Kitchen Garden Forum

Thanks Thanet, a great looking website. I will be able to give this more informed thought now.

One bit of good news:
Despite what the websites which sell wormeries suggest, the worms survived the winter very well. I did put several layers of cardboard over the top of the compost (inside the lid obviously). The worms remained active most of the time.

Hi.
I have been meaning to update you all about my wormery so here goes.

I fed them all the food that was sent with the wormery and then started them on household scraps and loads of tea bags.

I have had to put it out side as I found that they managed to find their way out of the container and roam all over the utility room floor, not the best thing to greet you first thing in the morning.

If you buy the one from the place I suggested make sure you fix the bottom mesh firmly to the bottom of the box with the tap.. I would suggest Duc (sp?) tape on all four sides.. perhaps that might stop them from escaping.

I haven'tr found them to be any problem apart from that but I have found it easier to have a small container in the kitchen to put the scraps in then I only have to go out to it once a day.

The major "problem" I have had with my wormery is of excess dampness. I stopped putting the coffee grounds in it and things have improved enormously (I only drink real coffee so there are a couple of pots of grounds each day).
The wormery material is drier and drains better, so I have as much liquid feed as I can use.
Any advice on storage of this stuff?

I use plastic mill containers.

I've just acquired a Wormery from freecycle and was trying to work out what to do next.

I can see I need to buy some worms, and get some material to start them off in.

I was wondering about just taking some compost out of a normal compost bin. Would that work for the material ok?

I bought mine from Wiggly wigglers to set things up, worms, bedding moisture mat etc. I still give them some worm treat and add the stuff that keeps it alkaline occasionally. They ate the moisture mat so I just put a newspaper on top of their food now.

A layer of compost would probably be a good start if you don't want to buy the bedding. I put a few leaves in too out of my leaf mould bin. I keep the tap at the bottom open all the time so the "worm wee" drains into a tub underneath ready for bottling and the wormery doesn't get too wet.

Keep adding non acidic kitchen waste regularly and the worms should be very happy and productive.

How strict are you about what you put into it?

This is a very interesting thread, I'm away to Spain on Sunday for three weeks when I get back I think I will set one up

I don't put onions, or citrus peel in, but they get through just about everything else. It gets processed faster if you chop it up a bit first. I also add a small amount of crushed egg shells, torn up toilet roll tube or other thin plain cardboard. Don't add too much at a time until the worms get established.

PLUMPUDDING, what's the longest, in your view, you should leave them without feeding them? Is it ok to go away for a long weekend? A week?

It takes them a couple of weeks to get through newly added food, obviously depending on how many worms and how much food you add. You could leave them for a month if you gave them a good helping before you went away.

You won't get vast quantities of worm compost like you would from a compost heap, but it is fine, moist and gives a boost to everything you add it to. The worm wee you collect underneath is great for watering house plants etc diluted a bit too.

Worms have arrived....let's see what happens.

GIB » Mon Jan 16, 2006 9:13 am

I know this is an old post but did anybody make this, if so was it succesfull?

I got my worms in June and started them off using some compost out of my normal compost bin and they seem to be happy (or at least I can still see worms in there).