A worm can eat half it's weight in garbage each day (a conservative estimate). So, figure out how many pounds of compostable material your family generates in a week, then divide this number by seven and multiply it by two. That number equals the number of pounds of worms you need and the total square feet of bin space you need (one square foot per pound of worms is a general rule of thumb).

Wooden plywood bins are better than plastic tubs (they breathe) and the best bins are the continuous flow type. If you are interested you can get plans for a 12 square foot continuous flow bin at http://www.vermico.com/harvesters.htm. They are called OSCRs for Oregon Soil Corporation Reactors.

Good luck.
Kurt

I'd say generally the 1/2# per # is optimistic rather than conservative, considering any home setup will not be managed for max ideal activity

I'd also suggest you might want to start an outdoor hot/cold/managed/neglected bin rather than vermicomposting if you have no need for the castings - compost piles can be fed for years without increasing appreciably in size, and if you don't tend them much they still work, and mixing your food waste with the leaves will make them reduce in volume better, before the following year additions

Bill

Unfortunately, I can't have a regular compost. One reason is the kids- they like to play in leaf piles, therefore a compost "pile" becomes spread out over about a 20 foot area (and I also notice a whole lot of ticks collecting there too- yuck!. Other reason being it's a super small yard (at a rental), and lastly, we have our neighborhood raccoons, which won't leave *anything* alone. Hence the reason I started using tupperware. I have it lidded to keep the kids out, and I can move it to the garage depending on weather, and it's relatively small (compared to the size of an outdoor compost anyway).

I have been collecting our cardboard and paperboard for the week. Does the weight guesstimate apply for paper products too? I mean once it's shredded, 1 pound of paper, is a lot of paper. So I can easily weigh the paper, since I've already got it saved, now I just need to collect our kitchen scraps to weigh.

I think perhaps 1/4 # a day might be a better estimate for me to use, simply because I want to put in leaves as well. By the time I have fed in the last of my leaves from last year, it will be fall again. Unfortunately for me, my neighbors have a LOT of trees.

Thanks for the bin plans link, I'll have to check it out. I assume wood would be better insulated than plastic, so I could probably leave it out year round.

So- roughly, the 3 # I have should be enough to process between 3/4 of a pound, and a pound and a half per day. *thinking to self*

Hi Mamato

I know this isen't going to be popular but from everything I have seen it's the real truth.

For a family that size you need a bin about 3x5 or 15ft of surface area, and 15 lbs of worms. This is what it takes to process a family of 4's waste unless you eat out all the time.

I have two bins this size and with this many worms. They are happy and working working well. I see first hand every week how much they process.

Another way to figure it (again this wont be popular) Give the worms thier weight in food a week. 5lbs worms get 5lbs food a week plus all the junkmail cardboard waste etc they want to eat. Never have I seen my worms even on thier best days eat two or three times thier weight of ( FOOD) scraps in a week.

Good Luck
Darren

My take on this was I didn't want to spend loads of money up front, but now 6 months in I have about 10x more worms than I did to begin with, maybe more. Your 3# may not eat enough now, but give it a little time. You may not be able to transition to 0 compostable materials leaving as trash right away, but you'll work up to that.

Also, I don't give them shiny cardboard or regular paper (junk mail), but I do collect other's newspapers and cardboard, so I think it averages to close to 0 waste. I think the super processed paper in newspaper and cardboard are easier for them to handle, but I haven't been doint this long, so I'm not at all sure. I do know that my peanut shells haven't been fully consumed in the 4 months they've had to work on them

I've got a couple of sources for veges when I need them and I've hear of people picking up 5# of spent coffee grinds from their nearest coffee shop. I don't like coffee but take the left overs from the office pot every day. In short, I hope to be composting more than I would have been put in the garbage as time progresses, though it may be a year or more till I get there.

Just to weigh in, mine don't eat anywhere near half their weight a day, but I've got so many more than I had to begin with I'm processing lots more than I did in the beginning! I'm not even sure they're eating a quarter of their weight of veges/fruit peels in a week, but there's also lots of cardboard and newspaper in there.

I expect that my pound of worms is probably doubled by now, or will be soon with all the babies I have in there. SO, that should put me at 4 pounds of worms.

At day 3 of counting waste, I am at 6 pounds of food waste, plus a kitchen trashbag crammed full of shredded papaer. Since there is a melon rind in there, I expect we'll only average about 7 1/2 pounds for the week.

So I suppose that does lood like I'll need around 15 pounds of worms. Ouch. That'd be rather expensive, so I am definately not buying another 12 pounds.

But, I guess that does mean then that I don't necessarily need a bigger bin. I haven't measured my bin yet, but I think it's around 8 sq ft.

Mamato

If your patiant no need to buy more. I was giving (MY) opinion on what it would take to eat your whole falily's garbage. Your worms will multiply. I woulden't split the bin untill you get to 8 pounds of worms or a little more.

Good luck
Darren

Another option: Set a large rubbermaid contain at least partially into the ground. With some holes drilled into the area in contact with the ground, your bin will become populated with worms already in the yard. That "wild" population will begin to multiply in your bin due to the constant food supply. All it will cost you is a bin and some patience.

Where are you located? That will affect how active the worms are over the winter.

Anyway, since you don't really care to use the finished product much, the idea of a trash or bin with bottom cut off and sunk into the ground a bit would make sense when you need to add another bin.

I found that the worms really did not do well at getting rid of the glossy paper board like cereal boxes and such. I've tanken to using paper, paperboard, and glossy stuff in the regular compost. About the only things that we trow out in the trash are the plastics that can't be recycled here.

I have not had trouble with critters messing with our normal outdoor compost bin and I know we have raccoons around. Then again, we have big compost bins and humanure compost putting all the no-nos in like meat, grease, human poo, etc.

Here is a link that might be useful: TCLynx