Indoor Worm Composting: Lessons From the First Year

I have been exploring the wonderful world of vermicompost for the last year (see Indoor Worm Composting and Indoor Worm Composting: Update!)

Record Keeping
About half way through the year I started keeping detailed notes on my worm bins. I note the amount and type of food fed, vermicompost and worm harvest, and problems as they arise and resolve. This helped me see why my second bin developed a fruit fly infestation - I was basically overfeeding them which was apparent when reviewing the records. Accurate and detailed record keeping is a vital skill and habit to develop.   

Learning Curve
Any new skill set comes with challenges and the learning curve for composting worms was a bit steep for me - but I think I have a handle on it currently. Understanding that every practical, homestead, and livestock related skill will have a steep learning curve will allow me to set up future projects for success from the start by implementing changes slowly and scaling production at a reasonable rate. Recognising  that livestock projects have steep learning curves will also help me avoid disappointment when it's not all easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy and hopefully help keep livestock safe during that initial learning phase.

Hive Mind
I have two favourite Facebook groups (Vermicomposting and Red Worm Composting) and I love pursuing the posts there for personal education (for example, someone was experimenting with an all cardboard worm bin) as well as adding my 0.02 cents when it comes to helping out newbies. There is always more to learn and my favourite Facebook groups encourage that type of open communication, learning and polite discourse. 

Hopefully these skills will allow me to scale up production in the near future. My system has to get larger to fully incorporate the food scrapes that we produce. Additionally I have some ideas to allow for a small stream of income to emerge. To that end I recently made a Beginner's Guide to Worm Composting zine.

Indoor Worm Composting: Update!

I've had my Indoor Worm Composting system since February (see first post here) and over the summer I switched from the 5 gallon bucket system to the more common rubbermaid tote system. I found that the materials became dense in the bucket system and I found it difficult to regulate feeding. The tote system seems to have a better surface area ratio which makes the upkeep simpler. 

Once I made the switch to totes, my worm population really took off so I started a second bin (which is currently stacked in my kitchen!) I find it difficult to remove finished vermicompost from an active bin as the uneaten food, bedding, and finished compost is mixed together so I plan on only feeding the new bin. This should allow the worms in the first bin to eat through all available food making harvesting vermicompost easier.   

I have also started a more detailed record keeping system. Each bin has a sheet that details the Bin #, date started, and the initial worm count/type. This sheet also has a place to record the date and amount of vermicompost removed as well as the date and amount of worms removed. A second sheet tracks the inputs for each bin by recording the date, bin #, type and amount of food, as well as type and amount of bedding. I hope this record keeping system will improve my worm wrangling abilities! 

Resources: Homesteading Facebook Groups

Grow Your Own Cut Flowers: While this group is set up by a business, it is full of beautiful pictures of cut flowers and is overall a pleasant and helpful group. While advice posts occur, this group is primarily a place to share photos and to get arrangement ideas from others through photos posted.

Red Worm Composting and Vermicomposting - Worm Farming: Both of these groups are open, inviting, and willing to answer both basic and advanced worm composting questions in a friendly and accepting manner. Excellent resources for worm composting.

Market Gardening Success Group: While this group frequently discusses their mandate of being a place for 'professional' market gardening there is some good advice and conversation within this group. If you are new to market gardening or just growing a large garden for personal use I would suggest that you utilise the search function rather than posting for advice.

CSA Farmer Discussion: This group is a decently friendly group for folks running CSAs unfortunately you have to fill out a google form before admins let you join. There are some good discussions and advice regarding running a CSA in this group.

Winter Sowing (Vegetable Gardening with Sheryl Mann) : While my first experiments with winter sowing were not successful, I find this group to be a welcoming introduction to winter sowing.

Tanning, Leather & Fur Crafting: I've been lurking in this group for a while but do not participate very often. It seems to be a fairly welcoming group and there is a plethora of information contained here. I'm a bit overwhelmed at the thought of tanning but it is something I want to get into.

I'm still searching for a good Angora rabbit group that focuses on wool production and a friendly chicken group.

Indoor Worm Composting

Indoor worm composting has long been on my to-do list as I think it is a wonderful way to compost in small indoor spaces. Worries about escaping worms and smells kept me from starting a indoor worm composting system for many years but I found a DIY system using 5 gallon buckets and a local place giving out free starter worms so I decided that with low financial inputs I could give it a try! I was also excited to have my first 'livestock'!

Benefits of the bucket worm composting method: 

• Stacking five gallon buckets took up a lot less floor space than the traditional plastic tote. 
• Holes drilled in the bottom of the buckets allow for easy worm migration which means no messy separation of worm casting and worms. 
• Affordable system that can be reused if worm composting doesn't wind up working out. 

Worm Care:

Feed worms vegetable scraps but avoid meat, oil, and breads. 

Bucket should contain 'browns' which include newspaper, cardboard, and/or egg cartons.

Troubleshooting:

The food is mouldy! I sometimes over-fed my worms and some of the food gets a bit mouldy. When this happens I simply add more newspaper or cardboard and reduce food for a while. This seems to quickly resolve the problem. 

What should it smell like? I love the smell of my worm bucket! It smells like warm, damp, earth!