WORMERY ANYONE ?

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Stephen
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I am thinking about a wormery - only because my mother doesn't want the one she has and with which she had no success.
I planned to put it in the garage to ameliorate the temperatues.
This would allow the cheapo plastic compost bin to go from the garden to the allotment.
However reading Ken Thompson's book "Compost", I am less keen, this thread has made me think more positively.
Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
Bella
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Hi Chantal and Plumpudding - have you done your spring clean and what does it entail please? I haven't seen any activity since back end of last year, so am wondering what to expect in there - I stopped feeding around Christmas, as the food was being eaten so minimally and I didn't want it to back up and smell (still plenty of nematodes present) so i don't even know if there are any Dendras left! I've been given a lovely old woolly jumper to cover it with (will still leave the plastic lid on) but should I tip out and see what's going on? have they gone dormant during the cold? Maybe I'll have to just buy some more...?
Advise please :)



Chantal wrote:Hi Plumpudding

I tried the woolly jumper "duvet" for a while but didn't like it. It was fine when it was dry but then it rained and jumper became cold, sodden and very heavy. I threw it out and now use newspaper instead which breaks down a lot more quickly. I also try to cover my wormery in very wet weather as well as leaving the tap open all the time.

Due for a spring clean and check over next weekend; not a job I enjoy :?
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Chantal
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Sorry, still haven't got around to it and still putting peelings in the top which are going down nicely. :oops: :oops:
Chantal

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Bella
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Hmmm....if your leftovers are going down, then it sounds like my worms really have gone AWOL!!
Think I'll go and check :(

Bella
KateG
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This thread has been fantastic for me to read through as I'm considering getting a wormery - I never realised there was so much to think about. Now I'm excited by the challenge!

However I'm really stumped as to what type of wormery to go for. I seem to be erring towards the 3 tiered version from original organics, I'm not entirely sure why. Can anyone recommend a brand that sells 'the full works' for a novice?

Thanks in advance.
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Chantal
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I bought mine from Wiggly Wigglers and it had everything, including the worms. The downside was I was daft enough to buy it off their stand at GW Live and then had to buy a large collapsible wheelbarrow to get it home on the train :oops: :oops: but it was £30 cheaper :D and I did "need" the wheelbarrow. :D

I'm sure you can buy them cheaper elsewhere, but I can recommend the Wiggly people for good products.
Chantal

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KateG
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Thank you. We're off to GW live this year so I may hold out to see what bargains there are :)
PLUMPUDDING
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Hi everyone, I've not cleaned mine out yet, but keep topping up the kitchen waste and it is teeming with worms. The wool jumper is working extremely well as a moisture mat on top.

My wormery is the three-tiered one from Wiggly Wigglers and works very well.

You shouldn't expect huge amounts of compost from it though, but the stuff you do get is excellent.

I make more use of the "worm wee". I leave the tap on all the time and keep a container underneath to catch what drips out. There isn't any chance of the wormery getting waterlogged this way. The diluted juice is brilliant for house plants and the geraniums haven't stopped flowering for over a year. I use it on most other things too that need a boost, and if I get too much (I put it in empty plastic bottles until I need it- suitably marked so no-one drinks it - it does look rather like Cola) it makes a very good compost activator in the ordinary compost heaps.
Sally Cook
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Hi all those inerested in wormeries. I recently sent for two wormeries from Wormcity. I didn't think one would cope with our veg waste. When the wormeries arrived I was rather disappointed with them. They were simply very cheap plastic storage boxes with holes cut in, which is fine for the job, but there was nothing on the boxes to confirm the company's claim that they were made of recycled platic. One of the wormeries had been smashed in transit and the lids to both were faulty and didn't stay on. I asked Wormcity to refund my money and collect the damaged wormery, keeping the one that was usable. They did arrange for collection of the broken wormery and sent a replacemnet lid. They refunded my money MINUS the cost of postage (!) and DOUBLE the cost of the worms that had been delivered with it!!!! It seems very unfair to me that I have been charged postage for collection of an unusable item and that I have been charged DOUBLE for the worms which I clearly could not have returned as they would have been dead by the time they were collected if I'd kept them in the plastic bag they arrived in, for two weeks! My adivice is- avoid Wormcity and go to Original Organics or wiggly wigglers whose wormeries may not be so cheap, but cheap isn't everything!
alia
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my experience: i live in a small apartment in new york city, and i figured a wormery was the closest i could get to composting without freaking out my landlady. i had a three tiered wooden one, and it smelled fantastic and the worms were happy for the first three months.

then the baby cockroaches (of which nyc is famous for, and please don't think it's because i'm a terrible housekeeper) snuck in... what was really horrible was the baby cockroaches got too big and fat to slip back out, so we had frantic cockroaches trapped in our wormery, smooshing down any worm that tried to escape upwards.

my husband has now forbidden indoor composting experiments... can't say i blame him, since i made him deal with the bin. :wink:
Stephen
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The good news is that the wormery is being decently succesful. Certainly liquid out at the bottom, certainly level of contents remaining stable, so stuff is being consumed.

I started it with some contents and worms from the compost bin, which has more woody parts in it at the moment, but this will change now that I have boughta s/h shredder (for £20 from ebay) and I can get the dalek up to the allotment (not sure that I need three there)
Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
Stephen
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Yesterday I dug out the wormery and there was decent material in the bottom. Thank goodness I have some good (but cheap) heavy duty rubber gloves!
Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
Thanet
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I hope it is not bad for me to re-start an old thread but I have been interested in wormeries for a while and have been looking all over the net for ideas and suitable types of wormeries.
This thread seems to be the most informative. :D

Anyway I have now had worms and wormery for 3 days! so they are really still in the settling in stage.

The wormery I bought was the type that has a larger surface area rather than the deeper ones (Thanks to all you posters)

At the risk of seeming like a spammer the site I got mine from is a family run place that will answer any questions you have even before you buy from them... I asked them several before buying and, while it took them a couple of days to answer (they have small kids and regular jobs to do as well) they seemed quite happy to answer.

They even send a home made DVD with the order to help you start up.

They seem to have solved the problem of the worms escaping by having worm proof seal on the lids (I am sure it is just sticky draught excluder but it seems to work so far). The lid is also translucent (?SP) so the light will enter the lid and the worms hide in the bedding to get away from it.

They recomend feeding the worms with the supplied food for a couple of weeks then adding small regular amounts of kitchen waste (as mentioned earlier no onion family, or citrus)

I have chatted too much for my first post already.

I hope to update in a couple or weeks time. :D
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Elle's Garden
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Hi Thanet,

This really has been a useful thread. I am undecided about getting a wormery - simply due to the cost. Could you post the name/website of the family firm you have found so I can take a look?

Thanks :)
Kind regards,

Elle
Thanet
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Pleased to do so.

I got the largest one they do and it cost me £50:90.(Including P+P.) Which considering some of the prices I have seen is reasonable IMHO.

It is Stoke Worms

I hope you like what you find.

Good hunting

Thanet.
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