VERMICOMPOSTING:

THE
ULTIMATE GUIDE
F O R T H E B E G I N N E R A N D B E Y O N D
WELCOME TO THE ULTIMATE
GUIDE TO GETTING STARTED
WITH VERMICOMPOSTING!
This e-book will take you from
complete ignorance about
vermicomposting to being able to :
Understand vermicomposting
and how it works
Explain the benefits of
vermicompost to plants and soil
Set up your own worm bin to
include choosing and preparing
the bedding
Understand what to feed
worms, and what not to feed
them
Identify and correct common
worm bin problems
Understand the financial
opportunities in the
vermiculture and
vermicomposting industry

01
 WHAT'S IN
THIS GUIDE?
This guide will try to make no assumptions about
your prior knowledge of earthworms, microbes,
composting, or vermicomposting and will
attempt to explain all but the simplest terms.
You will learn how vermicompost benefits plants
and soil.
You’ll learn how to set up your first worm bin
and how to troubleshoot problems you may
have with existing worm bins.
You’ll learn the business opportunities
associated with earthworms, whether it’s raising
them for profit or harnessing their magic for
processing organic waste. This discussion will
include considerations about methods and
equipment, and more.

02
CONTENTS
THE BASICS OF
VERMICOMPOSTING
WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO
VERMICOMPOST?
WHAT IS VERMICOMPOSTING?
HOW IS VERMICOMPOSTING
DIFFERENT THAN COMPOSTING?
THE BENEFITS OF
VERMICOMPOSTING
EFFECTS OF VERMICOMPOST ON
SOIL AND PLANTS
EARTHWORM BASICS
HOW TO START AND
MAINTAIN YOUR WORM BIN
CHOOSING A BIN
THE URBAN WORM BAG
CHOOSING YOUR WORM BEDDING

CHOOSING YOUR WORMS

CHEATING IS ENCOURAGED IN
VERMICOMPOSTING
WHAT SHOULD YOU FEED YOUR
WORMS? AND HOW MUCH?
SHOULD YOU CHOP OR FREEZE FOOD WASTE?
MAINTAINING CONDITIONS IN
YOUR WORM BIN
OTHER CRITTERS IN YOUR BIN
TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR WORM BIN
HARVESTING YOUR WORM CASTINGS
HOW TO USE YOUR WORM CASTINGS
FINANCIAL OPPORTUNITIES
IN VERMICULTURE AND
VERMICOMPOSTING
WORM PRODUCTION
WORM CASTINGS PRODUCTION
VERMICOMPOSTING PRODUCTS AND SERVICE
METHODS & EQUIPMENT FOR MID- TO
LARGE-SCALE VERMICOMPOSTING
PRECOMPOSTING IS NEEDED
EXTRA EQUIPMENT IS OFTEN REQUIRED
 THE BASICS OF
VERMICOMPOSTING
WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO VERMICOMPOST?
Some motivations for vermicomposting are practical while
others are more idealistic.
Maybe you’re motivated by the possibility of profit.

Or maybe you’ve been assigned by someone else to find

ways to reduce your input to the waste stream.
Maybe you just want to learn the basics or need a refresher
in vermicomposting.
Whatever your motivation, it’s a good one and I’m glad
you’re here! There is no bad reason to want to learn more
about vermicomposting.

But your end goals will drive how you use worms to recycle
organic waste.

If you’re simply curious how all of this works, then

vermicomposting in a 5-gallon bucket is sufficient.
But if you are looking for an income stream or you need to
process large amounts of waste from a horse farm, then
your approach must be different and you are likely going to
need to become versed in good ole’ hot thermophilic
composting to prepare large amounts of material for your
worms.

More on that later!

03
WHAT IS VERMICOMPOSTING?
Let’s start by defining vermicomposting and even some of
the terms in the definition itself.

Vermicomposting, or worm
composting, is the decomposition and
humification of organic waste via an
ecosystem of microbes and
earthworms.

There are a couple terms in here that need explaining.

Humification – Humification is the process of creating

humus, a finely divided organic matter found in soil formed
as a result of plants and animal decomposition by
microbes. Humus (pronounced “hew-muss”) is mostly
carbon and as it decomposes, its components like carbon,
nitrogen, and phosphorus become usable by plants.

Microbes – Microbes are tiny animals, also called

microorganisms that are too small to be seen with the naked
eye. Some microbes, like fungi, can form long chains which
can be seen, but for the most part, these little creatures do
their work – some functions are beneficial while others can
be deadly – without us seeing them. Within the context of
worm composting, microbes are necessary in the
decomposition of organic matter and form the bulk of the
food source for worms and other microbes.

04
The most common microbes you will hear about in
vermicomposting are bacteria, fungi, and to a lesser
extent, nematodes. The purpose of each is beyond the
scope of this guide, but a great resource to learn about
these little creatures is the book Teaming with Microbes
by Jeff Lowenfels.

Vermicomposting is not just how humans harness the

power of earthworms and microbes; it is happening all
the time in nature.

Worms and microorganisms are inhabiting manure

piles, leaf litter, and even more compacted
environments several feet below ground, consuming
organic matter and ultimately turning that matter into
something magical that converts the minerals locked
up in that organic matter into a form that is
consumable by plants.

05
HOW IS VERMICOMPOSTING DIFFERENT
THAN COMPOSTING?
While there are some similarities between the two
processes, composting (also called hot composting) is a
microbe-centric decomposition phenomenon with heating,
cooling and curing cycles.

Decomposition begins with mesophilic microbes that thrive

in temperate conditions.

These microbes then give way to thermophilic, heat-loving

microbes that can raise the temperature in compost piles to
temperatures well over 150 degrees F. Most of the volume
loss in a compost pile occurs during this phase.

Following this heating phase is a cooling period where

temperatures drop before a curing phase begins where
most of the humification takes place.

This aerated static pile composting is used by advanced

composting operators and by advanced vermicomposters
who need to precisely manage the quality of the feedstock
for their worms. Vermicomposting employs mesophilic
microbes and, of course, earthworms to process organic
waste.

06
Because we almost always want to prevent thermophilic
composting from taking place, worm compost bins are fed
in thin layers of no more than 1-2 inches which allows for
any heat to escape, ultimately rescinding any invitation for
thermophilic microbes to join the party.

This need to keep temperatures within a range of 55-90°F in

a worm composting bin means that vermicomposting is
dependent upon surface area, limiting the amount of waste
that can be processed in a given space unless creative
solutions are found to stack bins atop one another.

Hot composting operations are not bound by this limitation.

Indeed, hot composting is difficult without 3 feet of depth to
form a hot core to trap heat and invite those thermophilic
microbes.

Vermicomposting has advantages over hot composting

in that it is generally faster and there is no curing
process required in order to make the end product
usable for plants. Whereas compost normally needs 6
months or more before it is considered finished, usable
amounts of vermicompost can be created and harvested as
fast as 8 weeks.

07
THE BENEFITS OF VERMICOMPOSTING
I maintain that vermicomposting is the most efficient
means of recycling available to an individual
homeowner.

Recycling paper, glass, plastic, and other materials

requires very expensive equipment and must be done
on a municipal scale in order to be cost-effective. Such
centralized recycling efforts also require a robust
collection process, normally with gas-guzzling trucks
operated in addition to trucks already dedicated to non-
recyclable trash collection.

Vermicomposting allows an individual to divert his or

her household waste from the waste stream and recycle
it into worm castings, on-premises.

And compostable food waste is the heaviest waste a

household produces due to its high water content,
making it the most carbon-intensive waste to haul.

And the millions of tons of food waste that make it to

the landfill end up rotting and producing methane, a
greenhouse gas that traps 30 times the heat of carbon
dioxide. So by composting or vermicomposting your
food waste at home, you can reduce your carbon
footprint, reduce the carbon footprint of local trash
collection, and greatly reduce the amount of methane
gas produced in our dwindling landfills.

We haven’t even gotten to the wondrous effects of

vermicompost itself. So here we go.

08
EFFECTS OF VERMICOMPOST ON SOIL AND
PLANTS
Google Scholar has indexed 34,000 studies around
vermicompost and its effects, most of which show very
beneficial results on plants and soil. Scientists are still
figuring out exactly how this is happening, but they’re
doing a bang-up job proving that it is happening.

SOIL BENEFITS OF VERMICOMPOST

Vermicompost aids in soil aggregation, the ability for soil
particles to bind to one another and form the pore spaces
necessary for retention and exchange of water and
oxygen. So there is a clear water retention benefit when
vermicompost is added to soil.

The carbon-heavy organic matter like humus in

vermicompost is also sorely needed in our top soils which
have been depleted by unsustainable farming practices.
Adding this carbon back into the soils increases plant
fertility, ultimately promoting photosynthesis whereby
plants take in carbon dioxide, release the oxygen, and
pump the carbon back into the soils where it can yet again
become food for plants.

Soil rich in organic matter from compost and

vermicompost also attracts earthworms which further
aerate the soil and enrich the soil with their worm castings.
It’s important to understand that the worms attracted to
healthy soil are NOT composting worms (we will get to
them later) and that worms cannot improve poor soil on
their own. Rather a virtuous cycle occurs where soil with
sufficient organic matter attracts earthworms who will help
process decomposing plant material into more organic
matter, which attracts more worms, and so on.
09
PLANT BENEFITS OF VERMICOMPOST
Benefits to plants, plant growth,
and yield are among the most
documented effects of
vermicompost. Books like
Vermiculture Technology are
dedicated in part to presenting
the findings of academic studies,
so we will just summarize them
here. Vermicompost applied to
plants are shown to have the
following effects in varying
degrees.
Faster germination of
seeds

Faster growth in the

seedling stage and beyond

Earlier fruiting with larger

fruit

Pathogen suppression

Pest suppression

More effective pollination

10
EARTHWORM BASICS
So now that you’re well-versed in the benefits of
vermicomposting and the wonderful stuff it can do, let’s
take a closer look at the earthworms who are responsible
for making it happen. Earthworms are some of the world’s
most indispensable creatures.
Indeed, Charles Darwin once said of worms, “Nobody and
nothing can be compared with earthworms in their
positive influence on the whole living Nature. They create
soil and everything in it.”
But not all earthworms are good for vermicomposting. In
fact, only a precious few of them as only about 7 species
out of the 7000-9000 known species are suitable for
vermicomposting in captivity.
Earthworms are much more diverse than we give them
credit for. They can be divided into 3 classes, depending on
their burrowing capacity and the resultant depths at which
they operate and consume organic matter: epigeic,
endogeic, and anecic.
Epigeic: These worms live and eat closest to the
surface in loosely-packed environments like manure
piles and the detritus on the forest floor. They do not
burrow in soil. Composting worms are in the epigeic
category
Endogeic: Endogeic worms live in the first few inches
of the topsoil, create horizontal burrows and tend to be
of lighter color than epigeic worms.
Anecic: These worms are the deep burrowing
earthworms we typically call nightcrawlers. They come
to the surface to forage for organic matter, dragging it
down into burrows with can extend 6 feet or more
under the surface. European and African
Nightcrawlers, both composters, are still epigeic,
despite the “nightcrawler” moniker.

11
Of the epigeic worms, the most common worms used for
vermicomposting in the Northern Hemisphere are the red
wiggler (eisenia fetida), European Nightcrawer (eisenia
hortensis), Indian or Malaysian Blue Worm (perionyx
excavates), and African Nightcrawler (eudrilus eugeniae).

RED WIGGLER
In the US, the red wiggler is the most common composting
worm and normally the cheapest to procure. It is also
tolerant of the widest range of temperatures, making it the
worm most appropriate for beginners in most situations.

The red wiggler is a dark reddish color with yellow banding

leading to a yellow-tipped tail. You can typically expect 800-
1000 in a pound.

This is our most popular species in our online store at the

Urban Worm Company.

EUROPEAN NIGHTCRAWLER
The bigger cousin of the red wiggler, the “Euro” prefers
slightly cooler temperatures and tends to work at slightly
deeper depths as well. It reproduces more slowly, but at
300-400 worms per pound, the biomass of worm is much
greater.

The Euro is a great dual purpose worm; a great

composter but also fat enough to be a bait worm.
European
Nightcrawler

Red Wiggler

12
 HOW TO START AND
MAINTAIN YOUR
WORM BIN
CHOOSING A BIN
Vermicomposting at home can cost you very little
money. You can vermicompost in something as
inexpensive and easy-to-source as a 5-gallon bucket or a
plastic bin made from Sterilite or Rubbermaid.

These bins pose a few challenges though: they don’t

breathe, drain excess moisture (leachate) without
modification, and you have to sort the worm castings
from the worms and the unfinished compost when you
harvest. More on this later.

13
 BUCKET OR BIN SYSTEM
As mentioned above, you can vermicompost at home in
a plastic bin or bucket.

The only thing to keep in mind is making sure the bin

stays ventilated by either drilling holes in the top few
inches of the walls of the bin, drilling holes in the cover,
or using a breathable fabric or mesh as the cover for
your bin. How you choose to do this is up to you!

STACKING MODIFICATION
If you want to allow your DIY bin to drain excess
moisture, then a good idea is to stack one bin on top of
one another, ensuring that your top bin (the one where
the vermicomposting is happening) has holes drilled
into the bottom to allow leachate to flow from the top
bin to the bottom bin).

If you are going through the hassle of DIY-ing your own

worm bin, then adding this extra bin below is a great
idea. Just remember to add a brick or some other form
of spacer to create space for the leachate to drain into.

14
 PLASTIC STACKABLE SYSTEMS
One of the more common worm bins on the market is an
all-plastic stackable tray system called the Worm Factory
360. The concept is that the worms begin in the bottom
tray and move into richer sources of food waste above.

These bins also feature a “tap” which is designed to

relieve excess moisture from the bottom of the bin.
However, many users see the tap as an encouragement to
produce leachate when in fact leachate is not necessarily
a desirable by-product of vermicompost.

I have a few issues with stackable systems like the Worm

Factory, as I believe they work far better in theory than
they do in practice.
As worms process the material in one
tray, its volume will reduce. This
means there will be an increasing gap
between the top of the material in
one tray and the bottom of the next.
This may outright prevent the flow of
worms from one tray to the next.

Plastic bins do not breathe well.

Couple this with the fact that most
users tend to run their bins too wet,
this means that the bottom of these
stackable systems tend to be wet.
Worms are attracted to moisture and
will often stay in the lower trays
where that excess moisture resides.

If worms are constantly in the bottom

tray, then you will STILL have to
remove worms from your finished
compost
15
 WORM TEA VS LEACHATE
Leachate is simply excess moisture that has leached
through your vermicompost to either the bottom of your
bin or into a catch below.

Excess moisture promotes anaerobic conditions which

are not conducive to healthy vermicompost, so this
excess leachate is potentially harmful to your plants.
Worm tea, on the other hand, is a deliberately-produced
liquid by a brewing process where vermicompost is
suspended in water that is currently aerated or agitated
by a bubbler to oxygenate the water and create an
explosion of microbial life.

To feed the microbes, additives like kelp meal or molasses

are added to the mix before brewing. Note: High-sugar
additives like molasses tend to produce a boom-bust
cycle of bacterial populations in tea. It’s best to stick with
slow-release energy sources like kelp meal.

16
 THE URBAN WORM BAG
Because I thought there could be a better option for the
money, I developed the Urban Worm Bag as a way to
better ensure that harvests are worm-free and ready to
use. The Urban Worm Bag is a fabric bag suspended from
a frame that allows for top feeding and bottom
harvesting.

This continuous flow allows you to harvest worm castings

without disturbing the ecosystem of worms and microbes
above. By starting with an initial bedding layer of 8-12
inches and periodically adding food waste and bedding in
thin layers, the worms will reliably move into higher layers
of organic waste, leaving their castings behind.

Roughly 4-6 months after starting your Urban Worm Bag,

you will be ready to harvest, possibly even sooner if you
started with existing vermicompost.
Fresh food, organic material, and
bedding
Partially-processed material. This
is where most of the 1
decomposition is happening
Fully-processed worm castings 2
that are ready to harvest

1 Organic waste and bedding go in

the top 3

Most consumption of waste by

2 worms and microbes takes place
just below the surgace
4-6 months later, the material at
3 the bottom is ready to be
harvested

17
HOW TO BUY THE URBAN WORM BAG
FOR US & CANADIAN CUSTOMERS
You can buy it from us here! We have both the Urban
Worm Bag Version 2 and the virtually identical Urban
Worm Bag Eco, manufactured in North America using
recycled plastic bottles!

We’ll offer you some discounted items to add on after

checkout.

You can also buy the Urban Worm Bag Version 2 from
Amazon!

FOR EUROPEAN CUSTOMERS

You can get the “Worm Bag” from Wormsystems.com or
Wurmkiste.at.

If you also want to learn more about the Urban

Worm Bag, I invite you to join the Urban Worm
Bag Learning Group on Facebook. It’s a small, but
helpful group of people!

18
CHOOSING YOUR WORM BEDDING
Worm bedding is an unsexy, but
absolutely critical factor in the initial
success of your worm bin AND how it

Pitt Moss worm bedding

performs for you down the road.

Worm bedding is critical for maintain-

ing moisture, a high carbon:nitrogen
ratio, and the porosity in your vermi-
compost that will keep conditons
aerobic.
You simply can’t have too much of it.

Worm bedding is a carbon-rich material which will break

down very slowly over time. If you are wondering how to tell
the difference, just know that if were to leave a pile of it
unattended without any worry of it rotting and stinking,
then you are likely talking about a material suitable for
worm bedding.

Worm bedding can include paper and cardboard waste,

leaves, leaf mold, coconut coir, peat moss, aged horse
manure, and a commercial product called Pitt Moss.

Vermicomposting requires a higher carbon-to-nitrogen ratio

(C:N) than regular composting. Whereas composting
requires a 25-30:1 ratio, a great C:N for vermicomposting is
50:1 or higher requiring lots of initial bedding and ongoing
additions of it along the way. The C:N ratio is a bit of a
nebulous concept and knowing what it is at any given time
is a challenge, if not impossible, for the beginner.

In fact, it’s probably even unnecessary to know your C:N if

you understand that you should never be concerned with
having too much bedding, relative to food waste. This is
because bedding is also a food source for worms as it DOES
break down over time. It just breaks down much more
slowly than lower C:N materials like food scraps.
19
 WORM BEDDING OPTIONS
See this article for a more in-depth look at worm bedding,
but for now, you can use this as a quick reference guide
for excellent worm bedding choices

Coco coir Cardboard

Peat moss Compost
Paper Pitt Moss
Straw
Aged horse manure
Dead leaves and yard waste

Worm bedding, especially woodier carbon sources like

wood chips, help create and keep pore space in your
vermicompost to help keep it oxygenated. Bedding also
absorbs excess moisture, which may otherwise flow
downwards into vermicompost and displace the air in
those pore spaces.

20
CHOOSING YOUR WORMS
Your choice of worm is going to be dictated by
your location, what temperatures your worm bin
will be subjected to, and whether or not you plan
to use your worms for bait.
In the US and Canada, the best choice for worms
solely for vermicomposting is likely to be the Red
Wiggler. It is the easiest to purchase, normally
the cheapest, and tolerant of the widest
range of temperatures.
It’s like a Honda Accord. Not sexy, but
hardly ever a terrible choice! If you
want to use worms for composting
and for bait, then the European
Nightcrawler is a good choice.
The larger cousin of the Red Wiggler,
it prefers slightly cooler temperatures
and may burrow slightly deeper in
your bin. However, it is large enough
to be used as bait where the Red
Wiggler is not.
Note: Worms that you find in the wild or in your
garden are NOT likely to be suitable vermi-
composting worms. Conversely, composting
worms should not be thrown into your garden as
they are likely unable to survive. (Read why here!)
Other choices include the Indian Blue Worm
(often confused with, and sold as, the Red
Wiggler) and African Nightcrawlers.

21
CHEATING IS ENCOURAGED IN VERMICOMPOSTING
It is far easier to keep a fire going than it is to start one.

The same holds true for vermicomposting where it’s far

easier to start a worm bin with existing vermicompost
than it is to create one from scratch.

By buying or “stealing” some existing vermicompost from

a friend, you almost guarantee success of your worm bin.
My friend Bentley Christie has a thriving Canadian
business where he sells a worm rich “Starter Mix” that
achieves what I’m describing, chock full of worms,
bedding, and unprocessed material.

22
WHAT SHOULD YOU FEED YOUR WORMS?

Next to keeping your bedding levels high, what you

choose to feed your worms (and how much!) is
crucial.

With a few exceptions, any non-meat, non-dairy food

waste is acceptable for worms.

Depending on the size and style of your system,

citrus and onions may be acceptable in small or
moderate quantities. Just like people, worms seem
to have their favorite foods, although keeping
everything in moderation is key. Summer to fall is a
feeding extravaganza as summer melons like
cantaloupe, honeydew, and watermelon give way to
fall fruits like pumpkins. Worms go nuts for the
richness and easy decomposition of these members
of the curcurbit family.

While not the best practice for managing a worm bin

due to excess moisture, adding large amounts of
melon or pumpkin and coming back to inspect a few
days later is pretty entertaining as there is a veritable
orgy of eating (and probably plenty of mating) taking
place.

23
Worms are also fans of banana peels, coffee
grounds, apple cores, and assorted fruit and
vegetable waste. While more industrial
vermicomposting operations lean towards using
manures as feedstock, food scraps are readily
available to nearly all households although the lack
of uniformity of texture and moisture as well as
differing rates of decay make vermicomposting food
waste slightly more difficult to manage.

But if you remember that your worm bin should

keep high levels of bedding relative to food waste (in
other words, a high C:N), then it will tolerate most
any non-meat, non-dairy food waste you throw at it.

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

Read: What Do Composting Worms Like to Eat?

24
HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU FEED YOUR WORMS?
There’s a ton of information out there about how much
worms can eat.
And much of it is wrong.
I consider myself among the guilty parties who parroted
the line that worm can eat 50-100% of their own weight
each day.
A very experienced, well-known California-based
vermicomposter estimates that his worms eat an
estimated 25-33% of their own worm weight daily.
But even blindly following the advice of an experienced
vermicomposter is going to get you in trouble, so please
take all of the following into account.

The ecosystem of microbes and worms in your worm

bin will ultimately consume everything in your bin. This
includes nitrogen-rich food and carbon-rich bedding.
Your carbon-rich bedding like paper and cardboard is
also a food.
A new bin will process organic waste much more slowly
than an established bin will.

Ultimately, your eyes and nose should be telling you if your

worms need to be fed. If the bin has a foul odor, you have
likely overfed it. If there is no evidence the worms have
begun processing your last feeding, then do not feed
more!

For those of you who need an initial guideline, I would feed

a new worm bin no more than 1/4 the initial worm weight in
the first week. Reassess one week later. If the worms have
appeared to process the food waste, you can choose to
double the frequency of these feedings and build from
there.
25
SHOULD YOU CHOP OR FREEZE FOOD WASTE?
By chopping or freezing food waste, you speed up
decomposition of your food waste, inducing
microbes to colonize the food waste even faster.
Chopping your food waste increases the available
surface area while freezing waste causes expansion of
the water inside the cells to expand and rupture the
cell walls. While neither of these practices are
necessary, they can both help you homogenize your
food waste and in the case of freezing, allow you to
manage the quantity of waste so you can use it
when you want to.

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

Read: Should I Freeze Food Waste for My Worm Bin?

26
MAINTAINING CONDITIONS IN YOUR WORM BIN
There are 3 main measures of conditions in your worm
bin: temperature, moisture, and pH.

TEMPERATURE
Worms are flesh and blood
creatures like you and I, and
they generally like the same
temperatures that we enjoy.
70-80°F is ideal with 55°F and
95°F being the extremes that
they can tolerate.

The farther your bin departs

from the ideal, you can expect
a decrease in worm
reproduction and waste
processing. If you live in an
area where basements are
common, this is likely an ideal
place due to relatively
constant, cool temperatures,
darkness and higher levels of
humidity.

Aside from keeping your worm

bin in areas where the ambient
temperatures are within the
range above, you can do one
or several of the following to
manage temperatures in your
worm bins.

27
FOR WARMER TEMPERATURES
If keeping your bin in the garage over the
winter, try to place it next to shared wall to get
at least some heat radiating from the home.
Overfeeding your bin can help create extra
heat due to microbial decomposition of the
food waste. This technique is somewhat risky
as it can create moisture and pest issues as
well as potential overheating if actual hot
composting takes place. (This is another
reason to keep high levels of worm bedding as
the C:N will be too high for thermophilic
composting to take place.)

FOR COOLER TEMPERATURES

Keep your bin away from direct exposure to
sunlight.
Place the bin near a fan (or the fan near the
bin) to allow airflow to pull excess heat away
from the bin. Keeping the top open will allow
this excess heat to be pulled away more
readily.
Adding frozen bottles of ice water to your bin
will help create zones of cooler vermicompost
where your worms can gather….and survive!
CAUTION:
Adding cold water may seem like a good idea, but
it can increase microbial activity which may not be
desired if you are worried about high
temperatures in your bin.

High levels of bedding means high levels of

TIP: insulation as the pore space provides protection
against extremes. Another reason to keep your bin
stocked with lots of carbon-rich material!

28
 MOISTURE
You are likely to have a worm bin that is too wet. Re-read
the previous sentence! Food waste typically has a high
(80+%) water content.

So each time you feed, you are also effectively watering

your bin. While this doesn’t mean you don’t have to add
water, it means that your well-fed bin is also likely well-
watered.

Because most people think of stackable bins when they

think of worm bins, and because those worm bins have a
tap, most people think their worm bin should be producing
leachate.

These folks often call this worm tea, worm juice, worm
wee, etc.

I’ll defer to NC State University Extension Specialist Rhonda

Sherman’s moniker of “stinky mystery juice.”
The notion that a worm bin should be producing leachate
is one of the biggest misconceptions that I feel a need to
correct. While all leachate isn’t stinky or hazardous (some
may even be beneficial!), it is NOT a desirable by-product
of a well-managed worm bin. It indicates too much
watering, too much feeding, or not enough bedding added
relative to food added.

Moist ure in t h e 8 0-9 0%

range is p or ba b ly to o h igh .

The pros have

vermico m po sts in t he 5 0-
60% range

29
Excess moisture leads to several problems:

Anaerobic conditions – As excess moisture seeps

down into the vermicompost, it displaces air in the
pore spaces. The microbes in the vermicompost
consume the available oxygen in these pore spaces
that are now occupied by the leachate, eventually
producing an anaerobic, oxygen-deficient
environment.

Worms at the bottom of the bin – In normal

conditions, worms should be near the top of the bin
eating away at the fresher organic waste. But worms
are also attracted to water and will often follow it to
undesirable depths. In continuous flow systems like
the Urban Worm Bag or even more industrial-grade
systems like the Michigan SoilWorks CFT, this means
harvests can often be full of worms when they should
otherwise remain at the top of the bin.

Difficult screening of harvests– Even without wormy

harvests, wet vermicompost is difficult to screen as it
will tend to snowball and form aggregates that are
too large to make it through the screen. Pros will
often dry their vermicomposts out to somewhere
near 40% in order to screen it more effectively. Some
often add water back into the screened castings to
keep the environment friendly for the microbe
populations.

30
Two methods can help us measure the moisture in our
compost and I detail them both in this blog post.

Method 1 is extremely accurate and requires an oven, an

oven-safe dish, 24 hours of time, some vermicompost
and 7th-grade algebra skills.

Method 2 is less accurate but only requires your hand, a

functioning nervous system, and a little vermicompost.

METHOD #1: LAB-WORTHY MOISTURE TEST RESULTS

IN YOUR KITCHEN
Just follow the steps below to measure the
moisture content in your worm bedding,
vermicompost, or compost.
1. Weigh an ovenproof container to determine
its tare weight.
2. Place a small sample of your bedding or
vermicompost in the container and weigh it.
3. Subtract the tare weight to determine the
wet weight of the sample.
4. Put the sample and container in an oven at
220°F and let it “cook” for 24 hours to
completely dry it out.
5. Weigh the dried sample and subtract the
tare weight. This is your dry weight.
6. Determine the moisture content of the wet
sample using the following equation.

MOISTURE CONTENT = WET WEIGHT - DRY WEIGHT X 100%

WET WEIGHT

31
METHOD #2: HAND-SQUEEZE TEST
1. Reach into your bucket or bin and grab a
handful of vermicompost. It should be a
representative sample of the majority of
your bin.
2. Squeeze the material very tightly and check
for drops of water.
3. Release your grip and allow the moisture to
stay in your hand. Rub some compost
between your thumb and finger.
4. Inspect the material and your hand .
5. Use the rules of thumb below for estimating
moisture content.

Dry and dusty less than 42%

Mostly dry with a hint of 42-47%
moisture
Tacky and sticks together 47-52%
Moist, but no water comes 52-58%
out when squeezed
Leaves a wet sheen on 58-63%
hand
One or two drops of water
comes out and water 63-68%
beads on fingers
Many drops of water come
out during squeezing 68-73%
Stream of water emerges
when squeezed 73% or more

32
This handy article on estimating moisture content of
compost details both methods and shows you how you
can combine both to get increasingly accurate moisture
readings.

When you arrive at your moisture level (as measured by a

percentage), it should be in the neighborhood of 68-75%.
This is lower than most food waste and higher than nearly
all choices of bedding.

Makes sense, ey?

PH
Managing pH is a distant third in
“Big 3” factors of vermicomposting.
In general, vermicompost should
be pH neutral to slightly acidic,
though you may experience
deviations into the alkaline range
and still have a very healthy worm
bin.

Concerns around the pH of a

worm bin that has been fed acidic
fruit waste like blueberries or
citrus are overblown. Relative to
the volume of a worm bin, the
volume of acidic food waste is
small.

Again, having plenty of bedding

ensures that the acidity within
your bin stays under control.

33
OTHER CRITTERS IN YOUR BIN
Your worm bin is an ecosystem, a soup of worms,
microbes, and both processed and unprocessed material.
This ecosystem may also include critters whose presence is
actually positive from a composting standpoint. While
these animals may not be a problem themselves, their
presence may indicate something is off in your bin. These
include mites, springtails, pot worms, roly-poly or pill bugs,
ants, centipedes, and other creatures you (or your spouse
or roommates) do not care to culture in your home.
Mites typically only attack worms that are suffering from
other maladies, but centipedes will feast away when given
the chance, so remove the centipedes by hand if you can
catch the little buggers. They’re fast!

HARD-SHELLED PESTS AND DIATOMACEOUS EARTH

One remedy for hard-shelled pests like
beetles, pill bugs and other hard-shelled
arthropods is one or several applications of
food-grade diatomaceous earth, a natural
substance made from crushed silica derived
from the fossils of tiny aquatic animals called
diatoms.
The tiny jagged edges of the silica will etch
the shells of these pests (without harming the
worms), killing them by essentially
dehydrating them!
So if you can’t tolerate them in your bin,
diatomaceous earth is the way to go. But you
have to make sure it’s food-grade! The kind of
“DE” you use in swimming pool filters could
kill your worms. And your DE will lose its
effectiveness once it gets wet, so sprinkle it
on the top only.

34
TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR WORM BIN
Maintaining a worm bin isn’t rocket
science, but you can screw it up. Ask
me how I know!
Thankfully, most problems have the
same 2 causes: overfeeding and
excessive moisture. We’ll get to the
causes below, but it’s helpful to know
from the beginning that controlling
the food levels and moisture will fix
most problems.
Often the excessive moisture is
simply caused by overfeeding or
neglecting to add enough dry
bedding to absorb the moisture.

So this troubleshooting section isn’t

going to follow the same pattern
of Symptom-Problem-Remedy
framework you see in other
troubleshooting sections because
with the exception of ants (which
indicate a dry worm bin), nearly all of
your worm bin problems can be
solved by stopping feeding and
adding dry bedding.

35
These symptoms of overfeeding and excess moisture
are:

Leachate from your worm bin

The presence of fruit flies, fungus gnats
Foul odors

The symptoms of a dry bin are:

ants
sluggish worms with greatly decreased biomass

If you have a dry bin, you need to add water slowly over
the course of a few days. Once compost gets too dry, it
becomes hydrophobic, and will have difficulty accepting
water. So just like with someone suffering from heat
shock, you don’t add water all at once. Let the bin take
“small sips” of water over time.

NOTE: A common theme you’ve noticed is the

importance of keeping moisture under
control and how not to overfeed or at
least to keep the levels of worm bedding
very high. Overfeeding and excess
moisture are the cause of nearly all
worm bin problems, so as a blanket
statement, know that stopping feeding
and adding dry bedding are likely the
cure for what ails your bin.

36
BLACK SOLDIER FLY LARVAE: PEST OR NOT?
Especially in warmer areas, a shocking discovery may be
Black Soldier Fly Larvae, or BSFL for short.

The good news is that BSFL are ridiculously good

composters, up to 75x more efficient than red wigglers.
And the worms love BSFL frass, which another fancy
word for poop.

The problem is that they may outcompete your worms

for food and may heat up your bin with their activity.

Assuming you do NOT want these buggers in there, I

would remove as many by hand as possible and await
cooler temperatures when their reproduction won’t be
as prolific.

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

Read: How to Start a Worm Bin

37
HARVESTING YOUR WORM CASTINGS
Let’s fast forward to the point where you have a nice
amount of castings to harvest to use in your garden.

Your vermicompost is going to be a wondrous mixture

of worms, worm castings, microbes, and unprocessed
material, whether it’s bedding or food. How exactly are
you going to pull this off?

Continuous flow bins like the Urban Worm Bag will

normally provide worm-free, ready-to-use worm
castings which is part of their appeal. But lots of folks
are using buckets and Rubbermaid bins.

This “batch style” vermicomposting assumes that, at

some point, you stop feeding and allow the worms to
work through all of the material in the bin and then
separate the worms from the castings (or vice versa). If
“batch-style” best describes your situation,
then one of the methods below may suit
your needs.

38
 THE LIGHT METHOD
Worms are repelled by light, so an easy (if tedious)
method of removing vermicompost without removing
worms themselves is to make one or multiple piles of
vermicompost under a bright light and do the following:

1. Wait for any visible worms to burrow their

way back into the pile.
2. Once the worms are hidden, scrape the
vermicompost off the tops and sides until
you encounter worms again.
3. Repeat until you’re left with just a pile of
worms.

MAKE-SHIFT DIY TROMMEL

In general terms, a
trommel is a rotating
mesh cylinder that lets
finer castings and
vermicompost through to
a catch below while the
worms and undigested
material tumble along the
length of the cylinder,
eventually exiting out of
the end.

39
 DIY trommels can be made with a combination of bicycle
rims, landscape mesh, lumber and other materials as
found here. Rotation can be manually-powered or
powered by a small motor at around 15-25 RPM. As most
small motors rotate much faster than this, a series of
pulleys may be required to slow the rotation from factory
speed to a lower RPM.

A variable-speed motor is also an option, although it is

more expensive.

COMMERCIAL TROMMELS

These things rock! Commercial harvesters, like their smaller

DIY brethren are highly-effective ways to sort your
compost.
WANT TO LEARN MORE?
Companies like JetSpeed create some very high-quality
machines,Check
but with a price
this out: tag starting
Why trommel at $4200
harvesters and up,
are the best
they are not cheap for
and onlyand
worms suitable for operations where
worm castings
the volume and funding call for it.
40
 BROCKWOOD WORM SH*FTER

This product with a funny And it’s also very necessary

name is essentially a to dry your castings before
vibrating table with a screen screening as moist castings
mesh at a slight pitch. will cling to one another
Smaller than a commercial and form “castings
trommels, it allows worms snowballs” and they make
and unprocessed material to their way down the mesh
exit the end of the machine surface.
while fine castings can make
their way into buckets or In fairness, screening is
trays placed below the always easier with dry
Worm Sh*fter. castings, but it’s downright
necessary with the
Brockwood Worm Sh*fter.

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

Check this out: I wrote at Epic Gardening on how to
harvest worm castings

41
HOW TO USE YOUR WORM CASTINGS
Applying your worm castings to your gardens can be done
with direct application of the castings themselves or via
production of worm tea.

DIRECT APPLICATION
Worm castings can be directly
applied to your plants in the
form of a side dressing or by
substituting a percentage of it
into your growing media. For
direct application, a cup of
vermicompost applied near
the roots of most plants is
sufficient. For substitution of
growing media, a substitution
rate of 10% captures most of
the benefit of
vermicomposting application
as most plants do not benefit
from growing in anything more
than 20% vermicompost. Yes,
you can have too much of a
good thing

42
 WORM TEA
Worm tea, unlike the leachate that seeps out of
excessively-wet worm bins, is a deliberately-
produced elixir for rapid application of
microbiology. Worm tea is produced by suspending
fresh vermicompost in a bucket or tank of water
agitated by a bubbler.

As the wonders of vermicompost are as much

delivered by microbes as it is the worm castings
themselves, you will want some sort of slow-release
energy source like alfalfa or kelp meal to get a
blooming microbe population.
Quick-release sugars like blackstrap molasses will
certainly produce a boom in microbes, but the
boom will be followed by a rapid decline once the
sugars are consumed. The brewing takes 18-36
hours and the tea must be used within just a few
hours after production in order to gain the most
benefit.

The worm tea should be applied with a low pressure

sprayer for a foliar application or applied as a soil
drench near the plant’s roots.

43
DID YOU
KNOW?
WE'VE GOT WORM POOP!

The Urban Worm Company is proud to

offer worm castings on our online
store.

The prices on our site include shipping

to the lower 48!

Available in 5-lb and 10-lb quantities.

E-mail us to inquire about custom or

bulk quantities up to 2250 lbs or even
full truckloads!

44
FINANCIAL
OPPORTUNITIES IN
VERMICULTURE AND
VERMICOMPOSTING
I want to start with a word of caution here.

The idea of growing thousands of pounds of worms that

can be sold for $20-$30 per pound can be attractive. And
the idea that selling their poop of all things could be
even more profitable can be downright intoxicating.

After 5 years of watching entrepreneur-minded worm

enthusiasts catch fire and then quickly flame out, I’m
convinced a profitable worm business (whether selling
the castings or the worms themselves) is far more
difficult to pull off than most people realize.

It can be labor-intensive and possibly capital-intensive

too as labor-saving machines aren’t cheap. Even if you’re
not in it for the money – maybe you work for a school, a
municipality, or a non-profit – there are plenty of
landmines to make your way around as there are plenty
of ways to fail spectacularly with a large-scale operation.

45
There are also some significant differences in local
markets which produces wide ranges in prices that you
can expect to receive for a given amount of worms or
worm castings.

But at the same time, if you’re enthusiastic about your

future vermi-operation, you SHOULD be! All signs point
to massive growth in the interest around vermiculture
and vermicomposting thanks to:

The boom in organic gardening and growing

The legalization of cannabis in a growing

number of states

Growing climate concerns and awareness of

dwindling landfill resources

Legislation around organics recycling

None of the above are fads and none of them are

going away anytime soon.

Money is – and will be! – made in the following ways.

46
WORM PRODUCTION
It should come as no surprise that worm growers can
make A LOT of money selling worms.

A pound of worms with shipping in the US will sell for $40-

45 per pound which is more than most varieties of
premium beef! Growers who are able to churn out
hundreds of pounds per week will find eager clients in the
bait and vermicomposting industries as well as from
reptile and chicken owners who need a source of protein
for their animals.

WORM CASTINGS PRODUCTION

Lots of business owners get into vermiculture, thinking
their future lies in selling the worms themselves before
they realize that the real money may be in the sales of
worm castings.

As premium organic “designer” soils become more

popular, the demand for worm castings increases.

And the only thing limiting these soil producers from

making tons and tons of designer soil is access to worm
castings. While the price for bulk worm castings varies
greatly by region, $600 or more per cubic yard is a very
reasonable price to expect if you want to begin a mid- to
large-scale worm farm operation.

Savvy, large-scale operators like The Worm Farm in

Durham, CA found that they could create these soils on-
site and generate revenues in the tens of thousands of
dollars……daily.

47
VERMICOMPOSTING PRODUCTS AND SERVICE
There is going to be serious growth in not only the
production of castings and the worms themselves, but in
products and services that enable these industries. For
instance, the core business of the Urban Worm Company
is not worms or worm castings, but a worm bin called the
Urban Worm Bag.

Worm cocoon production can earn you a nice side income

and it doesn’t take nearly as much space as a large-scale
worm operation. My friend Larry Shier has a course called
Elite Worm Breeding where he sells a course to aspiring
worm breeders to supercharge their worm production.

Companies like Michigan Soilworks manufacture

continuous flow digesters for mid-to-large-scale castings
production while JetSpeed manufactures commercial-scale
screening equipment designed for worms and worm
castings.

DID YOU
KNOW?
The man who made the most money
during the gold rush wasn't a gold
miner. It was Levi Strauss, who sold tools
and products including denim jeans to
gold miners. The same could be true in
the "black gold rush."

48
METHODS & EQUIPMENT FOR MID- TO LARGE-
SCALE VERMICOMPOSTING
Whether for profit or non-profit purposes, some of you
may be interested in moving beyond a home worm
composting system and vermicomposting waste in
larger volumes.

For some of you, this is a choice as you want to earn a

profit from worm castings. For others, maybe you are
trying to find environmentally-responsible ways to
process waste generated by your school or office. For
others, government may be forcing you into dealing
with organic waste as laws like AB 1826 in California are
requiring an increasing number of business to recycle
their organic waste.

Or maybe you just own a horse and need a way to deal

with the 50lbs of manure it generates daily! Either way,
you will need to understand the ways in which
vermicomposting at scale differ from worm composting
on a home bin level.

49
DIFFERENT METHODS OF LARGE-SCALE
VERMICOMPOSTING
Beyond the home worm bin up through the world’s
largest vermicomposting operations, two methods are
normally employed for vermicomposting at scale:
windrows and continuous flow vermicomposting systems.

WINDROWS
Windrows are simply long, narrow
piles of compost or vermicompost. In
the context of regular hot
composting, these windrows are
turned and formed by compost
turners. These can be simple
attachments that fit on the power
takeoff of a tractor while the largest
are self-propelled monsters.

For some vermicomposting

operations, these windrows may be
formed by the compost turners but
ultimately fed via side discharge
buckets on skid steers or even
modified manure spreaders.
Harvesting of the castings can be
done on the windrow itself by large
trammel harvesters which are able to
straddle the windrow. Windrows tend
to be a require higher labor than
other larger-scale methods, but the
upfront capital costs are much lower,
especially if compost-turning
equipment already exists on the
operation’s farm or property.
50
 CONTINUOUS FLOW VERMICOMPOSTING SYSTEMS

Commercial-scale continuous flow systems are large

rigid containers with a mesh-grated bottom.

The concept, developed by researchers in the 1970s,

leverages the tendency of worms to migrate upwards
into richer food sources, leaving the castings below.

The castings are harvested by an electrically or

hydraulically actuated blade or breaker bar that is pulled
along the bottom of the bin just above the mesh,
breaking the bottom layer of compost, allowing it to fall
onto the floor or a conveyor above.

Continuous flow is considered to be a highly-efficient

system because it does not require the worms and
microbes to be disturbed in order to harvest the worm
castings.

51
The mechanical nature of harvesting a continuous flow
system makes it a low-labor event. However, capital
costs are significant as the smallest industrial grade
CFTs like the Michigan SoilWorks CFT start at $5,000
and go up from there. While investment in equipment
like this should not be made lightly, payback periods are
considered short compared to most other agricultural
equipment.

The harvesting is not the only function of commercial

scale vermicomposting that can be automated. Feeding,
conveying, screening, bagging, and even some aspects
of the precomposting process can be automated,
depending on the operator’s budget.

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

Check out the Urban Worm Company’s Guide to
Continuous Flow Vermicomposting

52
ISN’T THE URBAN WORM
BAG A CFT?
Technically yes, as it
employs the
continuous flow
concept of top
feeding and bottom
harvesting. And I
think it is a GREAT
product….for the
homeowner!

While some people

use Urban Worm
Bags to create worm
castings for sale, it is
not an industrial-level
solution for
vermicomposting. So
while the Urban Worm
Bag is a continuous
flow bin, if you want a
true CFT, look for a
Michigan SoilWorks
CFT.

53
YOU NEED T0 "PRECOMPOST"

Mid-to large-scale vermicomposting operations will

almost always need to “precompost” their organic waste
before introducing it to the worms.

Precomposting is simply a partial hot composting of

organic waste before it is fed to the worms. This
precomposting process, which interrupts the
composting process near the end of the heating cycle,
releases heat, kills weed seeds and pathogens, reduces
volume, raises the C:N and generally stabilizes the food
waste to the point where it is not at risk of heating.

To meet the standards of Process to Further Reduce

Pathogens (PFRP), compost must reach 131°F for 3 days.
Anyone who intends to sell their worm castings should
be complying with PFRP. People like horse owners who
do not intend to sell castings to the general public may
not need to meet PFRP, but precomposting or even
rinsing is still required in most cases as horse manure
may be full of urine and weed seeds and will have a
higher-than-desired C:N.

A popular form of composting is called aerated static

pile composting, or ASP. With ASP, you can accelerate the
composting process by either pushing (positive pressure)
or pulling (negative pressure) air through the pile using
one or a series of perforated pipes connected to a
blower motor, the most common of which are used for
those bounce houses you see at kids’ parties.

Simple, but slick!

54
Well-managed ASP systems can prepare raw organic
waste for vermicomposting in roughly 3 weeks whereas
traditional hot composting could take 6-9 weeks or
more. Control of the amount of oxygen reaching the
core of the pile can also aid in managing the feedstock
to meet your timeline.

The image above is an aerated static pile composting

system we installed at the Urban Worm Company,
based on designs from O2 Compost.

WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ASP?

Check out the Urban Worm Company’s Intro to
Aerated Static Pile Composting

Get to 150°F the “Easy” Way!

CURIOUS ABOUT CALCULATING CARBON TO NITROGEN (C:N) RATIOS?

Check out the Urban Worm Company’s Compost
Calculator

55
EXTRA EQUIPMENT IS OFTEN
REQUIRED
Even if you have a CFT,
you may find that your
customers or end users
expect a finely-screened
product in attractive
packaging. You may find
that your market is
enthusiastic for worm
tea. So you may find
yourself needing
commercial trommel
harvesters, conveyors,
bagging equipment, and
earth-moving equipment.

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

Check out the Urban Worm Company’s Business
Resource Page for going beyond the hobby level

56
 CONCLUSION:
DON’T OVERTHINK YOUR
VERMICOMPOSTING
I’ve given you a LOT to chew on here. And the last thing
I want to do is overload you with information you don’t
need.

There is plenty of conflicting information on the

internet about vermicomposting. And it’s tough to
know up from down.

Not to make matters even more confusing, but two

pieces of conflicting information can both be true!
Vermicomposting involves animals and worm bins are
living ecosystems, so neither the worms nor the bins
always behave like we expect them to.

But if you let your eyes and nose be the guide, and
simply maintain moisture, temperature and pH within
acceptable ranges, your bin is almost assuredly going
to be fine.

57
Once your worm bin is established, your margin for
error is much greater and it will feel like you’ve almost
got to try to screw it up. So once you succeed with
keeping them alive, eating, pooping, and breeding,
please know that that’s 90% of the battle!

From here, you can experiment with different methods

or different foods, and possibly explore helping others
or starting your own business.

I would love your feedback. Let me know what you

liked, didn’t like, or how I can make this resource the
best it can be!

STEVE CHURCHILL
Owner & Founder, Urban Worm Company
59