Now generally, worm farms that you buy off the shelf come with three layers. The bottom layer is where the liquid that is generated from the worms collects and you can tap that off and use it in your garden. But the other two layers are where the worms live and as the worms fill that layer up with worm poo or worm castings they will then move on to the next layer that you've got feed in and that's perfect.
The first step is to create the bedding material and that's to make the worms happy in their new farm home. Start off with a couple of layers of newspaper just so that those holes in the bottom, everything just doesn't go whizzing through. A bit of newspaper at the bottom will stop that and then you can use some bedding material. Cow manure's alright, sawdust's ok. This is compressed peat and you'd need to moisten that so that it expands out, then spread it around.
I'm going to use a bit of compost and that'll be absolutely adequate for this bedding material because that's what the worms really love to live on. Now just moisten it. It doesn't need to be dripping wet. Now these are the real stars of the show. These are the worms. And if you can start off with a good handful, maybe a friend can give some to you. I've just got some from over in the large worm farm over there.
But look at that. Absolute delight. Aren't they gorgeous. They're just getting settled in over this first two week period. They don't need any more than the compost bedding. Spread them out over that bedding. Use a little bit moistened newspaper just to get them settled in for the next two weeks and then you can start to feed them.
Now, all the kitchen scraps that you can get, well and good. I've got some greens here. Just mustard greens from my garden. I've got bananas, banana peel, capsicum. The castings are pushed down through the bin and compressed by the weight of fresh castings above them. The compressed castings are retained in the lower part of the bin, where they can be simply and easily removed when needed for use as plant food or soil conditioner.
In normal operation, the castings will need to be removed from the bin once every two to six months. Liquid drains down through the bin and passes through a filter housed in the floor, into the drip tray. Our New Book. Build your own system and grow fruit and vegetables with your dish water and other waste water at home.
Use worms. Wurmzucht gegen den Klimawandel. Recycling food waste with earthworms. Recycling von Essensresten.
Start a worm business without having to buy worms. My book below explains in detail how to make money with earthworms! Find out what actual customers had to say about the book. Dealing with Maggots in a worm farm. Please follow this link to read our "privacy policy". How does a 3 bin worm farm work? What about the bedding by andrew county armagh ireland Hi all i am thinking about is starting my own worm farm just for the purpose of feeding my own plants and bringing my garden to a refreshed state.
Recent Articles. If it has a sharp vinegar smell it may be too acidic, add crushed eggshells, garden lime, dolomite or wood ash to correct the problem. If it smells quite offensive, it is an indicator that the system has become quite anaerobic from too much uneaten food.
To fix this problem, stop adding any more food, add a sprinkling of garden lime, dolomite or wood ash, and lightly stir up the existing food scraps to aerate them on a regular basis. Once the smell disappears, then begin feeding the worms again. Your worm farm will give you a free supply of valuable castings and leachate for your garden, which your plants will absolutely love!.
Like Like. Yes, they would definitely eat them! Any uneaten food will rot at the bottom, which is a bad thing! More than once we came home to find a local cat had scooped it out, we tossed it back in and never gave it a second thought! Poor thing, occasionally we children would enthusiastically misguidedly try to introduce a companion, usually tiny cat fish or terrapins, it murdered all of them, most likely because it was a small tank with limited food supply.
I have to keep part of my worm farm indoors in winter because it is too cold for them to survive where I live. I have plastics boxes indoors and I just empty half of them in my outdoor compost boxes in the spring and keep the rest to multiply the following year.
I usually add a fine layer of sand in my bins to help the worms digest the food. Worms have a gizzard and the sand helps them grind their food to digest better. No need to move them inside, no need to really move them at all. For the suggested worms started with, approximately what quantity of leachate can be gotten in a week? Also in dry seasons, what water source can be used considering that there wont be rain water?
It takes a few weeks for the worms to get established in their new home and start eating the food scraps. Yes you can sprinkle water slowly and gently using a watering can, like you do on a hot summer day to cool the worm farm, to get more leachate. When it rains, the rainwater flows through my worm farms, which is why I keep the taps open with buckets underneath, and I get around 4 litres of leachate from each worm farm after a heavy rain. Like Liked by 1 person. I have kept 2 worm farms for 4 years and have picked up many useful tips.
You should be able to purchase compost worms from your local garden centre or from retail outlets that sell worm farms. How do you prep the next tray you will add on top?
The base was horse manure, shredded paper and food… do I repeat that for consequent trays? Hey cool worms.
To expand my farm I gather I would have to split the worms and put some into a new plot. How often would I be doing this? And would they survive in temps of 40 C. Anyhow time for a worm tea , cheers!!!! The population of the worms adjusts to the amount of food they have. You only need to split off some of the worm population and add then to a new worm farm when you have an empty worm farm to fill!
My worm farms have survived temperatures of degrees C for several days just fine during a heatwave, just follow the instructions in the article on how to keep your worms cool and they will survive the hottest of summers. In the last couple of months the worm wee has slowed to next to nothing. Hi Angelo. Thank you for your excellent website. I was wondering how often you can apply the diluted worm wee to the plants?
Kind regards. As we can never be sure of the composition of the worm wee, to much of anything is rarely a good idea, so I use it in different parts of the garden every time to add beneficial microbes to the soil in all parts of the garden. What is the coldest winter temperatures that a worm farm can tolerate?
We live in Michigan and get below zero temps in January and February. Thanks for the great information! Some varieties of compost worms are more sensitive to cold than others, but freezing temperatures will kill them, and depending on the breed of compost worm, their eggs as well.
In areas where severe frosts are encountered, a simple solution is to place your worm farms somewhere warmer than outside — in a garage or basement, even indoors. Small worm farms are portable, and homemade worm farms constructed from Styrofoam polystyrene boxes work well to maintain the temperature. The wisdom of having smaller portable worm farms that are easy to move around and relocate in areas where severe frosts are encountered should be evident.
Hello Angelo, I am having trouble with my worm farm and I am not sure what I am doing wrong. The worm farm I have is the one with several layers and it has been in operation for about one and a half years. Lately I have been having trouble but before that all was going well. Recently I found a whole lot of the worms on the floor where I keep the farm in the garage. I took all the worms and remaining bedding and separated the worms from the poo, replaced the bedding with fresh coir and started again.
Also at that time the leachate developed a layer of mould on it and it smelt unpleasant. All went well for a couple of weeks and tonight I found a lot of worms in the leacheate. They had got there through the tap. When I lifted the top layer there were lots of worms in the base where there is a raised section in the middle for the worms to move to to avoid drowning.
I felt very sorry to see that. I cleared the bottom layer of worms and put them back into the tray where the food is. I did notice a small amount of little bubbles on the worm clumps and wondered if this was mucous perhaps?
I have also observed some clumps of tiny little light brown insects gathered on the vent holes in the lid and wondered what they were? When I lifted the blanket there were still a lot of worms feeding on the food. I have never used another layer in my farm as I was not sure how to do this. Do you put it on the top with a base of paper and more coir? When do I know when is the right time to give the farm another layer?
Also with the food you have to feed them only after the food given is consumed. I have been collection and freezing the food and then give it to them say every 2 weeks. Is it better to put the fresh food there daily and not to freeze it? How often should I place water on the farm? I would greatly appreciate your suggestions.
Kind regards, Fran. Hi, great article! I have a dry newspaper on top of the worm bin, it is off the ground, and I keep it on the dry side when the weather turns cold.
There is significantly less worms, and therefore worm activity, when cold but the centre of their container much like the ground outside seems to stay unfrozen at depth. Another thing, if you want compost worms mine are deep red brandings I believe there is no need to buy them, simply lay some thick mulch down outside leaf mold, or partially composted leaves, or some covered veg food scraps and they majical appear. I have even done this on a concrete slab! You start off with ten, and in next to no time, assuming they like the conditions you provide, you will have populated your wormery.
Eventually I line a bean trench with the contents just to get rid of it! The cold and poor conditions obviously inhibit the activity of individual worms but even if a colony seems to completely disappear they will spring up again as if from no where and will soon enough be chomping away on the decay. Does anyone have any suggestions of what to use the worm casts for other than as a mulch? Every time it rains, the buckets under the permanently open taps of my worm farms fill up.
As I have three worm farms, it takes a while to fill them, it takes about a year or more for a tray of worm castings to be produced, but the end product is worth its weight in gold to plants! I have a problem with red lice or mites. How does one get rid of them? Apparently they compete for food with the worms.
0コメント