Freecycle Today - Australian Recyclers Community

Worm farming is a great way to recycle your household food scraps and create a super juice to grow your plants. I am not an expert on worm farming so if anyone out there knows more please let the community know.



Post edited by: webpilot, at: 2007/03/10 11:21

Hi there,
we have I suppose it's a combination worm farm/compost bin. We've been operating it now for about 5 years and it is the best, in fact we have never managed to fill it!

We started with a black recycled plastic square bin with lid, the common type of compost bin that you can buy, it's about a metre high, 700 - 800 mm square at the base. We parked it in the shade, under our lemon tree and started with food scraps and some worms we got from a friends compost bin. We feed it all our food scraps (make sure no meat, fish etc) and some occasional green waste from the garden such as prunings, a small amount of grass clippings (no weeds or rose prunings though!). Sometimes we can stuff it full with soft prunings but we have never filled it - the worms do a fantastic job. A couple of times a year we open the small hatches at the bottom and out comes the most superb compost - most, dark and friable.

A friend swears by her worm farm which is a much smaller set up with a couple of trays, lid and a tap to extract the worm 'juice'. Ours doesn't have the tap but I suspect our lemon tree gets a good feed - it's a prolific fruiter. Also the worm farm would not take the quantity of green waste that we stuff in our bin! It's a ripper, and it's so easy to use.

That's a really good story Tarlia

It just shows that you don't have to go out and buy a worm farm, you can actually recycle old things for making worm farms as well as recycle all your green stuff. Thanks for letting us know about the things that you shouldn't put into a worm farm. I also know you shouldn't put citrus peels in there either. Something to do with citric acid.

I bet your lemons are really good too! So many uses for worms. I think they are one of the most valuable animals you could have in your garden.

My father was a gardener for around 35 years for a local county council and he always told us that we should always put worms back in the soil if we saw them straying. Childhood memories of looking for worms

There was a story that if a worm was cut in half it would make two worms. It wasn't that long ago I heard that this was not actually true. One half of the worm would live but the other wouldn't so we better make sure we tell our kids not to take much notice of that old tale.

Thanks for your input and more is always welcome.

Living on a small inner city block, I've only got room for a stacking tray worm farm, but with a little TLC, it cranks along just fine. I've found that just (vegetable)kitchen scraps makes it go a bit sludgy & stinky, but a scoop or two full of earth from the garden sprinkled on with every deposit helps to keep it in balance.

I recently found this Worm Farming eBook very handy for anyone considering their own worm farm.

It covers all the aspects of worm farming (the dos and do nots) and the Australian author has 10 years experience behind them.

I recommend anyone considering their own worm farm get this while they can. You can see more information here

Certainly saves going out an buying a brand new production model.

Let me know what you think.

Post edited by: mike, at: 2007/12/06 06:17