Can O Worms Disaster?

[neilp6777]

Hi everyone, this is my first post and it has come at a time of need!

I have a concrete parking space, but no garden, so I've been using a Can o Worms. I'll summarise how I've used it so far, then explain the problem. I bought it in November and put the worms in, then gradually filled the first tier up with food scraps straight from the kitchen. No onions, citrus, etc though. The worms loved this and seemed very happy. After that I have been filling up tiers 2 and 3 with food that has been fermented in a bokashi bin first. Admittedly, I did put loads of the bokashi scraps in the bin in one go. Until January the can o worms was outside in the rain (with a raincap on) but has since been moved into a shelter.

The problems are as follows:

Since switching to the bokashi stuff the worms don't seem interested, in fact they're hardly moving into tier 2 and 3, preferring to stay in tier 1.

Secondly, I thought I had been draining the sump at the bottom, but it seems the tap had got blocked. I left it open for a while yesterday, and suddenly half a bucket or more of water poured out. It contained a couple of hundred worms which had drowned.

So my questions are:

Has anyone had success with using bokashi scraps in a wormery?

Did I put too much food in too fast?

Is the sump tap on the can o worms prone to blocking? Any tips to prevent?

Thanks and sorry for the long winded post.

Neil

[Chantal]

I'm about to start adding Bokashi compost so I'll get back to you on that one but as a general principle you shouldn't add masses at any one time.

My can-o-worms sump blocks up all the time so I now leave the tap open with a bucket underneath.

[John]

Please excuse my ignorance but what is Bokashi?
Can I put it on my cornflakes?

John

[Chantal]

I wouldn't advise it It's an effective micro-organism compost bin that you fill with layers of any kind of food, including cooked, meat, fish, catfood etc and sprinkle with layers of EM bran. Once it's full you squash it down as far as possible (it works better anaeroibically) and leave it for a fortnight. After this you can put it in your wormery or compost bin or can dig a hole and stick it in the garden. No smell. Allegedly no rats and another way of avoiding landfill.

http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/shop/

Click on Bykoshi EmPowered

(the link is way too long for here)

[Mr Potato Head]

I've heard that Wiggly Wigglers are pretty good about customer support... if you phone / contact them, they may be able to help you out! Let us know if they do...

[neilp6777]

Thanks for all the tips.

Chantal, what was your nozzle blocked with? (sorry for the personal question )

I actually bought my can o worms and my bokashi bins from Wiggly Wigglers. They said it would be fine to put bokashi-fermented food in the wormery. I wanted to do that because I had far too much "fresh" food to go striaght in the wormery, and I hoped by bokashi-fermenting it the worms would get through it quicker. Instead, it seems the food rotted so fast the worms lost interest. I have emailed Wiggly Wigglers but have had no answer.

An update too... I have removed tier 3, and all the rotten food. I took out some of the rotten food from tier 2 too, mixing in some fresh food and some shredded egg boxes. Almost straight away worms have moved up into it - hurrah! I think one lesson I have learnt is that if food goes completely rotten, the worms won't like it. Actually, I seem to remember reading that in one of my worm books.

[Chantal]

Hi Neil

My worm sump just seems to get blocked with sludge; there's nothing obvious. Several times I've had to scoop out the fluid with a jug and WOW does it smell strong Once I've had the level right down I've flushed the whole thing out under the tap but there's nothing obvious that's causing the blockage; just sludge.

As far as contacting Wiggly Wigglers, I have found emailing to be useless but they are fantastic if you phone them up and ask for help.

[neilp6777]

Well, the smell when I emptied a bucket of brown liquid full of 200 dead worms was horrendous! Everytime I open the back door I still get a waft of it!

On a technical note, I'm ready to harvest my first lot of compost (or at least see if it's ready to be harvested). I want to lift tier 2 off, then take tier 1 off so I can put tier 1 on top of teir 2 (to send the worms downwards). Any tips on where I can rest a tier, whilst I'm doing something else. I'm worried if I just plonk it on the ground I'll kill even more worms.

Also, when I take all the tiers off, what am I likely to find in the base - just a few worms and some liquid? (and worm corpses no doubt!)

Any tips on harvesting in general would be great. Thanks.

Oh, I've just checked my Can O Worms bookelt and worms won't eat waste that is too putrid. So, if I try bokashi scraps again, I'll put a tiny amount in at a time. Hope that saves you making the same mistake as me.

[lynne]

hello, I'm lynne, and this is my first post on KG. Do help yourself to one of my home grown peaches!

I was given a can o worms from someone who no longer needed theirs. Just the Can, no worms, no bedding.
I've made my own bedding from shredded newspaper, soaked thoroughly, and yesterday tipped .5 kg of dendro worms onto it, covered then with damp newspaper, and wished them bon appetit!. Depsite reading the Can o worms bumf from cover to cover, I can't see when I can start feeding them kitchen scraps! Fearing an early onset of dementia I asked my lovely partner Alex to read it through too, and he too can't see it either. It says that it can take 3 months to reach working level 2, but makes no mention of adding a little food to working level 1 after x time.
Please can anyone help? I don't want my new babies to starve!

many thanks
lynne and alex

[Chantal]

Hi Lynne and welcome

My Can-o-Worms arrived with a small bag of potting compost like substance which went in immediately. I then gave them a few peelings etc and let them get started on this for a few days before adding a larger amount of scraps on a regular basis. As long as you don't overwhelm them you should be OK.

What peaches

[neilp6777]

When I bought my COW complete with bedding material, I started to feed them straight away. Initially the worms eat the bedding material, but soon start to eat the food too. Basically, put a few handfuls of food in, and once you see them crawling over the food and leaving worm casts (poo) then you know they've started on the food. Also, make sure you have a moisture mat on top of everything, this can either be the purpose made stuff from Wiggly Wigglers (by it by the meter it's cheaper) or an old pure wool jumper. Lastly, check the base layer regularly - as you'll see from my experience it can quickly get flooded. I put loads of screwed up newspaper in the base now, absorbs liquid and heps worms climb out.

[lynne]

I wonder, can you use hessian as a moisture mat? At the moment I'm using damp newspaper - one of the chaps on Gardeners Corner forum said that's what they use.
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll tootle up to the can shortly and add some old teabags - Yummy (I think!)

[lynne]

I've just been up to the wormery to show Alex all the casts they've produced already! And I thought I would check the collecting tray to make sure all was well there too. Imagine my horror to see lots of worms languishing there should I rescue them and put them back in the working tray, or will they make their own way back up there?
Help!

[neilp6777]

Worms are natural explorers, so there will always be a few up in the lid or down in the sump. As long as you check regularly for liquid (which will stop them being able to crawl back into the main chambers) they'll be fine down there. They crawl up the cone in the centre to get back into the food area.

Newspaper and a hessian should both be fine as a moisture mat. The newspaper will need replacing more often I guess. I buy the moisture mat by the metre which is pretty cheap. I cut each metre square into four 50cm square pieces. Each one of these is the riqht size for the COW (obviously the corners needed to be tucked in a bit).

The worms crawl through the moisture mat or bury themselves in it. My only concern about newspaper is that it forms a complete barrier, so the worms can only get on top via the edges. If you want a really cheap option, get old woolen jumpers from the charity shop - they'll work a treat.

[lynne]

so far there's only a tiny bit of liquid in the indented parts of the wormery, certainly not a swimming pool!
I must appear very solicitous about my babies, and I am! I can't bear to think of any of them dying as a result of my negligence
I'll take myself off to a charity shop tomorrow for a jumper or two!
Thanks for the advice