![]() I'm not squeamish about handling my worms. I meanwhile have washed the containers and prepared them to redistribute the worms into them. Starting the process all over again using wet shredded newspaper or thoroughly water-soaked egg-boxes, I add a little bit of the vermi-compost and some soft vegetable material. Treats for the worm farm are pumpkin, over-ripe avocado or banana which I often give them at this time. "Good neighbours come in all species!" S ally Wasowski - Botanical Missionary When I return, I slowly keep skimming the compost off the top and eventually (it really doesn’t take that long – about 30 minutes!) they’re all tangled up together on the sack floor. Upending the containers exposes the worms and they all dive from the light. I gently tip the containers out onto a sack on my back verandah every 6 weeks or so and leave them for about 20 minutes. ![]() When the vermi-compost is friable (crumbly) it is ready to be removed and used in the garden.Īs the numbers of worms increase I eventually use all the internal containers. The individual containers shouldn't get too full as these worms need an aerated environment. When the first container is about 6 centimeters deep with vermi-compost or I find the worms climbing out or climbing down to the floor of the bin, its time to put in my next container. I water it down to about 5% but no matter what strength I've used, I've never known it to burn or damage them. Under normal circumstances the worms will thrive and multiply speedily providing vermi-tea regularly that I pour on my plants like liquid fertilizer. I cover the top of each container with egg-boxes that have been soaked in water. For any creature more substantial I would have been had up for animal abuse. I was quite devastated and it was not a pretty sight. At the time the farm had grown to more than 7 thousand worms and I think I was lucky to save 300-400. Lying for days within the warmth of the black bin, the skins fermented and I nearly killed the whole worm farm. Don't overfeed your worms too much of a good thing!įor example, about 3 years ago I gave my worms some slices of watermelon skins and they were fine until I overfed them. Excess waste that is unsuitable for either bin goes in a blue garden waste bag for municipal recycling.ī e careful at first but allow yourself to experiment cautiously. I have a larger bin for organic waste that the worms can’t cope with. I stop it from spreading beyond its allotted range by giving it to my worms! I have a thinnish creeper-type one (see below) that my worms love. cucumber, marrows, lettuce, etc.Ĭonsider some garden weeds and even leaves of succulent plants - not bitter ones though. ![]() Then mix some kitchen waste like fruit or vegetable peelings - paw paw, sweet potato, beetroot, carrot, coffee grounds, teabags, crushed egg shells (in moderation) and anything past its best e.g. Shredded wet newspaper or eggbox is an excellent bed for the first container. I tip the bin slightly by putting a stone in the appropriate position beneath one of its legs so that the worm wee or vermi-tea can drain out of the bin into the jug. At the bottom of the bin is an outlet with a jug underneath. My worm farm container is a black circular bin into which up to 4 containers with holes in their bottoms and spacers between them can be added. This means healthy soil and healthy plants. The castings or compost that these worms produce has up to 10 times more nutrients in it than ordinary soil and in a form more readily available to plants, which is good news for your veggies! Everything that passes through the gut of an earthworm is coated with beneficial microbes and bacteria which continue to break down organic matter into plant-available nutrients and also suppress the growth of pathogens. Some worms live in the soil, improving soil conditions but the ones I started off buying from a local resident, were Eisenia fetida or red w rigglers that make compost out of organic waste. It makes it easy to tip vegetable peelings and leftovers (not tomato, onion, meat or fat drippings though) into the bin. I bought my worm bin 8 years ago and put it in a shady place outside my back door.
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