Why do you have worms in a container?

The container he is talking about is the 18 gallon Rubbermaid bin. He has them in a container because it is tidier than worming on the floor.

As for starting a second bin, your worms will not reproduce to the point of overcrowding the space available to them. Start a new bin if you want a second bin. Otherwise your worms are fine. If you want to give worms away, I'd wait a few more months. Your bin should be able to support about 4000 worms. At that point you can give a pound of worms away, and they will replace themselves in about a month.

I don't know why he has them in a container either.

Unless it is what sbryce said. :-) Even WITH a container I find that a tiny percent of the worms insist on living on the floor along with a tiny percent of my finished vermicompost.

A reason to divide a bin is in case conditions mysteriously go bad in one bin the second will hopefully avoid catastrophy and get you quickly back in business.

An 8 gallon bin handles my household most of the time. I figure my 5 gallon finishing bucket is my back up. Although it will have only a very few baby worms. I have that much only because vermicomposting got to be so much fun I had no interest in planting anything! On the rare occasion I will double my cubic footage due to a very temporary watermellon or pumpkin emergency. This also uses up all my cardbord supplies. In a few weeks it has melted down enough to fit into my regular bin.

The biggest thing I use to determine when to split a bin is when I have an overwhelming urge to play with the worms.

I agree that a backup/secondary bin is a good idea. If the 18 gal. RM is processing all your food waste, then the 2nd bin can be something small...basically a worm "ark" in case catastrophe hits your main bin. You just need to be extra careful with a small bin. There's no buffer zone, so temps, moisture & food levels can't get out of hand or the consequences are brutal and quick.

Under ideal conditions it is possible your original thousand worms could now be 4,000 strong. Do your worms seem physically smaller or thinner than your original squirm? Crowded conditions won't necessarily harm the worms, but thinning the herd can't hurt. It'd be great if you can help someone else get started with worm composting.

Andrew

I asked dmcecchini a very simple question in order to determine what their goals were. Vermicomposting and vermiculture are very similar, but different none the less.

Thanks for all of the advice. I have the rubbermaid container set up in my basement to get rid of food waste and harvest worm castings for my garden. The worms seem healthy, but crowded. I added extra bedding to give them more room. I think I will give some away in a few months. Thanks again.

I disagree that worms won't reproduce to the point of being overcrowded. I've been worming going on 5 years, and that hasn't been my experience. That's why I started with one bin and now have 5. At various points, when the worms were literally wall to wall, I started a new bin. However, I've obviously not done it as soon as overcrowding occurs, or I'd have way more than 5 bins right now!

I was going to suggest you add another layer of bedding, but your last post indicates you did that already. If I were you, I'd continue to add layers of bedding as it gets processed. Then when your bin is as full as you want it to be, harvest, then split the worms half and half and start a 2nd bin.

Sounds like you're keeping your worms very happy. :-)

Deanna

Your stated goal is "to get rid of food waste and harvest worm castings". Another layer of bedding will not aid this process but only delay harvesting. Also, harvesting an 18 gallon RM tote is a chore I have done many times. It is time for you to consider a flow-thru barrel. To reduce waste (7/1 is reasonable) and create compost, a flow-thru barrel is unbeatable. Do the research, and build one (an easy project); you will wish you had done this after your first harvest.

On vermicomposters.ning.com Andrew has made a list of all the different descriptions of flow through bins in order from smallest to largest.

http://vermicomposters.ning.com/forum/topics/diy-flow-through-bins-a

I agree that flow through is the way to go, both for ease of harvesting and difficulty of messing things up. It's hard to make a flow through anaerobic.