A Information To Feeding Worms

Now that you understand WHAT worms eat, it’s time to wriggle a bit deeper into the optimum strategies of feeding them.

1. Correctly Put together Scraps

Regardless of how environment friendly these guys are at chowing down, they really don’t have any tooth, to allow them to’t eat something till it begins to decompose. Breaking down your scraps (by shredding, pureeing, freezing, soaking, and even microwaving to room temperature) previous to feeding helps expedite the method.

Ensure that meals scraps aren’t too far gone. Worms prefer to eat meals scraps and different issues as they’re starting to decompose, so don’t give them something too rotten or it’ll simply stink up your bin.

2. Get The Quantity Of Worm Meals Proper

How a lot it is best to feed worms is dependent upon what number of you’ve got. For a brand new bin, your worms will take a pair weeks to mature and attain max consumption, the place they’ll eat as much as half their physique weight in a day. For perspective, 1000 pink wigglers (the really useful quantity to start out vermicomposting) weigh about 1 pound, needing one half-pound of meals every day.

You don’t essentially must weigh your worms or their meals. Worms will inform you when they should eat extra. When their final meal is sort of gone, it’s time to feed them once more.

Have in mind it’s higher to underfeed your worms than overfeed them. Leaving an excessive amount of meals in your compost bin may cause the meals to rot and trigger “protein poisoning”, wherein your worms will begin to look sickly and discolored. Forestall this by “pocket feeding” or including smaller quantities of meals to rotating sections every day or two.

If the well being of your bin is perfect, the worm inhabitants can double each 60-90 days, that means you’ll must account for that gradual enhance in quantity of meals, preserving a balanced carbon to nitrogen (C:N) ratio.

A profitable vermicomposter ought to see a C:N ratio between 20:1 and 35:1. A 30:1 ratio is vital; brown carbon wealthy supplies are higher and inexperienced nitrogen wealthy supplies are decrease. That’s loads of fancy quantity discuss for a easy rule of thumb: attempt for equal elements inexperienced and brown.

3. Cowl The Worms And Their Meals With “Bedding”

Shredded paper works nice. This maintains moisture and encourages your worm to return to the floor. In any other case, they’ll stick towards the underside of the bin, the place it’s darkest and coolest.

4. Preserve Your Worm Bin In Between Feedings

Particularly, be looking out for potential issues. For example, your bin is likely to be too moist or too dry. A dry bin is definitely fastened by including water. An excessively moist bin, nevertheless, should be remedied by including dry, carbon wealthy supplies to soak up the water. For those who’ve added loads of watery meals, like lettuce, melon or cucumber, ensure to steadiness it with some paper.

Temperature is one other factor to be aware of. Hold your bin a cool location out of direct daylight to stop your worms from getting too sizzling. If this occurs, worms will cluster towards the underside, consuming much less meals, slowing their copy charge, and even inflicting dying if bins will get over 95°F or 35°C. That stated, don’t let your worms get too chilly both, or they’ll huddle collectively and consumption will lower.

Take note of scent, too. A wholesome worm bin ought to scent earthy. If it smells rotten or vinegary, likelihood is you’ve both added meat or dairy, or have an excessive amount of acidity within the bin. Some acidity is of course produced throughout microbial fermentation, however an excessive amount of can burn worm pores and skin. You’ll be able to right the pH ranges by eradicating any uneaten meals and including impartial pH supplies like eggshells and paper.

For those who discover undesirable company—like fruit flies, rodents, potworms, centipedes, and earwigs—it in all probability means you’re including one thing you shouldn’t.