Worm Composting in the Winter: What you Need
Composting with Worms in the Winter Times
Composting worms in the winter is not quite the same as composting worms during the summer times. There are no white flakes falling to make a 3-foot thick layer of snow during the summer time. There is no howling wind bringing chills to your bones in the summer time. There is no freezing temperature threatening to freeze you to death in the summer time. And there is no need for that thick jacket that you have been hiding in the closet just for that occasion. Overall, the living conditions during winter are not the same as the living conditions during the summer time. This applies to humans as well as red wiggler worms. That is why we need to understand one very basic and important note in worm composting during the winter.
What do you need during winter?
Heat. Worm composting requires you to provide an environment wherein your compost worms can live healthily and function effectively. This must be so even if the atmosphere outside of it is harsh and unforgiving. This means that your compost bin must remain warm for the sake of your worms even though the temperature outside of it is freezing. This is one of the most important things to remember when composting worms during the winter. To do this you must have three things: a heat source, insulation and fuel.
Winter worm composting and heat source
Red Wiggler worms during the winter would mean dealing with extremely cold temperatures and enabling your worms to work through them. To do that you must keep them warm; and to keep them warm you must have a heat source. This means providing an external source of heat or enough organic material to support ‘microbial heating.’ This material must have an excellently balanced C:N ratio which would mean having a ratio ranging between 20:1 and 40:1.
Insulation
Having an external heat source is meaningless if you do not insulate your bin to retain the heat. One very easy and effective way to insulate your compost bin is by stacking-up straw bales around the outside of your compost bin. You can also add some of your excellently balanced organic material onto the layers of stacked straw bales to create an even more effective insulation. Another way to insulate your composting bin is by digging a compost pit in the ground so that the earth itself heats the compost bin. To make the insulating process more effective, you can sustain a thick layer if bedding on top of the composting mass. Leaves and loose straw can be perfect for this task.
Fuel
And finally, to help maintain your system all throughout the cold season, you can regularly add fresh waste materials into the compost bin. If you do this correctly, then you will end up having rich organic fertilizer when the sunny season comes around.
Compost worms throughout the winter will be a challenge worth going through. The road to success may be tough and rugged but the end result will always be a welcome reward: organic fertilizer. For organic gardening enthusiasts, having organic fertilizer for your garden is a great thing! Why not try it? You never know, you might end up composting worms every winter just for the heck of it!
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