So what exactly do we feed our worms? With a few exceptions, we feed the worms quite a lot! With indoor composting, it's highly recommended you avoid specific food items such as citrus, bananas, meat, and fish. Outside of that, we feed them food scraps, shredded newspaper, torn up junk mail, used coffee grounds, and more. The items pictured below includes produce we never got around to eating in time, leftover vegetable scraps, junk mail, and last week's circulars to local grocery stores. Within two month's time, all of this will be nutritious compost.  If you think this is impressive, check out the composting milestone recently reached at Q Gardens.
Since starting an indoor composting project five years ago, the red wriggler worms have had a few upgrades in their accommodations. What started as a simple 10-gallon bucket with just 100 worms evolved into a robust worm community that produced an average of five pounds of compost every 5-6 weeks. As the worms reproduced, more compost was created in a much faster time frame, and the worms were moved to a bigger home which they quickly outgrew. I estimate that there are now a few thousand worms happily gobbling up items that would have otherwise ended up at the dump. The increased population led me to purchase the Worm Factory, which with its tiered design, allows the growing worm population the added space to do their job more efficiently. I purchased the Worm Factory a month ago and already am seeing amazing results. In fact, in a couple of weeks I estimate that I will have at least ten pounds of dark, rich, crumbly compost to harvest.
The basic start-up is simple, and even though I already had a well established composting system, the worms needed some time to adjust to their new home. Its been a month and the worms have eaten absolutely everything on the bottom tray. A week ago I began the process of adding a new tray with new food/garbage scraps. Typically, worms seek to burrow downward, away from the light or sun. In the Worm Factory, the worms are encouraged to head upwards where the new food is, leaving the tray below worm-free and ready to scoop into a plant. I added new food scraps and the shredded Sunday paper. I moistened everything, lay the tray on top, and covered it. Three days later, this is what happened:  The worms are migrating on up! They're going where the food is and are leaving the bottom tray, which will make the compost harvest a breeze. Compost tea is a great way to introduce nutrients to your plants. In an urban gardening project, this is a great natural alternative to using plant food. Of course, the first and most important ingredient is compost. You can either purchase the compost or create your own. Making compost tea can be as involved or as simple as you'd like, depending on your gardening needs. The goal of making compost tea is to put the benefits of compost into liquid form. Here, I will share the simplest technique I have used for making compost tea for use with various indoor plants.
 This used to be garbage. Newspaper, cardboard, paper (including mail, magazines and paper towels), and some fruits and vegetables took a detour into an indoor compost bin. All this potential garbage is now nutrient-rich compost.
Although it is most popular to do composting outside, urban living doesn't always make it possible. A few years ago, I decided to start composting some of our garbage indoors. You can try this yourself at home. Start with a 10-gallon bucket and drill holes all around the middle for aeration. Home Dept sells buckets with lids that are ideal for this project. Rip up an entire newspaper and place that along the bottom of the bucket, wetting it thoroughly in order to provide humid conditions for the worms to thrive in. Next, provide a layer of goodies: unwanted sections of fruit and vegetables (no citrus!). Add the worms next with some more ripped up newspaper to cover the top. I suggest starting with a pound of red wiggler worms. Place the cover on the bucket and keep it away from direct sunlight and in an area where air circulates well (not in a pantry, closet, or hallway). Once a week, check in or your worms. Lift the top later of newspaper and make sure the habitat is wet, while avoiding creating puddles. Add food (paper, fruits, and vegetables) as needed. You will be able to harvest your compost about once a month, with a rough output of approximately 3 pounds of compost. When done properly, indoor composting does not attract bugs or vermin and produces no odor whatsoever. The biggest setback to indoor composting is that you will be limited with what you can place in the bucket. For example, meat, fish, and citrus products cannot be placed in an indoor compost bin. The information I used to get started can be found here: The New York City Compost Project Organic Consumers Association HowToCompost.org |
