The worms have arrived!

(I was going to call this post: "we have worms!" but people around here are getting tired of that joke.)

Suhujitha and I have been very excited to have a functioning worm chalet in the office. Everyone else, it seems, has been either neutral or disturbed by the idea that we would be composting our office waste using this method. We are apparently a fruit-eating office here and since the City of Toronto doesn't pick up green bins from businesses, our compost waste ends up in the trash. Well, not any more.

Our worms arrived late Friday afternoon. Cathy Nesbitt of Cathy's Crawly Composters came by after her workshops in the city to bring supplies and to teach us how to take care of them. Unfortunately, Suhujitha wasn't here at that point and the people left here were not all that keen to go digging in a pail of worms, so I got the lesson and documented the worm care.

As an aside, it's funny how some people are weirded out by the simple knowledge that there are worms in a grey box in the corner of the office. It's not like they are running around freely (and it's not like they have legs). Honestly, if one of us didn't tell you what the grey bin in the corner was, you'd never know. You can see in the photo to the right, just how unassuming it is; I circled it in the photo to make it more obvious. Anyway, back to the worm lesson.

The worm chalet is an indoor/outdoor composter model that can be expanded upwards. We have three tiers or trays on hand, starting with the one and equipped for growth. When you add a new layer to the chalet, you have to give the worms something moist to stay in as a basis (shredded paper, earth for grit as they have no teeth, lime for ph balance, and the pulped coconut husk base). It also serves as base food for the worms until you have enough organic waste. Then you add your compostables to the mix. You only have to go through this process once per layer.

Below are some photos, from getting the bedding ready, through adding the worms, to a couple of shots showing how to take care of the chalet on an on-going basis. After the pictures, there is information you need to know about your worms and tips for maintaining a chalet indoors.
(Use the arrow keys to scroll through the slide show and press ESC to stop it.)

• Cathy Nesbitt of Cathy's Crawly Composters preparing the paper for the worm chalet
• Packaged coconut husks - I forget what they were for. This is the foundation of the paper, earth, lime bedding mix.
• You soak the coconut in water for about 15 minutes to break it up and then add the lime, dirt, and shredded paper to it.
• Into the bucket goes a mix of lime (eggshells) and dirt for grit - the lime is to keep the ph balance of the bedding suitable for worms since they breathe through their skin
• Adding the shredded paper
• Cathy shows me what the consistency should feel like for future reference
• Spread the mix in the tray
• Make it nice and level
• Me (Gisela) adding the worms
• Putting the tray back in the chalet
• I added a toilet paper roll that I had been soaking in water so they would have something to eat to start (Then I ran across the street to Dark Horse to ask for coffee grounds. Probably shouldn't have told them why I needed them.)
• Going forward, the lid doubles as a stand for the layers - this is useful to know just in case any worms are trying to travel between levels, you won't crush them when you put the tray down.
• Done!

Worm care for composters

1. Worms breathe through their skin. Remember that and don't put anything in the composter that will smother, burn, or dehydrate your worms. Cathy says to think about the food items as being pre-consumer waster, not post-consumer - so add nothing that has been seasoned or oiled.
2. Cutting the scraps up before you put them in the scrap bucket will make your life easier since you won't have to break apart the decomposing materials as you give them to the worms.
3. Do not feed your worms meat or dairy.
4. Do not give them pet waste.
5. Worms have no teeth. Your compostables really need to be broken down a bit before they can start to break it down further, so keep fruit and veggie waste in a (covered) scrap container before you drop it in for them.
6. Fruit flies are a pain in the butt. (We lived that this summer in Toronto thanks to the garbage strike.) Wash your fruits and veggies when you bring them in rather than before you eat them - and wash everything. For years people have been calling me neurotic for washing my bananas, but looks like I am right. The fruit fly eggs (and who knows what else) are on the skins. :P
7. Avoid fruit flies in the bin by burying the compost in the bedding. Lift up a small area of bedding, then drop the compost in the hole, and cover it. If you can keep compost from coming in contact with the surface of the bedding, fruit flies will not have anything accessible to eat.
8. To keep the fruit flies out of the organic waste bin (scrap bucket), cover them with damp paper or a handful of castings once they start producing them.

Other Tips:

1. You need 2lbs of worms for every 1lb of compostable material you create per day.
2. The lid of the composter will likely accumulate moisture from condensation. (It's like a terrarium in that it is a self-contained eco-system.)
3. Once a week, drain the tap at the bottom of your worm chalet - use the liquid in other plants as it is rich in nutrients!

Posted by: gisela on 2009-12-13 11:25:48

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