wormery

We never leave the lids off out two worm bins as the kitchen waste is pretty well wet enough even though much of it is kitchen towel and loo rolls. You really do need 'browns' in with the 'greens' to create a balance and avoid a pongy slimy mess. Cardboard is organic and organic is what tiger and brandling worms chomp on.
Worms like the fish glue used in corrugated cardboard and according to an article I read a couple of years ago marmite is worm viagra so if you can't finish your marmite on toast ( I love it) sling it in the worm bin and stand well back.

 

Hi folks, sorry if I'm resurrecting an old thread, I've had a wormery for just over a year and been rather pleased with it. Just wanted to say, don't despair if you don't get a tray full of compost within 2 months as advertised, it really takes time to start up. Mine's been quite slow to start, that with 2 wet summers in a row and a very cold spring, I had lots and lots of baby worms just not growing to adult size due to the cold (they go into hibernation at under 10C I believe).

I've only just harvested my 1st tray of compost, TBH the compost was ready last autumn but there were still so many worms and eggs in it I decided to wait. They use their own compost as bedding. One brilliant bit of advice I read was to get as many trays as you can and keep stacking them up until most adult and baby worms have left the bottom tray (by which time you'll probably have a good 2 or 3 trays full of compost). So that's what I've done. Still lots of babies in the bottom tray but I need the compost ASAP so I've fished out the few adults there were, got a spare tray, put that on top of the wormery, spread a thin layer of compost on that and left it, lid off, to see if the babies will burrow down into the working tray. They do hate the light.

One other bit of advice, you could separate the bottom tray from the sump with an unwanted piece of finely woven fabric, like voile of muslin or something (but synthetic fibres rather than cotton so it doesn't decay). It'll stop at least some of the worms falling into the sump and drowning in their own pee (charming! ) I found the cone in the sump that's meant to help them get back up into the bottom tray pretty useless, they still commit mass suicide. Also the fabric will stop compost falling through the holes into the sump tray.

Also, in case anyone's wondering, hordes of fruit flies, although annoying, do no harm at all. Apart from get into your eyes when you open the lid!

 

Welcome Back Idig

Thanks for the feedback

 

thanks Zigs

 

I have a dalek bin, and get large boxes of kitchen veg daily from the pub up the road .... my bin is 3/4 so far

I have been adding approx 50% cardboard to the mix (I read that the best compost is a 50/50 mix of vegetable scraps plus cardboard, but you have to use the cardboard that has the stamp saying that it is recyable)

I don't have a base on my bin, so every week, I just lift the dalek bin, place it a couple of feet away, and then use a ggarden fork and put it back into the bin .... seems to be working well so far, and the stuff is breaking down fast as it's in full sun

ever so often, I remove the lid when it's going to rain, and let the rain water/moisturize the compost ...

I'm hoping to have some decent home made compost next spring

as for wormeries, I still don't have one, but have read that the best worm compost is made from occasionally adding rabbit poo to the wormery

 

I think you will soon have a wormery Dim, the worms will find your bin soon enough. and they adore cardboard.

 

I got my wormery from the Herts recycling authority whatever it's called, there's a forum on there and I did ask about putting pet/baby poo and used toilet tissue in the wormery. They said best not, can't remember exactly why, either because you need a different type of worm for that, or because of possible contamination issues when you use vermicompost on edible plants. Yeah I know manure is poo and doesn't cause "contamination issues", but maybe the problem is that vermicompost is ready to use much sooner than well-rotted manure?

 

http://wormcompostingblog.com/what-to-feed-worms/raising-worms-with-rabbit-manure/

http://wormcompostingblog.com/gardening/worm-castings-and-rabbit-manure-organic-fertilizer/

http://riseandshinerabbitrydotcom.wordpress.com/2012/03/31/the-benefits-and-uses-of-rabbit-manure/

lots more on google

 

wow. Herts recyclers must have had their own agenda then!
I don't keep rabbits though..