What is worm composting?

Composting with worms (or vermicomposting) is becoming an increasingly common way to compost food waste at home. Put simply, a worm composter (or wormery) is home for worms with a perfect environment to encourage them to eat as much of your food waste as possible and turn it into compost (worm castings… the polite term for worm poo).

Unlike bokashi composting, there are quite a few restrictions on what you can (and should) put into your vermicomposter. Do not add the following items to a worm composter:

meat,

bones,

dairy,

egg shells,

grease/ fat/ oil, and

pet or human feces.

How bokashi composting can support vermicomposting

By adding bokashi composting to the vermicomposting process, vermicompsters are able to compost all food waste. Items in the list above that cannot be directly added to the wormery can be put into a bokashi bucket. After the 2 week fermentation period, the bokashi pre-compost can then be added to the wormery, following the instructions below.

Adding bokashi pre-compost to a worm composter

Bokashi fermentation is an acidic process. The pH of the final bokashi product can be around pH 3-4; fairly acidic. Worms do not like acidic conditions, preferring a near neutral pH.

Adding acidic bokashi pre-compost to a worm bin where the worms dislike acidic conditions sounds like a sure route to failure. However, bokashi pre-compost can be added directly to a wormery. In fact, many people have found that the worms love the bokashi food waste. The bokashi pre-compost is full of bokashi microbes that have worked on the food waste to make it soft and have started breaking it down. It may take the worms a few days to get used to the bokashi pre-compost. However, after adding bokashi pre-compost to the worm bin it breaks down in very little time.