Wormery..How Do You Start One Up?

Question

I had a friend years ago who had a wormery.

All I remember is the waste product from the worms (the brown stuff) was used as fertilizer for the garden.

Does or has anyone tried this and if so how are they made up?

How do you start up one of these?

Answer 1

The waste product you are talking about is worm castings, and it makes excellent compost for plants.

There are commercial bins available for this. You can search thew web and locate one that way.

If you want to build something from scratch, you will need a plastic tote with lid, some 1/2 inch PVC pipe with holes every 3-4 inches, some type of cap with holes for the 1/2 inch PVC and a vent for the top of the tote. The important thing for any worm box, is ventilation. you need to let it breath and let out the heat , otherwise, your worms will die.

About an 1 1/2 to 2 inches up from the bottom of the tote, you need to drill 4 holes directly across from each other. Slide your PVC pipe through and cut it so its long enough to stick out both sides. Place your caps on both ends and repeat this step for the other set of holes. Cut a couple vent holes in the top of the tote and use your vent covers there as well.

For worms, red wigglers work the best. They can tolerate the conditions of the worm box the best. To get started 1 or 2 containers from any bait shop will be enough. After a while, you will have enough worms that you can start making bins for your friends or giving worms to your fisherman friends. Until you do the next step, keep your worms in the fridge. They will stay dormant, and will be ready to take on the task of the bin when you are ready.

Now, for a medium for the worms to live in, I use shredded up newspaper. I dip the paper in water and place it in the bin. You can add extra water at first, but will not need to do that much once you get the worm bin going. Once the shredded paper is in place, pull it back in one corner and place your kitchen waste, and cover with paper.

You will need to rotate fresh bedding every 2-3 months, replacing half the bedding at a time. This is the best time to start another bin for a friend. Place the half you take out of your bin in the bin for a friend. there should be enough worms to start up a new bin. An active bin will only need to be cleaned if you put something nasty in it they don't like.

A couple things to remember about worm bins.

1. Absolutely no meat, oils or dairy waste. If you do, you will stink up the place. If you have leftover salad that has any kind of dressing on it, pitch it. No bones or egg shells either unless you are going to compost the left over bin material in a backyard com poster.

2. Don't overload your bin. Once a week is sufficient.

3. If you are getting flies, use more bedding and make sure you cover your kitchen waste completely.

4. The yucky looking brown water that may build up in the bottom of the bin, makes the best fertilizer for house plants. Don't wash it down the sink. If you don't want to drain it off, add more dry paper to soak it up.

5. Likewise, if you bin gets too dry, add some water. if you are adding enough kitchen waste, the moisture from it should be enough to keep your bin going with out adding or subtracting anything.

I have found that a good bin, will consume about a gallon of kitchen waste a week. depending on the size of your family, you may want to have multiple bins. Then again, it all depends on how much space you have. There are little buckets that are available for people to collect kitchen waste. Once filled, add it to your bin.

To read more about this, I would suggest that you get a copy of "Worms eat my garbage."

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Buy some redworms and make a raised bed that is about 12" high or so and keep it in a nice shady spot. Throw in about a 6" layer of rabbit manure and kind of mix it in with the soil. You'll want your boards or bricks for the bed to go about 12" or so down into the ground to help keep the worms in that area. After you've filled it somewhat with rabbit manure, then wet it down and cover it with a layer of leaves or straw.

Below is a really good book on how to raise worms. Make sure you use redworms. They reproduce better. The soil afterwards makes very good potting soil for African Violets.

http://www.wormman.com/pd_raising_fishworms.cfm

Answer 3

I have a black plastic compost bin with another inside this, it quickens up the composting process more than ever and loads of worms live in the bottom of it, although this would be too sweaty if there were no ventilation at the bottom which there is. I do turn occasionally also with pitch fork to keep things moving.

Answer 4

Heres a link on how to do this...just remember if you use peat moss at all..soak it a couple nights with water and let it air, for it can kill the worms if you do not do this...Do not add worms to this untill it airs..

http://www.tweedrichmond.organicproducers.org.au/library/soilfert/wormcomp.htm