Red Wiggler WormsWorm castings are among the best fertilizers for the garden. Often referred to as "black gold," castings improve your soil while feeding your plants. Worms also aerate your soil, creating natural channels for oxygen and water to be exchanged. The best worms for composting are redworms. "Nightcrawler" type worms are larger, but they have permanent burrows that run deep into the soil, so they cannot tolerate the conditions of a compost bin, particularly in the restriction of indoor compost bins. Redworms will aggressively feed and reproduce in typical compost and garden conditions, leaving their castings as food for your plants! Use:
For compost bins: Add 1/2 pound of redworms to your bin, and feed regularly. Redworms love cardboard and paper. A layer of moistened cardboard or newspaper on top of your compost will bring the worms to the feeding areas where you add new waste. Simply pull up the cardboard or paper and drop the waste materials in. Worms do not like meat, but flies do! So keep your compost vegetarian: fruit, vegetable, and garden waste, along with non-glossy paper. Make sure that indoor compost bins are well drained. Any juices that drain out of your compost bin are called "compost tea," and can be used as a potent fertilizer for outdoor plants. For the garden: Add 2-3 worms per square foot of garden space. There are 700-800 redworms per pound. A half pound of worms per 10'x10' plot is appropriate.
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