Starting into worm compositing

So I meant to set this up a while ago, but finally have myself organised...well a little bit more than I was.

Im using black RUBs/storage containers as my stacked worm composter, the bins are about 30cm high and wide, and 60 cm long. Basic principle Im following is to start with one bin, then drill holes into the bottom of the next and fill with compost while the first is nearly full,so the worms will migrate upwards into the next bin for food.

I obviously dont want any escaping, so hole size etc, what do you guys do? or is it unavoidable unless I put a mesh over the holes or what else could I use?

Drainage will be holes at the bottom sitting on top of a tray to catch any water/worms, also to allow better circulation.

I can keep the worms in a large walk in fridge we have in the garage, its never turned on and completely dark, so I can leave the lid off.

So far my base bin, I just put in multipurpose compost, anything else I should add?

Also I've read various things on what to add (no citrus) but do yous know what they will eat faster or things they tend to struggle with? I don't want to add things that will sit in it and become stagnant

Am I going along the right lines? and all tips appreciated!

 

You can't really stop worms escaping I'm afraid, they just will. A way to keep them all in I found is to stuff long strips of folded up newspaper into the gaps between the trays that are formed.

Do you have a drainage tap attached to that too?

I wouldn't personally, but that's just my preference.

I personally wouldn't add multipurpose compost as most of the matter is broken down by previous worms and Bactria, so they wouldn't be much for them to eat on . The traditional thing to use is coir block, which the worms will breakdown as they readjust to their new surroundings.

Anything that will grow mould on it quickly they will quickly eat. Things like teabag (although tear these open first), coffee grounds, mouldy jam, mash potatoes they adore and bread. Add bread in a very small number and not whole slices like I did in the past. Worms will digest things quicker if they have been broken up into smaller sizes.

You have to remember though that in the beginning (and I'm talking about the first year to be cautious personally) try not to add more than they can manage. If things are added too quickly then you will get an awful smell and a lot of your worms will drown as a result. Your bin does sound quite large compared to a normal wormery and it would be more easy to overfeed it compared to a conventional one.

Also don't add any onions or spicy food they hate that.

 

Thanks Jane for the reply, I had read another thread in which you had started a wormery so was hoping you would cast your eye over this!

I wasnt going to add a drainage pipe to the bottom tray as the actual wormery will be sitting up out of it, so I can simply lift it off and tip any water etc out. Or is there another reason for it?

Is there a reason you wouldnt keep it in there? it goes unused and is normally a stable temperature compared to the rest of the garage, which was my initial thinking behind it.

I will get some coir blocks, as the worms I first started off with, I found either had escaped or were dead, they were sitting in multipurpose compost until I could get the rest sorted, i see now I need to be better prepared for them. I can get a good quantity of shredded paper, would you feed them that? I would think it needs soaked and then squeezed until damp again, or leave it dry?

Ill take your advice and go easy on the feeding for the first year or until I can see just how much they can eat.

I bought my worms from a local fish shop, and while they don't seem to be earthworms, im wondering if they are suitable, its hard to tell! though I do recognize the yellow banded worms mentioned on various websites, but normally hard to find them unless we have an old silage ring sitting around

 

All wormeries that you can buy on the market have a drainage tap for the worm leachate. I think they have them purely for ease of draining. The liquid that is produced is very smelly and is made very quickly sometime depending on what you put in it. Worm leachate is also very dangerous (in my eyes at least) as this can kill a fair number of plants. Ignore what sites say about making worm tea from the leachate that drains of in the bottom. This myth was somehow confused with seeping the worm compost in a bucket of water, which is beneficial to the plant.

Anyway, my point with this is don't just chuck this stuff on your lawn or in your beds. When I used to drain mine off I used a small milk bottle and then poured it down the drain. I'm not sure if you would be able to do that if you had a large tray of the stuff sloshing around. Also while you are draining the tray, even more of your worms could be escaping.

Buy yourself a water butt tap and connect to the the bottom of the sump tray if you can. Although I wonder if this would be difficult to get all the liquid out. I think some pictures of your homemade wormery would be helpful and then I may be able to suggest what you use to drain it off instead.

No reason, it's just a personal preference. I imagine though that it wouldn't have a constant air supply to it though, which may effect the worms.

Don't soak the paper. The reason why people recommend shredded newspaper is that it soaks up excess liquid more quickly. Worms breathe through their skin and need their skin moist in order to do this, too much moisture and they will drown, too little and they will suffocate.Shredded paper is something that needs to be added in a small but steady quantity a bit like adding food itself.

I can't think why the worms would have died in the multi purpose, but my assumption is that there simply wasn't anything for the worms to eat in the compost. The worms eat mould which has been produced by the breakdown of foods, not foods themselves, so I can only presume that they must have staved to death or that there wasn't enough moisture in the compost to create a decent bedding. If you added food to the compost then this may have helped greatly and would have simply provided bedding for them.

The ones you need (I think) are called Tiger Worms and dendrobaena, these have a stripes on their bodies and look like these ones.



How many did you buy from the fish shop? I remember I used to buy worms for my compost bin from my tackle shop for £2 a small pot. The amount of worms you need for a wormery, especially one of your size would have to be quite large. I would say probably about a kilo's worth of them. There are many places that sell composting worms, but Wriggly Wrigglers is the place to go if you want a large amount of them. They are expensive though, but it would get you starting straight away as it comes with other bits and pieces too. Like worm treat.

http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/wormery-rescue-kit-for-can-o-worms.html

or ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Soil-cond...rden_Plants_Fertiliser_CV&hash=item20d416d242

 

Thanks Jane on the heads up about leachate, Ill make sure to dispose of it properly! See that was my worry with a tap as well Jane, that it wouldn't properly get rid of all the leachate and simply become clogged etc, plus the hastle of putting it on compared to just tipping it out or using a milk bottle as you have.

Looking at my setup, my first test batch of worms definitely died of dehydration, I even found a few at the door of the fridge, so they had wriggled up out of the box, fell off the chair they were on and made their way along the floor. Lesson learnt

Thats a good point on air circulation! do you keep yours outside then or where? the temperature fluctuations would be my main worry,In regards to ventilation then Jane, did you simply put vent holes around the top of the sides and then some at the very bottom for drainage. I would presume you don’t put any ventilation holes at or below the soil/bedding level?

You mentioned coir blocks as bedding in your last post, anything else you would add? I imagine keeping moisture levels in coir will be difficult, it does dry out very quickly! I seen on the wrigglrs site they mentioned a "moisture" mat, basically it seems to be set on top stop evaporation? Did you simply mist yours regularly?

See I also got my worms from the tackle shop, and they don’t look like those banded/tiger worms, but as you say, the price is a bit crazy for worms from those wormery sites! I may ring a few local tackle shops just to see what type they have in, if they know even ha

 

A tap would get rid of the lechate quite effectively. Most of lechate is just excess water, but contains a lot of bacteria that is harmful to plants if given to them. My wormery has a tap at the bottom of the sump and I used to drain this off from the tap into a milk bottle. I personally wouldn't want to be carrying a tray full of the stuff as it really does smell foul.

You will get worms that escape, no matter what wormery you use, what you feed them and where you place it. They are natural explorers, it's not that they don't want to be where they are, but you will get 5% of them escape.

My old wormery I kept in my kitchen's old pantry. It was ideal really as it was kept warm all year round as it was in the house, although the other half didn't take too kindly to finding worms crawling across the dining room floor when we first got it!

The new one I have at work, I work in a tea room and we were donated two wormeries and some worms for it. This is kept in our basement and is fed on coffee grounds, tea leaves, bits of cake etc. In the summer they can be placed outside as the frosts have past but you need to keep them in a frost free location in the winter. If your shed is frost free then your fine, but if not wrap an old duvet around the whole thing as insulation. The worms will slow down production of compost in the winter regardless of where you put it, unless it was placed in the house of course.

Also in the summer if you do place it outside, keep it out of direct sunlight as this will heat up the whole wormery, causing it to dry out. Coir blocks are dry when you buy them but you soak them in a bucket of water to break the block up, drain off the excess liquid and then place in the wormery. It won't dry out completely as it will soak up the moisture from other bits of food that you add as they breakdown. I've never misted the wormery as there is no need for it.The moisture mat is there to keep moisture in, but I found that the worms will quickly eat it, which is good. But you need some kind of a blanket for them once the moisture mat has been eaten, I found a sheet of slightly damp newspaper helped.

I can understand people not wanting to pay £80 for a ready made wormery and making their own, but you really can't be tight with the worms themselves. Take it as an investment. Wriggly Wrigglers are very pricey, but again they are on ebay for roughly £15 for a 500g bag. A wormery won't work unless you have the right worms and the right amount of them too.

Just to clarify, you do realise that you need holes in the bottom of each tray for drainage and so the worms can get into the next tray above right?

 

Lots of really helpful information in this "interview" JJ, thanks

 

Your right Kristen! Jane you have been fantastic and thank you again for all the guidance, hopefully this will be of use to someone else!

Ill definitely look about getting some proper banded worms for the compost bin, seems like the only way and you put it, its an investment that should work if treated correctly!

Yeah I know about the holes in the bottom of each tray for the to crawl up through. Just then in regards to having stacked trays, did you find you put mostly bedding in the bottom and then a little bit in the "feeding" tray above it as such? I know Ill be feeding in the base tray for a while but then as I move on upwards im thinking of just mixing a little ore coir and trying to tempt them up through, and then use the bottom tray for the garden

 

Perhaps I should make a thread on how to set one up for future use by other members.

You put all the soaked coir block into one tray. The worms will quickly eat this so you will want to add you food waste on top of the coir bedding. Adding a bit here and there is not going to work.

I wouldn't say you will be feeding the base tray for a while. The duration between starting to fill a new tray and emptying it early on takes about 2-3 months eventually you will find that this will speed up and you will be emptying it roughly every month or so, but the quantity of compost produced will be smaller than what you produced when you started.

I don't think you need to tempt the worms up another level, they will find their own way, alot will leave before the lower tray waste has been completely finished and this is uasully due to conditions not being as favourable for them as in the next tray up. So expect that you might have some compost that is half processed. I would just tip this in the compost bin anyway and then it would break down to nothing anyway.

 

I had the idea of having a wormery at one stage ... but no longer

I saw Rick's Youtube clip, see link below .. fast forward to about 4 mins 30 seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voKIqN-Tkes

Looks to be good in theory, but that's all

 

I have an original organics worm farm ..seems to be doing ok...takes time at first though ..I just top it up every 2 weeks , seems to be doing fine.

 

This one ... http://www.originalorganics.co.uk/the-original-wormery.htm

 

Hi,
I pour my leachate into my normal compost bin, as it is a bacterial soup it should help with the rotting process.
I have a bought wormery, with 5 trays, only ever seem to get 2-3 trays going at once as they won't manage any more.
I have to go through them manually once ready, evicting the worms as I go, they don't seem to move out once the tray is processed. Can be very tedious.
I keep it in the garage and insulate it with carpet for most of the year.
I agree they don't like onions, thought I had read they don't like coffee but have never tried them.
I used the coir initially but now just use the compost when starting a fresh tray, don't line it with newspaper any more as I thought it might stop them climbing up. Cover each layer of food with a layer of shredded paper or cardboard (rip up all delivery boxes, remove the tape and glue though as the worms leave it) and give it a light watering to wet the paper.
Suprised how little I get out of a tray, it tends to be a bit wet and can be slightly whiffy.
I tend to mix it with bought compost when potting or use it as a mulch on rhubarb, can't say I have found it the wonder stuff I was told about, but it reduces cost and waste.
This and the compost heap have really cut down on my household waste.

Good luck
D