This guide is for people who want to get into Vermicomposting.  

What is vermicomposting:

Is the use of earthworms to break down organic matter into a by product known as worm castings.  Worm castings are a nutrient rich, natural fertilizer and soil conditioner.  Its the fastest way to compost versus standard composting methods.  Vermicomposting is also a great way to recycle food waste and paper. 

The importance Worm Casting:

Castings improve soil properties such as porosity and moisture retention, aids plant growth and helps in the fight against pests and diseases. It's also 100% organic! 

To get Started

1) Get a Worm Bin

To get started you'll need a worm bin.  I provide an upward migrating bin called the Worm Factory at my Ebay Store  Available in 2 colors and 3 different sizes.

2) Location

Try to locate your bin in a place thats dark, dry and cool place.  Ideal place would be a basement or garage.  If its an outdoor bin keep it away from direct sunlight, away from rain and keep it from freezing.  Direct sunlight is bad as it will fry your worms. The worms breath through their skin and when you dry the skin out you literally suffocate them.

3) Create Bedding

After you get a bin you need to prep the bin for your worms.  You'll need to create what's called bedding for your worms.  Bedding retains moisture, it should be loose and high in carbon.  It's also used as a food source.  You can use shredded paper soaked in water and squeezed a bit (avoid colored and glossy paper), shredded leaves, hay, and coir.  The worm factory comes with shredded paper and coir block to get you started.

4) Introducing the worms

Now since your worm farm is ready. You can introduce the worms. If you order your worms try to find a local famer who sells worms.  Worms don't do to well going long distance.  When you get the worms they need food immediately and you need to keep them in a dark area. You can keep lights pointed at the outside of the worm bin too keep them in the box so they don't try to run away. They don't like bright light.  They'll need a little time to acclimate.

5) Feeding

Worms can eat most kitchen scraps but avoid the following:

• Meats
• Dairy Products
• Eggs (egg shells are fine though just boil the shells first and crush them up)
• oily foods
• salt and vinegar

  Chop up the food into tiny bits to allow the worms to eat it faster.  Just wait till the food is mostly gone before adding more scraps.  In general 2 pounds of red worms should be able to go through 1 pound of food scraps fairly quickly. 

6) Separation of worms and castings 

If you went with my Worm Factory separation of the vermicompost and the worms should be easy.  The worms should have migrated to the top very top of the worm factory all you need to do is remove the top tray where all the worms should be located and harvest all the worm castings in the previous trays.  

Well I hope this helps and that this get you on your way to vermicomposting. 

Cheers,

Limited Foot Print - http://stores.ebay.com/Limited-Foot-Print