What is Vermicomposting?

What is Worm Composting?

Vermicomposting is the process of using certain species of earthworms to break down organic matter into vermicompost and worm castings.

This can be done indoors all year, is can be done with small amounts of material at a time, is odor free and pest free, creates a higher quality product, and many find that it is much faster than regular composting when done correctly.

How does it work?

Composting worms, such as Eisenia Fetida, consume organic matter as food source and excrete a powerful organic fertilizer called worm castings. There is a wealth of information on the unparalleled potential of these worm castings.

Hundreds or thousands of these worms can be kept indoors in a small plastic bin. As long as you’re doing things correctly there are no odors, no pests, and no other outward indicators that you are housing a small colony of earthworms.

In ideal conditions these worms can process half their weight in food every day. Their diet can include fruit and vegetable waste, coffee grounds, paper and cardboard waste, fall leaves and more.

As the food is eaten, your worms will produce worm castings which you can eventually harvest for your garden. In the worm world it really is true that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure! For a quick visual, watch this reel from my national brand "Hungry Worms."

Worm Composting vs. Regular Composting

Many who are reading this post, though not familiar with worm composting, have some experience with composting in general. Maybe you have a small compost pile out back, or a little compost tumbler. So I thought I would mention some of the unique advantages worm composting has to offer.

I have considerable experience with both types of composting and I will continue to do both. But, for someone who is only composting a few gallons or less of food each week worm composting will be infinitely better than regular composting.

Especially for those of you who have a small compost pile, or a little tumbler composter and don’t actually see any decomposition occur, you will love how much better vermicomposting is!

This is because it is easier to create a clean quality product, it can be done all year, and it allows you to compost small amounts of food at a time.

Regular Composting Requires Volume

For those familiar with composting, you would know that compost needs to reach 131-170 degrees Fahrenheit in your pile for 1-3 days within 24 hours of turning it - which you need to do at least twice depending on your state’s requirements.

It is hard to reach these temperatures without enough mass - often around a yard of material. If you're just a home gardener, its not likely that you'll have a whole yard to compost at a time, and you probably won't want to turn all that compost by hand either.

So, if you’re just looking to compost your home food scraps you’re probably looking at only a gallon or two a week and worm composting is definitely the way to go.

Clean Quality Product

Both thermal composting and vermicompost need to be clean and sanitary. Regular composting is sanitized by temperatures between 131 and 170 degrees fahrenheit. This is different from worm composting because worms will start to die at temperatures above 90 degrees.

Worm composting has a different method of sanitization. Believe it or not, worms are EXTREMELY sanitary creatures. It was a nice surprise to find out that worms sanitized everything they consume, but I was amazed when I found out that they also sanitize anything they merely touch.

Not even mentioning the superior nutrient and biological qualities of worm castings, this means as long as you don’t have any anaerobic pockets (places where you’ve mismanaged your bin and worms don’t want to go) in your bin, you have a product that is free from parasites and plant and human diseases.

Nature needed to hire a professional composter, and created the humble worm.

Accomplished All Year

Again, thermal compost requires heat. Though thermal composting can be done in the winter (I have thermally composted in December in Cache Valley), it just makes all the normal difficulties of thermal composting even harder.

You will need more mass (250+ gallons) and “hotter” materials (often manures) to keep your pile at the appropriate temperatures.

But, assuming you’re a smaller scale composter and can worm compost indoors (or in the garage), you don’t have to worry about temperatures.

Small amounts of food at a time

If you are composting without worms, you need at least 200 gallons of material at a time. You can save up your food waste until you hit 200 gallons, but if that’s going to take more than a couple weeks you can imagine the mess you’ll have in that time.

Because you don’t need to worry about thermal mass to create a clean quality product you can feed your worms as little as you want as frequent as you want. With worm composting, its as easy as eating a banana, or apple, and then tossing the waste and then using your worm bin instead of the trash can.

Conclusion - How To Get Started

By now you should realize the awesome potential of the lowly earthworm. If you want more information on how to get started, check out the worm composting guides page, or click here for my guide on starting your own worm bin, and check out here to order worms, bins, and other useful tools.

After you have started your worm bin, if you have any questions feel free to get in contact with me. I am more than happy to talk about worms and all things composting. Many answers will eventually be posted in the data base here as well.

Enjoy your worm adventure!