Winter or Indoor Composting with Red Wiggler Worms
Composting with Red Wiggler Worms is great for people who like gardening, plants or fishing. Utilizing a limited amount of indoor space, your time, and a selected portion of your kitchen scraps you can make all natural compost for your garden or build a worm population for when the fishing season starts.
Unlike outdoor composting this method can be done all year round, even in cold climates. With this method of composting you’ll be ready with great compost or fishing worms at any time of the year.
This method of composting can be done in a small space in your basement, heated garage or any warm space that you have available. You can scale this method up to as big as you like, but to start out it will only take up the same amount of space as a box of apples.
The all year round compost produced from this method can be used in your garden, flower beds, indoor or patio plants or anywhere you would use regular compost. When done properly there's no foul odor. Remember that all the regular composting rules apply for this method as well. Use common sense, no meats, oils or other things that would poison the compost or kill the worms.
If you live in a climate that freezes in the winter, and you have nothing against dealing with some worms, this method of composting is worth considering. If you're impatient this is also a method of making compost a lot faster than the regular method. An active worm population will compost the materials you give them faster than the regular method of composting.
Setting Up Your Compost Producing Mini-Ecosystem
To set up your mini-ecosystem you'll need the following:
- A tote to house your mini-ecosystem. For a tote I like the 10 or 14 gallon Roughneck Storage Box that's made by Rubbermaid. These totes are strong and long lasting. They have a nice lid on them and they're the perfect size to start out with when you decide you want to start composting with worms. These totes measures about 24 inches wide by 16 inches deep and 9 inches high. Make a couple of holes in the top of the tote to allow some oxygen to enter, you don't need very big holes as there is no air-tight seal on the lid of the type of tote that's recommended.
- Some shredded newspaper. This is pretty easy to dig up when you need some - just remember not to use any kind of paper that has a glossy finish on it.
- A medium (20 pound) bag of potting soil. Really you don't need to have potting soil and can use any type of fluffy soil that your worms will survive in. But for starting out I suggest using potting soil until you learn more about the needs of your worms.
- A bunch of Red Wiggler worms. You can find these at most live bait stores, check around and you'll be sure to find some. You'll need a couple of handfuls of them to get started and they'll multiply on their own.
- Food for your worms. This is where the composting stuff comes in. You're fruit and vegetable scraps that come from your kitchen are the food for your worms. Add the scraps as you accumulate them.
Steps for Setting up Your Compost
- Put about 1” of shredded paper in the bottom of your tote and wet it down slightly.
- Add some potting or top soil over top of the shredded paper.
- Put the red wiggler worms in the tote.
- Add potting or top soil to the tote to fill it up to about 2/3rds full.
- Cover your tote and put it in a warm place like a heated garage or basement where you'll have easy access to it so that you can feed your worms.
Feeding the Worms in Your Mini-ecosystem
Red Wiggler Worms will eat all clean vegetable matter, coffee grounds with or without the filter, loose or bagged tea, vegetables and most fruits with the exception of citrus varieties. When feeding your worms it's best to slightly bury the food that you're giving them. Even though your tote is covered the worms don't like any amount of light.
Some vegetables like corn husks and potato peels will take a long time for the worms to eat as they'd rather eat the other foods you give them. You may also find that many of the seeds and potato peels you feed your worms will sprout. Sprouting plants can be put in your garden or simply be removed. If you like surprises you could have a spot in your garden that is sectioned of for a “surprise harvest” and transplant anything that sprouts into that space.
Harvesting the Compost From Your Mini-Ecosystem
Depending on your specific requirements there are different ways of cleaning your composting box, you'll get a good feel for your needs after a couple of cleanings. Keep in mind that for the mini-ecosystem to work there should always be a healthy population of worms within it and should never be so damp as to suffocate the worms.
Your worm population will double about every three months so your mini-ecosystem composting setup will always require some cleaning and maintenance. Cleaning your composting environment every three months will help assure the mini-ecosystem is healthy. Extra worms can be used to start a new tote for you or a friend who's interested or you can put them into your garden or lawn.
Start by taking a large plastic sheet and laying it out on the floor. It's preferable to do this directly under a bright light source.
Remove the top from the tote and let it sit under the light with the top removed for a few minutes. Since worms don't like the light they'll want to go to the bottom of the tote. This allows you to skim off layers of compost without getting a handful of worms.
Keep skimming off compost until the worm population in the soil becomes more dense. The goal in cleaning your composting system is to replace most of the material within it.
Put your worms in a clean pail as you will reintroduce them to the composting setup after it is prepared.
The removed compost/soil can be used in your garden, your house plants, your outdoor and deck plants, and everywhere you would want to have great soil for growing plants.
Using this method of composting you can control the climate that allows the worms to survive and do what they naturally do. If you're not into dealing with worms, as an alternative, you could also set up a compost bin in a heated garage if you have one.
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