| Article Index |
|---|
| Earthworm Composting with Red Wigglers |
| Starting a bin |
| Harvesting |
| Reproduction |
| Worm Castings |
| Feeding Red-Wigglers |
| Common Worm-farm Problems |
| All Pages |
Page 2 of 7
- Starting a Bin
- Line the worm farm with wet newspaper.
- Fill half the bin with bedding materials.
- A few handfuls of soil should be added to the bedding to supply a "grit" to aid in the worm's digestion process and to introduce helpful digesting micro-organisms into the bin.
- Add the worms to the bedding material.
- Make sure the worm bin has a lid. This helps prevent the worm bin from drying out, helps keep “undesirables” out and helps keep the light out.
- Layers of unshredded newspaper, Hessian or cotton fabric should be placed over the bedding and it acts as an additional covering.
- Your worm farm should be kept moist (the consistency of a damp sponge is ideal), especially in hot and windy weather.
- Feeding the worms
Start by adding food scraps regularly in small amounts. Put the food into the worm
farm underneath the newspaper, carpet or Hessian. Be careful to not overfeed your
worms. Only feed them once they have partly eaten their previous food. The secret
is not too much of any one thing – worms like a varied diet just like people do!
Worms also don’t have teeth, so if you chop or mash your food scraps it will be
eaten quicker. Pick a new spot each time.
- Worms will eat:
· Most Fruit & Vegetable Scraps & Peels (except citrus fruits, onion, garlic and chilli).
· Tea bags/tea leaves.
· Coffee grounds and filters.
· Crushed Eggshells provide calcium.
· Newspaper, cardboard, egg cartons and pizza boxes (shredded and soaked).
· Old flowers and small amounts of garden waste.
· Pasta (No Meat) & Rice
· Bread & Cereal (ideal to moisten before adding)
· Hair and small amounts of dust from vacuum cleaner
- Worms don’t like (i.e. avoid feeding these to your worms):
· Onions, garlic, citrus fruits (oranges, lemons, limes, mandarins) and chillis – worms
breathe through their skin and these are too acidic for them.
· Meat
· Seafood
· Dairy products (milk, cheese)
· Oil
· Too much bread, pasta and rice
· Pet droppings (some people do feed their worms these)
- Harvesting
After about 6-8 weeks (this can be longer depending on how many worms you start
with and the seasons) you will notice that there is less bedding material and the
worm farm will start filling up with dark, crumbly worm castings at the bottom part of
the worm farm. When your bin has built up sufficient casting the castings or worm
compost can be harvested.
- There are various techniques to harvest compost
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