If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!

I picked up some worms a few months ago, in order to start vermicomposting but was quite unsuccessful. However, failure has generally not defeated my morale enough to stop so I got some worms from a local source (thanks Alice!) this time and went all out and upped my bin size and style. I now have a 30L+ bin with holes drilled in the bottom and lid. It's been a few weeks and while it took a little time to understand exactly what it was that they wanted, I think I've gotten it down now.

I've left the bin open and sprayed it daily with a mister and continued to add vegetation. A lot of the stuff is being eaten quite slowly. I'm not quite ready to experiment with types of foods that wormies like or do better with but I'll get there. For now, I intend just to get a good population going and fine-tune the care which I need to maintain.

A few things I've learned so far...

• These systems are always much less finicky on a grand scale. It's when you try to mimic it in a small closed system, you're bound to be required to be more attentive and slight changes can really wreck havoc on your little system.
• Plastic containers are pretty air tight and while you don't even need air holes on the sides, just leaving the lid open does wonders.
• The compost should be wetter than you think. I mean it's also easier to dry out a wet system by just leaving the lid open for a few hours.
• Another thing I encountered was these little shiny mites on my first few days (when I snapped the lid shut) which were all over the sides of the bin where there was condensation. My solution? Leave the lid open over night to release excess moisture. And nothing to worry about as the mites wouldn't survive outside the bin anyways.

I feel a little more confident that I'm doing the right thing now that my worms don't look like they're dying every time I go digging to check on them. Just some more patience and soon my bin will be full of compost and worms!