I've been keeping worms for about 18 months or so and never found that they eat anywhere near their own weight per day.

Marshall

1) As the food decomposes and the worms consume it, it looses volume and weight. Some table scraps contain up to 90% water.

2) Bedding is a living environment for the worms. The worms will consume the bedding over a length of time. Letting the bedding become pure castings may be harmful to your worms. The bin should be harvested before this happens. I would suggest not feeding the worms for about a week before harvesting the bin.

worms can consume up to half their weight per day, though that doesn't mean they will ... if you eat 10 pounds of food does the resulting 'waste' weigh 10 pounds? if so then what supplies all the energy your body is using? where does all the increase in inches around your belly come from?

the bedding supplies an environment for conditions conducive to the bacterial decompostion that is needed for the organic waste to become worm food, and that decomposition alone accounts for a lot of the loss of volume you see - also it maintains the moisture and darkness worms need - they 'breathe' via oxygen in the moisture on their skins

worms can happily subsist on castings for a long time because they have pretty inefficient digestive systems, a lot of what comes out still contains a lot of nutriative value, especially bacteria, the primary need is for the castings to not dry out

Bill

The advice above sounds good to me. I was thinking the same thing that a lot of food scraps is water that will evaporate also in time.
Also I have noticed with my worms ( which I have had only about 7 months now ) they are eating far less when it is cold. In October I gave them some pumpkin and it would rot and be gone in days and now I have given pumpkin in early December and some of it is still there. They are eating it but it is taking three weeks longer. My temps right now are 50' days and 35' nights aprx. Redworms like the warm days around 70' I'd say. I can't move them inside because of wife and too large. Besisdes my garages is the same temps as outside. Just thought I would try and help you out with more advice. Bill C.

Thanks For the Replies. They all seem to make sence.

Because I am so hung up on the volume of castings/compost let me ask one more question.

How many pounds of worms in an Ideal environment would it take to get a pound of castings per day average?

Thanks
Darren

Darren,
Are you hopping to actually harvest a pound of castings daily? Or are you talking about harvesting say 30 lbs of castings once a month? Or is this kinda an academic question?

Also, are you hoping to harvest a lb of dry castings or a lb of wet castings. It makes a big difference. Is there a purpose to these castings? Planning to bag and sell them?

Most people I've heard say that worms (once settled in and at good temps 70 F) can consume 1/2 their weight in scraps daily. This is more of an amount of food going into the system. Anyway, since matter can not really be lost but some of it gets converted into energy, there will be somewhat less castings coming out of a system than bedding/food going in.

Ok, so this has not really answered your question. How many pounds of worms are required to produce a pound of castings per day? I don't know. I think I got aprox 8 gallons of mostly castings after 4 warm months with 2 lb of worms to start (the weight of worms probably increased during that time.)

At the bottom of the linked page are a couple more worm links. Contacting some worm professionals that make a business of selling worm products might be able to give you a more exact answer if they are willing.

Here is a link that might be useful: My worm Page

One of my bins with two pounds of worms can produce at least 30 pounds of finished castings in three months. So for a pound a day I would need approximately 6 pounds of worms in three different bins, started about a month apart.

tclynx the

Academic.
Wet the same as the food goes in.

Upon further research here is what I have found. And yes it can vary due to circumstances.

Two thousand pounds of food in will create one cubic yard out.
So if I need enough worms to eat 2000 pounds a day I need 4000 pounds of worms. So if I only knew how much a cubic yard weighed I could do the math and scale it down to one pound for the answer to my question. Now using vermimans figures 6 pounds would give me my pound a day. Which means three pounds of food in the worms comes out as one pound. Whew now I can sleep. :-)

Thanks for your replies.

That includes the initial bedding and extra bedding that is added as needed too. And the food that I add is mostly rabbit droppings, which is a tad bit more drier than table scraps.

Flanna,

Have your 2 pounds of worms arrived yet??

Marshall

Not Yet Marshall.

I can't believe ups takes new years off when I have worms ordered. Sheesh the nerve of them. LOL

Not Yet Marshall.

I can't believe ups takes new years off when I have worms ordered. Sheesh the nerve of them. LOL