In this series:

Part 1: Dublin waste problem

Part 2: Crampton Buildings community composting story

Part 3: What next for the Crampton buildings scheme

Part 4: Frequently asked questions about vermicomposting

Part 5: Frequently asked questions about community composting

Part 6: Other community composting resources

IPCC Community composting & wildlife Gardening Resources

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Worm Composting: Winning the Battle Against Waste

Frequently asked questions about worm composting

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What about pests and vermin when you vermicompost?
What can you compost?
What materials can I put in a worm bin?
What materials might cause problems with a vermicompost bin?
What materials should you completely avoided in a worm bin?
Where can I get a vermicompost system?
Where do you get the worms?
What are the little white baby worms you sometimes see in the worm bin?
How many worms do you need?
Once the bin is full what do you do?
What can you use the compost for?
Does the compost need to be mixed with other material before it is used?
What about worms in the compost once you use it?
How much material can you feed your worms each week?

What about pests and vermin when you vermicompost?
Provided you do not compost meat material, and you use a sealed container there should be no vermin problems.

What can you compost?
Anything that once lived can be composted - but, for various reasons, some materials are best dealt with in other ways. The main ingredients will tend to come from your own house. It is important to have a mix of materials. There is no need to weigh different materials or worry about their chemical composition in order to get the mix right. It is something you learn with experience. Virtually any organic waste can be put in the worm bin. A separate bin in the kitchen to collect compostable scraps would be helpful. Anything not of living origin will not compost.

What materials can I put in a worm bin?
Wood Ash -Provides potassium and lime
Cardboard -Tear up before use, glue contains boron which can be toxic to plants
Grass cuttings - High in nitrogen and a good "activator", but care must be taken not to overwhelm the compost bin with grass as it can turn into a slimy mess. Mix well with open materials.
Hair - From the family pet, or the family!
Kitchen and household scraps - Old fruit and vegetables, cut flowers, tea leaves, coffee grounds, crushed egg shells, etc - tend to be wet. Good ingredient for worm composting.
Leaves - If there are large amounts these are best made into leaf mould in a separate heap. Tend to be very dry.
Paper - Small amounts, shredded (avoid magazines and colour inks). Mix well with other items.

What materials might cause problems with a vermicompost bin?
Too much acidic material such as lemon and orange skins can be hard for the worms to digest. Avoid adding too much of these or neutralise their effects by adding an occasional sprinkling of lime to the compost bin (1-2 tablespoons full).

What materials should you completely avoided in a worm bin?
Dog & Cat droppings - This type of animal manure may carry parasites
Man-made fibres - These will not rot
Material infected with diseases - Composting may not kill these diseases
Materials sprayed with weed killers - The residues may remain in the heap
Meat bones & scraps of meat - May attract rats & disease- carrying insects

Where can I get a vermicompost system?
You can make up your own system by buying a suitable plastic container. This should have a well fitting lid, holes drilled along the base to allow excess water and organic leachate to come out of the bin, be big enough for your needs, strong enough to take occasional knocks and the weight of the compost, and allow for relatively easy emptying once the bin is full.

The diagram here shows how an ordinary black plastic rubbish bin can be converted into a worm bin. A bin of this construction would be enough for one households waste and is an ideal way to get a feel for how to vermicompost at the start. Once you have got the hang of the process you can add additional bins or scale up to larger containers.

Or if you would like to buy a system, together with worms you could contact the The Irish Earthworm Company, Farnivane, Bandon, Co. Cork, Ireland. PH: 023 43645 FX: 023 52343
E Mail: info@irishearthworm.com

Where do you get the worms?
The worms needed for composting are known as brandling worms. They can be obtained from fishing tackle shops, from someone else that has a worm bin or from an old compost heap. They are smaller than true earthworms and they tend to have yellow bands between the segments at the "tail end of the worm. The Irish Earthworm Company listed above also sells worms to people starting a bin.

What are the little white baby worms you sometimes see in the worm bin?
The tiny white worms you see on the food on the surface of your bin are called Enchytraeids. They are also called 'Potworms' or 'White Worms'. They won't harm your bin or the compost worms. They are actually composters too. If you get a lot of them its an indication that the bin is slightly acidic. Consider adding a sprinkling of lime and you'll notice them gone in a few days.

How many worms do you need?
If you don't add too much material at the start and let the population of worms in the bin increase naturally you could start with as few as 100 worms. The trick at the start, however, is not to overfeed the worms.

Once the bin is full what do you do?
Once the compost and semi digested organic waste in the bin reaches within a few inches of the top of the bin it's time to organise some help and empty it. To do this you should get a couple of empty buckets and transfer the top six inches of fresh kitchen waste to the buckets along with all the worms. You'll notice that the deeper you go into the bin the more brown and decomposed the compost becomes. Once you can't identify individual plants any more your into compost. Unless you want to use it immediately the compost usually improves by being left for a few weeks or months in a plastic bag. As you transfer the compost to the bags collect as many of the worms as you can and return them to the fresh material from the surface of the bin. They'll make sure you have a good population of worms in the newly started bin.

What can you use the compost for?
Vermicompost is a gardener's dream and very fertile material. It can be used for just about anything in the garden, glitches or container gardening but it should not be used for seedling germination as it is just too rich. In general it is better to mix it with leaf mould, coir or shredded wood compost or green waste compost to make material suitable for potting on container grown plants or as a rich mix for tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and window boxes. It can be used to enrich soil in the general garden or vegetable garden if you have a lot of material.

Does the compost need to be mixed with other material before it is used?
Unless you are growing a very hungry crop in a container or vegetable bed (such as beans/marrow/cabbage etc) its better to mix your worm compost with other comported material. Vermicompost is very rich so its can mixed with soil, other garden compost etc. Of course this also helps your vermicompost go further!

What about worms in the compost once you use it?
They are not a problem and in fact if you store your compost for a while in a plastic sack you'll find that the number of worms decreases quite dramatically (presumably the result of fresh food material being absent).

How much material can you feed your worms each week?
It's claimed that worms will process half their own body weight in organic matter each day. So 1kg of worms will process 1/2kg of organic waste per day. However, the rate of organic matter breakdown is also very much related to the conditions the worm bin is exposed to. So in cooler winter weather, if the bins are outdoors, the processing rate can be slower, while in the summer the bins work at maximum efficiency and turn over organic material very quickly.

The amount of airflow in the bin is another factor that is important - worm are living things and need air, so opening the bin regularly is important.

It is best to get a 'feel' for your own worm bin. Watch the food you put in, and when it has nearly gone, you can put more in. Over time, the feeding rate will become faster as your worm population increases.

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