WormWatching Tip of the Week: Moisture

Worms need moisture to breathe through their skin.   Worms are made of approximately 70% water, and they like their environment to be moist too.  The moisture in your bin will depend on what food you feed it.    To check the moisture, squeeze the soil and you should one to five drops of water drip from your soil clump.  If the  soil is too wet/mucky or there is a smell, add shredded paper.

(FYI, we also use and sell moisture probes if you don’t want to get your hands dirty.)

Worms do not like lots of water. If it’s very humid out or your bin is very wet, you will see them on the lid, up the sides and down in the well.  We are having lots of fun watching how they respond to NorEasters and huge storms – they crawl out of the soil as if they are anticipating lots of rain. Don’t panic, they will not escape the WormWatcher, even in dome top/greenhouse model.   If there is food present, they won’t want to migrate.

EXPERIMENT IDEA:  Could they be weather indicators??

Other Fun Field Observations from WormWatchers This Week: 
Potato buds are sprouting (unintentionally!)
Cranberries aren’t breaking down.
Worms are loving pumpkins – especially rotting ones.
Only the green outer skin was left from a watermelon.

Maintenance Tip:  Use moist newspaper that is machine shredded on top!  It helps keep the moisture higher in the bin.  Mix it with your soil when more fiber and air is needed.