Lids and Surface Covers ~ Since red worms have their photoreceptors in each body segment, they are very sensitive to light (photophobic). Your worm composting bin, therefore, needs to be opaque and have a lid that excludes light but is modified to allow for good ventilation/aeration. It is also a good idea to place a piece of cardboard on top of the bedding surface to further help exclude light, maintain a more stable bedding temperature along with improving moisture retention and control.

“Feeding” your Bin’s ‘Detritivores’ ~ Red worms eat as much as their own body weight in microorganism rich decaying organic material every day. Because of this Its intestinal tract contains a richer variety of microorganisms than the food it consumes because red worms feed exclusively on the protozoa, fungi, and other microbes (i.e. bacteria) that actively decompose the organic kitchen, home and yard wastes you put in your bin. That said, worms do indiscriminately ingest some of the decomposing waste, soil grains and grit along with these microbes. Therefore you should expect the bedding of a well managed red worm compost bin to support a rich and diverse ecosystem containing fungi, mold, bacteria, and soil and even soil loving insects at times!

The detritivores in a healthy worm bin will consume a wide variety of organic materials such as paper, cardboard, manure, fruit and vegetable waste, grains, coffee grounds, and ground yard wastes. While these detritivores will also consume meat and dairy products, it is best not to add these materials or oily foods to your bin, due to potential odor and pest problems. Detritivores tend to consume a limited amount of citrus scraps as the limonene, a chemical compound found in citrus, is directly toxic to red worms, so it is best to limit or avoid adding them to your bin altogether.

Since red worms consume the cell bodies and waste products of the active detritivores which themselves tend to be very small to microscopic, it is best to reduce the size of the organic wastes that you add to your bin cutting them up, crushing them, shredding them, or pulverizing them first (fyi: blending kitchen waste is unnecessary). By ‘preprocessing’ the organics you add to your bin in this manner you increase the surface area of each component and therefore increase its immediate access to the population of detritivores your bin supports.

When adding nitrogen rich organic food material (not including the bedding material), add it to only one location in your bin and add enough to last for only 3-7 days, an amount that will require you to observe on a daily basis at first to determine. If it lasts 2 days or less, you are adding too little, if it lasts 8 days or more you are adding too much at one time or it has not been adequately  ‘pre-processed’.

Since the insects, macroinvertebrates, fungi, protozoans and bacteria will decompose all kinds of food and yard wastes that you could added to a cold composting bin using red worms, including things like including coffee grounds, tea bags, vegetable and fruit waste, pulverized egg shells, grass clippings, manure, and sewage sludge there are some basic guideline you should follow. Add things like citrus wastes, garlic, onions, and spicy foods in small quantities. Avoid animal products and wastes of any kind (i.e bones, dairy products, and meats scraps) Avoid adding chemicals (including insecticides), metals, plastics, glass, soaps, pet manures, and oleanders or other poisonous plants, or plants sprayed with insecticides to the worm bin. When adding food wastes to the worm bin, start by pulling back the existing bedding material on the top of the bin or tray and burying it the added wastes below the bedding. Be sure to cover well so as to avoid unwanted insects. Additional food waste loads should be buried at different locations in the bin or in another tray to keep the decomposable wastes from accumulating. Finally, the sum of all the items added to a worm bin needs to have a carbon to nitrogen (C:N) ratio of between 20:1 and 40:1 by weight. [Note: Items that include shredded newspapers (non-glossy), computer paper, or cardboard; shredded leaves, straw, hay, or dead plants; sawdust; peat moss; or compost or aged (or composted) manure etc.] If the C:N ratio of the added items is out of balance, the bin’s contents will become anaerobic, smelly, stagnate, and hot, conditions that will kill the red worms that can’t find suitable space, quickly.

Bedding Materials ~ Since Red worms in the wild are found in the forest floor's leaf litter layer, between the open air above and the soil surface below, your worm bin needs to have sufficient ‘bedding’ material added to it from time to time. Bedding material for your worm bin can be created using dried crushed leaves, shredded newsprint, shredded cardboard (free of plastic tape and labels), and non glossy waste paper. Besides providing a place for worms to reside and reproduce when not actively feeding, this material also provides the primary carbon source for the detritivores that are decomposing the generally nitrogen rich / carbon poor organic food items that you add to the bin. Remember, it’s these detritivores and their wastes that your red worms consume! The worm casting (worm poop) will be easier to harvest if sufficient bedding is used when managing your worm bin as a high carbon diet produces castings that are pelletized allowing them to not stick together when dried!

Venting/Aeration & ‘Fluffing’ ~ Since Red worms breathe through their skin, the worm bin needs to be well vented and the bedding should be moist and manually fluffed-up from time to time to maintain oxygen rich (i.e.aerobic) conditions. Since opening and ‘fluffing up’ the bedding in your worm bin can stress the worms, make sure you allow 3 or more days to pass between making observations and/or ‘fluffing’ the bedding or adding organic food materials. If you notice the walls of your worm bin are always wet, that is a sign that your bin needs better ventilation.

Moisture ~ Regarding moisture, maintaining the environment in the bedding at a healthy level of moisture allows for (1) an environment that encourages the healthy growth of microorganisms that will consume the organic kitchen, home and yard wastes you put in your bin, (2) which in turn provides the true ‘food’ that red worms eat (yes, the microorganisms!) and finally, (3) will make it so that your red worms won’t dry out! You know the moisture level is where it should be if you can only squeeze 2-5 drops of water out of a handful of worm bin bedding. Over time, moisture will tend to build up at the bottom of your worm bin. A well designed worm bin will have a moisture collection and draining component built into the bottom of the bin.

pH ~ Red worms prefer their bedding to be slightly acidic (i.e at a pH of about 5.5 but can tolerate a pH range from 4 to 9). Too acidic and your bin’s red worm population will experience sudden declines. The best way to manage an appropriate pH is to not add too much organic kitchen wastes (which are generally wet and nitrogen rich) to your red worm’s bin environment. Remember, any organic food wastes that you add to the bin have to be broken down by fungi and bacteria first, before the worms can feed on these detritivores. If the detritivore population increases too fast, your system will go anaerobic (i.e. oxygen poor) causing the pH to drop below 5.5!

Other Amendments ~ Since Red worms have no teeth, like birds, they have a crop and gizzard that helps ingested materials first mix with grit and then get macerated by the musculature in these organs. Because of this, it is necessary to mix in a tablespoon of fine sand or loamy soil and/or ground up eggshells per square foot of worm bedding used whenever you establish your worm bin environment or after you add bedding materials after removing worm castings.

Other Worm Bin Occupants ~ If other small macroscopic or microscopic organisms show up in your cold composting worm bin don’t panic! Take a breath, make observations and do your research. In almost all cases, a population explosion of one critter or another is common and most likely will be a temporary issue or can be remedied with a simple ‘tweak’ in how you are managing your bin. Since entire books can be written on this subject, the best course of action is to take your observation and search the internet for information and remedies. Using this search phrase will yield the information you will need for most situations <  “worm bin” good bad critters  >.

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_FOOTNOTES
¹Though available at a price, purchasing ‘worm bedding’ is unnecessary as a typical household with a yard creates more than enough household and yard wastes that can be easily processed to create great worm bin bedding material as needed!

Since a well managed worm bin population using red worms can reproduce rather rapidly, excess worms can be added to your organically managed flower and garden beds and home orchard soils to aid in soil development. However, remember, red worms are surface dwellers so maintaining a thin layer of leaf litter or mulch would greatly benefit their survival and advancement.

Once the bedding and consumed food in your bin has turned a rich dark brown, with a consistency of coffee grounds you can commence with the harvesting of your worm castings. If you wait longer, worm castings tend to get sludgy, anaerobic and odorous with time and become more difficult to harvest.

There are three basic methods that can be used to separate the worms from the bedding and finished compost.

One method employs the surface-feeding tendency of red worms to ‘herd’ them to one location of your bin (either to one side or the top surface) by placing food items there to create an active feeding area. Next, add additional bedding materials to the top of this feeding area to encourage the worms to continue moving over into the feeding area. Within a few days to a week, there should be a writhing mass of feeding worms within or below the new feeding area. Once the bulk of your red worms are in the feeding area, turn a plastic bag inside out over your hand, and scoop up the collection of feeding worms by grabbing the mass of worms and turning the bag right-side out. This should give you enough worms to restart your bin again using the rest of the bedding material and food wastes you used to attract the worms using the method described above. The finished compost can then be removed and sifted.

A second method requires the building and use of a small harvester frame constructed using 2 × 4s with a 3/16-inch mesh applied to the bottom. Place the active worm bin compost on the frame and sift the worms out. Larger pieces of compost can be returned to create a new batch of bedding and worms.

The last method employs the red worm's sensitivity to light to directionally herd them deeper into a pile of compost by first placing the active worm compost in small piles on a tarp in the sun. Because worms don’t like light, they will move to the bottoms of the piles. After waiting 10 minutes, remove the upper inch or more of finished compost from each pile until you run into the worms. Allow the worms to again move to the bottom of the pile and repeat the process. Combine what’s left of the small piles into one big pile and again repeat the process. You should eventually end up with a pile of finished compost and a ball of worms. The worms can be added back to a new bin of bedding and food waste.

More than likely some worms and cocoons (i.e. egg cases) will be left in the castings that remain. So, after gathering and removing the bulk of your worms, the next step is to dump the remainder of the bins contents onto a tarp under a bright light or noonday sun, which will encourage the remaining worms to burrow down to escape the light. Castings can then be separated by slowly scraping them away, pausing periodically to let the worms burrow further. Eventually, you are left with a pile of worms. At this point you can either hand separate any cocoons from the castings or leave them to further enrich your castings. This should be no problem if the castings are to be used in your garden and flower beds.

Freshly harvested, moist, bioactive worm castings should be mixed into potting soil soon after they are harvested in order to garner the best effect on indoor plants. If they are to be stored or used for outdoor plants, they should be cured in an aerobic environment to dry, eliminating the potential to introduce new species and prevent mold.

Meanwhile, back in your newly harvested worm bin, your captured red worms will regulate their own population according to the conditions of the bin environment. These conditions include space, moisture, pH, temperature, bedding material, and amount of food available. A typical household worm bin might start out with one pound of worms (approximately 1,000 adults), which will soon multiply to 2,000–3,000 in favorable conditions. Conversely, if one or more of the above conditions are not provided, the worms may crawl out leaving the bin or die off.

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The decomposition process and worm castings themselves in a cold composting bin using red worms can be used to first make and/or collect two forms of liquid, one that can be made and added to garden and landscape soils and plants, while the other should be disposed of upon collection.

The first form of liquid that can be actively made using freshly harvested worm castings is called worm tea. Worm tea is easy to make and use as an amendment to rapidly promote plant growth. Nutrients found in worm tea are naturally in a form that can be quickly absorbed by the entire plant, above and below the soil surface.

Here are the most commonly used cited recipes for making worm tea.

‍Recipe I (used as a foliar spray for fruit trees): 

Mix 3 lbs castings to 5 gallons of water and 1/3 cup molasses, aerate for 1 to 2 days (a longer period is needed if the air temperature is lower than 70 degrees). Finally, pour the finished worm tea brew through a panty hose leg to filter out large particles.

‍Recipe II (a ‘traditional’ worm castings tea):

In a five gallon bucket, mix one gallon of rainwater, distilled water or tap water (that has sat out overnight so the chlorine can evaporate) and 2 tablespoons of unsulphured molasses (which serves as food for the living microorganisms that can be found in fresh, moist worm castings). To this mixture add 2-3 cups of freshly harvested, moist worm castings that have been placed in the toe of a pantyhose leg and knotted off forming a ‘tea bag’ of sorts. Let this mixture soak overnight.

When ready, this tea can be sprinkled on plants using a watering can, or with a garden sprayer in the early morning or evening as direct sun can be hard on the living microbes in the worm tea. Next, the leftover castings in the pantyhose ‘tea bag’ can be directly worked into the soil around plants that are in need of added plant nutrients.  Finally, clean and dry the pantyhose so it's ready for your next ‘worm castings tea’ making session.

‍Recipe III (for making a small quantity):

‍To a half gallon container add a quart of rainwater, distilled water or tap water (that has sat out overnight so the chlorine can evaporate) and 2-3  teaspoons of freshly harvested, moist worm castings. Stir up well and let this mixture soak overnight. After a days ‘steeping’ this mixture is ready to be added directly to the soil around your indoor or outdoor plants. If you want to use this mixture as a foliar spray, filter the tea through the toe of a pantyhose first.

Worm tea made from freshly harvested worm castings and chlorine free water contains a community of microorganisms including:

• Bacteria 
• Protozoa
• Fungi and 
• Nematodes (not the bad ones that attack the roots)

Plants growing in soils where worm castings have been added contain microbes that promote the development of a soil environment that enhances the plant’s ability to build and maintain a stronger defense system. As wonderful as application of worm castings for the development and enhancement of healthy soils, and therefore healthy plants, worm tea works a little bit differently.

The nutrients and/or microbes found in the ‘tea’ made from freshly harvested worm castings:
‍
• Are readily absorbed by the plant receiving it.
• Encourages the growth of a good microbial community within the soil.
• Nurture and protect plant roots.
• Increases the rate of plant growth, increasing the size of plants & blooms, and yields.When applied as a foliar spray,
       – Microbes in the tea have the opportunity to attach to the leaf and outcompete the harmful disease causing microbes like           black rot, mildew, and early blight.
       – Nutrients in the tea can be directly absorbed by leaves
• Are unlike chemical fertilizers in that it does not:
       – Burn the soil.
        – Kill beneficial microbes.
        – Shut down or weaken the plant's immune system.
        – Enable bad soil microbes to dominate the soil’s microbiological ecosystem.
The second form of liquid that can be easily and passively collected is called leachate. Time, red worms, decomposing wastes and a well maintained worm bin will create an excess of moisture that will collect on the bottom of the bin. Collectively, this excess and easily collectable fluid (depending on the construction of your worm bin) is called leachate. Be careful when handling leachate because:

• It is not as nutritious as ‘worm tea’.
• It can be highly acidic.It is often anaerobic (lack of oxygen).
• It often contains non beneficial microbes that can even be harmful to healthy soils and toxic to plants.
• It often lacks beneficial microbes.
• It often lacks nutrients that plants depend on.

If a cold composting bin using red worms is consistently producing a large quantity of a smelly run-off, this means the compost is too wet or it could mean that more food is being added than the current worm population can consume. If your worm bin does have any leachate at the bottom then simply throw it down the drain.

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The benefits of vermicomposting with red worms comes by employing its specialized digestive system to convert select kitchen, household and yard wastes and other organic materials to a nutrient-rich compost called vermicompost or worm castings.

Vermicompost, or castings, is another name for worm manure. When used properly, worm castings are one of the best soil amendments available. [Note: Fresh worm castings, when added to soil, have been shown to increase plant growth, health, and yields faster and better than most other types of soil amendments.] The nutrient and microorganismal content of fresh, moist, biologically active castings harvested from your worm bin will depend on the nutrient content of the material added to the bin prior harvesting the castings.

Worm castings provide plants receiving them with a variety of readily available nutrients that are helpful for promoting plant growth upon uptake. The biology of the red worm’s gut facilitates the growth of fungi and bacteria that are beneficial to plant growth. In addition, any of the chemical compounds found in castings have been shown to promote plant growth by retarding the growth of soil borne plant pathogens.

In summary, when directly added to garden and yard soils, freshly harvested and applied worm castings:
• Enhances soil biodiversity by promoting the beneficial microbes which in turn enhances plant growth directly by production of plant growth-regulating hormones and enzymes and indirectly by controlling plant pathogens, nematodes and other pests, thereby enhancing plant health and minimizing the yield loss.
• Enhance the beneficial microflora and suppress harmful pathogenic microbes.
• Contain the nutrient availability and microbial activity needed to rapidly increase soil fertility, enhance plant growth and suppress the population of plant pathogens and pests.

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