Worm Composting (2)- Some other thoughts

I thought I would add another picture of my worms, just for the ewww factor. They rarely look like this; I had to dig them up to get them to the surface.

I would also like to point out that this is an excellent project for kids. For the past two years, I have brought them in to my daughter's class to do experiments. There was only one kid, the entire time, that wouldn't touch them. Everybody else got over their squeamishness quickly.



So in addition to the set up instructions found here, I'll include these following tips.

SOME OTHER THOUGHTS

• Worms are comfortable at the same temperatures that we are. They will die if they freeze or get too hot.
• Don’t add meat, bones, dairy, oily foods, pet wastes, diapers, anything that doesn’t biodegrade or anything that has been sprayed heavily with pesticides.
• Each redworm should produce one tiny, lemon shaped egg capsule every 2 to 3 weeks. Each capsule contains a dozen or so baby worms.
• Worms like the dark, so keep the lights off or the lid on.
• If you run out of coconut fiber you can get more at garden centers. I buy mine at a local Hydroponics store.
• If you would like, you can use shredded leaves, shredded white office paper, shredded newspaper or shredded cardboard as bedding. Don’t use anything with colored inks. I find these materials harder to get to the right moisture level, so I rarely use them alone, but they will work. I do sometimes add a layer of wetted, shredded office paper or leaves in the middle of the bin along with the regular coconut fiber under it and over it. It’s a good way to recycle these materials and mixing it with the coconut fiber gives a greater margin of error.
• This particular type of worm, Eisenia fetida, needs huge amounts of organic matter to survive. They don’t do well in regular garden soil because there just isn’t enough organic matter for them.
  

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Related Posts-
Worm Composting (1)- Setting Up the Bed
Worm Composting (3)- Harvesting The Castings
Worm Composting (4)- Troubleshooting
Using Eggshells
Why You Need Worm Poo