Preparation

• 1). Collect your kitchen scraps in a pail for a week, keeping them in the refrigerator to avoid odors. Weigh the pail after a week. For each pound of scraps, you'll need a square foot of surface area in your worm bin for optimum composting.
  
  
• 2). Make a worm bin out of scrap lumber, stacked Rubbermaid 14-gallon totes, an old bathtub, an old dresser drawer or another suitably shallow container that can accept a lid to provide darkness for the worms. Add drainage holes, aeration holes and a lid. Or purchase a commercially sold worm bin. Check your design or the commercial bin to see if it provides the surface area (typically two to six sq. ft.) needed for your family.
  
  
• 3). Place the bin in a location free of noise and vibration and near a source of water for spritzing the bedding and electricity for adding a work light.
  
  
• 4). Order worms, typically red wigglers, by mail order. To calculate the amount needed, divide the weekly weight total of scraps your family produces by 3.5. So if you produce 7 lbs. of kitchen scraps, order 2 lbs. of worms.
  
  
• 5). Prepare to place bedding such as torn-up newspapers, shredded paper or peat moss in the worm bin a week before the red wigglers arrive. Soak the material in water and wring it out so that it is damp like a wrung-out sponge. Add enough of it to nearly fill the bin. Create a pocket in the bedding and bury about two cups of food scraps in it and cover the scraps. Let the bacteria and fungi begin to process the food into a form preferred by the worms.
  
  

Worm Care

• 1). Place the worms as soon as they arrive gently on top of the bedding. The shipper typically packs them in peat moss, and they arrive a bit dried out. Spritz the worms with water that has been left to sit overnight so that its chlorine has evaporated. Place the lid on the bin so they can acclimate in darkness. Hang a work light above the bin so they do not wander off.
  
  
• 2). Check the worms every few days to see if they have eaten their food. Add more food in a new pocket of bedding near enough that they can travel to from the first pocket.
  
  
• 3). Continue to add new pockets of food until the appearance of the worm bin resembles dark, loamy soil with a pleasant, earthy odor. This typically can take three to four months.
  
  

Harvesting

• 1). Spill the bin contents onto a square of plastic sheeting about four to six feet across, situated under a bright light. Make the compost into nine or so conical piles. Let the piles sit for 15 to 30 minutes.
  
  
• 2). Scoop the cone tops and sides off carefully--wearing gloves--and put the compost into a large bucket. Check for worms as you go, removing them gently to a small, washed margarine tub.
  
  
• 3). Place the final layer of the cones, full of wriggling worms, into the margarine tub, along with some of the compost.
  
  
• 4). Add new bedding to the worm bin. Place the tub of worms back in the bin.
  
  

Applying Vermicompost

• 1). Apply the vermicompost to the soil.
  
  
• 2). Working the compost into the soil directly or adding some to the hole you create for transplants.
  
  
• 3). Apply as a top dressing after plants have been established by placing ¼ to ½ inch of vermicompost around the root area of plants, shrubs and trees.