'm getting is red wigglers and not some other worm species.

Best places to get red wrigglers is from someone you know with a worm bin, by digging in a compost pile until you find some, or by going to a place that sells manure (like a horse barn) and digging until you find some.

Probably depends geographically, but in my experience about 90% of outdoor compost piles have worms in them - my current pile being one of the outliers. (Sometimes not even compost piles per se but just the corner of garden where people toss their cut grass and yard clippings and the like). Piles of discarded apples and the like sometimes too.

I've no experience with buying any.

Tsugajunkie, that reminds me of the time my bin got taken over by planaria.

If you must buy worms, don’t buy a ton. It doesn’t take many to get a bin going. The species is Eisenia fetida.

On wikipedia it says eisenia fetida is native to Europe. You won't find them in your backyard (unless you're in Europe obviously). Now, I've been googling trying to find where to buy these guys, and a lot of sites are claiming to sell "red wigglers", but how can I be 100% sure that what I'm getting is Eisenia fetida?

Although native to Europe, and as wikipedia notes, they're now on every continent except Antarctica, and not just in worm farms. And certainly for North America, common already in most regions (although may have to check locally) - so the likelihood is still high you'd find in your backyard or nearby. Where are you located?

My yard is full of smallish, red-colored worms who seek out my compost piles or my mulch, and which I have brought into my house, put in bins, and fed decent amounts of food scraps to, and, in return, receive worm castings.

I think you can trust you’ll get the right species if you must order them, because, trust us, they’re not rare.

Aren’t they same ones that you can get for fish bait.? Side note .. I was at Dicks Sporting goods and they have a small refrigerator for live bait

@armoured I'm in the midwest. The thing is though, I know there are probably other species of eisenia native to the US, and I don't know how to tell them apart. I want to be 100% sure that what I have is eisenia fetida. Also, just out of curiosity, if you have more than one species of worm in your bin, will they co-exist peacefully?

@annpat maybe this is a stupid question, but when you say damp newspaper do you mean you just let the newspaper soak in a bowl of water or something for a while after shredding it? I'm just trying to make sure I get the moisture level right.

I would not worry about differences between different eisenia, just try them and see if they work as compost worms. (Note some of the others are also used as compost worms). They should co-exist okay, and if they don't, well, you haven't paid for them, don't worry.

As for dampness of bedding: I stick by my point above, too wet is very bad, too dry is easily corrected. Either put them in dry and let bin moisture wet them over time, spray lightly, or if you feel you must soak them, let them dry pretty well afterwards.

I dunk the shredded newspaper into a bucket of water and immediately haul it out. My goal is damp newspaper with no liquid escaping from it in the bin. I don’t think you can put in dry bedding without desicating the worms, but excess water building up in the bottom of the bin is no good.

Do you wring out your washcloth after you take your shower? That’s what you’re aiming for.

I had a successful worm bin for years. I always put my shredded newspaper in dry. The ambient moisture in the bin moistened the bedding over time. The worms should have a variety of regions available to them with different levels of moisture. They can choose what level of moisture they need at any particular moment. I used a commercial worm bin that was layered and had a spigot at the bottom to allow drainage of excess moisture. That drainage was wonderful fertilizer for potted or outdoor plants. The most common mistake I made was adding too much food, which increased the moisture levels throughout.

Martha

My experience has been same, @docmom_gw - no need to wet bedding as it will absorb moisture in bin quite readily.

I repeat my two simple rules: too wet is bad, too much food is bad, and the two are connected (most food is 'wet'); extra bedding is never a problem and will help ensure that bin is not too wet or too much food.

You may be able to add dry bedding to an existing worm bin—-and people do—-to absorb excess moisture. Don’t misunderstand this to mean you can start a colony in dry bedding.

I thought of you the other day, because I moved the last of the bags of leaves piled in my driveway and the frozen ground under the bags was covered with half frozen red worms still receiving some warmth from the leaf bags. I could have sent you enough to start your bin.

Agree, I was only referring to adding bedding to existing worm bin. For a new one, bedding should not be completely dry. Useful to clarify that, thanks.

The worm bin questions on water and make up/foods have been answered very well by annpat and armoured. Including where to get your starter worms, and how it can end up being an outdoor thing as time goes on with gardening. In case you can't find any locally, this is what I'd suggest for ordering commercially.

Being in the Midwest, if you are certain you only want red wigglers, then you don't want to order from anywhere that sources or raises the smaller composting worms in the South. Most have either 100% blue worms, Perionyx excavatus, or a good portion of those. Past handful of years blues have found the warmer parts of this country to be a great home. They out compete red wigglers in the same small space because they are just plain faster. Breed faster, eat faster, move faster. Little race cars.

Blues are good if it never freezes for any lengthy time frame where you'd keep worms, and you don't need worms for fishing purposes. Blue worms are the supermodels of worms, really thin. Blues do make vermicompost very fast, arguably faster than red wigglers.

Cold weather exposed small composting worms for more than 16 hours will kill off most anything that isn't a 'red wiggler'. Some sites mention 45f degrees, but death after being kept in 34f for 16 hrs has been documented. Can't remember if this was a large bin or something else. I keep my blues indoors so no trouble. Blues would not in theory work outdoors further north in compost piles, rarely tumbled tumblers, or composty garden beds. They might drop cocoons before dying, or find some other way of adapting, so who knows.

Probably best to keep blues away from the outdoors either way, because of how fast they process materials. My outdoor worms are mostly Alabama Jumpers and African Nightcrawlers. They co-exist seemingly fine, and occupy different layers. Alabama Jumpers are I believe one of the highly controversial outdoor worms, for similar reasons that Blue Worms could be bad news to unprepared forests.

Have also used the indoor variety of 'continuous flow through' bins. Worm Inn, both sizes, The Urban Worm Bag version 2, etc. Have one of the small breeder Vermibags, but not one of the big versions yet. I get freshly interested about vermicomposting each winter mostly. When the garden beds are slam full of greens, carrots and such, so I have little room outside for tucking in all the scraps and small animal bedding.

Suddenly I'm eyeing my indoor worms and saying... get ready little guys! Time to step it up! A bin that has been functioning with live worms and no problems for about 6 months would count as 'established' to my understanding. If you split off worms from an established bin to a new bin, those old worms don't automatically make the new bin an established one.

Also used many many Rubbermaid type bins and Can O Worms previous to those. They all work, but if you like blending and have lots of wet scraps, breathable bags might be easier to manage. Bag type bins are great for getting a lot of materials processed faster than usually occurs in a solid Rubbermaid type bin.

Where to keep a worm bin in the house really depends on the tolerance of others living in the home. Over my life in many houses, they have been in every room of the house, and sometimes as a variety of disguised furniture. Except in a basement. Only because I've never lived where a basement is a practical thing, and not an under the house inadvertent pool. Green with envy about basements. ;) Only thing is you can not run a extra damp or overfeed bin out in a public living space. The chance of some sort of smell or flying pest is just too high.

I run all my bins on the dry side, but the ones I disliked the most were the Can O Worms (stacking towers) because the finished trays, even with running them somewhat dry, were so very heavy and all end up with the red wiggler worms dangling from the bottom holes. Guess worms didn't read the manual for how they were all supposed to move upwards. Imagine holding one of those trays. Where do you set that down? I was quite unhappy every time I needed to harvest that thing. *Shudder*

For those of you that take the worm castings and put them in your flower garden...... do you find that you get varmits..... about a week after adding the castings I got raccoons and possums that dug EXACTLY where I had put the castings around my flowers..... I don't know if there were eggs that hatched or if caused something else to happen.....