WORMERY ANYONE ?

Love to have animals around? Perhaps you're being plagued by them? All your tips here...

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Mi Bri
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Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2007 9:21 am
Location: Watford

Hi, Folks.

I too read the wiggly wormers website & felt that near £100 was a lot for a con of worms. So I recently built a wormery using an old set of recycling boxes, some Duodeneenaldurumdurum (spelling???) worms from local fishing shop and scrap food from the kitchen. Within a matter of weeks, the worms had had many happy little events and parents and babies seem to be doing well.

Loved the advice about worm beds. and after reading GIB's advice plan to create a worm bed near the Comfrey bed I am creating.
Mi Bri
madasafish
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Location: Stoke On trent

I run 2 large plastic composting bins (a subsidised £10 from local council) and fill with ALL kitchen vegetable and fruit matters.. including citrus , lemon peel , inners, teabags.. dead cut flowers... plus the odd bit of newspaper that lines our kitchen bin plus surplus apples (mainly crabs) at October.

That's it. Both bins are mounted on earth and receive sun from 9am to around 6pm in summer (near a 1 metre high beech hedge cutting off early and late sun.)

Both are FULL of worms and slugs.. and it all rots down eventually and I take the tops off once a year and dig in the lower two thirds...(the top is full of worms and still rotting down so I replace that at the bottom and start again)

Eggs shells do not go in: we keep and dry them, crush them and use as slug repellant /tomato/strawberry food .


Hassles? No smell. Occasional flies inside only and only when I take off the top.. an occasional spray with fly killer in high summer - maybe 3 times ?

I add the compost to hanging baskets and tomato pots...

Nothing else to say...have 3 other home made large compost heaps (approx 1.25 metres square )for leaves (we have LOTS), grass cuttings and other weeds/veggie offucts/shredded rasp canes/other small tree branches etc.
Last edited by madasafish on Wed Apr 04, 2007 7:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Jenny Green
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I do the same, except I add cardboard too. It all rots down eventually into lovely, dark rich compost. Not the orthodox method but a lot less fuss than layering, turning etc.
(Formerly known as 'Organic Freak')
Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed.
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lynne
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Joined: Sat Mar 10, 2007 10:56 am
Location: Kingsclere, Hampshire

Can I suggest that people ask on Freecycle for worms/wormeries etc?
I got my Can O worms from there, plus a load of worms too!
I've had mine going for only a couple of weeks and I'm not blessed with patience!
I tip split teabags, vegetable peelings and shredded confidential documents into mine.
How do I know if my babies are happy? How do I know when to add the next working tray? What should I expect to find in the collecting tray? How would I know when to use the stuff in the 1st working tray?
So many questions!

I'm just about to start using a Bokashi bin - brace yourself for all the questions about that too!

:)
Where do you go to my lovely, when you're alone in your shed...
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Chantal
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Lynne

You'll find a lot of answers here

http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/life/co ... OXg17D0456

:D
Chantal

I know this corner of the earth, it smiles for me...
garden_novice
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Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 9:58 am

Has anyone used one of these? They seem a lot cheaper.

http://www.wormcity.co.uk/

Shona
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mandylew
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I have had a homemade version going for a couple of years very sucessfully, in fact last year the contents i entered in the local veg show under homemade compost class, I came last and an 'insider' told me they thought i had cheated and bought it in it was so fine and crumbly :roll: you can get worms off e-bay

Mandy
hippetyhop
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Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2007 9:48 pm
Location: Scotland

I wish I'd found this site before I bought my wormery! It's an Original Wormery, a deep one, and getting it going has been difficult. The worms are still alive, but keep trying to climb out of the bin, so obviously all is not well! Reading the posts here has been very useful, and I can see where I've gone wrong (getting the wrong kind of bin in the first place, putting too much food in it, letting it get too wet and acidic).

Does anyone know where to get dolomite, or a worm-friendly lime? I see Maxicrop does a calcified seaweed substitute called Cal-Sea-Feed - is that suitable for worms?

Is it best to perservere with my bin as it is, with better care obviously, or should I take all the worms out and start afresh?
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Chantal
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Hi Hippityhop

You can find an anti-acid lime mix in the composting extras page of the Wiggly Wigglers shop (link to WW further up this thread). :D
Chantal

I know this corner of the earth, it smiles for me...
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sue-the-recycler
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NEVER use garden lime on a wormery its will burn them, use Calcium carbonate. I get it from the horse n tackle, shop aparently they feed it to foals to make their bones strong and a little goes a very long way or if you keep chickens get a few scoops of chicken mash and sieve it in a fine mesh sieve - the dust is great for worms and can be fed to them as a general tonic and the lime helps keep the compost ph neutral. Watch out for red spider mite in wormeries if its a warm summer - its a nightmare for the worms :(
Bella
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Location: Hampshire

I've just taken delivery of my new family of dendrobaenas, I got them from Scottish Worms in Kirkudbright, and they have now been in residence for 3 days! I could only count about 120 of them but they do seem to diguise themselves don't they?!

I just want to know at this early stage - how much do I have to worry about temperature? I've used a commom-or-garden plastic dustbin, with holes (small!) for vents top and bottom, a tap low down, and some old carpet on top of the worms: in this unseasonally warm (but very welcome!) weather, I've already noticed that it gets really hot inside so I moved it to the shade, but what can they tolerate? I've found a few comments online about not letting them get too hot or cold, but could anyone be more specific please? I've got an outdoor thermometer which I've put in the top so I can keep an eye on it with that.

Thanks
Bella
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Chantal
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Hi Bella

I have a wormery which has sat on my south facing patio, shaded by a solanum (grows up the wall and around them), for the past 6 or 7 years. I've never worried about the temperature as it never really occurred to me to do so :oops: and they're just fine. I think so long as there is enough material in there for them to burrow into that stays nice and moist they just keep on working. Mine certainly have. :roll:
Chantal

I know this corner of the earth, it smiles for me...
madasafish
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Location: Stoke On trent

My experience is when it's very hot the worms burrow down into the cool damp compost.
Whn it's warm they swarm all over the top of the food and round the lip of the bin at the top.
And when very cold, burrow again!

As long as the bin contents are damp, imo worms will survive somehow. My daleks are in full sun from around 9am to 6pm (less in winter as there are small hedges nearby.)
Bella
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Thanks for your helpful comments - however, this morning I found 2 'escapees' one on the outside of the lid and one on nearby soil! I looked in this evening and about half a dozen are attempting another gettaway by climbing up the sides aiming for the lid! I think the holes we made may be too big, and whilst this can be rectified I'm curious as to why they would want to leave at night...any ideas please as I don't fancy going back to getting up in the night to check on the 'kids' :roll:
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Chantal
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Maybe they know the birds will be asleep and they have a chance of making it underground in the garden before dawn :lol: Were they whistling "The Grest Escape"?

There are always one or two worms in the lid of my wormery so they must like it there. I would put some micromesh over/under the lid.
Chantal

I know this corner of the earth, it smiles for me...
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