Managing your Red Wiggler Composting in a Vermicompost Bin

Keeping Red Wiggler worms in your vermicompost bin will really produce a lot of nutrient-rich Red Wiggler composting for your garden soil as Red Wiggler worms are heavy eaters that are known to eat as much as up to their own body weights and are very prolific in captivity. The more they eat, the more they produce worm castings and convert beddings into compost materials. This could mean that you may have to put in a little more effort in Harvesting Red Wiggler composting and castings, keeping your worm bins' supply of beddings fresh and have the ideal PH balance- maintained. Especially if you're keeping worms on an indoor can o worms bin or a large scaled vermicompost bin with thousands of Red Wiggler worms in it.

The climate can really affect the Red Wiggler worms' appetite. So let's say you have a pound of Red Wiggler worms and it's about a thousand Red Wigglers. On cold weathered season, it's advisable that you should only introduce food at least ¼ to ½ of a pound as the worms' activity and metabolism slows down, and on the other hand, Warm weathered seasons will double the Red Wiggler worms' activities as Red Wiggler worms prefer to mate and will heavily eat in warmer conditions including African Nightcrawler worms; during warm weathered seasons, you can introduce food as much as your worms are weighing. Always have a calculated estimation on how much you'll be introducing organic waste materials as food for the next 24 hours, this is to keep your vermicompost bin from getting over crowded and avoid alteration in PH balance that should be maintained at about 7.0. Adding crushed Eggshells will serve two purposes, it can aid in balance of PH and the worms uses it to grind and digest their food and make worm compost.

Cleaning your vermicompost bin and harvesting Red Wiggler Composting will really depend on how much the Red Wiggler worms have eaten and "soiled" up your vermicompost bin. If the bedding is nearly eaten and all that you can see are worm castings, then it's time to add fresh beddings and harvest your Red Wiggler Composting which is really simple and easy.

First, you need a wide plastic sheet to pour all contents of your vermicompost bin. You can use a large garbage bag for this, which you can cut to spread it even more. Pour all contents of your vermicompost bin into the plastic sheet then spread the Red Wiggler composting all over. Doing this will expose most of the Red Wiggler worms to the light, let them hide and burrow. After all of the worms settle under the dirt, you can now scoop and collect your Red Wiggler composting on a container. Every time you uncover a Red Wiggler worm, simply collect them and put them back into the vermicompost bin.

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After harvesting, your Red Wiggler worms will again need fresh beddings and food. Typical beddings are absorbent and carbon rich. Maintaining moisture on your bedding is important as worms prefer moist environments but be careful not to soak up your beddings and make it soggy. Soggy beddings will conflict the aeration for the worms. In case this happens, mix and toss enough shredded papers or cardboards into your vermicompost bin to lessen excess moisture, odor and increase airflow.

• Shredded paper or cardboards
• Fallen leaves or grass clippings
• Moss
• Coconut Fibers
• Wood Carvings
• Moist dried grass

When introducing food into a vermicompost bin, it is best to place them at the top and a little burrowed for easy accessibility for your composting worms. To have the worms more encouraged to feed, cover the introduced food on top with mildly moisten paper to protect them from the light when you open the lid. As for Odors, Avoid giving plenty of meat or dairy products into the vermicompost bin as it will produce unpleasant smell and alter the PH balance to acidic.

• www.unclejimswormfarm.com

  Visit Uncle Jim's worm farm for everything about Red Wiggler worms and Worm Composting.We sell worms for composting: Red Wigglers, African Night Crawlers, Canadian Night Crawlers and Gray Night Crawlers. We also provide products for organic gardening

• www.gardenworms.com

  Your number one online resource for composting or for organic gardening supplies. We offer a variety of quality vermicomposting equipment including red worms, compost bins, organic fertilizer, organic weed control and organic pest control. Go Green!

Uncle Jim is an expert on Red Wiggler worms. Raising them for more than 20 years now, he has been promoting the importance of the roles that the worms play in our environment. That's why he chose raising Red Wiggler worms in a farm to share and promote the benefits of these nature's little wonders!

Uncle Jim's seasoned knowledge about worms and gardening has developed many tools for worm composting and gardening that are based on 20 years of experience.