On festive occasions, holidays, and during canning season it is easy
to overload the digestive capacity of a worm bin. The problem will
correct itself without doing anything but you may not be willing to
live with anaerobic odors for a week or two. One simple way to
accelerate the "healing" of an anaerobic box is to fluff it up with
your hand cultivator.
Vegetableatarian households greatly increase the amount of organic
waste they generate during summer. So do people who can or freeze
when the garden is "on." One vermicomposting solution to this
seasonal overload is to start up a second, summertime-only outdoor
worm bin in the garage or other shaded location. Appelhof uses an
old, leaky galvanized washtub for this purpose. The tub gets a few
inches of fresh bedding and then is inoculated with a gallon of
working vermicompost from the original bin. Extra garbage goes in
all summer. Mary says:
"I have used for a "worm bin annex" an old leaky galvanized washtub,
kept outside near the garage. During canning season the grape pulp,
corn cobs, corn husks, bean cuttings and other fall harvest residues
went into the container. It got soggy when it rained and the worms
got huge from all the food and moisture. We brought it inside at
about the time of the first frost. The worms kept working the
material until there was no food left. After six to eight months,
the only identifiable remains were a few corn cobs, squash seeds,
tomato skins and some undecomposed corn husks. The rest was an
excellent batch of worm castings and a very few hardy,
undernourished worms."