The worms would process coffee grounds into ideal fertilizer, and we would use some of it ourselves for gardening purposes, marketing and selling the rest. We hoped to create a system where the worms were processing coffee grounds and other organic matter fast enough so fertilizer could be removed and new food added to keep up with incoming grounds from local accounts. We were given a five pound starter kit from the farm, and we decided that given limited tome, it would be best to have a small, working model for a larger worm farm capable of large- scale recycling. Worms can consume about half of their body weight daily, under ideal conditions.
Worms operate best in a moist, warm environment with plenty of food.
This does not mean that one can put two and a half pounds of moist coffee grounds into a box with five pounds of worms and expect the next day to have usable fertilizer. Worms require great care, and simply putting them in a box with coffee grounds will not produce desired results. A better worm box would include coffee grounds, chaff, and straw mixed together between a top and bottom later of organic fertilizer. The fertilizer protects the worms and keeps them in a specific area. Adding horse, sheep, or cow manure would produce richer fertilizer.