Vermicomposting for Gardening Success

Written by: Luke Marion

Published on October 27, 2022

Updated on December 30, 2024

Vermicompost is like a superpower for your garden! Full of good microbes and nutrients, it is even better than traditional compost, making it a favorite with organic gardeners.

With just a little care, vermicomposting can help you achieve great produce right in your own backyard. It is growing in popularity because many people find it both fascinating and enjoyable.

This guide covers the benefits of worm compost, what to feed your worms, bedding materials, how to construct a worm bin, and how to use vermicompost. Whether you have an in-ground garden, container garden, or raised bed garden, vermicomposting can help you take your garden to the next level.

Why I Compost With Worms

Composting with worms is just one of the types of composting methods. Hot composting, cold composting, and Bokashi are other good methods that produce dark, nutrient rich organic material, which is vital for good soil composition and fertility.

But vermicomposting is a step above the other methods.

When I walk into a store with a request for waste food scraps, I am often asked, "What are you going to do with all this bad food?" My answer is simple, "I am vermicomposting to turn America's wasteful habits into some of the richest organic food for my plants."

Nah, I'm just kidding. I would never insult a supermarket like that, especially since they are giving me free scraps. I just tell them I am feeding my worms.

But it is true that vermicomposting changed how I garden and how I view waste. It's rewarding, saves money, helps the planet, and improves the quality of my garden soil and plant health.

What Is Vermicompost

You may still be wondering, what exactly is vermicomposting? It is simply using worms to make compost.

Worms live in the soil and feed on organic materials. They excrete nutrient-rich humus-like vermicast, otherwise known as worm castings.

Vermicompost is the end product of worm composting. The main parts of vermicompost are:

Worm Castings - The poop of worms which is full of good bacteria and nutrients.
Decomposed Organic Matter - Compost made of broken-down food and plants.
Microorganisms - Tiny beneficial microbes and bacteria.

Benefits of Worm Compost

Vermicompost has more beneficial bacteria than your average compost pile. A teaspoon of regular garden soil has around 1 billion microbes, whereas compost has 3-4 billion.

But one teaspoon of pure worm castings will contain anywhere from 6 to 8 billion microbes. These microbes suppress plant pathogens, gobble up harmful fungus spores, and increase nutrient availability resulting in healthier plants.

Worm composting offers more great benefits as well:

Benefits	Impact
Reduces Waste	I can feed my worms just about anything: paper, cardboard, food waste, egg shells, hair, vacuum lint, coffee grounds, garden waste and more.
Cost Savings	One pound of worm castings costs roughly $3. I produce 120 pounds every five weeks, which saves me almost $360. By the end of the year, that totals over $3600 in savings.
Enhance Soil Health	In addition to adding beneficial bacteria, vermicompost soil amendments also improve soil structure, moisture retention, and aeration, which all aid plant growth.
Efficiency	Worms are so efficient in what they do that almost 90% of what you feed them comes back out in the form of black gold. Any other animal, and you're looking at a 15-20% return. That means worms require far less, and they give you far more.
Space	I use a 15-gallon tub vermicomposting system for my composting worms. With the 3 systems I have, I typically get about 50-60 pounds of castings every 5 weeks, but the worm bins only take up around 10 square feet of space.
Speed	Vermicomposting works faster than traditional composting. Worms break down waste quickly, meaning you get compost in weeks, not months. This speed is great for those who want to improve their soil fast.
Ease	Vermicomposting is easier to do than traditional composting. You don't have to turn big piles like you do with traditional compost. People who switch to vermicomposting often find it more enjoyable and easier.

Building a Worm Bin

Plastic bins, wooden bins, and stackable trays are all used for worm bins. You may have considered purchasing a Worm Factory 360 or similar setup. But if there is a cost-effective method that works just as well as the expensive store-bought setup, I’m going to choose that method. I want to save money, have fun and grow bigger and better.

Instead of the Worm Factory 360, I built a homemade worm farm in a 15-gallon tote (click to watch the video). This is better than a worm factory because it costs 10 times less and produces 10 times more castings. I have also built an easy FREE worm factory (click to watch the video) made out of two buckets.

Whatever worm bin you choose, there are some specific aspects that you are going to want to pay attention to when setting up a worm bin.

Aspect	Recommendation
Bedding Material	Include some native soil with the compost portion of the bedding so that the worms don’t feel like they are out of their natural element. Native soil helps the environment to feel less foreign and causes less stress on the worms.
Moisture	Add some water to the bedding. Pro-Tip: Use the squeeze test to see if your bedding material has the right amount of moisture. Take a handful of the material and squeeze it. It should feel like a damp sponge but have only a few drops of water dripping out when squeezed.
Temperature	Warmth is key, so choose a warm location for your worm bins. The ideal temperature range for Red Wigglers is between 50°F-70°F. If your space isn't quite ideal, make sure the temperature stays between 40°F and 80°F. Any warmer or colder than that, and the worms will go dormant.
Light	Worms do not like light. Don’t put your worm composting bin in a location that gets regular light. If it is in a light part of your house, you need to keep it shaded. Otherwise, the worms will not come to the top, and you will end up with a top layer that is not composted.

Supplies Needed

15-Gallon Tote - Choose a tote with a lid. I do not recommend clear totes or anything that lets light through.
Bedding Material - I use damp sphagnum peat moss mixed with some regular compost scraps from my yard at a 1:1 ratio to make bedding material. (Instead of sphagnum peat moss, you can also use shredded newspaper or Coco Coir.) Pro-Tip: You want bedding with a neutral pH. Make sure you start with pH-balanced sphagnum peat moss.
Drill - You will need a power drill with a ½ inch drill bit to make holes in the tote.
Water - Keep the bedding damp with water. It should feel as damp as a wrung-out sponge.
Worms - The most common type of composting worm is Red Wigglers. You can also use Alabama Jumpers, basic nightcrawlers, or even worms from your yard. I bought my worms from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm because they have very fair prices.

Instructions for Building & Managing a Worm Bin

Drill Holes in Tote - Drill 7 holes in the bottom for drainage and a line of holes all the way around the tote about an inch or two from the top to allow airflow. Also, drill holes in the lid at regular intervals.
Add Bedding Material - Add the bedding material of your choice and moisten it with water. Don’t go too light on the worm bed. Remember that they will also break down the bedding material in 3 to 4 weeks.
Introduce the Worms - Peel the top layer of bedding back on one side. Put the worms deep down in the bedding material (about 2 or 3 inches from the bottom) so they feel like they are in their natural element. Pro-Tip: Dump all of the worms into the same area. Don’t try to spread them out or distribute them. They like to be in a colony and spread out on their own as they populate.
Cover the Worms - Gently cover the worms with the top layer of bedding so they are sort of suspended in the bedding.
Prepare Worm Food - Prepare worm food by blending food scraps in a blender to make a slurry. Beginners tend to throw whole food scraps into their worm compost bins. That will work, but this is a better way to get food composted cleaner and faster, allowing you to harvest a lot quicker. Feed about one pound of food per week for every 1,000 worms. Pro-Tip: The #1 rule of feeding worms is: if it doesn’t go in your compost pile, then don’t feed it to your worms. Avoid meat, dairy, greasy foods and citrus.
Add the Food to the Bin - On the opposite side of the worm bin from where you placed the worms, dig a hole and place the worm food slurry in it. Then cover the food back up with bedding.
Maintain Proper Conditions - Check the worm bin regularly for proper moisture and healthy conditions. Keep the bedding moist and watch out for the issues listed below under “Troubleshooting.”
Continue to Feed the Worms - Feed your worms about once a week. Pro-Tip: Move your feeding area to a different location each time to encourage your worms to move through the bedding.

Harvesting & Using Your Vermicompost

After weeks of care, it's time to harvest your vermicompost! It's ready when it has a rich, dark, crumbly texture with an earthy smell. Fresh vermicompost is a gardener's treasure!

For harvesting, I most often see people take a scoop out of the worm bin and make a conical mound on a flat surface. Because the worms don’t like light, they will move to the center, allowing you to harvest the vermicompost from the edges and the top.

The problem I have with that is if I want to use some of the vermicompost as an extra-fine potting mix for starting seedlings indoors or in a greenhouse, I don’t want it to have any undecomposed food scraps or large pieces, so I use a different harvesting method than most people.

I use a screening method that is totally safe for the worms. This video will walk you through how I harvest worm castings quickly and easily (click to watch).

You can use vermicompost in your garden the same way you would regular compost or as a seed starting mix. A mulch layer of vermicompost is great for improving soil structure and fertilizing. Or apply 2 Tablespoons of worm castings around the base of each plant for slow feeding.

Troubleshooting

People always ask me how my worm castings are so clean, free of fruit flies, and have an even smooth consistency. They are puzzled why my castings don’t smell like rotting food.

The biggest difference maker is how you feed your worms. The way that I feed my worms not only speeds up the time until harvest but also makes a healthier, happier worm bin that won’t smell, mold, or attract fruit flies.

Let’s look at common issues and how to fix them:

Bad Odors - Your feeding method is the trick to getting clean, smell-free vermicompost. As stated above, blend food scraps in a blender before feeding them to your worms. Only give your worms items that would go in a regular compost pile. Bury the food under old compost/bedding to cut down smells. Add more dry bedding if your bin has too much moisture. This method helps prevent uncomposted food scraps, fruit flies, mold, and odors.
Fruit Flies - Fruit flies are a common problem that has the same solution as bad odors. To eliminate them, blend food and cover it with bedding after adding it. Make sure the bedding doesn’t have too much moisture.
Worms Crawling Up Edges - If your worms are newly introduced to your bin and they crawl up the sides, it may mean they are not yet acclimated. Simply place the bin under a light, and they will crawl back down to escape the light. Pro-Tip: If you still see worms crawling up the edges after the first 2 or 3 weeks, then it means that the bedding is not damp enough, the pH is off, or they don’t have enough food. Correct the problem by feeding them well, checking the pH, and keeping the bedding damp like a wrung-out sponge.
Overpopulation - Worms are strategists, which means that they will lay as many eggs as the environment allows. They will not lay eggs if they do not have enough space. If they get stressed due to overpopulation, build a second worm bin. Divide the worm bin (click to watch) by taking some of the worm population out of the original bin and starting a second colony in the new worm bin.
Low pH - I accidentally bought sphagnum peat moss that was not pH-balanced before. My worms kept trying to climb out of the bin because they couldn’t tolerate the acidity. If you think you may have a pH problem, test the pH using a Rapitest Soil Tester. Composting worms don’t like a pH lower than 5.5. If the pH is too acidic, solve the problem by soaking a few cups of wood ash in water for about 20 minutes. Then water the beds with wood ash water. Because wood ash is alkaline, it will correct the acidic pH. Retest to make sure the pH is corrected.
Compacted or Uneven Compost Consistency - To prevent compacted or uneven compost, alternate which side of the worm bins you feed the worms on. This causes them to migrate through the bed, which will encourage them to digest not just the food you feed them but also the bedding material. It also helps if you mix the bedding before feeding. Dig down nice and deep and flip the material.

FAQ

What are the benefits of vermicompost for garden success?

Vermicomposting has so many benefits, including waste reduction, cost savings, enhanced soil health, ease, efficiency and more.

What is vermicompost?

Vermicompost is worm castings, composted organic material, and microorganisms that come from compost produced with worms.

What types of worms are used for vermicomposting?

I use Red Wigglers, the most common type of composting worm. Alabama Jumpers, basic nightcrawlers, or even worms from your yard will also work.

How do I build a worm bin?

Follow the instructions in this tutorial to learn how to build a worm bin inexpensively.

How do I manage a vermicompost bin?

Follow the steps in this guide to manage your vermicompost bin with the right food, moisture, pH, and temperature.

What are common problems in vermicomposting, and how can I solve them?

Odors and fruit flies are two common problems that can be solved with correct feeding practices.