Practical experience with wormeries

[Teadaemon]

I'm having a little trouble in finding a reliable source of worm castings (compost) and had something of an epiphany this morning, when I thought "why don't I make my own?"

I've searched the forums here and found this very informative article by I.M.Boggled which discusses the theory, but is a bit light on practice.

I've also Googled and found a number of useful resources, including an excellent howto article for a DIY continuous wormery.

What I was wondering was whether there are many (any) people on here who 've made or run their own wormery, and any advice they care to give, especially MJ-specific advice.

Your thoughts are welcomed.

 

[4iiii'z]

make sure its well ventilated
I couldn't get mine far enough from the house
the smell was unreal in summer - it had to go

(*)^(*)

 

[kokua]

nothing mj specific...but composting with worms is easy. Start with good worms (red wigglers) and good composting materials (different materials will give different end results) and a little time, and thats it.

I've done it a couple of times, and as long as your input material is quality and your worms are happy, the end result will be nice BUT, I will warn you that it is nearly impossible to keep the bugs away (at least for me). The worm bin is a favorite breeding ground for pests that can destroy your crop, so be careful.

 

[Teadaemon]

The worm bin is a favorite breeding ground for pests that can destroy your crop, so be careful.

To be honest that's the one thing that's put me off until now. I'd even consider trying to sterilise it if I didn't want to keep all the microbes.

From my readings so far I'd guess that a continuous system with a stack of boxes would help keep the pests away from the finished compost - since the pests generally live off relatively fresh organic matter I'd expect them to be concentrated in the top box (along with the worms).

 

[BurnOne]

Teadaemon-

Here is a company that helps people set up their own worm business...

http://www.vermiculture.com/biz/

It's also a great site to get pre-packaged worm castings cheap.

Burn1

 

[Teadaemon]

Teadaemon-

Here is a company that helps people set up their own worm business...

http://www.vermiculture.com/biz/

It's also a great site to get pre-packaged worm castings cheap.

Burn1

Thanks, but I think shipping on a bag of worm castings might be a bit steep from the US to Tyneside.

http://www.wormsdirectuk.co.uk - these people (amongst others) can supply me with appropriate native worms, and I've got to check out whether the local growshop can supply me with worm castings in the short term (I'm not sure as he seems to specialise in hydro and selling people expensive bottles of proprietary chemicals).

 

[BurnOne]

Sorry. I didn't take the good time to check out your location. Good luck with your worms.
Burn1

 

[kokua]

Worm Castings and Vermicompost are two different terms that you should explore a bit more. Vermicompost is a more general term than worm castings. A casting is manure, the material deposited from the anus after it’s moved through the digestive tract of a worm. Vermicompost contains worm castings, but also consists of partially decomposed bedding and organic waste with recognizable fragments of plants, food, worms of all ages, worm cocoons, and associated organisms (BUGS – good and bad).

The effectiveness of your vermicomposting system will depend partly upon your expectations and partly on your behavior. You can reasonably expect to bury a large portion of your biodegradable kitchen waste in a properly prepared worm bin, check it occasionally, make judgments about what must be done, then harvest worms and vermicompost or worm castings after a period of several months. You cannot expect to merely dump all the trash from your kitchen into a worm bin, add some worms, and come back in only two weeks to collect quantities of fine, dark worm castings that look like what you are used to buying at the store.

Because you want the castings in the most finished form, you have the advantage of extremely low maintenance. You will bury food waste in your worm bin over a four-month period, and then leave it alone. You won’t have to feed or water the worms for the next few months, while letting the entire culture proceed at its own pace. The worms will produce castings continuously as they east the bedding and food waste. The disadvantage of this program is that, as the proportion of castings increases, wastes which are toxic to the worms accumulate, and the environment for the worms deteriorates. They get smaller, stop reproducing, and many die.

In time, your worm bin will provide a quantity of fine castings to give you a homogeneous, nutrient rich soil amendment.

 

[kokua]

From my readings so far I'd guess that a continuous system with a stack of boxes would help keep the pests away from the finished compost - since the pests generally live off relatively fresh organic matter I'd expect them to be concentrated in the top box (along with the worms).

Bugs find a way...there is abosolutely no way to isolate them to the top box. You could try incorporating BTI for fungus gnats and maybe some beneficial nematodes could keep the bad bugs at bay. Remember though, if you build it....they will come!!

 

[Teadaemon]

You could try incorporating BTI for fungus gnats and maybe some beneficial nematodes could keep the bad bugs at bay. Remember though, if you build it....they will come!!

Fair enough, my aim is to have healthy vermicompost, preferably achieved with as few additions as possible. I'll investigate inocculation with benificial microbes, and I'm also considering using a four or five layered system so the compost gets longer to mature after the worms have finished with it. Potentially I'd be prepared to wait maybe a year to start emptying compost out of it, if that meant that the end product was sufficiently broken down.

One specific point I'm unsure of, how wet do the worms like it?

I've seen designs with a sump for the collection of liquid (which is recomended as a liquid fertiliser by some sites, though not specifically for MJ), and I know they do require watering, but are we talking a brief drizzle, a deluge, or something in between?

ETA:
I've just found an online source for high quality worm castings. Somewhat pricey (£13.50 for 18 litres inc. tax and delivery), but as I don't have transport ordering it solves the problem of getting it to my door. So, short-term I'm fixed, and I can look into vermicompost - even if I use 40% compost 20% coir rather than 20% castings 40% coir it should do the job, and reduce my costs at the same time.

 

[kokua]

Too much moisture, water standing in bin, can reduce available oxygen and cause worms to "drown." Moisture levels in the bins should be kept between 70% and 80% preferrably, but every situation is different. My suggestion would be to check your worms at different moisture levels and chart their activity: Are they eating well, reproducing? Decide what moisture content your worms and your bin likes best.

Basically treat the worm bin and contents like you would treat the soil and rootzone of your favorite plants.

 

[Teadaemon]

Basically treat the worm bin and contents like you would treat the soil and rootzone of your favorite plants.

Now that sounds like good advice, I'll take note and report back when I've got around to doing something with my wormery (which won't be as soon as I want 'cos at my other half's insistence it comes lower down the list than a fair number of other jobs and projects).

 

[Suby]

Kokua great advice and info man, sweet!

Got some ? to add if TeaDem doesn't mind

What types of insects typically infest the worm bin?
I've read that fruit flies sometimes get in.
If one where to use say mosquito netting on the inside of a well perforated rubbermaid tub could this help discourage larger insects?

Have you ever had to use dolomite lime to buffer the mix and raise ph, I've heard great things about it adding grit and calcium to the mix which the worms apparently love?

T you can build an easy stacked system by cutting the inner bottom out of a large rubbermaid tub and putting chiken wire in the bottom and then perforating the sides with small holes, these are meant to stack and worms can travel easily between them. the buttom 3 in of another tub to cap the bottom tub and then rotate the tubs bottom to top.

I haven't tried this yet but i do alot of research before jumping into things plus I have to comvince my wife lol.

Sub's

 

[kokua]

hey sub...glad to answer any questions about worming

Kokua great advice and info man, sweet!

Got some ? to ad if TeaDem don't mind

What types of insects typically infest the worm bin?

All types of bugs are attracted to the worm bins. The bugs that I see most of the time are flies, mites, and centipedes, but that list is hardly inclusive. Prevention is easier said than done You should always bury the food waste. If you don't, the odor will bring flies from far and near. They need exposed food to lay eggs. The eggs will hatch into larvae, and the larvae will consume the food source as they go through several larval stages prior to forming a pupae from which will hatch an adult fly. Fly larvae, or maggots, are quite efficient in breaking down the food waste, but most of us are repulsed by them and would prefer not to see them in our worm bins. Mosquito netting would be a great solution for keeping these critters out of your bin I've even had friends suggest adding a cow patty from a field into the box. Beetles in the cow manure are said to feed on the fly larvae and serve as an effective biological control. I've also heard suggested that you could heat your input garbage to the point where fruit flies, eggs, larvae, and pupae will be killed before putting garbage into the bin. That advice sounds like it could help, but I have never tried it.

Remember when you deposit food waste in your worm bin, take the time to cover it with a layer (one to two inches thick) of bedding(coir). There are two reasons why this is neccessary. First, the bedding will help prevent the smell of food source from reaching the sensitive sensors which all flies have. They will be less likely to know the food source is there. Second, flies are not burrowers. They have no way of burrowing down into the bedding to get to the food sources for laying their eggs. Flies aren't likely to lay eggs on clean bedding.

If flies become a problem, you can try several remedies...

- Get rid of the adults by trapping with sticky traps.
- Stop feeding the worms for two or three weeks to let the existing larvae pupate and hatch.
- Cover food waste with bedding to prevent another population explosion.
- Quit overfeeding...uneaten food attracks flies.
- Don't bury food in the same place over and over, this way you will prevent piles of uneaten food that will attract the flies.

....and like I stated in an earlier post, nematodes and bti are good natural sources of pest management.

Have you ever had to use dolomite lime to buffer the mix, I've heard great things about it adding grit and calcium to the mix which the wroms apparently love?

Calcium carbonate is often used to neutralize the pH in the bedding. Dried eggshells are also perfect for neutralizing the pH of acidic beddings and for providing grit for the worms, and eggshells are free If you do decide to buy calcium carbonate (limestone), remember that a little goes a long way.

Hope this helps...

 

[Teadaemon]

you can build an easy stacked system by cutting the inner bottom out of a large rubbermaid tub and putting chiken wire in the bottom and then perforating the sides with small holes, these are meant to stack and worms can travel easily between them. the buttom 3 in of another tub to cap the bottom tub and then rotate the tubs bottom to top.

I haven't tried this yet but i do alot of research before jumping into things plus I have to comvince my wife lol.
:

I could ideed do that, but I think I'll probably spend a little more cash and some more time to come up with something a little better-looking as it's got to sit in a corner of our (very small) back yard.

 

[Guest]

Worms have a gizzard. I give my worms agricultural limestone (sand consistency) It helps the worms digest food and will stabilize the ph of the worm poop. Worm poop can be very acidic.

 

[Guest]

i like using finely ground eggshell for grit, the particles have nice sharp edges.

 

[Dan42nepa]

Interesting idea especially since I fish...