Topic: Wormery question

[Common_Clay]

Hi all,

       After having a look on the internet at different types of wormeries I was wondering what types people had experience with?

  I've seen the ones that look more or less like a normal sort of bin with a tap for the liquid feed at the bottom and information that says they need emptying twice a year and will produce 90 litres of compost each time.

  The one I'm particularly interested in though is the Can-O-Worms with the different layers, but I can't seem to find any information on how much compost this would produce... can anyone help, please?

  Also, I read somewhere else on here that worms breed quickly, but how quickly is quickly and how do you know when you have too many? And what do you do with them if there are too many, just put them on the allotment?

  Right, that's all I was going to ask.  :D ;) Thanks!

[derbex]

We've had a can-o-worms for years amd it works well. I think the amount of compost you get out depends on how much you put in and how well worked it is. We get maybe 25 litres/year -it's very rich stuff -much more so than normal compost- you can top dress things like toms. with it or use it in potting mixtures, we could probably double this if we put our minds to it.. There is a lot of liquid produced that we use for liquid/foliar feeding -dilute it about 10:1 until it looks like weak tea.

I don't think it matters what sort of wormery you use, the amount of compost you get depends on the amount of waste you have.

The worms sort their own numbers out -if you feed them more you get more worms- less and you get less, it takes a few weeks - months for them to breed up to the right amount for your waste. If you take some out then they will make the numbers up over time.

[Common_Clay]

Hi derbex,
 
              Thanks a lot, good to hear yours has lasted years. Would you say you top it up daily with kitchen waste? I would be, more or less, so hope I'd get quite a bit from it.
  One thing though, if for whatever reason I no longer needed the wormery, what could be done with the worms, would it be fine to just let them go into the ground? I've read that these are not normal ground worms.

Many thanks :)

[derbex]

No, we don't really get enough to feed them every day probably every 2 or 3 at the most (a small ice-cream tub full), if you can work up to that youget more than us.

They like decomposing stuff rather than earth, so bung them ooon someone's compost heap, they will live in the soil though -they will find their way to a good spot over time.

[Common_Clay]

Ok, thanks a lot for that derbex. Since my Dad's been going to Slimming World and is more or less living like a rabbit for breakfast and lunch, we've got absolutely loads of kitchen waste and our small brown kitchen bin from the council is more or less full every couple of days or so. Seems like a waste to give it to the council though! ;)

[derbex]

They'll love it -mine get lot's of tea-bag tea and coffe grounds -so they're all wired ;D

[kitty]

i had  a home made wormery for quite a while...the,after the novelty wore off and i was a bitcheesed off with faffing about with it-i put them into our 2 big enclosed plastic compost bins-they are as happy as larry,i am as happy as larry and they sort themselves out-if my kid wasmore interested in them it would have worked out better,but he isnt. ???


i dunno-26 year olds just cant get into wormerys! ;D

i get great gobbits of them-in fact i think the worms are so happy they spend their days ..ahem!...making more worms rather than compost!
kitty
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