Worm farming is an integral part of many organic and permaculture gardens. The castings they provide are unique in their structure and qualities. The worm’s gut is an amazing place, full of bacteria. This beneficial bacteria aids in building soil microbial life and soil health for plant production. Solid castings are added directly to the soil when planting out seedlings and building new garden beds and liquid worm castings are used as a foliar and soil spray to build plant health and vitality. Worms recycle waste and convert it into value organic matter for our hungry, high-production vegetable garden soils.
What type of worms to use? The earthworms that appear naturally in your garden beds are not the ones you want in your worm farm. Garden earthworms are ‘agricultural’ worms - a mix of native and introduced species – they mature slowly, don’t like to be too crowded, are slow to reproduce and only have one baby per capsule.
The worms you want for your worm farm are ‘commercial’ worms – reds, blues, tigers and African Night Crawlers, purchased direct from a reputable worm breeder. These worms eat a lot, they reproduce quickly and often and have 6-8 babies per capsule. These are the ones you want working for you, they will pump out castings by the bucket full.
Care of your worm farm Treat worms like you would any pet or livestock. Prepare their home before you buy them and set up the farm in a quiet place away from daily household activity. Worms ‘go to ground’ when they sense vibration and noise, so don’t put them in the carport or in any high traffic area.
Worms live naturally in the cool, moist earth, so farms need to be well shaded and protected from strong winds, kept cool in summer, and well drained (keep the tap open with a bucket under it if you have a plastic cell farm at home), they must be predator proof or you will lose all your valuable livestock (rats love to eat them), they also need regular maintenance. Worm farms must be kept moist, but not wet, (aim for the moisture level of a squeezed out sponge), keep them well-fed, well-drained and well-stocked.
Ensure their basic needs of air (good ventilation), water (moist but not wet), food (keep them well-fed and ensure the food is fresh) and sheltered (cool, shaded, protected from predators) are met for worm farm success.
Types of worm farms There are many ways to keep worms. We have a large in ground system 4metres by 1.5metres, with underground pipes draining liquid castings into buckets, this produces excellent high quality castings for our 2.25 acre permaculture garden. We also have two small black plastic cell farm systems (used as demonstrations during worm farming courses held here) – keep these taps open with a bucket under them to ensure good drainage and tilt the farm so the tap is on the low side. Bath tubs make great worm farms – but always ensure good drainage and build the frame high enough to take a bucket under the drainhole and strong enough to hold the weight of a tub full of castings.
Bread baskets, polysterene vegie boxes, and I’m sure lots more creative and inventive worm farms exist out there. As long as the container meets the requirements of ventilation, drainage, and predator protection, just about anything can be used. Be aware though of any container that could leach contaminants (eg cast iron and perhaps polysterene?) they can make the castings worthless and dangerous to the soil.
Worm food What do worms eat? Worms eat microbes not plant material – they move soil (with microbes in it) through their gut as they move around the soil. Worms are the top of the microbial food chain in the soil food web and eat bacteria, fungi, protozoa, algae etc. When you feed your worm farm you need to… a) Cut the worm food up very small to increase the surface area so more microbes can get started on decomposing the food – about the size of your thumbnail. b) ‘Bacterialise’ the food – this is a really important factor in worm farming vital to success. Food can be bacterlised by pouring over liquid worm castings, diluted molasses, diluted kelp or a herb tea to activate the microbial activity on the food and get your worms digestive juices flowing. You can put pretty much anything from the garden or from your kitchen scrap bucket in the worm farm – although they don’t like garlic, onions or citrus too much. Be careful with manures – worms love them, but if the manure is from an animal that has been recently wormed, you could wipe out your whole farm overnight. Test a batch of manure by putting a small amount in a bucket, with a few ‘sacrificial’ worms and leave 24 hours. If the worms are alive after that, the manure is okay to use. Worms will eat anything that was once alive. They will eventually eat the Hessian bag you put over the top of them, they will eat old cotton t-shirts and I’ve even known of worms to eat old pairs of jeans. Just put them in the farm and all that will be left will be the buttons and the zip.
Trouble shooting I’ve found that if there is a problem with the farm it will be: Air – a ventilation problem (the farm will stink), air holes are blocked or the castings and bedding have become compacted and need fluffing up and aeration (use your hands so you don’t cut any worms in half), Water – not draining well enough. Strong odour, worms may have drowned in the liquid. Reset the farm and clean out drainage holes. We have had to redrill the holes in the plastic farms to ensure better drainage. Food – the food is just sitting there rotting rather than being consumed. Food is not cut up small enough and/or needs re-bacterilising. Bacterialise or remove that food (put it in the compost bin) and put in some fresh food. Ants in the farm may indicate it’s too dry or they are attracted to what you are to food you are using We get leechs in our farms at times – they kill worms so we dispose of leechs as we find them
Maintenance Regularly (at least every second day) check the farm to ensure it’s going well and your worms are happy. A regular worm farm management routine will help get them productive. When our worms need a feed, we fluff up the bedding beforehand, put the new chopped up food on top of the bedding, bacterilise it, add minerals and grit, and leave them to it. We regularly check moisture levels and water if needed, and always keep them cool and moist during peak summer heat with daily watering. Regularly empty the liquid castings and use them in the garden
Harvesting solid castings This can be a challenge for the novice worm farmer – how do you get the castings out without taking all the worms with it? The secret is zone feeding. Look at the surface area of your farm – divide it into sections - eg a small worm farm in half, a bathtub in thirds and a large system in quarters – and always leave one of these areas free of food. This will get your worms moving back and forth through the farm looking for food and always leave you an area of castings ready to harvest.
Worm castings What do worm castings look like? I’ve seen bags of what is really just worm bedding being sold as castings. True worm castings are cool, moist and are almost like chocolate mousse in consistency. They are slightly sticky and have a velvety cool feel to them. Plastic bags of worm castings sitting in the sun will be worthless, any microbial life in them will be suffocated and solarised – don’t buy them, make your own or get them from a reputable worm farmer. When harvesting, put them in a bucket and use them straight away, keep the bucket out of the sun, we put some mulch over the top to keep it cool and allow airflow. Castings can be stored in bags – nothing like a Hessian bag or the worms will eat their way out. We use old chook food and mineral bags for the castings, leave the top open and don’t compact them on top of each other. We have revitalised castings left here by the previous owners that would be a couple of years old by pouring a bacterilising liquid over them.
Posted by Sonya
on April 27 2007 07:27:43 ·
18 Comments ·
3728 Reads ·
Comments
slowpokeon April 28 2007 17:21:18
Under "Maintanence" you say you "add minerals and grit" What are these? Where do you get them?
Earthmotherwithinon April 28 2007 19:52:20
Thanks for this article. I am a recent worm farmer and still working out what works and what is 'normal'. Thanks for the clue about re-using the liquid castings to get the food bacterialised. Good One!
Thanks to the writer for the time you took to give us the benefit of your experience.
Sonyaon April 29 2007 17:43:53
crusher dust, crushed eggshells, every month or so, every three months add Calci-grit available from livestock shops, it's grit, calcium and every six months you can add soft rock phosphate to their bed.
slowpokeon April 29 2007 18:30:49
Thanks sonya, I think I am about to embark on the adventure of worm farming!
Sonyaon April 30 2007 02:45:23
Maintenance is the key. They are living breathing creatures and need regular care. The more you care for the farm, the more they will produce for you. The better the quality and diversity of their food, they better the castings.
jackon May 10 2007 16:14:33
Thanks for the really interesting and informative article on worm farming. I am hoping to become a worm farmer and have a couple of old bath-tubs waiting to be used for this purpose. How do I actually get their home prepared? Do I just put a layer of compost in the bottom and some fresh food and add the worms? You also meantioned 'sectioning off' a bath-tub into aprox three parts to aid in the collection of castings, these would not be physical barriers would they? Do you mean just confining their food to one area of the tub while you harvest another area?
Sonyaon May 18 2007 17:38:54
Hi Jack, build really strong frame for your bathtub and make sure its high enough to get a bucket under the plughole to collect the liquid castings. Tilt the bath so the plughole is lower and it drains well. Next put a layer of gravel about 4cm deep in the bottom for drainage, and flyscreen over the hole. then a layer of weed mat to stop the worms going through the gravel and your valuable livestock ending up escaping. then you could put some river sand on top as filtration for the liquid castings. then the bedding - some breeders sell bedding with worms, but for a bathtub you'll need to make some too. We put grass clippings and manure into a compost tumbler and let it break up a bit. Then just add worms. Let them settle a couple of days before you feed them. Zone feeding is just where you put the food, no actual barriers. Just put food on only one end approx one third of the surface area. When this is gone, feed in the next 1/3, then feed in the next 1/3. Hope that helps.
Sonya
jackon May 20 2007 00:53:21
Hi Sonya
Thanks for the info about the worm farm. I have got my act together already and now have a beautiful new home for my worms. I only purchased 500 initially as I had some trouble sourcing them in Bunbury (W.A.). The one place I could find them only had one box left. Is that enough to do anything? I know they will breed but how quickly does that happen?
Just with the soft rock phospate. Can I take it that it is Natramin?? Or Nutriphos.
Cheers
BB
Bushbabeon May 22 2007 08:14:35
Sorry, also forgot.
I still have these funny little red-browny tiny round things all in my worm farm. Also lots of other little crittery things that don't seem to overly bother the worms but I am just not sure what is bringing them in. I mainly use juice pulp( carrot, celery,apple,beetroot) for them. Maybe I am not varying their diet enough???
BB
kellion June 19 2007 17:29:55
what sort of worms are best to buy? I just scored a 'can o worms' off frecycle and am quite excited about setting it up
flame_ravenon June 21 2007 13:58:03
Kelli - I have 3 can o worms, they are great! Buy brick of coconut fibes as the first bed and lay wet newspaper over the top, then just chuck in your compost. I bought one box of worms from bunnings and have never had to buy any again. When I sort the worms from the castings I see heaps of worm eggs.
I move the worm farms around during the year to keep them out of driect sunlight in summer (too hot!) and make sure they get some direct sunlight in winter and keep working.
The other thing I do in summer is pour half a bucket of water into each work farm and drain most of the water out. It cools them down, a bit like air conditioning. Especially on the really hot days (40+ at our place) they respond well to the extra care.
We have clay soil so my plants love the worm casting mixed through. I also add sand to break up the clay. Every time I start a new tray in my worm farm I chuck in a big handful of sand so they have plenty of grit. I used clay once which didn't work
there are all sorts of bugs and insects in my worm farms. In summer the frogs love hanging around it for a feed and often end up inside (I still haven't figured out how they get in...). I don't worry about the other bugs, they don't seem to worry the worms.
kellion June 22 2007 13:10:30
thanks for that. Do I just start them off in the bottom tray or do i put some in each tray?
kevinpon January 05 2008 09:58:49
Worm farm mark one.
So now I’m having a go at making a worm farm.
Thinking outside the square and doing as much as poss with cheap or used materials, I started on my worm farm. I got two large black pots. I take the pot base and drill a small hole for a drain pipe made out of thin watering system pipe and a threaded joiner. This pipe feeds into the collection bottle through a hole in the lid. Don't forget to allow for an air vent hole too.
I sat the first pot in the base and in it I put some wood for an air gap. The second pot is cleaned out and dried thoroughly, then I took a pot pals hanging basket liner and, using waterproof rag tape I tape it firmly to the inside of the pot. This is an experiment to see if it's useful as a dirt and worm filter so the castings don't clog up the air gap pot. So in go the worms, wet paper, a bit of compost, and the chopped up worm tucker. A wet hessian bag covers the top and we're away with el cheapo Mk 1 Mod 1 worm farm.
I only bought a 500 worm top up box, figuring that if they're happy they'll have lots of worm orgies and multiply like topsy anyway, and I save cash. If they all die or leave home, I only lost half the cash.
I'm taking on board the tip to add grit, so I'm using rock minerals, basically crushed granite, etc which will leech minerals as bacteria break it down.
I'll put up some photos when I get an album up.
KevinP
njson May 23 2008 22:31:07
this article is so specific and full of practical information, I rate it as not just awesome, but TOTALLY AWESOME
Elizajaneon August 05 2008 10:25:47
I am about to begin a worm farm at home and thought I'd do some extra research before I begin. Thanks so much for posting this information, Sonya. I found it very easy to understand and it backed up some of the other info I've gathered but in a very concise way. I can't wait to begin! :D
Gillianon December 22 2008 09:55:21
Thanks! I've had a successful worm farm for about 5 years but I learnt a lot from reading this article. One trick I've learned to help the worms stay cool on our hot days (40 C or more) is to put a large block of ice on top of the worm's food/bedding. I freeze ice in old ice-cream containers, or similar, and then put a big block of ice on top of the worms, to melt slowly and create a cool drip duing a hot day. I think it helps. I also hose down the outside of the farm and occasionally pour cool liquid through, but I don't like to do that too much as it can make things too wet.
goldstoneon October 12 2009 10:35:48
how do I get rid of the redbacks in my worm farm?
