Getting started part 2- What to put in your Worm Farm- bedding

You have a suitable container for your worms. So what next?

The first thing you need to add to your wormery or worm farm is bedding for your worms.
Bedding is where the worms live, and where they lay their eggs and deposit their castings.

So what are the properties of ideal bedding?- (copied from definitions page)

Bedding is typically made up of a variety of organic, compostable substances, rich in carbon ('browns' in composting terms) and low in Nitrogen ('greens').
It needs to hold water without becoming soggy, and bulk up the worm bed (fibrous material) to allow sufficient airflow. Bedding will break down as part of the vermicomposting process and become mixed with the feedstuffs, but the best bedding is already partly decomposed, or at least rich in composting microorganisms.

Bedding needs to:
Be moist (70-90% moisture) and aerated. The air is dissolved in water for the worms to breathe through their skins, but spaces are needed in the bedding for air to diffuse through. Oxygen will be rapidy depleted in a compacted, very wet bin as protein (nitrogen)- rich substances decompose.
Be of neutral or near neutral pH . Worms will survive in beddings of pH 5-9, but thrive best at or slightly above a pH of 7.

Examples of bedding materials: paper, cardboard, dried leaves, composted animal manures or stable waste, composted garden waste, sawdust, coconut coir, straw. A few materials may be mixed together to take advantage of differing properties.
(Note: Peat is also used as a worm bedding, and is favoured by some growers but it is acidic so needs to have it's pH adjusted. And of course it is non renewable so not a good idea in a system which aims to help the environment.)


When you add food to your worm bin, worms initially feed off the decomposing edges of this food, but eventually move through it freely, until it becomes part of the bedding. But food and bedding materials are distinct from each other- bedding needs to be 'safe' for the worms to live in, food will rot down in time and become safe. (For this reason it is important not to mix food into the bedding, unless you have a large reservoir of safe bedding for the worms to retreat into if the food/ bedding mix becomes inhospitable).

In batch composting, bedding and food materials are mixed together, and pre-composted, but worms are not added until the bed has been deemed safe. (No more heating, no bad smells)