Indoor Composting Update

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.

On the left is the worms' old home, on the right is their upgraded accommodations. Long-term the Worm Factory will be a 5-tiered indoor composting system.

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.