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Hi
Another composting question.

Do you think this will work?

i have a can-o-worms worm composter.  I have tried twice in the past to get it up and running but have managed to kill off the worms both times.   now it only has 2 legs and is thrown behind my shed.

I was wondering that i could set it up without the legs, on the ground next to my other composters put in some bedding and some waste and see if that will encourage the worms in.  It has a mesh bottom to each layer so they would be able to crawl through.  Obviously i would not be able to collect any liquid feed.  But atleast i would be getting some use out of it.

Paula

i have had a can-o-worms for four years now. i have experienced no probs. mostly i use the worms for fishing.
but i must admit i have a freind who keeps hosses so every now and then i have a mix up with his worm ridden well matured muck .
i have had some really good worm cast from it .
why not stand it on breeze blocks or some such.

diring the winter i tend to shred in about twenty percent of total volume with shredded paper. i like to keep it tuned every month or so just to keep it moving around.
it has proved sturdy and reliable having been moved a number of times.

dont give up on it as it is worth the time.
regards.
peterpiper

I've had a can-o-worms for 4 years now. It's working really well for me although I found it quite slow to compost wastes. They cannot keep up with all the vegetable scraps we produce so I try not to fill it too much. The worm cast they produce is fantastic.
Why not try it again from scratch? Wiggly Wigglers sell worms, I'm sure. I think worms they provide are the best kind (species) for wormery. I have to say though, I didn't like emptying the worms from the bag when I set it up! ::)

Ours has been going seven or 8 years now, just had to stand all the legs in water to counter an ant invarsion. It gets moved 3 times a year, it's in the greenhouse at the mo. will go into a sunny spot outside soon, and then to a shady one in summer.

Those worms must be pretty inbred by now, I've noticed none of them have foreheads :)

I've had mine for about 9 months now, poor little blighters are not enjoying the cold at all, but are hanging on in there. They've almost filled the bottom tray, so I would agree that they are slow to establish and also slow to compost stuff, but maybe this summer they'll really get going?

However, I have quite a lot of the little white parasitic worms in my Can-o-worms, does anyone have any suggestions for either limiting their numbers or even getting rid of them?

thanks,

Niamh

Found this while I was reading:

"You will often find that there is a large quantity of tiny white worms on the food in your bin. These could be mistaken for baby worms, but they are actually Enchytraeids. They are also called 'Potworms' or 'White Worms'.

These worms will not harm your redworms, and are actually composters too. Their presence could indicate that the worm bin is slightly acidic. Keeping a few broken egg shells in the bin at all times will help prevent this.

If you find their numbers annoying, place melon skins or bread soaked in milk on the surface of the bin, then lift out when covered in the white worms and dispose of them. Repeating this procedure several times will at least reduce the population."

Common_Clay,

ta for that, I had read about the bread part before, but did not realise that they were composters themselves! I have been adding plenty of crushed egg shells, but I suppose it's time to whip out the litmus paper and check the acidity!

brilliant, another worm worry assuaged,

Niamh

Quote from: Tora on April 08, 2006, 19:46:18
I've had a can-o-worms for 4 years now. It's working really well for me although I found it quite slow to compost wastes. They cannot keep up with all the vegetable scraps we produce so I try not to fill it too much. The worm cast they produce is fantastic.
Why not try it again from scratch? Wiggly Wigglers sell worms, I'm sure. I think worms they provide are the best kind (species) for wormery. I have to say though, I didn't like emptying the worms from the bag when I set it up! ::)

Hi, I've been reading about these being slow to produce compost, etc. When you say they have trouble keeping up with the waste you put in, is this because you don't have enough worms? I thought they established themselves according to your waste output so that they could cope with it.

  I'm not so sure now that this would be as benificial as orginally thought... we have quite a bit of waste.

Hi Common_Clay :)
I end up filling the top tray before the bottom tray is composted. There is only me and my OH but we do consume lots of vegetables... I think I have quite many worms in my can-o-worms but they still cannot keep up with the waste. I don't really feel that they adjust their population depending on how much waste I put in but maybe they do.  ???
Having said that I can recommend can-o-worms. The system is simple and the wormcast is beautiful! Really rich stuff so I use it like fertiliser rather than potting compost.

Thanks a lot Tora for that... can I ask though, when you bought your Can-O-Worms, did you get it with the 1000 worms that I see it often comes with now on some sites? Apparently it can hold up to 6000 worms!!!

I've just checked Wiggly Wigglers' website. It seems the one I bought was Can-o-worms with value pack... so I suppose I got 1000 worms! To be honest I have no idea how many worms are in my can-o-worms! ??? The one thing I noticed was though that the worms when they arrived were really tiny (didn't even look like worms) and now I have big, fat, grown-up ones! ;D

Yeah, the big ones eat more. They also eat more when it's hot -which is why ours are in the greenhouse now. I think they can get too hot though, so they go into the shade -conveniently by the back door- in full summer.

With the white worms I asked wiggley wigglers -they're very helpfull- and they said it could be a sign that things were too wet, so I put some shredded paper in, which seemed to help.

Thanks for the advice. So, I'm on the look out for big worms... :)