Bedding for your worm bin

8 years ago

There are probably as many different thoughts on this as there are people on this forum, but mainly you use what you have available. Only thing with that is if you dont have good balance you could have problems like ending with wet mucky castings that cant be sifted for good use etc. Let me first say that I buy peat by the bale as I have been using this as a filler for some of my plants/cuttings pots etc. Since I have so much of this some gets added to my bedding[ I have used coir but not recently]. I also have a fellows w11c shredder and I only use it shredding brown cardboard, but it wont handle heavy duty cardboard but it handle avg cardboard. So I will use peat , shredded cardboard, shredded newsprint, sifted coffee grounds from starbucks, and usually a couple good double handfuls of compost whatever you have. I premix these ingrediants before adding to my new tray. I usually cover the bedding with layers of newsprint mostly to keep gnats and fruit flies at bay as much as I can. Of course in the long run it all turns into worm food. This method works well for me as I have shown the black gold it produces many times in the past . Also beside accumulating the kitchen leavings which eventually becomes a mish-mash of ongoing food for the worms , but I change it up on occasion and feed them melon rinds or a mix of oats and cornmeal.

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Comments (5)

11otis
8 years ago
hummersteve: whenever you p/u UCG from SB, they might give you their newspaper too. I got several bags from them when I used to p/u banana peel.
Shaul
8 years ago
"There are probably as many different thoughts on this as there are people on this forum," The first line said it all, which is probably why you only got one response. AHHH... Where are the days of old? Where are EquinoxEquinox, Chuckiebtoo, Marauder and all the others who have disappeared over the years? Perhaps they were Raptured at the time of the Great Tribulation (when Gardenweb was taken over by Houzz) and are now part of some great, secret, worm forum (that nobody knows about), sitting at the feet of Kelly Slocum. But though they are gone, at least their comments still live on.
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11otis
8 years ago
Yeah, I really miss them. They disappeared at them time of the switch.
Airies
8 years ago
Thanks Hummer I just put a whole lot of fresh bedding in my flow through system, using coir instead of peat. Was smelling a bit beforehand due to vegges smelling a bit and a whole cantaloupe sliced up. Seems a lot more balanced and something I will do to keep things dandy. Guess once nose and the worm activity or lack off is a good indication
weedlady
8 years ago
My worms seem to be supremely happy with the dry autumn leaves I run through my leaf vac, reducing them to large cornflake size. I have 2 (sometimes 3) Rubbermaid bins and each fall I fill a huge heavy-duty contractor sized black plastic bag with DRY shredded leaves and take it to the basement where I keep the bins. The leaves form the bulk of what I use for bedding (after adding water & soaking it for a couple of days and then squeezing handfuls out to the customary "wrung-out sponge" degree of wet. If you ever have see well-rotted leaf mold outdoors, well... that's what I get eventually! Of course, I add kitchen scraps regularly as well, and the end result is the fine, coffee-grounds-looking stuff. Also, the bag of dry leaves comes in handy if I have been stupid & let the bedding get too wet. Add a few handfuls and lightly mix it in.

Question for Airies - if you are looking.... Does the coir break down like everything else? I use coir in my various potting mixes (along with varying amounts of Pro-mix Organic planting mix, maybe mixing in more vermiculite, perlite, worm compost - all depending on what I am potting), but feel it is a bit pricey to use as bedding.