what to feed a homemade worm bed

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1. Feed your worms fruit and vegetable scraps. Worms will enjoy a variety of fruits and veggies, like bananas, pumpkin, apples, lettuces, eggplant, berries, squash, and greens.
2. Add eggshells and coffee grounds to the worm bin. Coffee grounds are a great addition to a worm bin as they are full of nitrogen and have a neutral ...
3. Include hair, dust, wood ash, and sawdust. Pet and human hair, in addition to dust, like that which collects in a vacuum cleaner, can also be added to the ...
4. Provide organic matter for bedding. Leaves, grass clippings, black peat, and coconut coir, in addition to shredded egg cartons, paper, tissues, paper towels, and cardboard are examples of good ...
Avoid feeding worms meat, grains, dairy, and oils. Meat, including beef, pork, and chicken, or bones, as well as dairy products, like milk, cheese, and yogurt, are not suitable ...
Don’t offer salty or spicy foods, or foods with preservatives. Foods with preservatives, such as packaged snacks and desserts (like chips and cookies), are not good for your worms.
Provide an equal amount of green and brown foods. Both types of food are important for worms. ...

What is the best food for a worm bed?

• The smaller the matter the easier and faster for the worms to compost. Chopping large chunks of food to feed worms is recommended but not necessary. ...
• Try to keep a balance of browns and greens. ...
• The amount and frequency of food you will want to feed your worms is also a factor you need to consider. ...

How to make perfect worm bedding for thriving worms?

The best bedding material:

• absorbs and holds moisture
• allows oxygen flow
• is pH neutral
• odorless
• is free of any sharp or abrasive things that can harm the worms’ sensitive skin
• block out light
• free of chemicals

What is the best food for worms?

the average night crawler diet consists of:

• Decomposing veggies
• Decomposing fruit
• Decomposing plant matter
• Fungi
• Other microorganisms
• Lard & Cornmeal

What do you feed worms to keep them alive?

• Feed them properly;
• Keep their bedding moist;
• Ensure good air flow within the bin and bedding;
• Keep the bin stored in the right temperature range; and.
• Keep the inside of the bin dark (i.e., little to no light).

What is good to feed worms?

Worms love lettuce, kale, Swiss chard, to name a few of these vegetables. Be sure to cut these scraps down into small pieces or even food process them. Remember to thoroughly rinse off all hot spices, sauces, oils, dressings, and cheeses because they can harm your vermicomposting project.

What is the best homemade worm bedding?

10 Bedding Materials Your Worms Will LoveShredded brown cardboard.Shredded paper (not bleached white office paper)Shredded newspaper (not colored)Aged compost.Aged horse or cow manure.Coco coir.Peat moss.Straw and hay.More items...•

What do you feed a worm for castings?

Worms will eat tomatoes but make sure to break down the seed or you will likely have some tomato sprouts in the bin....Of the vermicomposting do's and don'ts, veggies and fruits are a resounding “DO.” Worms will eat any of the following:Pumpkin.Leftover corn cobs.Melon rinds.Banana peels.Fruit and veggie detritus.

What is the best bedding for a worm farm?

Here's a list of common bedding materials you can add into the worm bin.Brown cardboard (cut into small pieces)Paper (not bleached white office paper, shredded)Newspaper (not colored, shredded)Aged compost.Aged horse or cow manure.Coco coir or coco fiber.Peat moss.Straw and hay.More items...•

Can I use coffee grounds for worm bedding?

Attract worms Worms love to eat coffee grounds, and that's great news for your garden. Add coffee grounds to your compost pile to help attract worms, which help speed up the process of turning food scraps into compost. You can also add coffee grounds directly to the soil, but you'll have to be careful not to overdo it.

Is potting soil good for worm beds?

Because it is intended to drain quickly, potting soil is a poor choice for a worm bin. Worms must have some moisture, but not enough to pool in the bottom of the bin. Worms not kept moist have trouble burrowing and often fail to reproduce.

Do worms eat banana peels?

Bananas are a great and inexpensive snack for both us and our worms. Those peels are desirable to compost worms no matter what shape they're in. They'll make short work of what otherwise would have taken up space in your trash.

Do worms eat rolled oats?

The rolled oats, cornmeal, and alfalfa work together to plump up your worms quickly. The finer this mix is powdered, the quicker your worms will eat it up and fatten up. Moisten your worm bedding and then sprinkle it over the bedding surface.

What should you not feed worms?

Avoid feeding the worms large quantities of meat, citrus, onions and dairy foods. Some processed food also contains preservatives, which discourage the worms from eating it. These foods won't harm your worms, but they will avoid them and those scraps will break down and rot in the bin.

How often should you change worm bedding?

After worms are added, bedding should be kept moist but not soggy and the top 6 to 8 inches turned every 7 to 10 days to keep it loose. About every 6 to 9 months the old bedding should be replaced with properly prepared new bedding. To change bedding, remove the top 5 or 6 inches (where most of the worms are).

Are grass clippings good for worms?

Grass clippings are a great addition to a traditional compost pile and worms will eat these as well in their natural setting, but in your vermicomposting system, they will heat up the soil and can kill all of your worms.

Do leaves make good worm bedding?

Leaves and other plant waste are the perfect food for composting worms. If you have a yard or garden of any size, you can capture these valuable nutrients by composting. Composting with worms, called “vermicomposting,” is fast and efficient. It's easier than you might think!

Can you use shredded paper for worm bedding?

Shredded Paper makes an excellent worm bin bedding. I prefer to use shredded newspaper but any type of shredded paper will work. Avoid the glossy section of the newspaper or the glossy junk mail.

How do you make a worm bed?

What You'll DoSTEP 1: Pick a spot that is shady most of the day.STEP 2: Measure an area 6 feet long by 3 feet wide.STEP 3: Dig a hole the size of that area to 36 inches deep. ... STEP 4: With your boards, make a box frame to fit inside the bed you've dug. ... STEP 5: Place the frame inside the bed.More items...

Is sawdust good for worm bedding?

You can use peat moss, aged manure, sawdust, dried grass clippings, hay, garden loam, even shredded cardboard, newspaper, grocery bags, and most types of shredded leaves. Oak and other highly acidic leaves are not recommended, since these worms don't like an acidic environment.

Do leaves make good worm bedding?

Leaves and other plant waste are the perfect food for composting worms. If you have a yard or garden of any size, you can capture these valuable nutrients by composting. Composting with worms, called “vermicomposting,” is fast and efficient. It's easier than you might think!

Step 1: Chop New and Old Veg Into Chunks Small Enough to Be Blended

Chop all the veg into chunks that will fit into the blender. I use a 2 cm cubes as this allows the veg to move around inside the blending jug and process quicker.

Step 2: Blend Veg Chunks and Add Charcoal

Add veg material, eggs shells, charcoal or rock dust, tea bags and other organic material identified in the intro. Blend with water to ensure it can move in the blender as a wet mixture will not over stress your blender motor.

Step 3: Collect Blended Worm Food

I like to collect my food in a bucket as I typically make quiet a lot of food for the wormery at the end of each week. You can see in the pictures the change in colour as different vegetables and material is added.

Step 4: Add Shredded Paper to Absorb Excess Water

I add shredded paper because the worms like to have bedding material mixed with there food, it also absorbs some of the water I added in the previous step. It helps aerate the mixture an allow the right bacteria to grow for the worms. I will keep some of the food back and add it every other day during the week.

The Ultimate Worm Farm Guide for Beginners

Are you thinking about starting a worm farm? This guide will teach you everything you need to know about how to start a worm farm.

What to Use as Bedding Material

Egg cartons made from recycled paper are a good variety to add as worm bedding.

How to Add Bedding Into the Worm Bin

Worm bedding material needs to be at about 80% moisture level. Hence you should dampen the bedding material before adding it into the worm bin to keep things moist. The bedding material should feel like a damp sponge, moist but not dripping.

Good Reasons for Raising Worms

Colleen Vanderlinden is an organic gardening expert and author of the book "Edible Gardening for the Midwest." She has grown fruits and vegetables for over 12 years and professionally written for 15-plus years.

Advantages of Vermicomposting

Worms are composting factories, eating kitchen scraps and producing rich compost at surprising speed. The compost they produce is richer than most commercial compost and, of course, it's free. Worms work throughout the year, composting even in winter, which means that compost from your worm gardens will be available whenever you need it.

Advantages of Worm Beds

Worm bins are generally multi-layered containers in which red worms eat organic material and produce nutrient-rich compost. Worm bins are small enough to keep indoors, but if you've found that traditional worm bins are just too small for your needs, or you dislike how fussy they can be, worm beds might be a better option.

Raised Worm Beds

The easiest way to build a worm bed is to simply build an ordinary raised garden bed out of wood. These are simple wooden boxes, usually about three feet wide and six feet long, filled with soil and nutrients.

Dug-In Worm Beds

Your worm bed will work even better if you dig it into the ground, rather than making a raised bed. Simply dig a pit, line the sides with boards, bricks, or cinder blocks (to keep roots from surrounding plants out of your worm bed) and line the bottom with a layer of corrugated cardboard.

Getting Worms and Caring for Your Worm Bed

You can order red wigglers from many sources online, simply search for "red wigglers" or "composting worms." It's best to order your worms in spring, after the too-cold temperatures of winter and the too-hot temps of summer, either of which can kill your worms in transit.

Step 2

Drill multiple holes between 1/16 inch and 1/8 inch in diameter near the top of the bin.

Step 3

Add moist bedding to the bin until it is half full. Bedding options include finely shredded matte paper, peat moss and coconut fiber. Moisten paper bedding by spritzing it generously with water; moisten moss or coconut fiber by submerging it completely in water and wringing it out well.

Step 4

Add 1,000 night crawlers, or 1/2 to 1 pound of worms, per square foot of the bed's surface area, regardless of the bin's depth. Turn on a light near the bin while the worms are settling in. Because worms dislike light, this will encourage them to burrow into their new home.

Step 5

Sprinkle food over the bedding. Arrange small sections of food in various areas over the surface of the bed. Use either commercial chicken mash purchased at a pet store or food waste from your own kitchen, such as potato skins or coffee grounds. Do not add acidic foods or anything that contains dairy products.

Step 6

Replenish food only after the worms have consumed most or all of the food from the previous feeding. Adjust feeding times, ingredients and quantities as you learn more about your worms' preferred diets.

Step 7

Spritz the bed with water regularly to maintain a consistent, moderate degree of moisture.

Step 8

Store the worm bed away from direct sunlight and exposure to extreme temperatures.

Reduce your carbon footprint

Roughly 40% of food in the US goes to waste. The average American throws away about 20 pounds of food each month. It takes energy to move this waste to the landfill. But worse, because food contains high amounts of carbon, it produces high amounts of methane.

Reduce the need for commercial insecticides and save the bees

A Harvard study found that the key driver of colony collapse disorder is caused by a chemical found in commonly used insectides. Researchers found that vermicompost significantly improves a plant’s resistance to insect attacks by aphids, caterpillars and mealy bugs, thus decreasing pest damage.

Improve the nutritional value of the food you grow

A 2004 study compared the nutritional data of 43 fruits and vegetables from both 1950 and 1999. They found “reliable declines” in many of the micronutrients, which were the result of agricultural practices that were designed to improve growth rate and pest resistance.

Remove toxins from the soil

Earthworms can effectively biodegrade toxins, including heavy metals such as nickel, chromium, vanadium and lead, and can even remediate arsenic and mercury. Scientists believe that earthworms could be an effective alternative to costly industrial cleanup methods.

Grow bigger plants and improve your yield

You can have the best garden in the neighborhood. A vermicompost tea can dramatically increase plant growth and yield by up to 50%! Castings have also been shown to increase the germination rate of seeds.

Reduce the amount of human pathogens in soil

A study found that when worms were introduced to biosolids infected with E. coli, Salmonella and other harmful organisms, the worms eliminated the pathogens, making the vermicompost safe for handling and application to plants. They also found that vermicomposting eliminates the need for heat composting.

1. Indoor Worm Tower

As I mentioned above, I got started with the Worm Factory 360, which is a very simple ready-to-go indoor kit. I highly recommend it.