Indoor Composting

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Indoor Composting

• How to set up a worm composting bin in your home

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Grow vibrant, healthy plants in an urban setting,
and cut down on the amount of garbage you produce.
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You can buy a ready made compost bin, or make
your own. A plastic storage container can easily
be turned into a compost bin.
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Drill holes in the sides and lids of your compost
box for air circulation. This is essential for
the survival of the worms and good bacteria. The
holes should be small enough to prevent bugs from
entering the bin.-
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You can cover the holes with screening.
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Start the compost box with shredded paper. You
will need about 5 pounds of paper for a 12-gallon
bin.
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Add a layer of other dry material such as straw,
dry leaves, or plant trimmings.
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Add about a quart of soil.
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Lightly water the bedding mix. The bedding should
be as moist as a wrung-out sponge.
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Redworms, or red wrigglers. These worms are
especially suited to composting. Other worms will
not survive in a compost bin.
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Place worms on top of bedding. They will quickly
burrow down, away from light.
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Draw aside enough bedding to make room for about
a quart of food scraps. Cover the food scraps
with bedding and put the lid on the compost bin.
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Store the bin somewhere convenient and out of the
way, but with good air circulation. Under a
window is a perfect place. The worms can survive
in temperatures between freezing and 90 degrees.
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Use a container with a lid that seals to collect
food scraps.
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Add food scraps to the compost bin every few
days, or once a week
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Each time you add food scraps to the bin, cover
them with bedding.
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When the bedding starts to resemble dark, crumbly
soil, it is time to harvest the compost. Food
scraps will turn into compost in roughly 4-6
months. To harvest, push most of the old bedding
to 1 side of the box.
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Add new dampened bedding to the empty side, along
with a little of the finished compost.
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For the next month, add food scraps only to the
new bedding. This will encourage most of the
worms to migrate into the new bedding, leaving
you with mostly worm free compost.
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Now the compost is ready to sift. Push the
compost through a wide mesh screen to sift out
any large pieces that have not broken down, like
fruit pits or seeds.
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Eliminate large pieces before using the compost
on plants.
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Now the compost is ready to use on plants. You
can topdress potted plants with pure compost, or,
to re-pot a plant, use a mix of 1 part compost to
2 parts potting soil.
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Plants fertilized with worm castings are
beautiful and healthy. The residues from these
plants can be put back in the worm bin to be
recycled again.
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Composting Resources
Brooklyn Botanic Garden www.bbg.org/gar2/topic
s/urban/composting/index.html
How to Compost.org
howtocompost.org
Lower East Side Ecology Center
www.lesecologycenter.org
Mary Appelhofs site,
Wormwoman.com
www.wormwoman.com. You can find Worms Eat My
Garbage, Appelhofs essential book on worm
composting, on her website.
NYC Master Composter Certification Course
Blog nycmccp.blogspot.com
Wiggly Wigglers Podcast
www.wigglywigglers.co.uk