Day 2: Waiting

The temperature outside has not risen above 52°F.  Inside the house it’s about 66°F (yes, we keep it cold).  Inside the worm bin it’s a couple degrees warmer.  It’s kind of funny to lift the lid.  A bunch of the worms have their little head ends above the shredded paper and they duck down under the paper when the light hits them.  I checked the corner where the food is, and there are worms among it.  The instructions say to give them 3 days to start working the food and to not disturb them too much.

And So It Begins...

I have wanted a worm composter for a number of years.  I have seen it as a solution to a number of my composting challenges namely:  (1) the compost pile located just far enough away that it’s inconvenient to go out to it in the rain (a nearly daily occurrence in the places I’ve lived for the last decade and a half); (2) infestation of the compost with rodents looking for hand-outs and granddaddy slugs doing their part for nature; and (3) bowls of rotting veggies on my counter or in a cupboard attracting flies while waiting to be taken out to the compost bin.  A worm composter is a quick, closed, odor-free method of turning organic, fibrous material into lovely soil to add to my garden.

            Worm bins can be a bit pricey.  Most are made of plastic and can run upwards of $80.  Considering my regular compost bin was made from scraps of wood for free, the cost was a bit of a hurdle.  Recently our county offered worm composters for sale at a significantly reduced price, so I bought one.  I assembled it and ordered my worms.

Unfortunately the instructions are not very well-organized (apologies to a Mr. Ralph Rhoads who wrote them), so this is going to be a bit of an experiment.  The bin came with 3 layers which appear to be referred to as “working trays” and “processing trays”.  All the pictures show the trays sitting on top of each other at equal depths, but this doesn’t appear to happen initially.  The top trays sit snuggly on whatever is in the tray beneath them.  This makes sense since we want the worms to be able to move seamlessly between the layers.  If there was an air gap, they’d be unable to do this.

            Worms need “bedding”. The kit came with a “brick” of coir (basically the hairy fiber from a coconut) which I was told to soak and break apart until it formed a “granular texture/saturation point, not unlike used coffee grounds.”  I put this in the bottom tray and then covered it with the shredded paper that was also included with the kit.  I then added the rest of the trays and the lid (with a handle that was included in the kit but which was not mentioned anywhere in the instructions).  That was a week ago and today I checked it and it is still nice and moist, waiting for its new inhabitants.

            The instructions from the county encouraged us to purchase worms from a local source.  They specify the species Eisenia fetida (the “red wiggler”) which is a striped red worm.  My understanding is that any old worms will do the job (even the regular earthworms that I dig up in my garden), but this particular species is quick and reproduces rapidly which enables you to add more and more waste and have it break down at a good pace.  The instructions say you can start with as little as ½ lb of worms, but I couldn’t find a local place that would sell less than a pound.  I checked the website, FindWorms.com and found some local producers.  I ended up purchasing from a cheerful chap named Walter at WeGotWorms4U.com (his headline is “We Got Worms… in a good way!”). 

The worms arrived today in a brown box marked, “Live Worms”.  The poor postman came up the drive wearing gloves and carrying the box at arm’s length.  I threw open the door and greeted him with, “My worms!!”  He looked very skeptical and was grateful to hand them over to me.  I explained what a worm composter was and he went on his way… probably thinking the lady in the white and green house is a bit of a nut case. 

When I opened the box it looked like the lid of the tub hadn’t been put on tightly.  There was a knot of worms off to the side burrowing in the folds of the newspaper that had been included as padding.  It was impressive how many “casts” (poops) had been deposited in just the 36 hours since they had left their home.  They all appeared to be alive – I poked as many as I could during the process of the transfer to their new home and they all recoiled.  The baby ones are translucent – like little rice noodles.  Walter had advised me to rinse out the container to make sure to get out all the babies and eggs.  I pulled out all the shredded paper, put the worms onto the coir bedding and then re-covered them with the paper to get settled before I start to add vegetable matter.

It’s pretty cold outside for April – the instructions say the worms work best between 60 and 80°F (15.5 and 26.6°C).  By late evening it had gotten to below 40°F according to the thermometer on our deck so I brought the bin inside (Shhh, don’t tell my husband).  I’m adding 4 ounces of food to one corner tonight.  On the menu: some slightly slimy carrots, moldy fruit, limp lettuce, breakfast cereal crumbs, crushed egg shells, a used herbal tea bag (minus the tag, string and staples), and some fresh drier lint.  MMMmmmm tasty!  We’ll see what they think.

I'll be posting photos as soon as I find the camera cable.