Featured Customer Question – Jlynn626
Hi Jerry-
I’m sure this question has been asked before, but I couldn’t seem to find the answer, so sorry if it’s a repeat!
I got my 2 pounds of red wigglers on friday (from you), and they seem be be doing great! I REALLY don’t want to kill them anytime soon! I’d like to be one of the success stories
Anyhow, my question is: how often and how much do I feed? I plan on feeding them vegetable scraps from my kitchen, I have some on reserve “ripening” for the worms. I have about 2 small handfuls of scraps, in two different corners, in the bin right now. Do I wait until what is in the bin is gone? I know that the rule of thumb is a pound of food per pound of worms (correct?), but how long should that last? I really don’t want to overfeed them, but I have to say, I am very anxious to get things up and running! (Plus, I’d like to get the rotting veggies out of my kitchen)
Thanks for your help, and thanks for the worms!
Hi Jylnn626,
Thanks for writing in. I also want you to be successful. I pride myself that most of my customers come back to get more worms because they WANT more worms, not because they NEED more worms.
The Feeding question is something that can be debated for hours. Because overfeeding worms is the #1 way to kill your worms, I tend to go on the conservative side. Why push the boundaries if you do not need to? My rule of thumb is to feed your worms equal to amount of worm mass. You have two pounds of worms you are starting with…..you can be comfortable putting in two pounds of scraps. As long as you keep your worms alive, they will grow in population. Because you are monitoring the feed situation (As opposed to just dumping food throughout the bin and having NO idea how much food is actually in the bin), you will notice that the scraps are processed quicker as your worm mass grows.
I also suggest that you bury your produce scraps in the corner of your bin (Under as much damp, fluffy bedding as your bin will hold), and just check the progress every few days. Add more when gone, or nearly gone.
TIME TO PROCESS
Though you will read worms process about half their weight a day in optimum conditions, this can vary so much that this rule of thumb becomes worthless. How much your worms can process is determined primarily by how broken down the food is, and bin temps. If the food is solid, and temps are cold….activity slows to a….Crawl(Sorry, had to say it) ;) If you are feeding them broken down mush, buried in the corner, they can jump on that right away. If the temps happen to be around 70+, they eat even more actively!
SHORTCUTS TO SUCCESS
Keep your bedding misted with a spray bottle
Do not overfeed (1:1 ratio of food to mass will prevent overfeeding)
Make sure the scraps do not reach the top of your bedding to avoid bugs
Do not leave your bin in direct sunlight to cook your worms
Hope this helps.