Wormery Episode 5: The Worms Strike Back
Duh duh duh, duh duhduh, duh duhduh! Ok so it’s not quite Darth Vader striding along to the Imperial March from Star Wars but yes, it’s true, the worms are back and they are ready to kick some food waste butt!
Now that I’ve finally moved, I’ve decided to give the womery another chance after my first attempt ended in disaster. This time though it won’t sit in direct sunlight for any portion of the day so it shouldn’t get too hot – which is what I think caused all my worms to die last time around.
I’m also going to be careful not to:
- overfeed them
- chuck big chunks of stuff in there – I’ll cut everything up into small pieces so it starts to decompose quicker and is more worm friendly
- let too much moisture accumulate in the wormery – I may leave the lid off for a little while on occasion to let it dry out if I see it is becoming too moist
- let the soil get to clumpy – in other words I’ll gently move the soil about every week or so to break it down slightly and to oxygenate it
Whether or not it was a good idea, I kept the soil that was already in the wormery from my first attempt as it seemed like good quality dirt – it did not smell, it was a good colour and there was no evidence of any organic material still breaking down so I’m hopeful that the acidity is ok (I have added in a little lime mix to ensure it’s to the worms liking).
I’ve also bought a bag of pelletised worm treats which are sustainably resourced, non contaminated wood waste which rapidly absorbs excess water and can then be munched on by the hungry worms. I’m hoping this will always guarantee that there is something for them to eat if the food I put in is not to their liking.
I have started again with 150 tiger worms which should be enough given that I live by myself and don’t produce a massive amount of food waste.
I’m hopeful that everything is going to go well this time and that I won’t have to parody Episode 6: Return of the Jedi but I’ll keep you all informed of their progress either here on the blog or on Facebook and Twitter.
Are you thinking about buying a wormery or have you got success/failure stories to share? Leave a comment below.
Chief writer and editor on Green Steve. Blogging since 2011, Steve likes to delve into a wide number of topics.
12 Responses to “Wormery Episode 5: The Worms Strike Back”
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Glad to hear you’re back in the worm game Steve. I’ve been rocking the WormFarm360 since April and it couldn’t be going better. Last weekend we dumped our first tray on our plants and flowers and within days (really) we see dramatic results. Watch the moisture content and keep them indoors.
What do you think the best moisture content is? At the moment there is a tiny bit of condensation on the lid when I lift it but not as much as before. I have added some used cardboard to try and soak up some of the excess moisture and I’ve read that worms love eating it. It is indoors now out of direct sunlight so hopefully that risk has been avoided altogether.
Hi,
I have been given a running worm farm, but have no idea when to use the soil inthe bottom layer. When I lift it off, there is casings, but there are worms too. Do I wait for the worms to move? Or do I put the few worms out too and move it to the top tier?
Thanks
Mandy
Several years ago I found a natural spring right behind my house that was totally covered with old debris from a fallen shed. it was covered by pine trees which we thinned out in order to move the trash.
Now I am a fishing junkie, and was always buying my night crawlers at our local Walmart. After we finished clearing the debris, I never had to buy my worms again.
This spot was LOADED with the biggest night crawlers I had ever seen. I always wondered if the pine trees had anything to do with the PH of the soil and if it played a role in the growth of these magnificent creatures. I still get worms from it 8 years later!!
Well you sound like you’ve got a good source of worms these days Debra but for any other fishing fans out there a wormery might be a good idea because they breed quickly and you’d only need to take a couple now and again.
Man, to be honest, only seeing these worms makes me puke, so I think I will pass this “green” exam.
Hi Green Steve, I came here because I saw you started following my Tweets. You won’t get too many because I don’t tweet very often!
Re: Worms.
Adding scrunched up suitable scrap paper to “dilute” the food waste helps a lot. Also, something hardly anyone ever points out is that, if you compost your tea bags, they leave behind “skeletons” of plastic fibre mesh. Most tea bags consist of around 3% polyester or similar plastic fibres and long term composting of them in a worm bin can lead to almost impenetrable (for the worms) nets. Use of the worm compost on the ground will give you lots of pale bag skeletons in the soil.
You can either rip the bags and pour the contents (easiest when cold) into your worm caddy or give up bags altogether and get some loose leaf tea and a couple of tea infusers. You’ll probably find that your tea tastes better and your costs go down.
Here’s a link to a blogpost I did on this topic. If you search my blog’s “Labels” (near the bottom right) for “tea bags” “wormery” or “wormeries” you will find various posts detailing what happened when I contacted the tea bag manufacturers.
Hi Nick, thanks so much for dropping by!
I have just read your posts on the worms and tea bags and I found them incredibly interesting. I am glad that there are people out there challenging the brands to be more sustainable and surely there must be a solution to bring about 100% degradable tea bags using a natural fibre?
A lesson for everyone reading this then is to either rip the bags open after use and pour the contents into the wormery and put the bags in the bin or buy loose leaf tea.
This is a very interesting article. I love my worms too. The part where you mentioned the soil didn’t have a bad odor, to me means that it WAS still good. I also shared this with my Facebook friends. Hope you didn’t mind.
I live in Tanzania and have just started a wormery after years of promises. I made it out of a old wheelbarrow and lined it with plastic and put a drainage hole at the lowest point. Obviously it is much hotter here and we water them lightly every day but the soil is supposed to be damp but not sodden and we put in vegetable matter – which should be chopped up. I have been told they do not like anything from the onion family nor citrus nor any squidgy fruits such as mango. Doing this by trial and error as we have no guide book, but what were you told they like to eat? We ‘harvest’ about 300ml of liquid a day and dilute it 10:1 before pouring on our tree saplings and veggies.
Hi Jules – thanks for stopping by from Tanzania! Sounds like you have quite a sizeable wormery going now if you are getting that much liquid from it each day.
I was given similar advice – no citrus, nothing from the onion family – but did not know about the squidgy fruit one although it is never the case for me as I don’t really eat any soft fruits. I was told they like most other things, especially old tea and coffee grounds (though not the tea bags as these have plastic in them believe it or not!).
Thanks for that – teabags with plastic huh! hard to believe that they really need to produce them that way, for something that is disposable and barely used for 5 minutes. Will keep you posted on developments.