How much should you feed the worm farm, what should you feed, and how often do you feed the worms?
- Aunt Plantsy
- Aug 4
- 3 min read
The rule I was given is “feed your worms only as much as they can eat” and the theory is they can eat half their weight each day and can double their population every few months! You want to add about an inch of food scraps to the feeding tray each week or twice a week depending on how fast they go through it. This is going to be a wait and see situation with your own worm farm. I feed ours once a week with a large Tupperware full of scraps (see photos) and I also throw in some straw, pine shavings or coconut coir each week to give them carbon material. This seems to be working out well.
Before feeding your scraps to the worms, try and cut them up into smaller pieces to help it break down faster and enable the worms to start eating them. Worms will eat things such as: vegetable and fruit scraps, peelings, tea leaves, tea bags, coffee grounds, crushed egg shells (which will also help balance the pH level), torn up newspaper, egg cartons, straw, cardboard or soaked pizza cartons, vacuum cleaner dust, dryer lint, hair clippings, stale bread, pasta and rice.
The things to limit are citrus and onions. I never feed our worms onion, garlic, or spicy peppers and I very rarely feed them citrus. I also limit feeding them bananas because of the fruit flies but it is not necessary to omit bananas if you don’t mind the pests. I do know of another master gardener who does feed citrus and onions with no problem. Just keep in mind these foods can alter the acidity of the soil.
The things to AVOID are meat, bones, oils, dairy products, and salty or spicy food. Also, avoid feeding your worms manure from animals because they can contain vermicides intended to kill parasitic worms and this will kill all of your worms in one day!
Every time you feed the worms, mix in the food with the rest of the contents in the tray to distribute it and help the worms digest the food more efficiently. This also helps aerate the soil so the matter doesn’t compact and limit oxygen. When I first started feeding the worm farm, I was told to feed only in 1/4 sections of the tray each week and cover the food with the existing bedding and not mix it into the whole tray. Since then, I was told by the company I purchased this worm farm from that this causes more heat and the worms will try and escape. So, go ahead and mix it in.
If your worm farm starts to stink you are most likely overfeeding your worms. If that is the case, you can stop feeding for a few days or even a week, aerate the tray to get in some oxygen, and add more carbon material like leaves, newspaper, or straw.
If you are seeing a bunch of tiny white worms, the soil is too acidic. A handful of crushed egg shells or ashes from your fireplace will help to balance the effect of acidic foods. I read that adding a little bit of sand will help them digest the food as well, but I have only done this a couple times.
It is also recommended to add a moist layer of newspaper or a “worm blanket” over your food material to cut down on the amount of vinegar flies you see.
The next topic covered later is “How much water should you give them and what to do with the excess run-off?”
For previous topics, please visit these blogs: To view the first blog topic "Raising a worm farm and harvesting worm castings" - click here: https://www.peasbeewithewe.net/post/raising-a-worm-farm-and-harvesting-worm-castings To view the second blog topic “What kind of worm farm should you start with?” – click here: https://www.peasbeewithewe.net/post/what-kind-of-worm-farm-should-you-start-with
To view the third blog topic "How to begin the first tray of your worm farm" - click here:
To view the fourth blog topic "How many worms should you get and what kind?" - click here: https://www.peasbeewithewe.net/post/how-many-worms-should-you-get-in-a-worm-farm-and-what-kind
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