Worm bin

Composting in a worm bin

We highly recommend reaching out to the Oahu Worm Ohana to get started with your worm bin. They can provide you with worms, a bin, encouragement, community, and plenty of resources.

Here are some additional tips to help you along your way:

The worms you want are red wigglers, or Eisenia fetida. A quarter pound, or 4 oz., is all you need to get started. You do not want earth worms. Those are different.
You can purchase coconut coir for bedding at garden stores. Or you can use shredded newspaper/paper/cardboard (all non-glossy). Or mix the two. Coconut coir expands impressively.
Worms will happily eat:
- Any produce trimmings except onions, garlic, and citrus
- Coffee grounds in limited quantities
- Shredded non-glossy paper
- Bread and other baked goods
Worms will not eat:
- Cooked food (except the above-mentioned baked goods)
- Meat
- Dairy
- Oils
- Green waste
Freezing scraps before feeding them to your worms will help prevent fruit flies.
Feeding once a week is a good cadence. If you’re going to miss a weekly feeding, you can just give them a double feeding before the missed one. They’ll be fine.
Keeping some extra trimmings in the freezer comes in handy if you need to do the above-mentioned double feeding.
Other bugs will move into your worm bin. This is fine for the worms.
If you see little yellow bead-like things in the bin, those are worm eggs. Congratulate yourself on creating an environment so comfortable that it convinces your worms it’s safe to make more worms.
If the worms are alive and the bin doesn’t smell bad, you’re doing everything right! Have yourself a cupcake.
Harvest-wise, a vertical or horizontal migrating system is easier than a single bin.
You can put the vermicompost/vermicast around outdoor plants, over bald spots on the lawn, around trees, or pretty much anywhere else outside where things grow. There’s no need to dig it into the soil or anything like that. If you gift it to your gardener friends, they will be excited.