Using Living Material as a Starter Culture

This page was created for those who want to learn more about growing a population of Red Wiggler Worms using Living Material as their starter culture.

If you are primarily interested in using Living Material as a microbial/ecosystem inoculant, be sure to refer to our LM product guide and LM resource page for more information.

Living Material (LM) vs Living Material Plus (LM+) and Their Potential for Growing a Worm Population

All our Living Material products can help you grow a population of Red Worms…eventually…but if this is a primary goal, we highly recommend Living Material Plus - since it offers significantly more population growth potential than our standard Living Material.

The two main advantages of LM Plus are: 1) 4 L volume (2X that of the biggest bag of regular Living Material), 2) The addition of an extra 50 “breeder” (adult) Red Wigglers.

In other words, you end up with at least twice as much of the standard mix (so at least twice as many of the small worms and cocoons it contains) - plus at least 50 more fully-mature worms that will be ready to start dropping new cocoons from Day 1.

Here are some Red Worm reproduction stats to keep in mind (NOTE: these assume “ideal” conditions):

  • Adult Red Worms can release an average of 3 cocoons per worm per week.
  • These cocoons can hatch in as little as 3 weeks.
  • Each cocoon releases an average of 3 hatchlings.
  • Those hatchlings can reach maturity in 6 weeks

It’s important to mention that these numbers can be greatly affected by a range of different factors. That said, we have shared a “real world” example of turning 25 adult worms into 193 adults, 1656 juveniles, and 476 cocoons in 11 weeks (in a relatively basic experimental tub system) - which actually lines up with these numbers fairly well!

And here’s the thing…composting worms are literally designed to take advantage of favourable resources and conditions - especially when starting at low densities. This helps to explain why even a small number of worms/cocoons can produce a huge, thriving worm population in an outdoor manure heap in 1 or 2 seasons. It also helps to explain why starter cultures - when cared for properly - can perform so well in new systems!

Super Basic Start-Up Method

Living Material provides the worms with their basic needs, so starting to nurture your little Red Worm population can actually be as simple as dumping your bag into a small plastic bin - should be opaque, with at least some ventilation - and then adding a very small amount of fruit/veggie scraps. Great choices include melon, cucumber, or any other water-rich, easy to break-down fruit/veggie waste.

This offers the advantage of:

  1. Being a very easy start-up method - no need for a fancy system or a full set of supplies. Great for situations where you aren’t ready to set up a proper system.
  2. Helping you get a feel for the size of your initial population - those water-rich foods will attract, and concentrate any worms that happen to be in the material, and may even stimulate new hatchlings to emerge from cocoons.
  3. Keeping you laser-focused on nurturing your new population not trying to start a vermicomposting system - this will help you avoid overfeeding and other common new-system challenges.

BUT, this basic approach should only be thought of as a temporary set-up.

Gradually over time, we recommend mixing in damp bedding materials such as shredded cardboard to provide your worms with more habitat structure and help to balance your feedings.

Speaking of feedings, if there is one time to really “let the worms be your guide” - this is definitely it! Only add very small amounts of food at a time, and wait until that food is almost completely gone before adding any more. Remember, you are working with a very small population of worms early on - one that can be sustained extremely easily.

PRO TIP: If you have our Worm Boost supplement, this is a great opportunity to put it to use. With each deposit of easy-breakdown water-rich food, a small sprinkle of Worm Boost over top can greatly help to enhance these deposits, providing the worms with valuable minerals, other nutrients, and some “browns” that can help stimulate population growth even more.

More Advanced Start-Up Method

For those who want to get more of a typical system going right away, the good news is that this is still very easy, especially when using Living Material Plus in smaller bins. This approach offers the advantage of providing the worms with a larger volume of more protective (and balanced) habitat right out of the gates, which may help your population grow even faster.

As we alluded to this earlier, it’s very important that you don’t think of this as a regular vermicomposting system, but instead think of it as a starter population growth system!

Our 3-Zone set-up approach works very well for this start-up method.

False Bottom - If using some type of tub, start by adding 1-3 inches of dry (or very lightly dampened), bulky bedding like shredded cardboard down in the bottom of the bin. In a stacking tray system, a sheet of newsprint or kraft paper along the bottom and sides of your first tray (dampened so it sticks) is all you need. In a bag system (like the Urban Worm Bag), combining these two approaches works well (loose bedding in lower pocket - line walls with newsprint - more loose bedding over top).

Worm Zone - In a separate tub or tray, gently mix your bag of Living Material with plenty of moist bedding. The goal should be to end up with a total amount material that brings the level of your system up to the ½ or (even better) ¾ mark. NOTE: with a single tray in a small stacking system you may want to start with a 1:1 ratio (equal parts Living Material and bedding), and then add more bedding as needed - just so you don’t end up with more Worm Zone mix than will fit in the tray.

Mixing in starter amounts of Worm Boost and/or  other amendments (e.g. if you bought a Worm Composting Starter Kit) can help to further enhance the Worm Zone mix. You will likely also want to add enough water (ideally, aged tap water, well water or rainwater) so that your mix is very damp, but without much liquid pooling in the bottom. This mix can definitely be wetter than “wrung out sponge” since our other zones will help balance that moisture out.

Once your Worm Zone is added, you can then add a handful of easy-breakdown fruit/veggie wastes, such as chopped up cucumber, melon (really, anything from that family), leafy greens, chopped up banana peel etc. We recommend creating a shallow depression for the deposits so you can cover them with habitat material after. 

Cover Bedding Zone - Maintaining a thick layer of fairly dry, bulky bedding at the top of your system can be very helpful for moisture management, while also providing you with an ongoing supply of bedding materials to help balance your food deposits. If you have a hemp blanket, add it directly over top of the Worm Zone works great. You can then add 2-3 inches of loose bedding (e.g. shredded cardboard) over top.

Ongoing Care and Maintenance

  • It is ideal to keep your population growth system in a location with fairly steady, warm (but not hot) temperatures - between 16 and 26 C - especially when using smaller bins.
  • It’s ok (and actually quite helpful) to check on your little worm population fairly regularly - but we don’t recommend doing so more than once or (at most) twice a day. This is an important growth/development period for the worms, so less disturbance will help.
  • Check to see if the worms are concentrating close to your food deposit - and try to assess their overall level of health. Do their colours look vibrant? Do they move away from light fairly quickly? Etc
  • Check on food and moisture levels. Are they consuming the food you have added? Does their habitat look damp? Make adjustments as needed - but definitely err on the side of caution, especially with your food deposits.

Within 2 to 3 months, you should see your worm population grow substantially in size (earlier we gave an illustration of what can happen in this timeframe starting with only 25 worms). As your population grows, you should be able to continue adding more waste materials (but always base your feeding on how quickly they are consuming the food).

Starting a Backyard Composter with Living Material

Living Material (especially LM+) offers a very effective - mostly “set it and forget it” - way to establish a population of Red Wigglers in a backyard composter. But there are definitely some important guidelines to follow if you want to be successful.

The system needs to be set up and maintained much more like a typical worm composting bin than the way many people use these bins (basically as a trash can for yard wastes) - especially early on - but once your population is well established, the good news is that you can “get away with” a lot more.

Adding LM to a New Backyard System

  1. If at all possible, we recommend creating some form of pit down below the bin (this assumes it is an open-bottomed composter, which it should be). Make sure the diameter of the hole is smaller than the lowermost diameter of the bin itself.
  2. Line the bottom of the pit with 2-4 inches of bulky bedding, such as straw or coarsely ripped up corrugated cardboard.
  3. Make a large volume “Worm Zone” mix (described earlier in the “Advanced Start-Up” section), combining lots of bedding with your bag of LM - maybe other amendments etc - and add this over top of the loose bedding.
  4. Add some water-rich kitchen scraps.
  5. Add a thick layer of loose cover bedding (like shredded cardboard or straw).
  6. Give everything a good watering.
  7. What you add after that is up to you, but we recommend mainly “browns” that will help to balance your future food deposits and really help to protect your new worm population!

For a more in-depth look at setting up a backyard composter for worm composting, be sure to check out our blog post, “Setting Up Your GeoBin For Worm Composting Success”.

NOTE: If you can’t or don’t want to dig a pit, you can follow all the same set-up steps, but just down in the bottom of the bin instead of in the pit.

Adding LM to an Established Composter

  1. Either remove a lot of material, or dig a hole down into the contents of the system, so you can start your worm population down where temps will be cooler and moisture levels will be higher.
  2. Follow the exact same steps described for the new backyard system approach.
  3. If you removed any material in step #1, these can now be put back.

Likely the biggest factor of importance with most backyard composters is moisture. Many models are quite exposed to the elements, which can be great when it is rainy - not so great when it is hot and dry. Enclosed models don’t let precipitation in, but they do at least tend to retain moisture a bit better.

Bottom-line, we highly recommend getting into the habit of regularly adding water-rich waste materials (always remembering to cover your deposits with bedding) and watering during warmer/drier months. This alone will go a long way towards helping your worm population get established!

The good news is that, unlike in smaller bins, you won’t really need to worry about how much food you add to these backyard systems, since there will be a lot of extra habitat material to help keep everything balanced.

One final note relating to backyard composters - if you do decide to load up the system with material, keep in mind that they can heat up a lot. This makes it extra important for the Living Material to be added as low down in the system as possible!


Final Thoughts

Growing your own population of composting worms “from scratch” using Living Material (ideally LM+) can be an inexpensive and much more natural way to ease yourself into the wonderful world of worm composting!

But it does require some patience.

If you don’t mind taking things a bit more slowly, and you stick to the guidelines we have shared here, you should end up with a thriving population of Red Wigglers within a few months!

As always, don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions relating to this (or any other) composting topic!

Helpful Articles

DIY Plastic Worm Composting Bins
Setting Up Your Urban Worm Bag for Worm Composting Success
Setting Up and Managing Your Urbalive for Worm Composting Success
Stacking Tray Worm Bins - Misconceptions, Tips & Tricks
Setting Up Your GeoBin For Worm Composting Success
Bedding - The Most Important Material in Your Worm Bin?

Living Material Resources

What is “Living Material”?
Living Material Resource page
Living Material Product guide
**Buy Living Material**

Other Recommended Products

Worm Rake
pH Buffer/Grit
BioChar
Worm Boost
Hemp Blanket
Worm Composting Starter Kit