For some time now I’ve been anxious to get a worm composting system for our kitchen scraps to turn our “waste” into a valuable resource – soil! Inspired by some pretty neat worm systems that I found on the web, I set out to design something that would work very well, yet could be built with scrap or easily available material.
Red Wiggler Worms are a special species of earthworm native to Europe that are adapted to living in decaying organic material. These thrive in rotting vegetation, compost and even manure.
In true permaculture-fashion I started the design process with a Needs and Yields analysis:
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Red Wiggler Needs:
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Red Wiggler Yields:
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I’ve heard that worms contained in a breathable material have better oxygen supply and therefore eat and multiply faster. 
A breathable material will also reduce the risk that the rotting food goes anaerobic (and stinky) before being digested.
Landscape fabric seemed a good fit to provide breathability, drainage, and a dark space. A few days after having the idea of using some form of landscape fabric, I was shopping for groceries with my reusable grocery bags and as I packed my groceries I noticed that the bag was black and woven – very similar to landscape fabric. The light bulb illuminated!
Here’s what I did:
| Back home I emptied the grocery bag, collected two 5 gallon buckets and a drill. |  |
| Next I drilled numerous 1/2 inch holes into the bottom of one of the buckets. This bucket becomes the Worm Frame. |  |
| The Worm Frame (with holes) is nested into the second bucket. The outer bucket is now the Worm Juice Harvester. |  |
| Here is the black grocery bag, being fitted inside the Worm Frame. The bag will hold the rotting food and worms. |  |
| In goes some straw, shredded paper and food scraps. |  |
| Lastly I drilled a large hole into the side of the bucket to let air flow access the bag from all around but keep light and flies out. |  |
Next I posted a request on our Facebook page to see if anyone had some spare worms and very soon thereafter I had a small cup of worms to place into the new home (Thanks Cathy!).
Now all I needed was a cool name – The Vermipod!
A month later our worms are living a happy, aerobic, dark, moist life and breeding very quickly. We are looking forward to starting our next pod.
Here it is, the Vermipod:
Based on the success of our little Vermipod I’ve got some ideas on how to design a system that could handle larger (i.e. commercial) food scrap streams. Let me know if you are interested – I’d be happy to share my design.
Hello,
Just wondering what the “mineral supplements” at the very top of this post refers to (under “red wiggler needs”)? I haven’t heard anyone mention what they are and/or why they are important? We are starting a vermipod in our office this week, are preparing the necessary materials and want to get it right! Thanks.
Hi Anonymous,
I’ve read (from Worms Eat my Garbage by Appelhoff) that the worms need some sand to help then digest their food (they have a crop, like birds do). They might need other mineral supplements too. I imagine a scoop or two of garden soil might do well.
[...] my recent blog post on the Do-It-Yourself Vermipod, I’ve been receiving a ton of questions from folks who built Vermipods and are looking for [...]
I have made really good coosmpt in a terrace. Just get a small trash can where you can put what you want to coosmpt. Throw in kitchen scraps every day as you get them and also some shredded newspaper to keep an adequate nitrogen-carbon ratio. Specially at the beginning add some soil to get some organisms to start the job. In my experience, the key to success is that you have to turn it every day. This way the coosmpt is always well aerated so decomposition is aerobic and therefore there will be no smell and the excess humidity will evaporate. It also makes it more difficult for bugs to lay eggs or be around it. If the weather gets too hot cover the coosmpt so it doesn’t dry out too much. If there is too much humidity turn it over more often (maybe twice a day) and add more newspaper to soak up water. It’s not as much work as it seems, it only takes a couple of minutes to turn. I’ve been growing houseplants and veggies in it for a while now and it’s worked really well.
[...] I got back on the vermi wagon and welcomed red wigglers back into my house, inspired by our friend Rob’s vermi-pod I created my own as a temporary house for my magical compost factory. Today I harvested my first [...]
That is probably the simplest DIY vermipod (we call them worm bins here) I have ever seen! And I think it would definitely work. I love the idea of using a reusable grocery bag for holding the worms. Definitely breathable. Great design!
Just wondering how you apply the “worm juice” to your garden or plants afterwards? does it needed to be diluted with water? or just spread on etc.
Great, easy, practical design… this is the sort of thing we NEED to see this revolution through!
cheers!
totally interested in building a Vermipod I love worms and compost laurie
Hi Rob – thanks for sharing this stuff! How many worms can survive in that size of bucket? Do you have to eventually transfer these worms to a bigger home?
Jacqulynn
Hi Rob,
When I come over I will have to see it, then I will make one myself. Great design and good, simple explanations. Thank you and all the best, Peter
Peter,
Thanks for the comment! I think I should start building these as gifts! We will get you guys into worms in no time!
Jacqulynn,
I am not sure what the ultimate number of worms in the bucket will be, but I do know that they breed faster when they are in a confined space. So I intend on building about 3 more of these in order to be able to process all of our food scraps through the winter. The end goal is to be able to produce enough worms so that I can feed an aquaponics system.
Laurie,
You and I share a similar passion! Worms rock!
Annon,
Worm juice can be applied right to your veggies, or you can dilute it 50% 50% to make it go further. Another great way to use the juice is in compost tea brews! In the winter time, I am going to be using it in my passive solar greenhouse for growing greens.
My only complaint, and it is a piece of misinformation found almost every where, is in regards to the benefits of the “worm juice”. The liquid that leaches out of any worm system is not what you want to use on plants and gardens, this is not the worm tea that has all the benefits. It is anaerobic excess liquid produced because there is too much food in the system. A balanced worm bin should produce little to no liquid. It won’t hurt anything, but it will not have the benefits of worm tea. All the benefits are from using the finished worm compost/castings and making aerobic tea via bubbling with added oxygen.
Definitely Red Wigglers. They eat more and are perfect for vnroicmmpostieg for several reasons. They hate light and will not try to escape, but rather will burrow down into your compost. They have the perfect digestive system and they reproduce quickly if there is plenty of food. I do compost with worms using the Worm Factory 360. It makes separating the worms from the castings mostly automatic. After one tray is full, you add food to the next level and some of the worms will crawl up to it. Others will stay below and finish eating the first tray until there is nothing left to eat. At that time, you move that tray to the top level and leave it open so that the light will send the worms back down to the current feeding tray. After a day (leave the light on at night), most of them will have left the tray full of worm castings. There will some who didn’t leave and you can pull them out if you find them.If you don’t use a multi-level system like the Worm Factory, you can try to feed worms in one area of the bin and then move to another area and hopefully most of the worms will move out of the first area when it has no food left, then you can harvest the castings in one area of the bin at a time. I haven’t done it this way, but suspect it’s not quite as easy.Overall, I would say that worm composting is fairly easy and actually quite amazing. I think you’ll enjoy it no matter what type of bin you use.