How to Setup a Composting Worm Bin System

It's here! My Worm Factory arrived! There are 3 Main Sections of Setup - assembling the bin itself, creating the bedding, and adding the worms. I finished parts 1 and 2 in 30 minutes. Now to wait a week or so before it's ready to add the worms.


First, assembling the unit:


Unpacking my box, I have:
- a Collection Tray,
- several Holding Trays,
- a Base,
- a Lid that cleverly has the tips and info printed right on it (easy to refer to), - a bag with small parts (bolts and nuts and a spigot and knob),
- a 16 page instruction book,
- shredded paper
- and a brick of something called "coir".

I start off here in the living room, so you can see there's no mess to worry about.



The first step is to place the holding tray over the base tray and attach them with a bolt at each corner.

This is very easy - the holding tray has a mesh bottom and the base has a mesh top already, so no need to drill holes or anything. Just twist the bolts by hand.




Next, I set the collection tray down into the holding tray (attached now to the base) and aligned the spigot holes. I found the spigot and large plastic nut in the parts bag, inserted the spigot through holes and screwed the plastic nut onto the back to hold it in place. To 'assemble' the lid you just put the knob over the hold and put the screw through and tighten. That took all of 3 seconds.



What I learned next is that when you use the vermicomposter, you add one tray at a time. So for now I only need to set one tray in place.

That's it for installation and assembly! My worm factory is up and ready to be filled!


Now to Create the Bedding.

First I lined the bottom of that empty working tray with 3 or 4 sheets of dry newspaper. I have some newpaper that's never been printed on (end rolls of blank paper from the newspaper office) and used it, but real newspaper is fine. The ink isn't a problem. Now to make the tray bedding.

The instructions said to soak the block of coir in a container with 3 quarts of water until it breaks apart and is moist.


What is coir? Turns out it's made from a part of the coconut husk and is highly absorbent. There's a wonderful photo essay on coir here if you'd like to really dig in. I put my coir block into a bucket and added the 3 quarts of water, thinking I'd have to pour it off later or somehow remove the water.



Instead, the block immediately broke apart and soaked up ALL of the water, faster than a sponge! The instructions say to wring out excess water but there just wasn't any.











This solid, hard block turned into wonderful, crumbly thick moist bedding material in just a couple of minutes.




The next part may prove to be a challenge:


You need to find a cup of active compost. I didn't anticipate this step, but the instructions said if you don't have an active compost pile or garden, use decayed leaf litter from beneath shrubs. It was about 10:00 at night but I grabbed my handy crank flashlight and jacket and ran out to dig under the bushes. I came up with a bit more than a cup of decent decayed leaf litter.



I mixed the crumbled, moist coir with the decayed leaf litter and then earthdad helped me spread it on top of the newspapers in the working tray.








Lovely!












Now it's time to add 2 handfuls of food scraps to one corner of the working tray. On the lid of the worm factory there are tips for what kind of scraps are good. Chopping them up makes them break down faster and become food so I used small pieces of chopped asparagus, some lettuce and cabbage, some chopped banana peels. (avoid citrus)



You then cover the food and fill the tray with 2-3 inches of dry, shredded newspaper.









Then take 3 or 4 full sheets of newspaper and wet it.

Cover the shredded paper with the moist newspaper sheets. (Again, I'm using unprinted newspaper from an end roll just because it was handy. Regular newspaper is fine.)






Place the lid over the material in the working tray. Store your remaining trays for future use, and leave your material in the working tray to work. It needs to break down for about a week before you introduce your little squirmy buddies into their new home!








Added Note: After rereading the instructions I realized that I should have combined the coir mixture with the shredded paper before I spread it on the tray (to start the paper breaking down faster). I later went in and mixed it up better.

I ordered my Worm Factory from Colorado Earthworms. They are close by so I'm going to go pick up my worm buddies soon. Stay tuned!