I've been looking at loads of info about setting up a wormery to compost kitchen waste, and am really interested in having one. trouble is, the ones I've seen seem really expensive to buy. Has anyone made their own? If so, would you share your design? My friend has just donated an old plastic compost bin to the cause, and I feel this might be the perfect start for a home made wormery.
There is alink somewhere on this site for making your own for a fraction of the cost of a commercial wormery. You still need to buy a pack of worms to start you off but it cuts the cost dowen considerably.
try...
http://www.troubleatmill.com/wormbin.htm
Don't do it myself but several friends do and they rave about how fast the material gets turned by the worms, much faster than waiting for the natural microbial process.
I use the 'Dalek' type of bin, green plastic with a push on lid. It works fine, but you miss out on being able to collect the liquid manure the worms produce, but I get over this by planting runner beans on canes surrounding three sides of the bin, so they get the nutrients. All I do is put in a 30cm. layer of dry strawy type of vegetation on the soil in the bottom, and put a semi-circle of soil over half of this about 5cm. deep, and on the other semi-circle of exposed straw I put my kitchen waste to get it going. You will then be able to buy, beg or collect the Tiger worms you need to start the process digesting. To start with just throw the waste into one side to give the worms a chance to migrate from feeding area to breeding area, but this seems to sort itself out. Once in a while I sprinkle a handful of calcified seaweed meal over the last bucket of fresh waste I've just tipped in, and this helps keep acidity down. I have also made my own worm bin by stacking old tyres that I have cut the walls off and turned inside out to make nesting rings that you can build up to 6 high and cover with a bin lid. Works a treat, and is easy to take apart to get at the worm compost.
Brian
Here's the A4A link on home-made:
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/yabbse/index.php/topic,516.0.html
We were talking about wormerys in the 'Kept Animals' section "WORMS" - Derbex told us he'd had one for 8 yrs.......got experts in everything here ;D
Just tried that link - well, it's not working for me. :o (& my expertise isn't in IT ::) ) Check the WORMS thread - remember I trawled back & found the original posting & gave the reference - page 80+ in 'Basics' from memory..
Cheers!
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,28/topic,8457.0
Some of my pics are missing. But I think you'll get the idea.
here are some plans for an absolutly massive bin!
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~compost/binplans.html
but I just uses 4 or 5 simple soil sieves I bought down the pound shop. I build a tower inside one of those plastic bins and then the worms climb up into the next sieve when they have exhausted the contents of the one below. The advantage of this is that you can tip the bottom container out and then just put it on the top with a mixture of fresh veg waste and soil
(see link below)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50794154@N00/58968409/in/set-1385790/
That would be a bottomless bin, John?
I was planning to make one out of a small wheelie bin. Can I use the worms out of my compost bin, rather than buying special ones?
Copied this from some-place.
Making Wormeries
To start a wormery you first need the right type of worm. Those great fat earthworms won't do the job efficiently; they are too sleepy and don't eat enough. You need the little red worms commonly found in the manure pile, Eisenia foetida, or Lumbricus rubellus as an alternative. Rubellus is the most likely one to be found living in your garden, but it needs plenty of organic matter to survive. It has red and buff coloured stripes, and the adult is between one and a half and three inches long. Believe it or not, it can live for up to fifteen years. It can be purchased at fishing tackle shops, or alternatively, to be sure of getting the right species, it can be obtained through those gardening magazines.
If you have daleks, you should find the right sort of worm in there.
Having paid for our worms (well ok it was a present), there are loads in my compost heaps on the allotment. Although funnily enough not in the ones at home?
Much the same sort of size as earthworms -maybe a bit smaller, but much redder and more pointed at the ends.
Really good for kitchen scraps -especially when the weather's warm. In the spring I move the bin to the back door.
Jeremy
Thanks so much for all the info. This site is a wealth of knowledge. I'm going to combine all the ideas and improvise using the dalek-style compost bin I've had donated.
There is a good book called"Worms eat my garbage" by Mary Appelhof
I have read that and I am just about to start a vermicompost system.
Apparently the soil dwelling species of worm do not make enough compost. Red worms are supposed to be the best and you can buy from the internet but I have not got that far yet.
Scientific name is Eisenia fetida. They can be found in abundance in horse manure.
But there are many different sorts to choose from. I did wonder if you could buy from a fishing shop.
Rosemary
Wriggle wrigglers is a good place to get exactly the right 'red wrigglers' to produce vermiculite. Got the URL some place....
http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/
They'll package your worms and post 'em just when you're all set up and ready for 'em. Beauty of it is, once you get started you produce your own worms and never have to buy new ones!
Quote from: kenkew on February 02, 2006, 16:27:45
Wriggle wrigglers is a good place to get exactly the right 'red wrigglers' to produce vermiculite.
Usually takes about 1.5 billion years to make vermiculite, though, so you may have a bit of a wait :P
The Wiggly Wiggler thing is really good, albeit quite expensive compared with making your own.
A GP friend of ours has one. She came back from a late night callout. To avoid waking the children when she got back, she left the light off and took her shoes off. Unfortunately, quite a lot of worms had escaped from the wormery and she only discovered this by walking on them.
Ours is a 'Can O Worms' from Wiggly Wigglers. And the worms are the same as the ones in horse muck.
I have to say it's the juice that we get most of, rather than the compost.
Jeremy
This sounds like a great idea, and one I'd love to try out. I just have one (perhaps daft) question: if you use the system where you have a box with holes in it above a tank to collect the worm "tea", what's to stop the worms falling into the tank below? Do they just know they've reached the bottom, or do you have to keep fishing them out of the tea!?
http://www.troubleatmill.com/wormbin.htm
Thanks kenkew, I must've somehow glossed over that last bit of the instructions on that website!
The trouble with those cheap boxes from poundland is they are very UV sensitive, and soon become brittle if left in the sun. Work well in Manchester though!
Brian