Care and Feeding

Environment

• To create the right environment, line your bin with biodegradable bedding. You can use coir,  peat moss*, aged manure, sawdust, dried grass clippings, hay, garden loam, even shredded cardboard, newspaper, grocery bags, and most types of shredded leaves.
  * the pH balance of your bin should be at 7.0.  If you use peat moss, you will probably have to soak the peat in water before the pH gets to that level.
• Worms are photophobic, they shun both sun and artificial light, burrowing as deep as they can. Use a dark-colored bin, or drape it with a dark covering. If you move the worm bin outside in warmer weather, make sure it stays covered in a cool, shaded place.
• Worms are resilient and can survive within a fairly wide temperature range.  They will thrive in temperatures ranging from 60^o to 80^o F.
• Worms need moisture to keep their skin wet enough to wriggle and burrow.   When using paper products for bedding, soak them overnight or longer in a separate container and then pull them apart into small pieces. For other substances, add enough water to your bedding to make them slightly moist, like a wrung-out sponge (65% Moisture Content).   Check the MC regularly, particularly after adding paper products (that can dry the bin by soaking moisture) or food scraps (that can add moisture). 

Adapted from Joan D. Filsinger in Fine Gardening.

Feeding

• To feed the worms, bury the food in clumps, putting each feeding into one small space within the bin. Feeding once or twice a week is recommended. Just place the food in a new place each time.
• Worms can process a wide range of organic materials as long as the materials are not too salty or too acidic. Fruits, vegetables, coffee grounds and filters, and tea bags all make good worm food. Citrus fruit and peels should only be applied in small amounts because of their high acidity. Worms and microorganisms will process chopped or ground food scraps more rapidly than they will process large-sized pieces of food, but, given time, whole foods will break down.
• "Worms feed IN decaying organic matter, but not directly FROM it. Their favorite foods include algae, fungus, and protozoa, so in a vermicomposting ecosystem the microbes provide both nutrition for the worms and reduction of organic material to a form accessible to worms. These microbes require oxygen, water, and a balance of carbon and nitrogen, optimally 25-30 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen" (Recycling Associates in Vermicomposting).
• Under optimal conditions, worms can process their body weight in food each day, that is, a pound of worms can process a pound of kitchen scraps each day.  An over-fed worm bed can create odor problems, so it is best not to overfeed.  After the worms are established and reproducing, the population density in a well-operated bin should be about one pound of worms per square foot of surface area of worm bin.

Feeding your worms:

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