Worm farms

russ starts with ...
Hi, I'm thinking of starting a worm farm as an alternative to composting. I would like to hear about the experiences people have had with worm farms - good or bad.
I am thinking of copying Josh from gardening australia and building one from an old bath tub set into a wooden surround with a split lid, which can then double as a work bench or table.
My only concern is about whether it is a good idea to have a worm farm next to the house and whether it will be a bit too smelly!

russ says...
Hi Steven, thanks for your response. A lot to think about there.
Cheers, Russ.
Anyone else have any comments?

Julie says...
The only time I had a problem with a worm farm was a commercially bought one - probably a Reln. It just got too hot in summer, even under shade cloth, and the worms died. Then it smelt awful!

I also got fed up with picking out the worms each time I changed the sections. I changed to a large, home made worm farm made with cement slabs, where the worms circulated round a block in the middle (hard to describe).

By the time they got round to the first section it was free of worms and ready to use.

I know someone who collects old fridges and makes them into worm farms to sell. Great idea!

russ says...
I think i have been convinced to make my bathtub worm farm. Also a colleague at work has said that he will provide start up worms from his farm.
I will be off to the tip at the weekend in an attempt to pick up a tub and some wood. How exciting!

amanda says...
PS Russ - I have big galvanised rainwater tanks cut in half - full of horse stable manure out in the sun all day - every day (covered with carpet in summer) and I do absolutely nothing for them (apart from a bit of H2O now n then when dry) and they are fine.

Steven says...
Hi Everyone

I still think it would be best to buy a worm farm rather than making one. like i said earlier a worm farm is designed to produce fertilizer not compost and if you overfeed the worms you wont end up with fertilizer but rather it will just be compost like it would in a compost bin. The left over food scraps should be put into a compost bin.

A worm farm is also designed to be used only for soft waste so you shouldnt be putting so much high carbon waste such as grass clippings or leaves for bacteria to build up the temperature. Also your supposed to only put small amounts of food in them at a time (enough to feed the worms for a few days to a week) and thats proportional to the amount of worms in the farm not the size of the worm farm.

It also needs ventilation to work properly so that needs to be incorporated into the design.

Another thing you dont need to pick the worms out of the finished containers, you place the second container into the first and once thats full with compost all the worms would have migrated into the second container, any eggs in the first would have hatched and everything would be very well broken down.

One last thing if it gets too hot all you have to do it bring the worm farm inside. Say in your garage. I leave mine outside under some shelter from the rain and when it gets too hot outside i just put in it the garage.

Once the system is up and running (after a few months) you end up with more than enough fertilizer for your garden. any remaining food scraps should be put into a conventional compost bin along with your grass clippings, leaves, sticks etc and broken down and used as mulch.

Regards

Steven

amanda says...
Hi Russ...that would be the "worm wee" (as my 5yr old calls it!) that u are collecting in the bottle?

Sometimes it's hard to get the worms to move - u can try leaving the lid open - the worms will move down away from light - and u can take the top layer of castings off - just keep doing this until worms concentrated at bottom and then put them in the new side.

The recipie from can o worms for fattening is:

chicken layer pellets 50%
Wheat or cornflour 10%
Powdered milk 10%
Bran or wheat meal 20%
agricultural lime or dolomite 10%

(I just use the small granulated chick feed. The recipie works but I am too busy to muck around with it..the lime will help with any odours due to acidity). Compost flies can be a pain as they come thru flywire..if u get loads check your pH..they are not called "vinegar" flies for nothing!

amanda says...
Hi Russ n Steven .. the other thing u can use to attract worms to where u want them is watermelon (as told to me by a worm farmer)..it works a treat!

Good ideas Steven :)

Julie says...
The dividers is what I was trying to describe, but hard to put into words. I really need a diagram! I divided mine into about four sections, then removed one to let them move into the next section.

As I said, by the time they got around to the first section again, this was pure castings with no eggs or worms.

Lisa says...
I have often wondered the same thing russ

Steven says...
HI Russ. Im glad you like my idea. Wood i would imagine would be the best however make sure its a good hardy wood that wont decompose very easily because the worms and bacteria etc would eat the wood (but it would be their last preference)

I agree with Julie. worms in the compost are little worms compared to earth worms, they wont really survive very well in a typical vegetable garden as naturally they would only live in decomposing matter on the bottom of a forest floor. But if you kept lots of mulch etc it would help. But earthworms are better for the garden anyway.

By the way. once i put an old watermelon in my worm farm and the next day the whole thing was absolutely packed with worms, in a few days they are everythign except the thin green skin so that theory is definitely confirmed!!

good luck

Steven

snottiegobble says...
Based on Josh`s idea of using an old fridge here is my updated worm farm.
It has a plate rack as a base support & aluminium flyscreen mesh as container.i have installed a gate valve tap at the front base for worm juice so the fridge is tilted slightly forward. In front of where the motor was( back of the fridge) there is a built in shelf which I will use for tools,( trowel,hand shovel etc. I have removed the seal on the door closest to opening side to ensure ventilation. photos show completed ends of fridge then worm compost at one end.

Pictures - Click to enlarge
Picture: 1

Emery says...
A while back, I looked into a worm farm system located in Racine, Wisconsin called UNCO, Inc. I liked the idea of what I could find out, but to get the whole story you have to buy the system and it is VERY expensive. Does anyone know of this company or anything about how their system works?

Wazzbat says...
I started my worm farm about a year ago. It is a retained garden bed about 600mm high by about 500mm wide and about 3m long. It was about half full with a mix of left over yellow sand and some very bland/old black sand.

I filled it with a mix of manure, but mainly cow poop, then added 1000 worms and topped it off with shredded newspaper and sugar cane mulch. The mulch doesn't last long.

We throw all our food scraps in there and they demolish the lot. I check them now and again and the soil is very very rich and I dug some out recently to use around some trees I planted.

I have also picked out and moved some worms into my garden beds where they are also doing well now. They are spreading everywhere. I think the secret ingredient is the sugar cane mulch. That is what they are surviving on in my garden beds. Only problem is the mulch lasts half as long as it should but that's a small price to pay for a self fertilizing garden! And no they are not normal earth worms although I do have some of them in other areas.

I also have worms working for me on my lawns now too! Not sure whether they are normal earth worms or the composting ones though cause I don't get to see them?

I think everyone should have a worm farm. I love sticking my hand in the rich black fertile soil/castings they produce! You just know your plants will do well growing in that kind of soil.

snottiegobble says...
Good on ya Wazzbat! Yes we have to add a lot of organics to our soily sands in the West, but unlike gardeners in some regions we dont break our backs digging the stuff, in fact its quite a pleasure!
I have found that horse manure is most attractive to both native earth worms & the compost worms. Even when reasonably fresh it seems to cool & become quite habitable for them much earlier than other manures.

snottiegobble says...
Hi John, as long as you have air movement top & bottom,a place for the juice to collect below the compost, & a cool place during the warmer months your worms will be happy! 3 tiers are really only for small units! I use an old fridge with a suspended floor of heavy gauge metal flywire. I pile up the compost on one side & then when it is high I start at the other side using some of the mix containing worms to seed the new pile.
By not watering & feeding the old pile the remaining worms will migrate to the new pile over time. Dont make the mistake I did by leaving tomato, capsicum,eggplant & pumpkin seeds in the the kitchen scraps cause now I have seedlings coming up everywhere I have used the worm compost! Use an old hessian sack or carpet to cover the current heap even if you have a lid on your container.

amanda says...
Hi John - a friend of mine uses old fridges from the tip also...he just drills a drainage hole (to collect the juices) and sets them on an angle so they drain. He puts sacking on top and crocks the doors slighty open.
He also has a divider like SG.

amanda says...
A great way to attract big handfuls of worms (for transfer etc) is to put a big hunk of watermelon in a handy spot in the farm, just under the soil - come back the next day and u should have loads all over it :)

snottiegobble says...
Diddy, the compost worms are definately not Australians, in fact most of our garden earth worms are not either! I can only think of 2 that are, & they are scrubworms & the giant earthworms in Gippsland, Vic!
Our compost worms mainly consist of 'Red Wrigglers, blues, & tigerworms. The wrigglers & blues love horse & cow manure, & the evil smelling tigerworms thrive in Pig manure! Some red wrigglers will survive in soil depending on its content of organic matter but need permanent moisture so they are often found under plantpot trays once introduced to the garden!

snottiegobble says...
Diddy, unless you have an unending garden of rich compost very few of your worms will survive & they will find it equally difficult to even migrate into the neighbours garden. They are very restricted to rich damp loam & cool conditions! However you are certainly entitled to worry about non-native species! We all should!!

snottiegobble says...
No, not straight away.Fresh poultry manure is too hot due to both urine & faeces being evacuated together ( all birds the same)
I would suggest drying it for a month at least & then mixing it with compost before adding to worm farm.