Are you looking for how to prepare a worm bin or how to make a worm bin? Worms are decomposers capable of turning garbage into treasure. Although earthworms are present in most compost piles, creating an earthworm is a great way to use these powerful creatures to break down organic waste and make the compost usable relatively quickly.
Do you know how to build a worm bin? The process is known as vermicomposting and it doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. Whether you use a pile of worms or compost to recycle kitchen and yard waste, worms can help.
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How to prepare a worm bin
To prepare a worm bin you can follow the steps below. So you can learn, about how to make a worm bin.
To start vermicomposting
To begin your adventure in vermicomposting, start first with shelter for your worms. For something practical, simple, and inexpensive, choose a 10-gallon opaque plastic storage tub with a lid. Use a nail, drill, or chisel to punch a few holes in the top of the sides and bottom of the container. The holes on the sides are for air circulation and the holes on the bottom are for drainage, although a properly functioning auger tank will not have excess moisture to drain. Do not make any holes in the cover. They let in too much light and promote excessive evaporation.
Get the bedding ready
You can use newsprint but avoid glossy inserts, office paper, or printer paper. Shred the paper by tearing it into strips or passing it through a shredder. This shredded paper makes a great addition to a compost or worm heap. In a compost heap, it serves as a high carbon ‘brown’ ingredient. Then make sure the bedding is damp. Worms breathe by exchanging gases through their moist skin. Therefore, spray the sand with a spray bottle filled with water. It should be damp, but not damp. Fill your empty container about 1/3 full with loose litter.
Exact temperature for how to prepare a worm bin
Keep your bin between 59 and 77 degrees F. Red wrinkles can withstand temperatures outside of this range (up to 95 and up to 32), but they do their best somewhere in the middle. Place the container in a garage, basement, heated laundry room, under the sink, or anywhere you like. Do not expose them to freezing temperatures.
Now add some food scraps
You can now add some food scraps. Vegetable peels, coffee grounds, fall leaves, and moderate amounts of corrugated cardboard are good waste for composting worms. Add a thin layer of these ingredients over the bedding material, then add more wet paper bedding and mix in a tablespoon or two of garden soil for fiber. Cover it with another layer of leftover food and finish with another layer of litter. In a compost or worm heap, the combination of several components results in faster decomposition. The container should be about 3/4 full when you are finished layering. Do not add meat, oil, or dairy products that may attract flies and worms. Avoid using too much of a single ingredient to keep your container in balance.
Welcome worms
There are approximately 4,000 different types of earthworms in the world and only six types are known to be suitable for vermicomposting. But one thing is by far the most popular: the twisted red (Eisenia). This species tolerates a wide variety of environments and eats and breeds more than most other worms. Buy at least a pound of worms to get started. Buy them from a reputable worm farm rather than a bait shop where you’re not sure you’re buying the right variety. Gently lift the top layer of the litter and pour the worms into it. Cover them again with the bedding.
How to prepare a worm bin – Feeding your worms
Every few days, feed your worms a cup or two of food scraps by digging a small hole with a hand trowel, discarding the leftovers, then covering them. Put leftover food in a different place each time and don’t overfeed it. Add dry litter if the container is too wet or develops an odor it normally shouldn’t have. Continuously adding material to a compost or worm pile is a great way to dispose of kitchen waste without sending it to the landfill.
Harvest worm compost
When it’s ready to harvest, worm compost will be dark, crumbly, and fragrantly earthy. To harvest, pick or sift as many worms as possible and put them back into the container or start a second container with them. Use compost for flower gardens, houseplants, seeds, container gardens, or in the vegetable patch. Whether in a compost heap or a pile of worms, worms are great helpers in the garden. So you learned about, how to prepare a worm bin from here.