3 Wrongs of Worm Composting

The 3 wrongs of worm composting, how to avoid the 3 most common pitfalls. What are they? Overfeeding, Overwatering and Overstimulating.

Overwatering

OVERWATERING. If you will be feeding fruit and veggie scraps to your worms, you will RARELY need to add water for moisture. The scraps will provide all the moisture necessary in most cases. Water your bin with a toiletry sprayer, not a garden watering can. Remember worms like it moist but they cannot swim.

Overfeeding

OVERFEEDING is simple to understand - giving the worms too much food. I recommend two basic feeding principles.

1. When starting a new bin, start feeding 1/4 of worms weight. Most people suggest feeding their weight. Yes, maybe later but not at the beginning. Let them get used to their new home. So if you have a pound of worms start with 1/4 pound of feed.
2. Feed again ONLY when all food is gone. I say this over and over because it is a very common newbie mistake.

If the bin stinks, or smells sour, you have overfed. What do you do? Add more bedding and do not feed until all food is gone, this can take weeks sometimes.

Overstimulating

OVERSTIMULATING. We the people are the worms worst nightmare. We just cannot seem to leave them alone. The oils on your hands can suffocate them, your frequent peeks and disturbing the bedding will do two major things: reduce breeding (yes even worms like privacy, lol) and reduce feeding. They simply like to be left alone. So resist the urge to mess with them too much. Try to keep feeds/checks to once per week or less.

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