Vermicomposting on the Balcony

Our diet leans heavy towards fruit and vegetables and currently our condo doesn't provide anything equivalent to a green box for compostable waste, equivalent to the service our city provides for household owners. It seemed like such a waste to just throw all our kitchen scraps away. We thought composting might be possible on our balcony but it's really something that needs backyard space. But we discovered another method of composting that works well in a small space, indoors and out.

A pair of totes and a 1/8 drill bit was all it took to create our first worm bin.

Worm composting or vermicomposting makes use of worms to consume and break down organic matter. Their excrement, known as worm casting, are high in nutrients and makes an excellent plant fertilizer. The red wiggler worms used in our worm bin consume half their weight in rotting vegetable and fruit waste per day. All they need is a damp dark place to do it in.

My half pound order of red wiggler worms.

To construct a worm bin, I purchased a pair of totes and in one drilled a number of small holes in the lid, another dozen in the sides of one tote, in the upper 1/4 and a few in the bottom along the lowest points for drainage. I then cut a couple of yogurt cups and placed them in the bottom of the second tote. These act as supports to keep the inner tote elevated an inch or two off the bottom of the inside of the outer tote. There are no holes in the outer tote as this tote is used to catch any run-off from the inner tote.

I ordered half a pound of red wiggler worms from Cathy's Crawly Composters in Bradford Ontario. Half a pound is a small number of worms and not enough to keep up with our needs but I didn't want to commit to a larger order until I was certain we'd could do this. Besides, the worms multiply so eventually, if we keep them fed, we'll have more. I opted to have my worms shipped to me and as luck would have it I called Cathy the day she normally puts orders in the mail. I got my worms the next day.

We prepared the bin by shredding a number of newspapers into strips. I tried to make the strips under one inch. The work went much faster with the use of our cross-cut paper shredder. I then soaked them with water and wrung them out to get them damp "like a rung out sponge". These were then placed in the inner tote and "fluffed" giving me half a tote of bedding material. Then came the fun part. I dumped the worms on top of the paper in the light of the kitchen and we watched them squirm into the bedding to escape the light. Red wigglers are light sensitive so you use this to your advantage to force them into their bedding.

The dirtiest part was preparing the moist shreaded newspaper bedding.

We gave them a day to adjust, as recommended on Cathy's site and then added a pound of "food". We kept the kitchen waste from the night before and spun it up in the food processor. To that I added a few crushed up egg shells and a big handful of garden soil. I buried this in the worm bin under the bedding. I also had to sprinkle some garden soil on the food. Worms use the soil in their gizzard to help them break down the food for digestion. Even with all the plants growing on the balcony, I actually had to go out searching for garden soil. Because everything growing up here is living in potting soil which is not the same. I put the bin out on the balcony under a table where it would be protected from direct sun and rain.

The next day I caught a faint whiff of rotting garbage on the balcony but nothing strong. It was not there the next day. To be on the safe side, I added more shredded newspaper. I used a spray bottle to wet the new bedding and then tossed it up a bit to get it evenly moist. I've read that you shouldn't use tap water to wet the bedding if your water is chlorinated which will likely be true for anyone in an urban dwelling. Guess I'll see how it goes.

After a few days I had a look in the bin to see how things had gone. I couldn't find much of the food waste and the worms seemed to be here and there in the bedding. I did spot a trace of worm droppings so they must have been up to something. It takes a few months of continuous feeding to get enough worm castings to justify a "harvest" so we'll keep feeding them and hopefully before the cold weather gets here and we have to move the bin indoors, we'll have a nice little pile of worm casting.