Selfsufficientish.com

Posted: **Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:08 pm**

Will do, but the damned brandlings are taking their time moving into the compost bin. I wonder if it's the time of year, or if it's just too hot in there still. May have to consider ordering some eggs from Wiggly Woo or whatever that site's called. Let me check...

Hmm. 250g of worms is 11.25 plus postage, which is enough to make me stop and think. They supply 1kg of worms with their own "can'o'worms" kit, and I had a quick link at franchise operations and discover that the best you can hope for is a doubling of numbers every 90 days - in cold weather probably quite a bit less. So I need to get hold of a decent starter of worms.

Bit of research;

Suitable materials for your Wormery

* Recycled wood from old pallets (check that they are free from wood preservatives as they harm the worms)
* An old plastic/standard plastic compost bin

Building Your Wormery

* Drill drainage holes around the base of a plastic dustbin, approx 5cm from the base., 25cm apart. Drill a circle of air holes 5cm from the top of the bin.
* Fill bin with 8-10cm layer of coarse sand or gravel.
* On top of this place a circle of of wood or polythene with holes drilled for drainage.
* Add a 7-8cm layer of moistened bedding material, such as well rotted compost manure or leaf mould.
* Place at least 100 worms in the bedding. Brandling/tiger worms can be obtained from a mature compost heap, a working worm bin or they could be purchased.
* Add a litre of chopped food to one side of the bin. Cover this with a well soaked whole newspaper.
* Replace the lid and and leave undisturbed for at least 2 weeks for the worms to settle.

Maintaining your Wormery

* Worms will eat almost anything that will decompose. They should be primarily fed on kitchen scraps but they will process weeds and other garden waste.
* Worms like variety. Not too much of one thing!
* Large quantities of citrus peel, seeds and diseased material and meat and fish are best avoided.
* Worms can be killed by overfeeding. Don't add more waste until the previous addition has been composted.
* Keep container covered to avoid fruit flies.
* Don't allow the bin to get too hot or dry out.
* If the heap begins to smell (too wet), pull everything out, mix it well with brown material and return to the bin.
* If the heap remains unchanged (too dry) pull everything out, water it, mix it with green material and return to the bin.
* Ready compost may be stored in medium-sized sacks (30/40litre) in a cool, dry place.

Righto. 100 worms is the least you could use, and that would weigh about 60g, so I reckon a 250g starter would be fine. Before I fork out, though, I'm going to post on Freecycle...

Posted: **Wed Oct 11, 2006 9:32 am**

haha, a Wanted: Worms ad?!

thanks for the info. I got a new compost bin a month o so ago, and i've got two of those plastic dalek-type things that i used before. I don't like using hem fo compost, so i think one migh become a wormery in the sprin - i'm waiting for the stuff in them to rot down bit more first.

Ta!

Posted: **Wed Oct 11, 2006 11:47 am**

the.fee.fairy wrote:haha, a Wanted: Worms ad?!

Our local freecycle recently had a "wanted : snails" ad. The woman who posted has now become a friend. She was looking for them to eat them.

Posted: **Wed Oct 11, 2006 12:19 pm**

PurpleDragon wrote:Our local freecycle recently had a "wanted : snails" ad. The woman who posted has now become a friend. She was looking for them to eat them.

really! I don't supose you know which ones are the edible ones??

Posted: **Wed Oct 11, 2006 1:23 pm**

I don't know, but she knew what she was doing. She's still here, at least! She's on NEEPS! (Zombiecazz) if you want to go ask her, or I can ask her if you want.

Posted: **Wed Oct 11, 2006 11:28 pm**

Free, if you get the right sort of worms you don't have to wait you can get stuck in there. Tiger worms can handle fresh waste just fine! The reason I say buying some starting worms is that I want to digest the whole waste from my family of four from a standing start. The word "composting" is really a misnomer here, as you're not composting as such - you're just getting the worms to eat the fresh food, and collecting the casts afterwards.

Posted: **Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:11 pm**

I find the worms move out of the compost bin once the compost is digested - it's pretty much the way I can tell it's more than ready to use. Slugs also vanish.

I wonder whether that's why yours have gone? Try laying a bit of old carpet or a layer of grass cuttings, etc., on the earth and see whether they collect under the surface. It's never worked for me but it's supposed to be the way to do it...

Posted: **Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:22 pm**

Someone on freecycle Sydney recently offered worms plus worm farm ... went quickly. 'tho

Posted: **Thu Oct 19, 2006 11:25 pm**

Thought you'd like to know I got a starter of worms on Freecycle (and one possible newcomer to the forum to boot)!

Christine, my worms haven't gone anywhere - I'm setting this up from scratch. It isn't a composter, but a worm bin; the bin is sealed at the bottom and you feed the worms continually from the top with kitchen scraps. As the bin fills the worms move up, and when it's approaching full you skim off the top layer (including worms), empty it, and start again.

There is a way to concentrate worms in ordinary compost, and that's to lay an old piece of carpet or plastic out on the grass on a bright day and put the compost on it, in a heap. Worms instinctively migrate away from light, so after an hour or so you take the top off the pile until you're seeing worms again, and reheap the pile. Repeat until you're down as far as you can get, and you should be looking at a concentrated population for seeding a bin or whatever.

The brandlings were slow to get started in my latest compost bin - on reflection I took more care mixing my ingredients and aerating the bin than usual, so it stayed too hot for worms for quite a while. The population is creeping up now though, so if the bloody rain stops I'll do just what I've described to bump numbers up in the worm bin. I'd like it to handle all the kitchen waste a.s.a.p as mousie has already found the composter and I'd quite like that to stop!

BTW someone on Freecycle is also giving me an old bin lid to keep the rain out of my bin - much better than the plastic sheeting and plank approach I'm using tonight!

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Worm tea?