Worm composting (Vermicomposting) is a sort of composting in which you serve your veggie food leftovers to red wigglers (Eisenia Fetida).
Do you require a specific number of composting worms? This article will show you how to estimate your garbage, estimate how many composting worms you’ll need, and figure out what size worm bin to utilize for all of your food scraps.
How Much Food Waste Does Your Family Produce?
To figure out how many composting worms you’ll need, keep track of how much vegetable food waste you and your family generate regularly. Simple guidelines for tracking food waste and conducting a family food waste analysis are provided below.
Gather one day’s supply of veggie food waste that could have been given to your Small Kitchen Scale Worm farm. Make sure you only gather worm-friendly food waste.
Store all veggie leftovers in a plastic bag and weigh them at the close of the gathering day. It’s best to use a small kitchen scale or a fish scale for this. Every day for a week, continue the cycle, then average the outcomes.
You now know how much food you waste daily on average.
Read also: Can You Compost Pasta?:
How Many Red Worms Feed On Your Average Daily Household Food Waste?
- Red wiggler composting worms, for example, eat approximately half their body weight daily!
- So, if your daily average food waste is 2 pounds, you’ll need about 4 pounds of composting worms to consume that much every day.
- In this case, a worm composting herd of 4 pounds of worms is ideal.
What Is The Ideal Size Worm Bin For Your Worm Composting Herd?
Under optimal temperature and relative humidity conditions, including plenty of food for a worm species to eat, your worm population will increase to the capacity of its environment (worm bin and worm bin bedding).
The top inch of worm bedding is where composting worms feast, therefore the next step is to figure out how many square feet you’ll need on the surface of your worm bin.
In a worm farm, a desirable, robust ratio is one pound of red wigglers per square foot of surface space (1:1). If your ideal worm herd weighs 4 pounds, you could use a worm farm with a surface area of at least 4 square feet.
Several plastic storage bins are the right size for worm farms. You’ll need a bigger worm composting container to keep the worms if you need a bigger worm composting herd.
Recommended: Check out the list of materials that can be put in a compost
How Many Red Worms Are In A Pound?
You don’t need to consider how many worms are in a pound because we calculate everything by weight. However, most worm composters utilize the figure of 1000 red wiggler worms in one pound simply because knowing approximately how many worms are in your worm herd is enjoyable. If your vermicompost bin contains 4 lbs of composting worms, you have approximately 4,000 worms laboring for you!
Read also: Can you compost weeds?
How Many Composting Worms Do I Need?
To consume all of your family’s food scraps, you’ll need a total of 4 pounds of composting worms, based on our previous example. You can either do one of two methods to get up to 4 pounds of red worms:
- Purchase 4 pounds of composting worms. This is the easiest, but also the most costly, method of achieving your ideal worm herd.
- Make a worm farm. Another option is to start with 1 pound of worms and let them reproduce on their own. This is a more time-consuming method, but it will save you cash.
You’re capable of building or purchasing your Worm Composting Container now that you understand how many composting worms you’ll need to satisfy your family’s needs.
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