Topic: Worms and Worm castings

[jesssands]

Does anyone here use either/or?

I would appreciate if anyone has any information.

I have 3 compost bins dalek type, wondering if it would be a good thing to buy in more worms and then ask the canteen at work to save green waste

your thoughts please.......   ;)

[Eristic]

If you have to buy worms you are doing it all wrong.

[kenkew]

There's worms for this and different worms for that.... :)

[Tin Shed]

Worms will find their way in there - they don't generally need much help.

[woppa30]

As already said the bradling (tiger, whatever) will find their own way and multiply rapidly if there is enough food and the conditions such as temp, and moisture are right.
As for saving "green" waste from the canteen, this could work really well as long as its not cooked food, this will just attract vermin.
Hope this helps,
Woppa

[Baccy Man]

As for saving "green" waste from the canteen, this could work really well as long as its not cooked food, this will just attract vermin.

Rats & mice will eat raw or cooked foods & even if you avoided all food waste they would happily eat the worms. Avoiding cooked food will not make a difference. Worms are just as happy to eat cooked food as they are to eat raw food so their is no reason to avoid it.

[star]

And make sure you add plenty of browns (paper, cardboard) and either manure, soil or soiled pet/chicken bedding in layers to your heap. Or you will end up with a slimy, stinky goo.

Apologies if you already know that :)

[jesssands]

I was just wondering that if I was to add a load of extra stuff wether I would need to add more worms. thus making more compost.
It does seem to take a long time to "melt down" as it were, wonder if I've not got it quite right. Don't get me wrong there are worms there, cos we keep finding them round the lids when we take them off, we just flick them back in.
As I have the 3 bins, would it be better that I put all the raw stuff in the 1st one, leave it for a while and turn and transfer to the second and then again to the third?

[Baccy Man]

If you increase the amount of available food the worms will breed more you do not need to add anymore worms.

If the worms are gathering around the lid it suggests that either it is too wet adding card or paper would help or there is not enough air in the heap so it needs turning, transferring the contents from 1 bin to another adding some layers of screwed up paper or card as you go to create air pockets would probably be the easiest way to do that.

[jesssands]

Thanks guys,
I must also remember to add the soil, I do it but maybe not often enough maybe. Also I seive the soil to rid the stones, is this a good idea? Would you say a layer of soil with every paper and green layer, 1, 1 and 1?
screwed up paper is best then? I used to do that then I was told somewhere that it was better shredded?
I can feel a plan coming on tomo, playing in the compost bins as I have a day off work!
OH keeps taking the bloody lids off when its raining, I must stop his behavior! Esp since I've just had to go on a hike to retreive the lid back.
sounds like a good idea to get the canteen veg peelings etc tho eh
Thanks for your help.

[Baccy Man]

You don't need to add layers of soil, one shovel full of garden soil or homemade compost in a new heap will be more than sufficient to introduce the psychrophilic, mesophilic & thermophilic bacteria required for composting.

I would alternate between layers of green waste & paper/card or shredded twiggy bits.

Shredded paper breaks down faster but screwed up paper creates air pockets which means little or no turning is required.

[dtw]

I put a tub of dendrabena worms in mine several months ago and they breeding faster than rabbits.
They look the same as earthworms, but are smaller.
You can get them from fishing tackle shops for a couple of quid.

I didn't have many worms in my garden to start with as the soil is so poor.
Its 6 inches of 'topsoil' on top of builder's rubble.  :(

[jesssands]

Had a morning in the compost bins.    :P  :P  :P  :P
Well I must be doing something right, cos when I took them all appart they were absolutely crawling with worms. Took out the stuff at the bottom that was all looking like soil threw it on the garden.
Turned the rest and mixed it back up, put back in the bins. So have 2 bins of half rotted down and one bin of fresh. I took a bucket of some middley bit of the bin where all the worms were hiding and put that in the fresher bin.
Now, with regard to collecting green stuff from work. Would it be better to keep all 3 bins active with fresh greens or keep adding to one at a time?
I can also get an endless supply of paper/card matter as OH is the recycle man at the work place anyway.
Thanks......

[Baccy Man]

If you stick to filling just one bin at a time it will make the emptying easier.
Fill one bin up with alternate layers of paper/card & green waste then move onto the next by the time you have filled the third bin the first one will be completely broken down so you can empty it completely & start again.

Tell OH to keep an eye out for corrugated cardboard boxes worms always seem to prefer them to paper, they're a pain to screw up though.

If you end up with too many worms you can sell them on ebay as compost or fishing worms, I know a few people that make a lot of money doing that.