Redworms are small and consequently worm growers sell them by the pound.  There are about 1,000 mature breeders to the pound of young redworms.  Bait dealers prefer to sell only the largest sizes or their customers complain.  “Red wigglers” from a bait store may only count 600 to the pound.  Worm raisers will sell “pit run” that costs much less.  This is a mix of worms of all sizes and ages.  Often the largest sizes will have already been separated out for sale as fish bait.  That’s perfectly okay.  Since hatchlings run 150,000 to the pound and mature worms count about 600-700, the population of a pound of pit run can vary greatly.  A reasonable pit run estimate is 2,000 to the pound.

Actually it doesn’t matter what the number is, it is their weight that determines how much they’ll eat.  Redworms eat slightly more than their weight in food every day.  If that is so, why did I recommend first starting vermicomposting with two pounds of worms for every pound of garbage?  Because the worms you’ll buy will not be used to living in the kind of bedding you’ll give them nor adjusted to the mix of garbage you’ll feed them.  Initially there may be some losses.  After a few weeks the surviving worms will have adjusted.

Most people have little tolerance for outright failure.  But if they have a record of successes behind them, minor glitches won’t stop them.  So it is vital to start with enough worms.  The only time vermicomposting becomes odoriferous is when the worms are fed too much. If they quickly eat all the food that they are given the system runs remarkably smoothly and makes no offense.  Please keep that in mind since there may well be some short-lived problems until you learn to gauge their intake.

Setting Up a Worm Box

Redworms need a damp but not soggy environment with a moisture content more or less 75 percent by weight.  But bedding material starts out very dry.  So weigh the bedding and then add three times that weight of water.  The rule to remember here is “a pint’s a pound the world ’round,” or one gallon of water weighs about eight pounds.  As a gauge, it takes 1 to 1-1/2 pounds of dry bedding for each cubic foot of box.

Preparing bedding material can be a messy job The best container is probably an empty garbage can, though in a pinch it can be done in a kitchen sink or a couple of five gallon plastic buckets.  Cautiously put half the (probably dusty) bedding in the mixing container.  Add about one-half the needed water and mix thoroughly.  Then add two handfuls of soil, the rest of the bedding, and the balance of the water.  Continue mixing until all the water has been absorbed.  Then spread the material evenly through your empty worm box.  If you’ve measured correctly no water should leak out the bottom vent holes and the bedding should not drip when a handful is squeezed moderately hard.

Then add the worms.  Spread your redworms over the surface of the bedding.  They’ll burrow under the surface to avoid the light and in a few minutes will be gone.  Then add garbage.  When you do this the first time, I suggest that you spread the garbage over the entire surface and mix it in using a three-tined hand cultivator.  This is the best tool to work the box with because the rounded points won’t cut worms.