wormery

anyone tried these? .... seems a lot quicker than composting and the wormery bins are pretty cheap, plus you get worm tea aswell as vermicompost

Wormcity Wormery - English Made Stacking Wormery - Wormeries Made For Happy Worms

also read the section about making bokashi (I have never heard of this before):
http://www.wormcity.co.uk/bokashifaq.htm

 

I'm about to do that but a DIY one. Had to get a new water trough last year, other one is rusted in the bottom just a little ,been using it to hold the chicken coop door open. I'm going to drag it down into the garden and sit it on breeze blocks,position a bucket under the rusty area to collect the worm pee ,well after I fill the trough with all the stuff I normally stick on the compost pile and a few worms then find a large enough bit of wood to use as a lid ,course these ideas are all in my head and some times never get done.

 

I had a similar stacking wormery at my school and it worked OK. At home we've got a couple of bog standard free from local council 'Dalek' bins now working as very efficient worm powered compost factories due to the introduction of brandling/tiger worms. We can't get 'worm tea' from them but the compost we extract is saturated with 'tea' and is richer in nutrients than our 'normal' garden heap compost.

BTW - Earth worms don't do the job, you need specialist veg chompers i.e. Tiger/Brandling worms if you want a rapid production line.

 

I was given a wormery two weeks ago for my birthday.

So far the results have been mixed . I've already had a small amount of worm tea produced this evening. I was adding quite a bit of kitchen waste but have stopped this now to let it rot down. I think most of my worms are happy but have found a couple of dead youngens at the top level.

Also a few have been found crawling across the floor in the night. My wormery is tucked away in the panty of my kicthen so I'm hoping they can work all year round and I can keep a very close eye on them too.I know a lot of people keep them in their sheds and garages but I think keeping the wormery in the house until they settle in is a good idea incase they are not happy, or they try to escape. I've found (at the moment at least) they need a lot of attention to make sure they are happy, much more than a compost or a bokashi bin would do.

I've found also that you have to add a huge amount of newspaper and shreddings to the mix to asborb the moisture. Didn't realise this but when waste breaks down it releases a lot of it. If the wormery is too damp, my worms don't seem to like this and bunch up in the lid.

Hope that helps.

 

from what I have read, one should not use the worm pee (leachate) on the plants .... people pour this over their compost heaps, or dispose of it? .... (it is not the same stuff used to make compost tea using an airpump and heater)

it's the compost that is very valuable and many say it is most probably the best you will ever find

some guys also add rabbit droppings and horse manure to their wormeries, which they say creates very good worm compost

here is a cheap way to make a homemade worm farm:

 

Really? I've been diluting it with a lot of water and feeding my houseplants with it.

 

I also thought it was very good

http://vermicoast.com/leachate-use-it-or-lose-right-or-wrong-you-decide/

http://www.redwormcomposting.com/reader-questions/using-worm-bin-leachate/

lots more on google .... search for 'worm leachate'

if you want to use the worm castings (the compost), get a 5 gallon bucket, an aquarium airpump with a capacity of 45 litres/min (they cost £30), an aquarium heater (£15)and some organic unsulphered black strap molasses

use rainwater, or if you use tap water, let it bubble overnight to remove the chlorine ..... set the heater to 20 degrees C

add 2 cups of worm compost, a cup of garden soil and 2 tablespoons of molasses

let it bubble for 24hrs and water with that

you can add all sorts of extras such as fish hydrolosate, seaweed extract, volcanic rock dust etc

 

I've just been given a 'worm works' wormery too, the worms arrived today, so I'll be setting it up first thing tomorrow.
Thanks for the tip about them needing lots of shredded paper to absorb the excess moisture Jane, will keep an eye on that.

Isn't that just a little bit uncomfortable?
Still, at least they'll be nice and warm.

 

I've been resisting that all day

 

don't rush ... do your research .... lots of info on google and youtube

many people use coir (the same stuff used to line hanging baskets) as bedding material

you also need to research what not to put into the wormery (onion peels and citrus etc)

 

I have to credit the 'wormworks' company here, the instructions provided with the wormery are quite comprehensive, covering every aspect of caring for the worms, including what and what not to feed them.
Some coir bedding material is also supplied, along with lime to combat too much acidity in the compost mix if necessary. They also provide some fairly detailed information on how the whole process of worm composting actually works and what can affect it.
I've read it all and I'm happy I've got a fairly good idea of what to do now.

 

nice one!

well share some of your knowledge about what you have learned and how we set the whole system up and feed the worms

(for those who want to start off and who cannot afford a wormworks system)

 

Going from an article I read in the RHS mag on some research done by the Centre for Alternative Technology, i've started putting layers of crumpled cardboard in with the kitchen waste.

It said that the nitrogen rich kitchen waste was balance out by the carbon in the carboard, but as the cardboard was dry, it was better if they left the lid off so the rain got in.

They were worried about contaminants from the printing ink, but could find no trace of that in the finished product.