Worm Composting on YouTube

I recently visited the AVN Studio in Arlington to talk a bit about the basics of home composting, including an overview of worm composting or, more properly, vermicomposting.

Composting Basics

Composting is a simple, natural process. There is no need to purchase special activators or fertilizers to make the materials in your compost pile or bin break down.

Compost just happens!

Here are some basic strategies for making compost "happen" for you:

Slow and Easy Composting

1. Build your compost pile anytime of year
2. Create a simple, freestanding pile no more than 5 feet high (preferably 3 feet long on each side), or build or buy an inexpensive bin to keep your pile tidy.
3. Locate on level, well-drained ground in either sun or shade -- stay away from wooden fences and buildings, and avoid placing on your neighbor's property line. Don't set up over shallow tree roots.
4. Build a six inch base of branches, twigs or brush for drainage and aeration (old wooden pallets work extremely well).
5. Use leaves by themselves -- or mix in grass and other "green" garden trimmings for quicker compost. When adding new materials to an existing pile, be sure to mix them in thoroughly -- especially green materials like grass. Don't create layers.
6. Don't build your pile with grass alone -- mix in dry leaves, straw or wood chips to avoid odors.
   
7. Moisten materials as you add them and leave a concave depression at the top of the pile to capture rainwater.
8. Keep materials moist throughout the year -- but not wet. It is often best not to cover your pile to let water in. A dry pile will not compost.
   
9. Never add meat, bones, fat, oils, dairy products or processed foods to avoid odors and pests. Never add diseased plants, weeds with seeds, or cat or dog wastes.
   
10. Try to turn, fluff, or aerate on occasion -- whether every week, every month or just once or twice a year. 11. Wait a while (6-12 months) and get ready to use your compost as a top-dressing for your lawn, a mulch for trees and shrubs, or a side-dressing for annuals, herbs, and vegetables. 12. Compost is ready to use when it is dark brown-black, crumbly, and sweet-smelling. Enjoy!

Vintage Composting (Even Easier Composting)

1. Use two bins: one bin for each alternate year (e.g. 2009, 2010).
2. Add compostable materials only to one bin in the first year (2009).
3. In the following year, leave the first bin alone and only add materials to the second bin. As the yard trimmings in the first bin decompose, the amount of materials in the bin will appear to shrink. Resist the temptation to "top off" the 2009 bin.
   
4. With the next year (2011), harvest compost from 2009 bin and start filling with 2011 materials. Do not top off 2010 bin.
   
5. Keep alternating, year after year, going from one bin to another with each year. Never add fresh materials to last year's bin.
   
6. Materials in a vintage bin system will compost for at least 12-24 months; enough time to produce excellent mulch with almost no maintenance.
7. To ensure high quality compost, use some of the basic steps (watering, turning) from the Slow and Easy method.

Active Composting (Fast, "Hot" Compost)

1. Use a two- or three-bin system.
   
2. Try to obtain a mixture of two parts (by volume) high nitrogen materials like grass and fresh-pulled weeds and one-part high-carbon materials like dried leaves and woodchips.
   
3. Try to shred leaves (use lawnmower or mechanical shredder) and, especially, woody materials. Keep particle sizes small.
   
4. Mix materials thoroughly together.
   
5. Follow basic instructions for Slow and Easy method.
   
6. Keep moisture level at 50% (consistency of a wrung-out sponge).
   
7. Turn or "aerate" pile by moving materials from bin to bin (back and forth for 2-bin system, serially for 3-bin system) every 2-4 weeks.
   
8. Compost should be ready in 6-12 weeks.
   

TROUBLESHOOTING

The best advice for handling problems with your compost pile is to treat that problem immediately. Key concerns are:

• Odors. Usually caused by soggy, anaerobic conditions. Turn the pile thoroughly and add dry leaves or hay, if necessary. Set the pile on top of a wooden pallet or base of branches and twigs.
  
• Pests. For rodent problems, remove and discontinue the addition of any food scraps. Turn pile more frequently; maintain moisture. For pets and scavengers, be sure to always bury food scraps under 1' of leaves and other compostables; place another pallet on top of pile to serve as a "lid." For insects like ants, flies, and bees, keep pile moist and turn more frequently.
  
• Sluggish Pile. If your materials are not decomposing, check moisture content (it's the number one reason piles don't work); don't cover bin with plastic. Turn your pile to aerate it, increasing the oxygen content. Add nitrogen sources like grass clippings, weeds, agricultural manures, or urea.

USING COMPOST

You don't need large flower beds or a vegetable garden to use compost. Here are the most common applications:

• Mulch. Apply compost up to 3" deep around trees and shrubs and in planting areas to suppress weed growth, provide a long-term supply of nutrients, conserve moisture, prevent soil erosion and compaction, and moderate soil temperature changes. Especially effective in fall and spring.
  
• Topdressing. Spread compost 1/8"-1/4" deep on top of existing lawns with a spreader or rake. Finished compost should be sifted or "screened" to remove clumps and twigs. Build a simple, inexpensive sifter using hardware cloth and a frame of two-by-four lumber.
  
• Sidedressing. A 1"-2" layer of compost can be spread around vegetables (especially tomatoes, peppers, eggplant), shrubs and flowers during active growing season to replace nutrients and protect root systems.
  
• Soil Amendment. Mix 2"-3" of compost into the top 6"-8" of heavy clay or sandy soil with a mechanical tiller, garden spade, or shovel. Compost will improve drainage and moisture retention, prevent compaction, supply nutrients and make existing nutrients more available to plants.
  
• Potting Mediums. Sifted compost (1/3 part) can be mixed with potting soil and vermiculite or perlite to create a superior potting medium.
  

NOTE: Compost to be mixed into soil or potting mediums should be fully decomposed. Let compost age or "cure" for one month after removal from your bin.

Copyright 2009, Joseph M. Keyser

Composting With Pallets

Wooden shipping pallets are easily recycled into large, heavy-duty compost bins which assemble in minutes, and can produce rich humus mulch and compost year after year. If you have a fair-sized property, a single pallet bin can handle up to two cubic yards of leaves, grass, and brush. If you're involved with a school or church, a three-bin pallet system might be just the ticket (and a free ticket, to boot!) for your larger campus. A system I constructed at the American Horticultural Society headquarters at River Farm in Virginia was easily capable of handling all the trimmings from several acres of actively managed formal gardens.

Click on the following link to download my factsheet Composting With Pallets [PDF]

Composting Myths

It is a tribute to composting that humans have taken such a simple, natural process and elevated it through myth and misunderstanding into a form of new age alchemy. The spread of these myths has been facilitated by word of mouth, misguided publications from solid waste managers, and, worst of all, hardcore marketing. In order to keep composting simple and inexpensive, let's put to rest some of the more popular myths.

Click on the following link to download my GreenMan Factsheet on Composting Myths [PDF]

Favorite Worm Source

A lot of folks ask me, "Hey Joe, where's the best place to get redworms?" Well, it's nice to have my opinion so well thought of -- and to realize my role in the worm marketplace.

So here goes: My absolute favorite (besides being the most economical by far) source for red wigglers (a.k.a. redworms) is Willingham Worm Farm in Georgia.

I've been doing wormy business with Sybil Willingham (chief worm wrangler) for more than a dozen years, and Sybil has supplied worms to hundreds upon hundreds of classrooms, where said wigglers were enjoyed and studied by tens of thousands of students.

Here are the details:

Worms-$13.00 per lb.
Postage 1 lb- $8.00
2-5 lb in bulk postage $10.35

To order, said a check or money order to:

Willingham Worm Farm
74 S. Collins St.
Reynolds, GA 31076

This is a low-tech, low overhead outfit; no fancy websites, credit card orders, and the like. If you want those features, feel free to pay twice as much and order online (chances are that Sybil is still the woman providing the worms -- an industry secret I'll carry to the grave).

Please note that Sybil will not ship in a week with a postal holiday. And shipments are sent only on Mondays. Orders received by Thursday will go out on Monday.

For more information -- but NO ORDERS -- contact Sybil directly: wworm@pstel.net

Composting with Worms

Worms. They are all around you -- some in places you may never have imagined! Of course, during one of the wettest summers in 50 years, many of us are seeing worms almost daily on sidewalks and patios as they crawl out of their terrestrial burrows to avoid drowning.

But they are also showing up in some unexpected locations such as school classrooms, government offices, libraries (though not as "book worms"), and in tens of thousands of homes across the country. More and more people are learning to appreciate worms thanks to their remarkable ability to recycle (i.e., gobble up) apple cores, banana peels, and coffee grounds, and transform these and other organic materials into sweet-smelling humus or compost -- indoors!

Composting enthusiasts are used to seeing worms in their piles, and gardeners have long cherished coming across these beneficial wigglers as they work their garden plots. Small wonder, since worms are the world's first gardeners! They tunnel through the soil creating burrows which improve drainage and aeration, and eat decaying leaves and grass clippings, leaving behind lots of nutrient-rich castings, as they have for millions of years. Their value in helping to create healthy soil has been easily recognized since antiquity, with Aristotle calling them "the intestines of the world." More recently, Darwin spent a considerable portion of his scientific career studying these remarkable and essential organisms.

Today, all sorts of people are interested in harnessing the gentle power of the worm, some to understand more about the natural world, others to create compost for houseplants and gardens through vermicomposting (worm composting), and others for profit -- such as the many commercial worm farms nationwide. Fisherman are -- well -- another story.

It is important to realize that there are many different species of worm, each suited to a different habitat. Regular garden worms or nightcrawlers are great for the soil, but they would quickly perish in the indoor worm boxes used for vermicomposting. Similarly, the special redworms used for indoor composting would do poorly in an outdoor compost pile. Don't bother adding worms to an outdoor bin: they will come on their own. And do not spend money on worms or worm cocoons to sprinkle on lawns or garden areas. Using organic mulches and avoiding toxic chemicals is the only way to increase worm activity outdoors.

On the other hand, if you are intrigued by the notion of indoor composting with redworms, you will be pleased to learn that the whole process is fun, easy, and very inexpensive. Starting with a colony of 1,000 redworms, you'll be able to convert at least 60 pounds of kitchen scraps and old newspapers into about 15 pounds of nutrient-rich worm compost in less than half a year. Since worms and worm boxes are odor-free, you will be able to set one up in your utility room, basement, heated garage, or even in your kitchen. And don't worry: redworms dislike bright light and dry surfaces, they will not climb out of their comfortable boxes to go exploring. Feed them and they will stay put.

Vermicomposting Basics

There are several essential elements in vermicomposting:

• a container
  
• bedding
  
• moisture
  
• worms
  
• food
  
• maintenance
  
• harvesting

It is easiest to build a worm box using either an old sweater box with a lid, or simply buy a dark-colored plastic storage container with a cover (usually $8 on average). Surface area is more important than depth -- and too deep a box can lead to complications. Look for a container approximately 2' x 3' x 1' deep. Drill or punch about 10-20 small holes (1/4" or less) around the side of the bin for aeration, about 1" - 2" up from the bottom.

Bedding is easily made by ripping up about five pounds of old newspaper (just the black and white sections) into one-inch wide strips. An easy method is to take several sheets of paper at one time, fold in half, and use scissors to start 1" long cuts about 1/2 to 1" apart. Then tear down the length using your initial cuts. Place the shredded newsprint in a bucket, and add about one to two gallons of water to soak thoroughly. Drain excess water and place in the worm box so that it's still fluffy. Worms need moist bedding to breathe through their "skin" and they also eat the cellulose fiber.

Now add your worms. Redworms only! (Biologists call them Eisenia foetida or Lumbricus rubellus.) Never use garden worms. Besides, you'll need about 1,000 worms -- or one pound in all. You can purchase worms through the mail or the Internet from a variety of vendors.

Feeding worms is the fun part of vermicomposting. Since redworms eat up to their own weight in food every day, your box will easily handle five pounds per week (but do not overfeed the box -- stop for a week or more if the worms cannot keep up with your supply). Feel free to include almost all fruits and vegetables, such as citrus and melon rinds, wilted lettuce, potato and carrot peelings, etc. You can also add coffee grounds and filters, tea leaves and bags, crushed egg shells, and houseplant prunings. Never add meat, fish, dairy products, or oils.

Add food by lifting up the bedding, depositing the scraps, and always covering it with the damp bedding. This will prevent any odors or fruit flies. Try to place food in alternate areas of the box. You shouldn't need to add any additional water -- but check every few weeks to make sure the bedding does not dry out. If the bedding gets soggy, tear up more paper and mix it in dry with the other bedding.

After about four-six months, the worm population will have grown remarkably and most of the food scraps and older bedding will have been converted into worm castings or vermicompost. There are many ways to harvest compost: hand separate worms from finished compost and put them back into the box with new bedding; or take out about three-quarters of the material and use in your garden -- add fresh bedding and start again with the remaining worm colony; or try pushing the material to one end of the box, add fresh, damp bedding to the other end, and only add food to the new section. Worms will migrate over in about one month -- then harvest your mostly worm-free compost.

Copyright 2009, Joseph M. Keyser

Worms in the Classroom

[Originally titled "Casts of Thousands," first published in American Gardener, Nov. 1996]

Twenty-five years ago, no one would give author and educator Mary Appelhof even five minutes of their time to learn about using worms to teach children about composting, recycling, and soil science. Today, the "Worm Woman" is invited nationwide -- and recently to New Zealand and Australia -- to share her very special knowledge of worms with teachers -- "tens of thousands of teachers," Mary points out, "and it's not stopping." The worm has definitely turned.

There are scores of programs in cities and counties throughout America where agricultural extension agents, recycling coordinators, naturalists, and other vermiphiles enter classrooms with boxes filled with thousands of worms to introduce children to the living, squiggling laboratory of the earth itself.

One of the most elaborate initiatives, called VermiLab, was developed in 1995 by the Montgomery County, Maryland, Department of Environmental Protection, in cooperation with the public school system, and integrated into the schools' science and social studies curricula. VermiLab was created to bring the natural act of composting closer and more graphically to kids, who then serve as irresistible compost emissaries. The program also strives to raise a child's awareness and curiosity about the web of life which surrounds them: including the invisible though vital life of the soil.

After its first academic term, VermiLab had provided training for 140 elementary, middle, and high school teachers, who brought that knowledge, along with a 2 cubic-foot worm box and 1,000 redworms, back to over 60 schools and 120 classrooms. In fact, interest among teachers was so high that a waiting list was developed for the following year. William N. McDonald, the school system's elementary science coordinator, marvels that "the program creates converts among the teachers." Not only do they overcome their own fear of worms, "they go out and get other teachers involved. And they're all coming up with far more unique projects than I ever envisioned."

Even in schools which host a single worm box, teachers like David Chia at Georgian Forest Elementary School actually take their show on the road. "After getting my kids worked up for a couple of weeks, I started taking the box into the teacher's lounge. Then I was asked to visit other classrooms." By early March 1996, Chia had visited every classroom in the school, and is currently working to develop a large-scale vermicomposting system in the school's courtyard to handle a ton of food scraps from the cafeteria.

Like Chia, teachers in other classes have worked with their students to get the word out. Some have developed worm newsletters, cultivating young journalists to share their experiences with fellow students throughout the school. And at least one worm box has gone digital, as Frank Sanford's students at Kensington Parkwood developed a worm site on the Internet to exchange information and digital photos with students at a school in St. Louis.

A key element for measuring the success of VermiLab was establishing a requirement for creative feedback from the children -- and teachers. Kindergarten age students were often instructed to create paintings or drawings of worms or worm ecology. Older children kept journals, wrote research papers, and created slide shows. Each student received a tee-shirt with the county's composting logo as a reward for their hard work -- and as a way to turn kids into walking advertisements for composting.

The reports were interdisciplinary and artful. Elementary science classes recorded decomposition rates of various vegetable and fruit foodstuffs, weighed materials, and counted worm populations. And middle school and older science students measured compost Ph and tested comparative plant growth rates of potting mixes using worm compost. Maryvale Elementary School, a popular French immersion program, submitted over 40 colorful folders with essays and poems in French, while other schools stressed mathematics, grammar, and other disciplines in the process of data collection.

In addition to the classroom-based program, where children took turns feeding and caring for their growing worm colonies, a large-scale Worm Garden was built behind the cafeteria of the County's Smith Environmental Education Center. The Center provides several days of training in environmental and natural science studies for thousands of sixth-grade students, and its curriculum now includes a healthy dose of composting.

Students visit a Compost Discovery Garden featuring over 20 backyard composting systems, where they learn to "dissect" a pile and look for compost critters -- the fungi and invertebrates which work with bacteria as decomposer organisms. Later, kids are taken to the Worm Garden, where five large worm boxes accommodate the fruit and vegetable scraps from the mess hall. Children learn that they are part of a big cycle: they will generate the food scraps, weigh them, and then add them to the worm boxes; the worms create compost, which staff and kids will then add to the gardens to grow more food, thus completing the cycle. Lindsey Tschida from Judith Resnik Elementary noted that "you could put food like banana peels, rotten melons, and tea bags in, but no meat." The worms make castings, or compost, and "you put it over your soil and it makes plants and whatever you are growing healthy."

One of the most noticeable elements in the VermiLab program is Digger Worm, a seven-foot tall, bright orange and yellow worm mascot, originally developed as a cartoon character to lead kids on imaginative expeditions through their worm box. Thanks to high school volunteers, Digger now makes appearances at schools, county fairs, and even the occasional shopping mall. He -- or "it" -- actually receives fan mail from kids often asking the character to come visit a particular school. Digger is a cuddly introduction to worms for younger children, and always travels with a worm-box toting assistant, always eager to show kids some of Digger's smaller relations.

The future for VermiLab is looking bright. Another hundred teachers will likely receive training and worm boxes during the next year, and numerous schools are building large, outdoor Worm Gardens to harness cafeteria scraps. A recent Washington Post article on the program generated over 100 calls requesting information -- and worms -- for indoor composting. And Digger Worm is making travel plans for a conference in San Francisco in late December.

The program to date has shared worm composting with over 5,000 students, with 1,800 kids receiving tee-shirts for an amazing range of poems, songs, essays, murals, and science projects. Yet beyond the data and numbers, the love for the soil engendered by worms, large and small, is the greatest payoff for VermiLab. "These worms are good to the world because they eat trash and make rich soil for us to grow plants," observed fourth-grader Brian Shorten, who wisely added, "So if you see a worm don't kill it."

Copyright 2009, Joseph M. Keyser