Worm farms

Steven says...
Hi Russ how are you.

If you want a worm farm i would suggest for convenience to buy a properly made one . A proper designed and used worm farm shouldnt make any smell at all as there is enough ventilation to allow enough oxygen into the system. I own a Reln worm farm and personally a prefer it to a makeshift one that i was thinking of making. I also has a tap at the bottom allowing the excess water to filter off and collected which is an excellent liquid fertilizer.

A worm farm however shouldnt be confused with a traditional compost bin, it isnt designed to work like a compost bin where bacteria do most of the composting even with plenty of worms present. Its designed to compost soft waste i.e potato peels, lettuce, fruit, vegetables etc. where a compost bin is designed to work with hard waste such as grass clippings etc, as well as soft waste. Also a worm farm is made to produce garden fertilize, which is one of the best fertilizers you can get. whereas a compost bin will produce compost which is quite fertile but not a fertilizer and best used as mulch in something such as your vegetable garden. I wouldnt suggest using it as an alternative to composting i would suggest having both systems.

remember though, no compost system should smell if its properly maintained, if it smells bad it means there is a lack of oxygen in there and you need to rotate it. A worm farm though is very clean and odourless, worms naturally kill pathogens in their food. usually my worm farm smells like rich soil rather than compost.

Regards

Steven

amanda says...
Hi Russ..friends of mine use fridge/freezers they salvaged from the tip...they put a drain pipe in and a bucket under that, then crock the lid open a little. Works fine for them (but a bit ugly if u dont have places to hide them!)

amanda says...
Julie - I think u are onto something there...I am thinking the commercial one's are too small (hence heat up very quickly due to high surface area to volume ratio) and it's made worse by them being dark colours (mine black).

There is no-where cool 4 them to escape to and if u add a high carbon source to the system it starts to work alot like hot aerobic compost (eg: I don't add chook pellets on warm weather as the system cooks)

Just a thought..?

amanda says...
Go for it Russ! It will work fine. For what it's worth - the "can o worms" recommends not too much food to start with (or it will go manky due to low worm numbers) and the "bedding agent" they recommend - a block of coco-peat (u can get from bunnings) - they love it.

The high carbon source works well in winter as it warms up the bed and all the eggs hatch n the worms stay active -my farm is so overloaded (in winter...) that I have had to take worms out! I use a baby-chick-starter food (u can get from city farmers etc) it's cheap as and I only use a cupla handfulls now n then.

If u have a food processor for fruit n veg scraps use it now n then - they get bigger n fatter if the material is already "bite sized". Big n fat = more breeders more quickly.

It's daggy - but I love my worms! ;)

Julie says...
I forgot to say the bought worm farm was really too small, even when the worm numbers built up. I live alone, but even scraps from one person was too much food at a time.

So I never got an awful lot of worm castings. The bigger one worked much better, and was easier to keep cool. It also gave the worms more places to escape to if the food got a bit too warm.
I just covered it with old carpet in summer, then plastic over that in winter - to stop too much rain getting in.

russ says...
Steven, I probably should have been clearer about the worm farm v compost thing.

I am aware that they are not straight replacements. The problem with the compost bin is that the only things i have to put in it are lawn clippings and kitchen scraps - so i wasn't making great compost. I also don't have a good place to put a compost bin.

Regarding the overheating of a worm farm. I had already earmarked a place for the worm farm under the eves of the house next to the back door. This is on the west side and is well shaded. My only real concern about was any possible smell being so close to the house. You have convinced me that if i am managing the farm well then i will not have to worry about the smell.

I am not sure if you have seen the gardening australia episode where Josh shows his worm farm, but the design has a split (stable door style) lid where he places the food in alternate sides, allowing him to use the other vermicompost when the worms migrate to the other side containing food. I am of the opinion that this will proably work enough for me.

My only concern regards the worm castings which i hope will sink to the bottom and then run down the plug hole where i will catch them with a bottle or some other means of catching it.

Steven says...
Hi Russ how are you.

In that case then you could just use it as a regular composter which would work perfectly fine. I tried looking up the one you mentioned but couldnt find it. But i thought id mention a simple way (which you may have already thought of) to separate the worms from your compost would be to make one or two dividers (out of wood or plastic) and divide the bath tub into sections with a small gap at the bottom to allow the 'compost tea' to flow and a few dozen holes in the dividers so that the worms can get through and just fill one section up at a time and once that section is full and nicely composted move onto the next. Another good way to get the worms to the top of the compost that you may already know is to put moist newspaper over the top of the compost which keeps the top moist and dark that way the worms eat everything evenly they will even eat the newspaper.

Regards

Steven

russ says...
Hi Steven, I really like the idea with the dividers. I will be incorporating that in for sure. I will be trying to find the link to the episode i refer before i build, but it may take some time. When i find out i will post it on here.

Amanda - Thanks for the watermelon tip. I don't eat as much watermelon as i probably should, but i guess i better start for the worms sake.

russ says...
Just thinking about worms or eggs ending up in the soil/castings you want to use in the garden. Is there any harm with having some worms ending up in your vegie patch etc. Will the worms survive in normal ground in perth? Also, would they harm veggies in a veggie patch?

Julie says...
No, they wouldn't harm vegies, they only eat decomposing material, not live plants or seeds. If they did, nothing would ever grow! The reason I separated the worms was to keep the numbers up in the worm farm.

They will only live in the upper layers of your bed, and in summer that might get too hot for them. The sort of worms you use in a worm farm are not earthworms, which go quite deep, and live in soil, not manure or compost.

Deep mulching will keep the soil cooler.

Itdepends says...
Most of the worms in my worm farm (can of worms) came from my vege garden- but I've been raising the beds the last year or so and add lots of mulch (straw) and manures. I did go out and buy a booster pack of worms as well- but they looked the same as the ones I had already (taken out of the broken down manure/straw- I had a fun afternoon with the girls collecting and counting out our first 1000 starter worms)

No smell by the way- ours is under the patio directly outside our kitchen door.

Cheers,

Daniel

snottiegobble says...
Dont know why we only got one photo, but heres the finished farm before presenting the worms to it.

Pictures - Click to enlarge
Picture: 1

Julie says...
I had a look at the website. Sounds very like systems that people got involved in several years ago in Perth. A lot of money was lost, as there just wasn't enough demand for the worms.

There may be a bigger demand in the US, where fishermen buy worms, but I think it's a bit different here. If you only want worms for your own garden, I'd stick to some of the ideas in this thread.

Emery says...
It would be nice to actually meet someone who has had experience with UNCO. I would like to hear someone vouch for their integrity.

John says...
Hi Everyone,
I'm thinking of building a worm farm and I have a couple of questions you good people will be able to help me with. What I had in mind was a three tiered wooden farm. Firstly, how deep should each of the boxes be, and what diameter? Next, can I put a reasonably fine wire mesh in the bottom of each box instead of wood with holes in it?
That'll do for now. Thanks for your help.

John says...
Hi Snottiegobble,
Thanks for the reply. The old fridge idea sounds good. I might see if I can rustle one up. As you say, I'd end up with a lot more compost. Thanks again for your help.

Stella says...
Hello Russ,
My first worm farm was an old fridge which worked reasonably well. Never had dividers so it was hard to clean out!. I now have two commercial farms bought from the local council.
Being the lazy gardener I am, when I clean out the bottom tray, I just scoop any large clusters of worms still in there and put in the top tray. Any still left in the castings then goes into the garden!
The only food mine get are kitchen scraps, sometimes dry leaves that have fallen off the plants and a covering of newspaper.
I have the worms at the side of the shed with a trellis over them. Summer time the grape vines and a bit of shade cloth covers them so no problem with heat.
No problems with smells.

Diddy FitzGerald says...
Amazing that your worm farms dont smell! Mine's in the shed out the back, keeps it cool and the smell doesnt matter. But there is definitely a smell, one you would notice in a smaller area dwelling.
I noticed that a few people have pondered the implications of the worms getting on the loose. Are these worms native to Australia, does anyone know?
My worm farm was becoming a mass of pink spaghetti, so i put some in the compost bin. Now it is a bottomless pit into which i have stuffed quantities of garden waste and it never gets full.

Diddy FitzGerald says...
Thanks for that...so does it matter if compost worms get on the loose in the garden? They have been so prolific in the worm farm in the shed, and in the compost heap, and we know what can happen with non-native species....maybe i worry too much....

Ian says...
I have Chickens. Can I add thier Manure to a worm farm?

007 says...
We have a Vermihut. They are quite attractive so far as worm farms go. Not like those matt dark black and green coloured farms.

These Vermihuts are actually easy on the eye. Ours is a beige cream colour. Very sturdy also. It has a liquid collection tap at the base so we get organic worm juice that we dilute with water, to use on our plants.

snottiegobble says...
Pauline, are you saying that your kittens drink the worm juice?? Cats are usually quite particular about their drinking water & much prefer rain water, pond water & even seasol/ water to our increasing fluoridated & chlorinated crap out of the tap. Who can blame them?

Julie says...
Or they are sensible enough not to like fluoride and chlorine!

Anonymous says...
We had some firewood in an old large flower pot, tucked away. When we moved out of our old house two years ago (to demolish) it was among things stashed behind FIL's shed. It then was shifted into our garage last spring and has sat there ever since.

Today I went to sort it out, stack the wood etc, and discovered that under the firewood was half a bag of mulch. Only, it didn't look like mulch, it looked like worm castings. So I sorted it through and found... worms! and worm castings! They must have got into the bag and spent the last two years eating it. There were a couple of hundred worms in there - fewer than might have been expected given the amount of castings (half a broccoli box) but I suspect they've reached the end of the food and numbers adjusted accordingly. I transferred the worms to a new farm (as I'm not sure what they are so don't want to put them into the main box until I know) with some half finished compost and some food scraps and we'll see how that goes.

They're obviously some kind of composting worm, and they must have come up from the garden.

My new fruit trees will get off to a good start!

MJ

Anonymous says...
ooh, I'd have thought that would be too strong as well.

Did you deliberately release the worm farm worms, or did they just appear in the garden once you started using the castings? SIL found that was the case in her garden.

Bye
MJ

MJ says...
Have been trying to reply for a few days, but I'm having trouble with this forum and my computer. :( Ah well...

I just put a worm tower into a raised bed. Worms would find it hard to escape from there, but hopefully the fact that I'm feeding them with the tower means they won't want to! I have a tiny one in a potted fig tree and it has worked very well. I cleaned it out yesterday and distributed the castings around the top of the pot and there are lots of happy worms in there, including some little ones, so I'm assuming they're breeding in there too.

MJ

MJ says...
Hi Julie

The gist of it is to get a tube with an open bottom and drill holes in the sides. You then set it up for composting worms. With the first mini one I made (for my potted fig, out of a 3 litre milk bottle), I put some hay (because I had it, straw might be better), then a scoop of cow manure, food scraps for worms, a handful of worms, and then some wet paper (paper towel, maybe?) as a top layer). It then got a saucer over the top to keep birds and rain out. It worked very well over two quite hot days (42 degrees, with that 27 degree night in between), and then a week later we got 25 mm of rain, and again it survived. I did water extra on those hot days, but I would do that anyway, with a potted tree. I started with just a small handful of worms because it was experimental. When I harvested the other day there didn't look like much evidence of the original materials, just castings and some bits of food scraps that they hadn't got to yet. I put them back, with the worms. There seemed to be a good number of worms, including some small ones, so I guess they're breeding. This one has been running for about 3 months.

I don't know that I really needed to harvest the castings. I did water it down a bit the other day and noticed that the volume dropped quite a bit, so I am guessing that at least some of the castings washed out into the soil of the pot. Theoretically the worms move in and out of the tower (and they do, I've found quite a few out of their tower) and take their castings out with them to deposit into the soil. I suspect a nice thick layer of lupin mulch or something would encourage them to move around the pot a bit more, but my mulch is looking a bit thin at present. It would be good to also have some real earthworms in there that would do the job properly.

The bigger one I did in the garden bed on the weekend (the commercial one - see links below) I got I started with a few scoops of partly finished compost, again some cow manure, and then a good few scoops of worms, plus their castings and whatever food was in the worm farm in those scoops. Then I've been feeding them my kitchen scraps and put some wet paper on the top.

A few links:
http://www.birdiesgardenproducts.com.au/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=147&category_id=40&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=100064
(this is the one I bought)

This is a diy version: http://milkwood.net/2010/10/12/how-to-make-a-worm-tower/

This company does another type, called the Little Rotter and Big Rotter. They also sell earthworms and composting worms, and I'm dithering about getting some of them too.

Ooh, I've written a bit of a book! Sorry!

MJ

Julie says...
MJ....' It would be good to also have some real earthworms in there that would do the job properly'.

I have never, ever, seen earthworms in a pot, just deep down in the soil when I have had to dig. They don't breed in the same way.

Thanks for the info!

MJ says...
Oh, and I've got eisenia fetida in the worm farm, and now in the towers. I have another farm of worms that I found in the mulch bag, which are kept separate until I can tell what kind they are.
MJ

MJ says...
Now that my bonus worms (the ones from the bag of mulch) have had a chance to fatten up a bit, they look very much like the worms in my worm farm, so I think I might put them all in the one farm.

Does anyone know, if it turns out that they're a different worm, if it matters to have two different worm kinds in a worm farm?

Ta
MJ

dr says...
The reason why most people don't have worm farms is the same reason why most people won't do push-ups ---it's too much effort. The following is a lazy man's worm farm---dig a hole in the root zone of something you want to fertilise. Gather a bunch of kitchen scraps and assorted slops and place in the hole ;add a few worms and cover with say, carpet . Leave alone and worms will do their job and multiply up. Do the same somewhere else and ,amazingly, the worms will find it. Repeat as often as needed. Simple.

freddyg says...
hiya keepitReal,
You sound like me, from the old school!
But mate! having a worm farm for me works good, I have them in their box around the side of the house, in the shade, I feed them shredded newspaper and they give me approx. 1lt of worm juice per month which I use as fertilizer for my plants.

Jason says...
I've been throwing my compost in a bin for a couple years now without worms and its never been more than half full. So they seem to work fine enough with smaller organisms doing the work. I throw all kinds of things in there, anything that was recently living.

In the garden I rather throw stuff directly under the trees.

Julie says...
dr, could you explain 'the root zone comes to the soil surface'. I don't understand what you mean.

Yes, compost worms can survive outside of a worm farm, but they won't go deep into a sandy soil like earthworms.

Jason says...
Feeder roots generally come out of the soil and attach to bits of decaying wood if you use heavy enough mulch. Not so much in true cold temperate trees but most other thing I grow do that to the point of not growing well without a heavy mulch. Haven't tried feeding them carpet though lol

MJ says...
I don't know much about it, but this article: http://www.greenjourney.com.au/attachments/156_Under%20the%20Carpet.pdf makes me nervous about using old carpet products in the garden...

Anyone know any more about it?

MJ

walbanger says...
It seems like quite a few people in here know their stuff about worm farming. There is an excellent manual that may be of great interest to the newcomer. It is a best selling guide to worm composting. http://3119enoemx19il4hsfu4de15x8.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=WORMFARMS. It is super stuff I highly recommend it.

MJ says...
I'm in the process of harvesting worm castings from the in-bed worm farm. They've obviously been very happy in there! There was *heaps* of room left, but I wanted to see how it was going, so I scooped it all out and put it in a bucket. I went over and took out the obviously not-ready bits (like sticks of celery...) and put them back, plus the worms I could easily get. Now I've got milk-soaked bread on the top of the half-bucket full of castings/worms to (apparently) attract the worms to make sorting them out somewhat easier.

I've moved onto "stage two" of my in-bed worm farm experiment, where I haven't currently sorted out any kitchen scraps. They've got all the kitchen scraps I had in the bucket today, onion skins and all (though not a great deal of their non-preferred food). I've also got some partly decomposed stuff in the other farm that I will pull out and put into this one, just to give the wormies something better to eat while they're waiting for this lot to break down enough.

There are loads and loads of worms and eggs in there, and a lot of castings. So far I am calling this a success. Very easy to manage - easier than my compost tumbler, even, I think - and they're obviously happy in there, or they wouldn't be reproducing so much. I've got one ready to go for the pear bed, just waiting for the potato that is in that spot to be ready to harvest to make room. :) We might have new potatoes one day this week so I can do that. I also need to make other small versions for the large pots, as the pot with the worm farm in it is far and away the healthiest pot I have.

MJ

MJ says...
Oh, and I should update on the potted worm farm... The pot with the worm farm in it is by far doing the best of any of my pots! As I put the more permanent plantings into the wine barrels I will add mini worm farms/towers to them too.

Jenny says...
They absolutely LOVE watermelon so that may assist with attracting them in a particular area.

gilbsy123 says...
I have a wooden frame from an old couch that I put on the ground under a pepper tree. I started putting kitchen scraps, bokashi, and some old left over chicken laying mash along with some other soil amendments into the chambers and when I ran my garden fork through the vermicompost I felt tons of roots growing into my bin. Guess I'm gonna have to move it. Hard to find shady spots around my yard that don't have trees ear that will send roots into my on the ground bin.

Cal2 says...
Hello
I am hoping i can get some much needed help.
I would really love to start a worm farm but know nothing about it.
I have just purchased a worm farm and im wondering what bedding do i add.
Can i use sugar cane mulch?
Thank you
Caroline.

RobSue says...
About a month ago I bought & established a work farm from Bunnings with 4 trays and 1700 worms. Instead of just using the compressed coconut coir that came with the kit I also used a bag of compost so now all 3 bottom trays are full of worms and compost. The top tray is full of scraps but I think the worms are too happy feeding on the compost and coconut to bother too much with the food. Is there a way I can get the worms out of the bottom trays into the upper trays before tipping the compost into the garden. I want to lose as few worms and eggs as possible so that it will start working more quickly

WormsRUs says...
Hey you only need to use one tray at a time. Otherwise you will end up with the situation you've described.

When the first tray is full with kitchen scraps, only then do you add the next tray and so on etc... No need to add all 4 trays and all that compost at the start.

Cheers,
WormsRUs

RobSue says...
Thanks to all of you for your kind suggestions.

Clearly my first problem is that I should never have initiated all 3 trays to start with and my biggest problem is my lack of patience. I will now wait and keep monitoring what is going on. Hopefully my worms will breed and develop a bigger appetite over time.

I may leave a copy of the book on top for them to read during their breaks to see if that helps LOL