What should you not put in vermicompost?

Try to limit or avoid these foods entirely:

Onions and onion skins.
Potatoes and potato peels.
Citrus fruits and their rinds.
Animal feces.
Meat.
Fats or fatty foods.
Dairy foods.

Correspondingly, what can you not feed red wiggler worms?

If it grew, the worms can likely eat it. Red wigglers eat most things organic including fruit/veggie scraps, bread, coffee grounds/filters, tea bags, grains, plant trimmings, paper, leaves, etc. What should not be fed to red wigglers? Avoid pet waste, meat, dairy and extremely hot and heavily spiced foods.

Likewise, can worms eat cabbage? Home vermicomposters using composting worms to reduce kitchen waste and produce their own vermiculture find that vegetable and fruit matter scraps from the table are just fine. This especially helpful with tough vegetables such as broccoli stalks, cauliflower, cabbage leaves, and root vegetables.

Moreover, what can you not put in a worm farm?

What To Not Feed Worms

Meats, bones, fat and anything oily or greasy.
Dairy products including butter, sour cream, milk, whole eggs (egg shells are ok) and cheese.
Canned sauces, peanut butter and other processed food.
Citrus foods like lemons, limes and oranges.
Onions and garlic.
Spicy foods such as hot peppers.

Should I add water to my worm farm?

However, it will remain in the bedding for a long time before eventually draining out, so it's important to add water as well. Once every week, pour about five litres of fresh water into the Top Working Tray, which will flood down through the lower trays, ensuring the entire worm farm remains very moist.

39 Related Question Answers Found

Will worms eat dead worms?

That's a taboo, worms don't like to talk about it. Seriously though, they seem to decompose very fast. Way faster than most of the food scraps in the bin. So we don't "see" (at least I don't) worms eating dead worms, because the latter are already unrecognizable as worms.

How do I know if my worms are happy?

A healthy worm bin should smell like soil, a pleasant smell to many. So be sure to check the balance of your bin as discussed briefly above. If you are not sure if your bin is getting enough airflow, stir it up and mix in some additional newspaper bedding. Check to see that your air holes are not clogged.

Do worms eat rotten food?

They prefer to eat their food as it begins to decompose, but not if it has become slimy and smelly. If the bin is overfed, the food scraps will begin to rot before the worms can eat them. Rotting food scraps not only smell, but also interfere with the lifecycle of the worms and the operation of the bin.

Do worms eat cooked rice?

Bread, rice, pasta, processed foods - you can add the odd crust or bits of cooked rice off the dinner plate, but don't add lots of starchy foods. Worms don't like them and they may go off or attract pests. Worms love coffee grounds but mix them with other foods and paper.

Can worms eat potato peels?

Can composting worms eat potatoes? As a member of the nightshade family, potatoes are relatively high in solanine. So, it should come as no surprise that compost worms avoid the potato peels they're served. However, like all organic matter, potatoes will eventually break down and become transformed.

Can you over feed red wiggler worms?

Over-Feeding Causes Odors

The worms' job is to eat the food before it gets super-rotten and stinky. If you add too much food at a time, they cannot keep up. Too much food can also push the air out of the bin, leading to foul-smelling anaerobic decomposition.

What is good worm food?

The Best Worm Foods for Your Soil

Fruit peelings (not citrus)
Melon rinds.
Carrots.
Coffee grounds.
Teabags.
Bread.
Cereal (unsweetened)
Pasta (plain)

Can you have too many worms in your compost?

A compost pile or bin that's primarily run by worms can and does heat up sometimes, but generally vermicomposters are happy that the bins don't heat up too much so that your worms don't get killed off. If you really do have too many worms, you can divide them into two containers or piles and build your throughput.

Can worms eat Mouldy food?

Answer: You can add moldy food (vegetables and fruits only) to a backyard composting bin anytime. Mold cells are just one of the many different types of microorganisms that take care of decomposition and are fine in a backyard bin. If you're using a worm bin, you have to be a bit more careful.

Can worms eat banana peels?

Bananas are a great and inexpensive snack for both us and our worms. Those peels are desirable to compost worms no matter what shape they're in. They'll make short work of what otherwise would have taken up space in your trash.

Do worms like coffee grounds?

The worms excrete castings that provide nutrients for your garden. Worms like to eat coffee grounds, but offer them in moderation to keep their home at proper acidity levels.

Do worms eat sawdust?

To the worms, the sawdust is as delicious as raked leaves. The worms eat sawdust mixed with everything else Vander Werf throws into his mix: kitchen scraps, 4,000 pounds of coffee grounds a month, 400,000 pounds of shredded paper every year. “We do our own worm composting at home now, inspired by him.”

Can worms eat tomato?

Red wiggler worms (Eisenia foetida) enjoy eating almost any kind of fruit or vegetable you put into the vermicompost bin, including tomatoes. While the worms eat the tomatoes, there's a chance they won't eat all the seeds, so the seeds may sprout in your compost pile.

Can worms eat orange peels?

Worms eat oranges and orange peels. So if you add the occasional lemon or orange that went off or their peels to a worm bin the worms will be quite happy to begin feeding on them once the time is right as long as they can retreat into a good bedding after they had their fill.

Do worms eat carrots?

Carrots are a good worm food but you have to consider that worms don't feed on materials that are fresh so the carrots and any other organic material that you add to your worm farm has to start to decompose to enable the worms to feed on it.

How fast do Worms multiply?

How often do worms breed? The breeding cycle is approximately 27 days from mating to laying eggs. Worms can double in population every 60 days.

Do worms bite?

Worms breathe through their skin, aided by the layer of mucus that they secrete. If their skin dries out, they die. Worms don't bite. They also don't sting.