Creating Worm Bin

DIY Worm Farm- Soaking the Paper

Composting with Worms

Problem 1

Last year, we had a white fly problem that infected and killed a lot of our plants. I was doing a little research about how to deal with this problem without the use of chemical pesticides. I then discovered worm poop A.K.A vermicompost! Worm castings increases the amount of a particular enzyme in the plant. This enzyme acts as a natural deterrent for certain pests such as whiteflies.

Problem 2

We consume a lot of vegetables/fruit and we always end up with a lot of waste after cooking/eating. I always feel bad for throwing everything in the garbage, when these materials can be composted. Living in an apartment, it is impossible to start a composting pile.

Solution

We experimented with the worm castings, which we bought on-line and found it actually helped deter the white flies. Not only is it a an excelling natural pesticide, worm castings also make an excellent natural fertilizer. After feeding our plants worm castings, everyone seemed so much healthier, greener, and stronger.

We decided to develop an infrastructure in our house, to accommodate our need for worms castings and to also solve our waste problem.

Step 1

We found the perfect storage container set at Ikea for this project. You can easily stack three containers high because it has frame to support the containers.

Step 2

I had to insert holes at the bottom of the top two containers. The holes allow excess water to drip down into the bottom holding container. The excess liquid collected can be used as a concentrated liquid fertilizer, that can be fed to your plants after it has been diluted.

The plastic was quite thick, so I had to heat a screw driver to poke it through the plastic.

Step 3

To make the bedding for the worms, we used shredded up paper which we soaked in water for about an hour. After putting the soaked paper in the container, we also added about 5 cups of soil. After everything was ready to go, we put all of food waste in the container.

Food Preparation for the Worms

Worms don’t like eating everything! They don’t like eating:

Citrus & Onions

When feeding your worms, be sure to cut the food waste into small pieces. The smaller the better!

Note

Worms like moisture, so make sure your worm bin is always nice and moist. We keep a soaked towel on the top of our bin the keep moisture in without over soaking the bin.

We have been vermicomposting for a couple of months and we now successfully dispose our vegetable/fruit waste in a sustainable matter.