02/07/2024
Regardless of your vermicomposting goals (composting, castings, or for fun), feeding your worms is the most critical factor for a healthy worm bin. In this post we’ll share what to feed, foods to avoid, and tips on how much and how often to feed your wiggly friends.
1) What to Feed:
* Worms prefer a vegan diet - their diet includes most fruits and vegetables and excludes meat, dairy, and cooked or processed foods.
* Softer, sweeter foods are always a hit with worms - berries, grapes, bananas, sweet potatoes, avocados, etc.
* Avoid spicy (e.g., peppers) and acidic (e.g., tomatoes) foods.
* Some folks say worms don't like citrus, but that's not actually true (they just prefer it in small amounts!).
* Remember to keep it simple and when in doubt the answer is usually a “No” :)
2) How to Prep the Food:
* Worms feed on microbes that are breaking down food, so smaller, softer pieces of food will break down faster and be easier for your worms to consume quickly.
* So if you have the time take a knife, or even a blender, to the food before feeding!
3) How to Feed:
* Simply place the food on the surface of the bin and sprinkle a little of your bedding over the food (this can help reduce the for bugs and other critters).
* Don’t bury the food in the bedding (compost worms are surface feeders so they may leave the food untouched, which can create issues in the bin’s bedding).
Tip: Feed ⅓ of the worms’ weight, so 1 lb of worms should be fed 5-6 ounces of food.
Tip 2: Worms should finish food in 2-4 days. If not, adjust your feeding amounts accordingly!
The final key thing to remember is that with all things worm composting it’s important to Keep It Simple!
Worms will eat a variety of raw foods but that doesn’t mean you have to give them every piece of food waste from your kitchen.
It's ok to introduce new food items from time top time but do it slowly and monitor the worms and their eating levels.
Happy Vermicomposting!
