Ronnie Ugulano

The mold in the bin is entirely fine. I've been keeping worms for 30+ years, and the mold won't hurt them at all. In fact, my big bathtub worm bin currently has a fair amount of mold tucked here and there. In a brand new worm bin, usually a bigger problem is overfeeding, so be conservative on how much you put in there. Watch to see that the worms are starting to actively engage with the most recent bit of food before you add more. As the worms get more comfortable in the bin, their appetites will grow as will their population.

I've been worm composting for years, but I'm only now starting to put lemon skins into one of my bins. We'll see how it goes. . .

About how many worms do you have, or did you start with? How long has the bin been set up?

Just from a look, it appears that you have too much food to too few worms. You can worm compost all of that, but it takes time for the worms to multiply to the numbers you need to care for whatever you have. If you overfeed in the meantime, the bin becomes unbalanced, and the worms lose.

We remodeled our bathroom and removed the tub, and replaced it with a shower. It was a rather Extra Large 1950's tub. I commandeered it as a bin for my worms years ago. I also have 2 concrete mixing tubs that complete my bin setup (not pictured). It has the built in drain, but that's all the drainage it has, so I work very hard on keeping moisture levels right where they need to be. It's sturdy and does the job. I keep a screen that's wrapped in plastic over the top as a lid to keep the rain out.

Catie George wrote:Inspired by the success of this endeavor, I am not experimenting with a bag of wood stove pellets + coffee grounds.

I have been wanting to start selling worms, but my vermicompost is imperfect, and some people are weird about wanting no other life forms than the worms in their bin (I think, so long as it composts, and doesn't smell, who cares? People are weird).

Half a 40 lb $7 bag of pellets plus saved coffee grounds filled one bucket. And then I added water ... And it mushroomed.

Expanded with plenty of water,  half a bag filled 2 buckets, which is really quite cost effective. I put roughly 40 worms in each bucket. I will continue collecting coffee grounds seperately from the rest of the compost to add to the compost, in an attempt to have a very 'clean' stock I can sell. I really like the texture of the sawdust. Very fluffy, and I expect less likely to go anaerobic than shredded paper.

I will try to remember to report back on how it works.  I have long wondered if stove pellets + manure (or plenty of kitchen scraps) + worms might make a relatively cheap fast raised bed fill.

You got my attention with stove pellets. . .They're a wonderful cheap source of both cat litter or worm bedding. In addition, it's entertaining to see how much they swell up in a few minutes. One cup of pellets at least doubles in size. And, as you say, it's fluffy, lots of room for air to get around.


I've been raising worms for 30+ years. I've found that they like the sawdust, and they'll go with it, but they prefer it not quite so new. Mixing it with coffee grounds and other stuff (leaves?) is a good idea, partly to dilute the "newness" of the saw dust, and partly to give the sawdust something to help break it down and knock off the "newness". I like to mix mine with alfalfa pellets, if I have them. Wet it down, give it a chance to heat up, if it wants, and then add the worms, after about 2-3 weeks. The nitrogen in the alfalfa helps to "age" the stove pellet sawdust, making it more palatable to the worms. Always throw in a tablespoon of corn meal or ground oatmeal per week to encourage breeding in a new bin.

You need more worms-per-bedding than 40 to get good compost. It's so light, because it's not really done yet. Each 5 gallon bucket could handle as much as 1000 worms (~1 lb). And time. Give yourself 8 months to get a brand new bin going. After that, you can divide the bin in half, and it'll be much easier, because you'll have a worm + bacteria base built up.

You're going in the right direction, though.

I have a Zojirushi bread maker, and love it. I've had about 4 different bread makers, a Breadman, and one or two very "off brand", but I love my Zo. I'll definitely buy another one at the end of its life.

It makes a horizontal loaf that not only tastes good, but it's pretty, as well. I guess that it costs 50 cents a loaf, and is better than anything I've bought. It also gets rave reviews when I offer bread as a gift.

I kept pet rats for years, and their shavings/paper bedding was routinely dumped onto my worm bin. It helped keep the bin contents fluffy, since there was a steady stream of rat bedding going into it.

The bin seems dense, maybe this is ok, but it seems wrong to me.

When you say "dense", what does that mean? Compacted? Heavy (weight)?

I need to add more cardboard.

What seems to indicate that to you? I'm not criticisizing, just trying to understand.

Worms are often uncomfortable in a new bin. It's unfamiliar. New. And the food is different. Not like the comfy old bin. They go on walkabout to find "home".

First check to see that the bin is not heating up, there's air flow, and make sure the bedding is damp but not soggy. If all these things are OK, take any top off the bin, and turn a light on over the opening. Worms hate light, and they will stay in the bin. Keep a light on over the bin, even at night (especially at night) for a few weeks. After a while, they'll begin to believe that they are home, and stay put.

Ben Zumeta wrote:I get 20lb bags of "wild bird seed" for 8$ and sprout them for my birds and also grew some bird seed from these as well. I do not know how much organic bird seed would be.

My husband used to have a pet canary. "Anthony" loved sprouted seeds, so we did the same, spouting wild bird seed for him. We ended up calling them "Bird Sprouts".