Comments on: TOO Wet! TOO Dry! What should the bedding in my Worm Bin look like??

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:00:47 +0000

Hi Jerzy and Alex

In Jerzy’s case just adding the worms could be why they are in the bottom part of the bin. what type of worm bin are you using? Worm Factory? if so, I have not had worms in this bin, I am guessing that as the worms are wandering around they are ending up in the bottom. I don’t think there is a problem with the bin. I have made a wooden upward flow bin for myself, in the first tray I put down some small screen then add the bedding, food and worms. then if the worms do some wandering they don’t end up in the bottom of the bin.

hope this helps..

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:06:30 +0000

Hi Jeff,

Many thanks for all the great advice.

I am having the same problem as Jerzy — a good number of worms seem to be migrating to the bottom try used to catch worm tea. Is this normal, or is this indicative of a problem?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Alex

By: Jerzy

Jerzy — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 03:56:25 +0000

Hi,
I just started my first worm bin. I just added pound of red wigglers to the bin with shredded moisten newspaper and couple of banana peals in the corner.
After a day passed I looked into the bottom container and it had a lot of worms in it. No water in bottom container, just about 40 worms. I looked and there is bunch in the food and bunch in the dirt they came in. With this speed they will go in couple of days.
Did they just wondered around looking for food or unhappy?

Thanks for advice

Jerzy

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 04:09:45 +0000

Hi Andree

To keep the fruit flies away make sure you don’t feed the worms too much and make sure the food waste is buried very well. only feed the worms food waste that the worms can eat up in a few days, and don’t feed them again till then, your bin will be almost on the wet side, other wise the food waste will take forever to rot.

Hope this helps

Jeff

By: Andree

Andree — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 15:35:52 +0000

We are a small preschool with a couple of classroom worm bins. We are wondering what it should look like when we open the bin. We are trying to figure out how much food to add, and how to know if we are adding enough, or too much. It is an 8 gallon box. We are using uncooked fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, egg shells, all chopped into smallish pieces. We use a spray bottle to keep it moist, but we don’t know how wet it should be. They are plastic bins with a lot of holes drilled around the top and in the lid. We cover the surface with damp newspaper. (If the fruit flies get bad we will probably be asked to stop the project)

By: John Reehdy

John Reehdy — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 03:11:43 +0000

Thanks for all the advice you guys are giving. I have been having problems with my worms.
I also saw some good info at http://gardeningwormcomposting.com/2010/11/10/making-a-worm-bin-composter/ This is a non-commercial page where this woman, Sandie has been figuring this stuff out. I liked her take on the problems with different worm bins because she is so down-to-earth (pardon the pun) in her writing style.

By: michelle

michelle — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 09:42:25 +0000

Hi Jeff – thanks so much for your superfast response. I lined the bottom of the perforated tray with cardboard before putting the bedding down so that should soak up some of it. I’ll wait and see how it goes.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 02:23:23 +0000

Hi Michelle

I am sure you are going to be fine.. is there water sitting in the bottom of the bin?? if so, get something to soak up the extra water, leaves,shredded cardboard,shredded paper. add to the bin in wet areas…. then let the bin sit for a few days then see how wet the bin is.

Jeff

By: michelle

michelle — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 02:15:46 +0000

Hi Jeff – I just got a new worm farm. I soaked the brick sized block of coir for bedding in a bucket of 6-7L of water according to the instructions but I mistakenly thought I had to mix it all around and use the mixture as bedding. It was the consistency of very damp/moist soil. I think that I was supposed to squeeze out the water first. I’ve already put all the worms into the worm farm. I don’t know what to do to save it!

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 06:20:30 +0000

Hi John

You will loss potentcy if you leave the worm castings to dry out.. you don’t want to store them wet!! but not dried out.

Store in dark containers and out of the Sun. Worm tea needs to be used within days after brewing.

Jeff