How to Set Up Your Worm Farm

In addition to my two current occupations as writer and used goods merchant, I am adding another venture to the list: I am now the proud owner of a worm farm. At my husband's urging, and after doing some research about the subject I thought, I can do that! There are a lot of lakes and fishermen in our area, so we have the local market, and are also considering selling them online. Some folks also purchase worms to aid in composting, too.

The only qualms I have about the whole idea is the part where I may actually have to touch the livestock. I'll pet a cow, thank you, but I have never touched a worm. Ugh! I have delegated that responsibility to Hubby and the grandchildren.

The first step in raising worms is to make a bed for them. Various sources have different opinions on what to use for the bedding. I spoke to the owner of a local nursery and she told me that she has a customer who uses their topsoil/peat moss mix to raise worms. I had also been reading about coconut coir, which is the fibrous part of the coconut between the outer shell and inner shell. Apparently it makes excellent worm bedding as well as mulch because it retains water so well. We decided to use a combination, about half-and-half, of the topsoil/peat moss mix and the coconut coir.

We had to buy the coconut coir online, since it is not readily available. We ordered five pounds online from Planet Natural. It comes in discs, bricks, or bales, and is compacted, hard and dry when you get it. You have to soak it in water before using it. A one-pound brick, which is about the size of a clay brick, will make about two gallons of material once it's rehydrated.

Worm farming sources also say the bed should be about three by four feet wide, and 8 to12 inches deep. You can make your own, or use wooden crates or plastic storage bins with drainage holes in the bottom. We decided to start with a storage tub we had, which is slightly less than the recommended size, but deeper. We filled it up with the topsoil mix and coconut coir to a depth of 12 inches. I think we did the right thing. The bedding feels wonderfully loose and moist; it almost makes me wish I was a worm!

The next step is to get some worms. Now, don't rush out to the garden and dig them out of the ground! You can buy worm livestock locally or order them online. We chose to buy European nightcrawlers from Carolina Pet Supply. Also known as Giant Redworms, Carolina Crawlers, Belgian Worms, Super Reds, or Blue Worms, they will grow to the size of a pencil and are said to have a longer "shelf life" than other worms, are hardier for ice fishing, and can withstand salt water. We don't have too much salt water in Indiana, but we do have lots of ice-covered lakes in the winter! We figured the ice fishing angle would be a good selling point with local fishermen.

So our little box of worms arrived shortly. Two pounds of wriggly little critters, or between 500 and 700 worms. We introduced them to their new home and gently helped them to untangle themselves from the writhing mass. They are young worms, and the idea is to get them to grow up and to make some baby worms.

The experts tell you to leave the lights on when first putting your worms on the soil. They will crawl in to escape the light. It didn't take long for them to tunnel their way in!

Our worm ranch is in the basement. It's too cold in Indiana to have an outdoor worm farm in the winter. It gave us a good excuse to clean the basement, too. (What do you people without basements do? Where do you put everything?) We set our tub on top of some crates to raise the level to a comfortable height for us, and to keep the worms off the cold floor.

I occasionally throw the worms some scraps from the kitchen. Fruit and vegetable scraps and other stuff you commonly throw on a compost heap. I threw in some pumpkin guts at Halloween (careful to remove the seeds so my worm farm doesn't become a pumpkin farm, too). Some worm farmers just throw the meal on top, but one source recommended burying it just under the soil to keep from attracting gnats. That made good sense to us, so that's what we decided to do.

Now, some sources say to bury the food on one end all the time, to keep from fouling up the soil. And another says to move it around so you don't run into a pile of rotting garbage. So now what's an inexperience worm wrangler to do? I doubt if it makes any real difference to the worms, as long as they get fed and their home doesn't get all diseased.

So far the worms seem to be happy in their new surroundings. That is, if a worm can be happy. If wriggling is a sign, then I guess they are. They haven't crawled out of the tub yet. I guess that happens if the bedding is close to the edge of the bed, but we've got them corralled in.

Getting started in worm farming is fairly inexpensive. The one tub we have started cost us about $100 in worms, soil, and the coconut coir. We plan to expand the operation as we learn more about keeping the worms alive, healthy, and reproducing.

That concludes this exciting episode! As our worm farm thrives, I'll bring you more information concerning the thrilling (and profitable, we hope) world of worm farming!