Composting kitchen scraps with worms, although regular composting creates healthy food to your crops, however vermicomposting, enriches the compost even more. Castings that provide nutrients for your backyard are excreted by the worms. Worms prefer to eat coffee grounds, but provide them to keep their house in acidity levels that are appropriate.
Worms Like Coffee Grounds
Worms enjoy many of the very same foods you do, such as coffee grounds. They enjoy coffee grounds so much that Cornell University recommends lining a composting pile that is conventional to attract worms. The coffee grounds create a yummy addition to other kitchen scraps such as vegetable and fruit waste, leftover pasta or oatmeal. Worms need some gritty foods to help their gizzards with digestion, and that’s where java grounds actually shine in the vermicomposting bin.
The Downside
Adding a massive volume of coffee grounds adversely impacts the vermicomposting by making it acidic bin. Too much acid in the bed, or a low pH level, can burn off the worms’ skin. Use a pH test strip in the bedding. Worms live best in an environment with a pH of 6.0 to 8.0. If the pH is lower than 6.0, then add crushed eggshells into the bin to help neutralize the acid.
How Much Is Too Much
No exact rule exists about how often to include coffee grounds to your bin. It depends in part on the size of the bin, what foods you include and the number of worms reside in the bin. Generally, it should be safe to include coffee grounds when you place other food if you are adding some grains and fruit stir in the day’s coffee grounds. You may not feed your worms when it’s not time to feed the 27, so don’t add java grounds. In addition, don’t add mostly coffee grounds with a few other kitchen bits the java should make up a portion of the meal, not the majority. If you notice rather than creating a nice odor the bin smells somewhat like vinegar, you may be adding too many coffee grounds. The vinegar odor means that the bin is becoming too acidic.
Feeding Worms that the Filter
About trying to shake coffee grounds off the filters, do not be concerned — that the worms enjoy the filters. Vermicomposting bins use bedding such as shredded newspaper or cardboard. When kept moist, the bedding provides a secure house for worms to burrow through. The used coffee filter functions as additional bedding for the worms.