I have committed myself to buying a worm farm with this coming pay packet.

The market research I have done so far has yielded the following:

Wazza’s worm farm: $67.95

Can o’ worms: $82.55

I forgot to go to another garden place, could always do that tomorrow.

Can o’ worms is round-ish, and Wazza’s is rectangular.

There appear to be more testimonials from the worms on the Can’o‘worms packaging than on Wazza’s, but I kinda like the name “Wazza”

As we have a business in town, I prefer to buy local.

“make your own” is not an option: prolly after getting a commercial worm farm up and running, but not just now.

Advice please.

Hi Dinetta,

We have two Can-o-Worms farms at work and they’re working out AOK.

I have a rectangular one at home (not Wazza – RELN brand) and I’m not overly happy with this one as the drainage tap sits above the bottom of the farm – whereas in the Can-O-Worms the tap is the lowest part.

The only other thing that I think would be much different is the weight of a tray when full – if one of them is much smaller than the other you might be tempted to see this as a bad thing, but those trays get pretty ehavy when they fill up… the RELN ones are a struggle for me..

With Can-O-Worms you have to remember to put the lid on “right” – at work we’ve drawn on it with white out to make it easier to notice as at first glance it’s just a round lid on a round farm – but actually there are little nooks in the lid that need to line up with the handles of the top tray.

Also have you checked whether either/both of those prices include worms? Worms are expensive these days =/

bon008 said:

Also have you checked whether either/both of those prices include worms? Worms are expensive these days =/

Thanks for all the information in the previous posts, Bon. I thought nobody was online so I doddled off and checked my email, etc.

I should imagine that worms are not in the price, will need to check the local paper…I think the people selling Wazza’s worm farm might know of someone…can always ask around…

i forgot the brand but, finally there was a more reasonably priced worm farm, at bunnings of all places. it was around $40, a 3 tier stacker one.

aquarium said:

i forgot the brand but, finally there was a more reasonably priced worm farm, at bunnings of all places. it was around $40, a 3 tier stacker one.

hmm that does sound like a good price.

I’ve got the rectangle one and it works ok…I could probably improve on the design though.
Height wise, I wish it was high enoungh to get my watering can under the tap. That would be really handy. And like Bon said the tap is in the wrong position, should be lower for better drainage.

I gave away a round one not long ago without ever trying it out…Been kicking myself for a while about that one :((

OK the round one it is…I have been looking them up on the internet as well, just for info, but all the tips I am getting from here are beaut and helpful, thanks all…

I’ve got the rectangular one. I have a length of timber under the back legs to drain the fluids to the front better.
I noted the legs required tek screwing to the base after a few years of abuse. Lost a few of the clips somewhere and just screwed it all together.
On a positive note, rectangles stack against a wall or in a corner better and therefore can take up less space and a newspaper fits in them nicely as a cover for the food. Or an old coir doormat or a heshian bag. Might require some shaping in a round one.

My worm farm is my whole garden.

same with my compost heap

Good timing, I was looking into this last week……have a look on ebay, there always on there

Rook

some local councils sell worm farms

bluegreen said:

some local councils sell worm farms

Worm farms and compost bins yep.

Good morning all…just popping in quickly before I head off to our bustling burgh…

It would appear that the shape of the farm is personal preference, there doesn’t appear to be any difference in function: that is to say, apart from the shape, one works as well as the other…

Going to have a look at another garden supplies shop this morning…just working out my budget before I spend it…good thing I keep my credit cards maxed (a daughter on each as a second card holder)…

There’s a couple of good links here…

and

uuhh, didn’t bookmark the other? BRB

well that little bit of html didn’t work

try here, and if the link is not clickable, go for cut’n‘paste into the address bar…

http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/the-dirt-on-wonder-worms/2008/06/10/1212863646387.html

Dinetta said:

well that little bit of html didn’t work

try here, and if the link is not clickable, go for cut’n‘paste into the address bar…

http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/the-dirt-on-wonder-worms/2008/06/10/1212863646387.html

I think Graeme Endean (the worm farmer) might be the son of one of my acquaitances from VIEW. I know her son is into sustainability (as she is) and she has a son Graeme I think, so there is every chance that it’s the same guy.

I’m with RB on this one, my garden is full of yummy worms, guaranteed every shovel load !!! and the new rose bed also got wormies LOL

The Estate said:

I’m with RB on this one, my garden is full of yummy worms, guaranteed every shovel load !!! and the new rose bed also got wormies LOL

Has always been the case with me.. I had to yell at my friends .. to make them stop coming to my garden to find worms for fishing with. :0

Most people have to put down a wet bag to get worms.. My mulch layer is often up to 300 mm thick.
Six inches of mulch will hold up to two inches of water.. or So Bill Mollison says. However I do believe he was talking about Tasmanian rainforest mulch.
I’d think he would have corrected that statement after working on introducing permaculture to African natives.

when your thermometer says 44ºC in the shade.. it is more likely 88ºC on the soil surface.. try the exercise sometime.. but watch it.. you can ruin thermometers this way.. I recorded 60ºC at between 9 and 10 AM., mid June.

One of my friends from Bangalow called me up and abused me after spending a week at White Cliffs with me in mid July.. he said; “you bastard.. I have got a sunburned nose due to looking for opal chips on that white ground. Nice bits of opal though. “

roughbarked said:

My worm farm is my whole garden.

same with my compost heap

Yes, but
(a) I don’t have time to bury the scraps
(b) the “garden” does not get watered unless it rains, so the worms shrivel up…this will not apply to the new vegetable beds of course…
© my compost heap heats ups too much, in winter the frogs like to sit on top of the heap and keep warm but inside the compost itself, it’s a furnace nearly all year round…

Dinetta said:

roughbarked said:

My worm farm is my whole garden.

same with my compost heap

Yes, but
(a) I don’t have time to bury the scraps
(b) the “garden” does not get watered unless it rains, so the worms shrivel up…this will not apply to the new vegetable beds of course…
© my compost heap heats ups too much, in winter the frogs like to sit on top of the heap and keep warm but inside the compost itself, it’s a furnace nearly all year round…

Your compost heap should be hot. It should be so hot you cannot poke a finger in it.

However there are such things as wandering heaps of garden refuse.. which are not composting so rapidly because they have not been properly constructed .. My wife often just needs a place to dump scraps just as I need a place to dump weeds. These get shovelled or forked around so they are like moblie windrows. They never get quite so hot because they are often loosely assembled.
If layered correctly they would most certainly heat up to kill worms type temperatures.

roughbarked said:

Dinetta said:

roughbarked said:

My worm farm is my whole garden.

same with my compost heap

Yes, but
(a) I don’t have time to bury the scraps
(b) the “garden” does not get watered unless it rains, so the worms shrivel up…this will not apply to the new vegetable beds of course…
© my compost heap heats ups too much, in winter the frogs like to sit on top of the heap and keep warm but inside the compost itself, it’s a furnace nearly all year round…

Your compost heap should be hot. It should be so hot you cannot poke a finger in it.

However there are such things as wandering heaps of garden refuse.. which are not composting so rapidly because they have not been properly constructed .. My wife often just needs a place to dump scraps just as I need a place to dump weeds. These get shovelled or forked around so they are like moblie windrows. They never get quite so hot because they are often loosely assembled.
If layered correctly they would most certainly heat up to kill worms type temperatures.

So what your saying rb is that you just dig your scraps and weeds into your garden/vegie garden?

Rook

Longy said:

I’ve got the rectangular one. I have a length of timber under the back legs to drain the fluids to the front better.
I noted the legs required tek screwing to the base after a few years of abuse. Lost a few of the clips somewhere and just screwed it all together.
On a positive note, rectangles stack against a wall or in a corner better and therefore can take up less space and a newspaper fits in them nicely as a cover for the food. Or an old coir doormat or a heshian bag. Might require some shaping in a round one.

Agreed. The legs are long gone from my rectangular one. It’s supported on bricks now. The round one is OK legwise. I think I’d be more in favour of the round one anyway, it has more layers than the other one.

If layered correctly they would most certainly heat up to kill worms type temperatures.

My compost heaps have worms in them after they’ve cooled off. If there are worms present in a new heap they just move off when the temperature rises, or so I’ve been told.

roughbarked said:

My worm farm is my whole garden.

same with my compost heap

I’d love to have a garden that full of worms. But in gutless sand you have to work at it for a while before you get there.. I get a few around the fruit trees now, but it’ll be a while before the rest of the sand has any moisture retention..

I’ve found the most amazing worms under piles of leaves that have been peacefully decomposing, year after year, with just rainfall to keep them damp. Not at my place, but up in my hometown where it’s red brigalow clay…these are mango leaves I’m speaking of…sort of like self mulching, self fertilizing mango trees.

I love my 2 round worm farms.. but whatever shape, they do need some ‘tweaking’ in order to work properly.
I have 2 lt ice cream containers with water under each leg, keeps ants out. Recyc water too, drop of bleach in, and I also cut rounds out of shade cloth and used 3 layers of that between the bottom trays , it keeps the taps from clogging. Like they are wearing little tutu’s.
Once I got those things sorted, no dramas at all.

Also, when I take off the bottom tray of worm casts, I just tip them into a shallow hole in a vege or fruit tree bed and cover with mulch..preparation for planting that part out. After a couple years of doing this regularly , all the garden beds that grow food have turned into big worm farms. I keep the straw and paper mulch up to them, and the worms feed on the mulch.

Here is a 2MB .pdf at the Can’o‘Worms website, which Rook might find helpful:

http://www.reln.com.au/pdfs/Can-O-Worms_Booklet.pdf

Happy Potter said:

I love my 2 round worm farms.. but whatever shape, they do need some ‘tweaking’ in order to work properly.
I have 2 lt ice cream containers with water under each leg, keeps ants out. Recyc water too, drop of bleach in, and I also cut rounds out of shade cloth and used 3 layers of that between the bottom trays , it keeps the taps from clogging. Like they are wearing little tutu’s.
Once I got those things sorted, no dramas at all.

Also, when I take off the bottom tray of worm casts, I just tip them into a shallow hole in a vege or fruit tree bed and cover with mulch..preparation for planting that part out. After a couple years of doing this regularly , all the garden beds that grow food have turned into big worm farms. I keep the straw and paper mulch up to them, and the worms feed on the mulch.

Those are good tips, thanks Happy Potter

:)

Dinetta said:

Here is a 2MB .pdf at the Can’o‘Worms website, which Rook might find helpful:

http://www.reln.com.au/pdfs/Can-O-Worms_Booklet.pdf

Thanks very much Dinetta, that is very helpfull

drop of bleach in,
+++++

My frogs won’t like that :(
Might have to do without bleach…

AnneS said:

Dinetta said:

well that little bit of html didn’t work

try here, and if the link is not clickable, go for cut’n‘paste into the address bar…

http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/the-dirt-on-wonder-worms/2008/06/10/1212863646387.html

I think Graeme Endean (the worm farmer) might be the son of one of my acquaitances from VIEW. I know her son is into sustainability (as she is) and she has a son Graeme I think, so there is every chance that it’s the same guy.

At times like this, the world seems very small…

I also cut rounds out of shade cloth and used 3 layers of that between the bottom trays
+++++++++++++

Happy Potter, are you saying that you use a layer of shadecloth between each level of the farm, or three layers of shadecloth between the bottom level and the next one up? Pardon me for being such a dumbkopf…Off to check my bank balances… :)

Dinetta said:

I also cut rounds out of shade cloth and used 3 layers of that between the bottom trays
+++++++++++++

Happy Potter, are you saying that you use a layer of shadecloth between each level of the farm, or three layers of shadecloth between the bottom level and the next one up? Pardon me for being such a dumbkopf…Off to check my bank balances… :)

Hi Dinetta :)
No not between each level.. I used the 3 rounds together on the collector tray, next tray pressed in nicely. It keeps the taps from clogging and the ww strained for using in a watering can. One round didn’t keep the ‘mud’ out of the collector tray , 2 were a bit better, but 3 perfect. I don’t have a lot of time to spend on the worm farms, so had to come up with ways to fix it. I’ll get a pic after.

Happy Potter said:

Dinetta said:

I also cut rounds out of shade cloth and used 3 layers of that between the bottom trays
+++++++++++++

Happy Potter, are you saying that you use a layer of shadecloth between each level of the farm, or three layers of shadecloth between the bottom level and the next one up? Pardon me for being such a dumbkopf…Off to check my bank balances… :)

Hi Dinetta :)
No not between each level.. I used the 3 rounds together on the collector tray, next tray pressed in nicely. It keeps the taps from clogging and the ww strained for using in a watering can. One round didn’t keep the ‘mud’ out of the collector tray , 2 were a bit better, but 3 perfect. I don’t have a lot of time to spend on the worm farms, so had to come up with ways to fix it. I’ll get a pic after.

Cool, thanks :)

I’ve got a worm farm! (Can’o‘worms – Longy’s comment re the extra level swayed me…)

I’ve got worms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (geez they’re not cheap!)

Worm Farm: $82.85
Worms: $46.62

Worms are Qld grown (firm is a WA firm), but I bought them because they come in a cardboard box, and I can recycle that over the plastic bucket…I picked them up in Bunnings at the Big Smoke today…

Both the Sonny’s wanted to set it up this afternoon, but I said “ not likely…I want to be in on the action when it happens”…

Have also bought a couple of small potato sacks (hessian bags ) $0.50 each…to put on top of the worms…

Oh, I am so “worm-sited”!!!

Awesome! Welcome to the addiction :D

You know it’s getting bad when you start naming them :)

bon008 said:

Awesome! Welcome to the addiction :D

You know it’s getting bad when you start naming them :)

that’s a lot of names :)

bluegreen said:

bon008 said:

Awesome! Welcome to the addiction :D

You know it’s getting bad when you start naming them :)

that’s a lot of names :)

Yes, isn’t it? I actually did this when I had guppies…could always pick out the Big Mumma somehow…I’m pleased to note that I don’t need to feed them straight away…as my vegetable scraps are mixed up with the onion skins, etc.

What about garlic? Do they not like garlic either?

bon008 said:

Awesome! Welcome to the addiction :D

You know it’s getting bad when you start naming them :)

Thanks Bon..Mr D even had a spot planned for them…I was going to put them there but I said in the carport (concrete floor) would probably be better ant-wise, to which MrD responded that we need to keep a careful eye on the temps…

We could always do the old canvas water bag trick…wet some hessian bags and drape them over the farm, and the breeze will perform nature’s airconditioning…remember the canvas waterbags on the bull bar, people?

Dinetta said:

bon008 said:

Awesome! Welcome to the addiction :D

You know it’s getting bad when you start naming them :)

Thanks Bon..Mr D even had a spot planned for them…I was going to put them there but I said in the carport (concrete floor) would probably be better ant-wise, to which MrD responded that we need to keep a careful eye on the temps…

We could always do the old canvas water bag trick…wet some hessian bags and drape them over the farm, and the breeze will perform nature’s airconditioning…remember the canvas waterbags on the bull bar, people?

It takes quite a run of really hot days to really make an impact. Usually just pouring through some extra water is enough.

Not sure about the garlic – don’t get a lot of garlic in the tearoom at work :)

bon008 said:

Dinetta said:

bon008 said:

Awesome! Welcome to the addiction :D

You know it’s getting bad when you start naming them :)

Thanks Bon..Mr D even had a spot planned for them…I was going to put them there but I said in the carport (concrete floor) would probably be better ant-wise, to which MrD responded that we need to keep a careful eye on the temps…

We could always do the old canvas water bag trick…wet some hessian bags and drape them over the farm, and the breeze will perform nature’s airconditioning…remember the canvas waterbags on the bull bar, people?

It takes quite a run of really hot days to really make an impact. Usually just pouring through some extra water is enough.

Not sure about the garlic – don’t get a lot of garlic in the tearoom at work :)

No worries, thanks Bon.

I’m off to read the can’o worms site again…

:)

Dinetta thats not good that you have worms you better get your self to the chemist and get a good worming tablet. _{Just joking.}

veg gardener said:

Dinetta thats not good that you have worms you better get your self to the chemist and get a good worming tablet. _{Just joking.}

LOL!

You want the brand of a quality worming tablet? I’m the expert…after 22 years and 5 kids I know what brand NOT to recommend anyway…LOLOL!!

Good formatting there, Veg Gardener.

I’ve got Sonny Joe on the other computer, eagerly awaiting the word “go”…but he needs breakfast first, and I need a coffee (or 2)…

Dinetta said:

I’ve got a worm farm! (Can’o‘worms – Longy’s comment re the extra level swayed me…)

I’ve got worms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (geez they’re not cheap!)

Worm Farm: $82.85
Worms: $46.62

Worms are Qld grown (firm is a WA firm), but I bought them because they come in a cardboard box, and I can recycle that over the plastic bucket…I picked them up in Bunnings at the Big Smoke today…

Both the Sonny’s wanted to set it up this afternoon, but I said “ not likely…I want to be in on the action when it happens”…

Have also bought a couple of small potato sacks (hessian bags ) $0.50 each…to put on top of the worms…

Oh, I am so “worm-sited”!!!

Yea Dinetta :)
You will be in full worm fertilizer production in a couple months :D
I use soaked newspaper on top of the foods. If the temp gets too hot, the worms will tend to move to the middle trays, where it’s cooler. They are one end of the fernery in shade though. A carport will do fine.
I’ve fed mine the worm fattening mix for a couple weeks now, by joves it works!, some bigger already. My son in law to be wants some for bait.
I need to harvest worms as the farms are at capacity , fling some to the chooks too :)
If I can find out how to package them for posting, I could send you more as well.

bon008 said:

Awesome! Welcome to the addiction :D

You know it’s getting bad when you start naming them :)

I got a christmas card from all the wormies I sent to Darwin. All named with names beginning with W LOL!!!

orchid40 said:

bon008 said:

Awesome! Welcome to the addiction :D

You know it’s getting bad when you start naming them :)

I got a christmas card from all the wormies I sent to Darwin. All named with names beginning with W LOL!!!

hehehehehe!! :)

I’ll stick this in here since it’s a wormy thread :)

Stressed-out worms tell farming tales

bon008 said:

I’ll stick this in here since it’s a wormy thread :)

Stressed-out worms tell farming tales

And we already new that without the science…lol

Dinetta said:

veg gardener said:

Dinetta thats not good that you have worms you better get your self to the chemist and get a good worming tablet. _{Just joking.}

LOL!

You want the brand of a quality worming tablet? I’m the expert…after 22 years and 5 kids I know what brand NOT to recommend anyway…LOLOL!!

Good formatting there, Veg Gardener.

I’ve got Sonny Joe on the other computer, eagerly awaiting the word “go”…but he needs breakfast first, and I need a coffee (or 2)…

lol, we have the worming tablets as well as we are always around Animals.

Happy Potter said:

Dinetta said:

I’ve got a worm farm! (Can’o‘worms – Longy’s comment re the extra level swayed me…)

I’ve got worms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (geez they’re not cheap!)

Worm Farm: $82.85
Worms: $46.62

Worms are Qld grown (firm is a WA firm), but I bought them because they come in a cardboard box, and I can recycle that over the plastic bucket…I picked them up in Bunnings at the Big Smoke today…

Both the Sonny’s wanted to set it up this afternoon, but I said “ not likely…I want to be in on the action when it happens”…

Have also bought a couple of small potato sacks (hessian bags ) $0.50 each…to put on top of the worms…

Oh, I am so “worm-sited”!!!

Yea Dinetta :)
You will be in full worm fertilizer production in a couple months :D
I use soaked newspaper on top of the foods. If the temp gets too hot, the worms will tend to move to the middle trays, where it’s cooler. They are one end of the fernery in shade though. A carport will do fine.
I’ve fed mine the worm fattening mix for a couple weeks now, by joves it works!, some bigger already. My son in law to be wants some for bait.
I need to harvest worms as the farms are at capacity , fling some to the chooks too :)
If I can find out how to package them for posting, I could send you more as well.

Thanks for the thought, Happy Potter…I mentioned to MrD that I needed another 1000…and he said “they breed up, don’t they?”…and I told him “eventually”…we will be a 3 person family shortly sniff Mr D says “two person”…I don’t know why he wouldn’t account for Sonny Jim (130kg) as a third person…fed 5 people tonight…getting good at calculating for numbers that yo-yo…

Dinetta said:

Happy Potter said:

Dinetta said:

I’ve got a worm farm! (Can’o‘worms – Longy’s comment re the extra level swayed me…)

I’ve got worms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (geez they’re not cheap!)

Worm Farm: $82.85
Worms: $46.62

Worms are Qld grown (firm is a WA firm), but I bought them because they come in a cardboard box, and I can recycle that over the plastic bucket…I picked them up in Bunnings at the Big Smoke today…

Both the Sonny’s wanted to set it up this afternoon, but I said “ not likely…I want to be in on the action when it happens”…

Have also bought a couple of small potato sacks (hessian bags ) $0.50 each…to put on top of the worms…

Oh, I am so “worm-sited”!!!

Yea Dinetta :)
You will be in full worm fertilizer production in a couple months :D
I use soaked newspaper on top of the foods. If the temp gets too hot, the worms will tend to move to the middle trays, where it’s cooler. They are one end of the fernery in shade though. A carport will do fine.
I’ve fed mine the worm fattening mix for a couple weeks now, by joves it works!, some bigger already. My son in law to be wants some for bait.
I need to harvest worms as the farms are at capacity , fling some to the chooks too :)
If I can find out how to package them for posting, I could send you more as well.

Thanks for the thought, Happy Potter…I mentioned to MrD that I needed another 1000…and he said “they breed up, don’t they?”…and I told him “eventually”…we will be a 3 person family shortly sniff Mr D says “two person”…I don’t know why he wouldn’t account for Sonny Jim (130kg) as a third person…fed 5 people tonight…getting good at calculating for numbers that yo-yo…

They do breed up, but that can take months. I will be happy to collect some when I lean how to post them, thats if you want any, especially as I have an excess. They are too expensive for familys to buy. To do the right thing and recycle costs more than ever now.

I’m terrible at cooking for 2 or 3! After 5 kids too, I always cook too much. The offloaded ones still come home to eat or collect though lol.
Negotiations continue with Giant Son over supplying him with freezer foods. He is lazy and doesn’t want to cook, but I will only sell him things that are part of the meal and he still has to cook something to complete the meal , eg cook pasta to go with bol sauce, rice to go with curry ect. We settled on $2 per one litre tub.

Happy Potter said:

Negotiations continue with Giant Son over supplying him with freezer foods. He is lazy and doesn’t want to cook, but I will only sell him things that are part of the meal and he still has to cook something to complete the meal , eg cook pasta to go with bol sauce, rice to go with curry ect. We settled on $2 per one litre tub.

That’s a very good idea. I’m surprised how few people know how to cook rice: we do the “absorbtion” method. This is a ratio of 2:1, being 2 of water to 1 of rice…white rice cooks in 20 mins, and brown rice takes 35 – 40…but you knew that didn’t you?

My children are just finding out that when you cook pasta, you have to watch it until it boils, then turn it down…or The Mum will Yell…even the dog tucks her tail under and bolts for the nearest open exit…

I took a torch out last night, a final check before I went to bed, and was able to report to the Boyz that the worms are “all over” the HP…going for another check now, as I think the hessian might need re-soaking…might not have done it properly yesterday…

They haven’t lost their charm yet, and everybody is contributing to the “worm feed”…I have been strictly informed by Fashionasta that I am not allowed to kill them…she wanted to know how the droppings got down to the catchment area…all of us with our knowledge of a full 24 hours worth, laughed at the question…I’m going to ask her if she wants to come and look next TV ads…

Drained the water out of the catchment tray…a good 6 litres….all from the setup I think…how often do you drain the worm wee normally?

Also, how chopped up do the vege scraps have to be?

glad you are having fun with it.

most people don’t bother about chopping the scraps.

Dinetta said:

They haven’t lost their charm yet, and everybody is contributing to the “worm feed”…I have been strictly informed by Fashionasta that I am not allowed to kill them…she wanted to know how the droppings got down to the catchment area…all of us with our knowledge of a full 24 hours worth, laughed at the question…I’m going to ask her if she wants to come and look next TV ads…

Drained the water out of the catchment tray…a good 6 litres….all from the setup I think…how often do you drain the worm wee normally?

Also, how chopped up do the vege scraps have to be?

The easiest way is to put a bucket under the tap and leave it open. The amount of water coming out depends on how much water you put in, and how moist the scraps are I guess.

The more chopped the better.. at work we use Lucky’s method – a bucket and a spade. Tea bags evade the spade and go in whole, but fruit scraps get fairly well squished.

roughbarked said:

glad you are having fun with it.

most people don’t bother about chopping the scraps.

I guess it depends on how many worms you have and how much scraps, but we found we got stacks and stacks of mould in the farms at work before we started chopping the scraps. Now we only get a bit of mould when the weather’s really hot..

Oh my worms are party animals, they come out at night to play…you don’t see them much after the day warms up a bit…I freshened the hessian yesterday by soaking with water again…will do it again today as we will be absent for about 6 days…they still have plenty of bedding and that coir stuff: the manure is disappearing.

I think I will chop up some reserved scraps and sprinkle them on top. If I leave some in a container in the fridge, Sonny Jim can feed them if necessary before he heads off to mind his uncle’s moos … I know they can live for a week or more with food left in their farm, but as these are brand-new (so to speak), I’m with the Boyz and would not like for them to go hungry…

Thanks for all the tips, folks…

OK, I have checked the worms after a week away, Sonny Jim provided them with vegetable scraps “just in case”…they lurve the banana skin…as a bedcover…

It would appear that they might be all present and correct…getting cheeky too, waving one end of themselves at me when I lift the hessian to check.

Can the bottom tray get too full? I put the coir block that came with the farm down as instructed, for “bedding”, then I added the worms in their coir and whatsit mix…we also put a thin layer of damp, well-rotted horse manure on top, so they wouldn’t go hungry.

I was looking at it this morning, and decided to go for a second layer / tray, but the bottom one is so full of solids that I can’t get the second tray to “sit” properly.

What should I do? Scrape away the bedding / worm mix, force the worms to cuddle in fear in a small space, then remove some mix until the “resting ribs” (?) come into view, and then place the second tray inside this, with the hessian on the second tray? Perhaps the scrapings could go on the second tray under the hessian bags?

I’m guessing I would not feed them until all food is gone, and then start again?

Dinetta said:

Can the bottom tray get too full? I put the coir block that came with the farm down as instructed, for “bedding”, then I added the worms in their coir and whatsit mix…we also put a thin layer of damp, well-rotted horse manure on top, so they wouldn’t go hungry.

I was looking at it this morning, and decided to go for a second layer / tray, but the bottom one is so full of solids that I can’t get the second tray to “sit” properly.

What should I do? Scrape away the bedding / worm mix, force the worms to cuddle in fear in a small space, then remove some mix until the “resting ribs” (?) come into view, and then place the second tray inside this, with the hessian on the second tray? Perhaps the scrapings could go on the second tray under the hessian bags?

I’m guessing I would not feed them until all food is gone, and then start again?

What you’ve outlined sounds good to me – empty out the bottom try until the next tray will sit flush, and then put what you took out of the bottom tray, into the top tray.

Bear in mind that once there is some food in the top tray to weight it down, it will often compress down the bottom tray, so it doesn’t have to be 100% flush. Having said that, our work farms usually have a small gap between trays (because we are impatient to harvest!! :D ) and the worms seem to cope OK.

Food I think you just need a while to get into the swing. I wouldn’t worry so much abotu the horse manure – I don’t think that would go off – but if there’s a lot of food scraps then yes, cut down until it has mostly gone.. I think!

bon008 said:

Dinetta said:

Can the bottom tray get too full? I put the coir block that came with the farm down as instructed, for “bedding”, then I added the worms in their coir and whatsit mix…we also put a thin layer of damp, well-rotted horse manure on top, so they wouldn’t go hungry.

I was looking at it this morning, and decided to go for a second layer / tray, but the bottom one is so full of solids that I can’t get the second tray to “sit” properly.

What should I do? Scrape away the bedding / worm mix, force the worms to cuddle in fear in a small space, then remove some mix until the “resting ribs” (?) come into view, and then place the second tray inside this, with the hessian on the second tray? Perhaps the scrapings could go on the second tray under the hessian bags?

I’m guessing I would not feed them until all food is gone, and then start again?

What you’ve outlined sounds good to me – empty out the bottom try until the next tray will sit flush, and then put what you took out of the bottom tray, into the top tray.

Bear in mind that once there is some food in the top tray to weight it down, it will often compress down the bottom tray, so it doesn’t have to be 100% flush. Having said that, our work farms usually have a small gap between trays (because we are impatient to harvest!! :D ) and the worms seem to cope OK.

Food I think you just need a while to get into the swing. I wouldn’t worry so much abotu the horse manure – I don’t think that would go off – but if there’s a lot of food scraps then yes, cut down until it has mostly gone.. I think!

Well written there Bon:D

Yes, I agree with Lucky, you explained the matter very well Bon008…thank you for your input

:)

Lucky1 said:

Well written there Bon:D

shuffle and blush

aww :)

bon008 said:

Lucky1 said:

Well written there Bon:D

shuffle and blush

aww :)

claps hands

I checked them at lunchtime today, and the top layer felt warmish, and the worms have all gone to the bottom layer (I fed them on the second layer last night)…unless of course they don’t like beetroot…

So I have left the lid off the farm. They have four layers of wet hessian between them and the elements…Mr D and I feel that the breeze blowing over this wet hessian will help to keep the farm cool…

Have been away for four days and they have eaten all their tucker…the top layer of hessian was a bit dryish to touch as I had the lid lifted by about 1/8th of an inch on two sides, to allow the hot air to escape if necessary…

This morning I soaked some old horse manure..)it’s a couple of weeks old I think…has been broken down by the dung beetles and is nice and “grassy”)…in some water and added that to the second feeder tray…the worms are fat, they have a little whitish bubble towards one end…however they were few in number so I lifted the first feeder tray to check the bottom tray…this has a shadecloth tutu like Happy Potter suggested, and there were many worms on it and it looks very wet…

Should I worry?

Also think I should add a sprinkle of lime as the vinegar flies appear to be more populous than the wormies…

Also think I should add a sprinkle of lime as the vinegar flies appear to be more populous than the wormies…
—————————————————
Reg sprinkle of dolomite lime is a good idea. Until you turn your farm into worm soup…. you always think there isn’t many worms.

Yes but Lucky why are the down the bottom level? Didn’t get to check this AM. If it wasn’t for the shadecloth keeping them off the bottom, they maybe would have drowned.

I have left the tap open in case it was too wet, altho’ with this lovely rain “event” we are having perfect weather for worms…but it was quite warm (I believe we got temps over 34C) over the weekend…

Will have a look at lunchtime, geez it’s a wonder they don’t get a complex with all my checking on them…

Dinetta said:

Yes but Lucky why are the down the bottom level? Didn’t get to check this AM. If it wasn’t for the shadecloth keeping them off the bottom, they maybe would have drowned.

I have left the tap open in case it was too wet, altho’ with this lovely rain “event” we are having perfect weather for worms…but it was quite warm (I believe we got temps over 34C) over the weekend…

Will have a look at lunchtime, geez it’s a wonder they don’t get a complex with all my checking on them…

The farm may have become too hot for them and so they headed downwards (instinctive) for relief. This is what my worms did and its was just too hot and they became worm soup.

Lucky1 said:

Dinetta said:

Yes but Lucky why are the down the bottom level? Didn’t get to check this AM. If it wasn’t for the shadecloth keeping them off the bottom, they maybe would have drowned.

I have left the tap open in case it was too wet, altho’ with this lovely rain “event” we are having perfect weather for worms…but it was quite warm (I believe we got temps over 34C) over the weekend…

Will have a look at lunchtime, geez it’s a wonder they don’t get a complex with all my checking on them…

The farm may have become too hot for them and so they headed downwards (instinctive) for relief. This is what my worms did and its was just too hot and they became worm soup.

Ah OK, thanks for that info…gee I wonder what I can do? We are away for several days at a time, so I need a plan for when the worms are unattended in hot weather…I did leave just the teensiest gap in the lid to allow the warm air to escape…am under pressure to place the farm under a very shady tree …a mature fiddlewood…nothing grows under it…this spot does catch more breezes and less reflected sunlight…

am under pressure to place the farm under a very shady tree…a mature fiddlewood…nothing grows under it…this spot does catch more breezes and less reflected sunlight…
—————————————————————————-
If you do this…. remember to make sure nothing is brushing from the tree against the farm….ants will use this to move in while your away. Legs in water containers and they sound like they’ll have a top spot.

Lucky1 said:

am under pressure to place the farm under a very shady tree…a mature fiddlewood…nothing grows under it…this spot does catch more breezes and less reflected sunlight…
—————————————————————————-
If you do this…. remember to make sure nothing is brushing from the tree against the farm….ants will use this to move in while your away. Legs in water containers and they sound like they’ll have a top spot.

Oh good, we’ll move them as soon as we can walk around instead of having to paddle…that tree is famous for ants, reckon they’re smart enough to drop off the branches onto the farm, but they’ll be easier to get along with than the heat.

Ants don’t eat worms, do they? Just the tucker?

Ants don’t eat worms, do they? Just the tucker?
—————————————
Oh yeah……. just watch ants eat a worm on the cement:(

Also the worm eggs will be under threat.

Lucky1 said:

Ants don’t eat worms, do they? Just the tucker?
—————————————
Oh yeah……. just watch ants eat a worm on the cement:(

Also the worm eggs will be under threat.

AAugh!!

sob

OK, might need to string a rotten old sheet in the tree and over the worm farm, high enough to allow the airflow but stop the ants falling directly on the farm…ice cream containers (aka toad coffins) will do for the farm feet…next farm (if there is a next one) will be the green jobbie from Wazza…

It was interesting in our heatwave…….the cream worm farm didn’t miss a beat….. 2 black ones….over heated.

I have put that down to the farms being black……

Thank goodness I have that other farm, as I can move some over and keep on going.

Lucky1 said:

It was interesting in our heatwave…….the cream worm farm didn’t miss a beat….. 2 black ones….over heated.

I have put that down to the farms being black……

Thank goodness I have that other farm, as I can move some over and keep on going.

I have a black can-0-worms farm. All the worms survived in the 40+ heat. Mind you I have the worm farm under the verandah, close to the brick wall. I think the a/c creates a cool zone along the verandah, so that may have contributed to them surviving??!! I also cut out a round bit of old carpet and wet it every 2nd->3rd day .

BatZ said:

Lucky1 said:

It was interesting in our heatwave…….the cream worm farm didn’t miss a beat….. 2 black ones….over heated.

I have put that down to the farms being black……

Thank goodness I have that other farm, as I can move some over and keep on going.

I have a black can-0-worms farm. All the worms survived in the 40+ heat. Mind you I have the worm farm under the verandah, close to the brick wall. I think the a/c creates a cool zone along the verandah, so that may have contributed to them surviving??!! I also cut out a round bit of old carpet and wet it every 2nd->3rd day .

Way to go BatZ :D Well done on looking after your little buddies.

Lucky1 said:

It was interesting in our heatwave…….the cream worm farm didn’t miss a beat….. 2 black ones….over heated.

I have put that down to the farms being black……

Thank goodness I have that other farm, as I can move some over and keep on going.

maybe you could paint the black ones white?

bluegreen said:

Lucky1 said:

It was interesting in our heatwave…….the cream worm farm didn’t miss a beat….. 2 black ones….over heated.

I have put that down to the farms being black……

Thank goodness I have that other farm, as I can move some over and keep on going.

maybe you could paint the black ones white?

I don’t know……. hhhhmmmmm

maybe you could paint the black ones white?
++++++++++++++++++==

Sounds good, as a last resort…

I’m getting a worm farm for my birthday, all i need then are the worms :-)

Rook

Rook said:

I’m getting a worm farm for my birthday, all i need then are the worms :-)

Rook

Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

I’d give you some for free if you were closer……..

Lucky1 said:

Rook said:

I’m getting a worm farm for my birthday, all i need then are the worms :-)

Rook

Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

I’d give you some for free if you were closer……..

Your very kind hearted Lucky, can’t you drive over :-)

Rook said:

Lucky1 said:

Rook said:

I’m getting a worm farm for my birthday, all i need then are the worms :-)

Rook

Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

I’d give you some for free if you were closer……..

Your very kind hearted Lucky, can’t you drive over :-)

Don’t drive….sorry ;P

It could be too that theres undigested foods in the bottom layer.
When I take off the bottom layer of casts theres always some worms in it.

Happy Potter said:

It could be too that theres undigested foods in the bottom layer.
When I take off the bottom layer of casts theres always some worms in it.

I’m talking of even further down than that…the level where the shadecloth tulle skirt is…

Dinetta said:

Happy Potter said:

It could be too that theres undigested foods in the bottom layer.
When I take off the bottom layer of casts theres always some worms in it.

I’m talking of even further down than that…the level where the shadecloth tulle skirt is…

Oh yep, they are in between the shadecloth layers in mine too. ( I have 3 layers of shade cloth)
When I take the trays apart for collecting the casts, I place the bottom tray on top of the upturned lid, and the shade cloth over the open worm farm. The worms in the cloth soon dissapear back into the farm, and the bigger worms still in the casts will drop into the lid..I give it a couple hours. Any worms left in the casts tray end up in the garden.

I hope they are breeding well for you :)

Happy Potter said:

Dinetta said:

Happy Potter said:

It could be too that theres undigested foods in the bottom layer.
When I take off the bottom layer of casts theres always some worms in it.

I’m talking of even further down than that…the level where the shadecloth tulle skirt is…

Oh yep, they are in between the shadecloth layers in mine too. ( I have 3 layers of shade cloth)
When I take the trays apart for collecting the casts, I place the bottom tray on top of the upturned lid, and the shade cloth over the open worm farm. The worms in the cloth soon dissapear back into the farm, and the bigger worms still in the casts will drop into the lid..I give it a couple hours. Any worms left in the casts tray end up in the garden.

I hope they are breeding well for you :)

Thanks for that, I get your drift…

I can’t tell if they are breeding up as yet, but they certainly like shacking up in the honeymoon suites (under the mango, banana and avo skins)…real old love-in going on there…

The old horse manure is being munched at a rate of knots, and hopefully I will be able to start saving the vegetable scraps again as of tonight (cheated with frozen vegetables last night)…

http://www.redwormcomposting.com/

Dig this for a worm farm!

Dinetta said:

http://www.redwormcomposting.com/

Dig this for a worm farm!

Oh my goodness.. the winter bed is huge!!!

bon008 said:

Dinetta said:

http://www.redwormcomposting.com/

Dig this for a worm farm!

Oh my goodness.. the winter bed is huge!!!

besides being an amazing concept…

Wormies are much happier today, the weather is much cooler after the wonderful rains and there is a cool wind blowing…

I think I will move them to under that tree…waiting on Sonny Jim to come home and help me with this…also I think I might experiment with leaving the lid off, but laying wet hessian over the top of the farm so that the breezes can cool the farm but the warm air does not build up like it does under the plastic lid…we’re talking 2 potato bags of 2 layers of hessian each here…

Is it possible to store worm wee?

Also, does it need to be diluted if it is the result of the hessian being re-soaked? They say to filter about 2 litres of water max through the farm once a week…

Dinetta said:

bon008 said:

Dinetta said:

http://www.redwormcomposting.com/

Dig this for a worm farm!

Oh my goodness.. the winter bed is huge!!!

besides being an amazing concept…

Wormies are much happier today, the weather is much cooler after the wonderful rains and there is a cool wind blowing…

I think I will move them to under that tree…waiting on Sonny Jim to come home and help me with this…also I think I might experiment with leaving the lid off, but laying wet hessian over the top of the farm so that the breezes can cool the farm but the warm air does not build up like it does under the plastic lid…we’re talking 2 potato bags of 2 layers of hessian each here…

Sounds good Dinetta , but the lids do keep out blowflies ,birds and rodents.
It’s cool here today but the matter in the worm farms is very warm to touch. I gave them about a litre of water each.
Have you gotten any worm wee off it yet ? I can’t remember how long since you started them..

Dinetta said:

Is it possible to store worm wee?

Also, does it need to be diluted if it is the result of the hessian being re-soaked? They say to filter about 2 litres of water max through the farm once a week…

Yes it needs to be diluted , it’s quite strong stuff. I used 500 ml of worm wee in a 10 lt watering can to water seedlings. The colour liquid out of them when they are mature and working well is very black. I only put about one litre of water a week through each farm. I do store/build up the worm wee for about a week or 2 then use it all. I don’t know how long it can be stored for exactly.

Hmmm, I have been pouring it straight on to the garlic chives and parsley, which are in pots…

OK, so I need to dilute it….guess the potted ferns etc could do with a boost…

I emptied 2 more spud bins today. Apart from the spuds it was wriggling with worms in the soil/compost/mulch. They’re in the compost bin now :)

OK, it was warm yesterday but I didn’t notice, used to it y’know?

Howsoever, no wormies happily munching their way through the newly provided, lovingly collected and prepared food, so I waited for MrD to come home about 8:30 pm.

When he did, I got him to lift the two upper levels, which enabled me to check the bottom level, and I must say that Happy Potter’s advice re shadecloth on that level was spot-on…there they all were, not soup as I feared, but crowded nevertheless…

So I left the lid off the farm for a couple of hours, and when I went back just before bed time, there were some worms back on the top level…this has 4 layers of very damp hessian by the way…had a look this AM and some were still on the top level. They have consumed ½ the food already so that’s good, I’m getting the “feel” for their consumption rate. However I have left the farm lid off again, the hessian is nice and damp and I will check it again at lunch time.

MrD is on a promise to help me move it to under the fiddlewood…less reflected heat I hope…nothing grows under those trees as they are so big and shady…

The farm has been moved under the fiddlewood, a much better position, lots cooler. I took the opportunity to move all the worms on the shadecloth to the top level and washed the gunk from the shadecloth onto that as well…brilliant piece of advice, thanks Happy Potter!

The legs are all in water containers.

They’ll get rained on so I’ll just have to ensure they don’t get waterlogged if a “wet” ever gets going around here…days and days of precipitation pouring down…

Eating well, I might be able to up the volume of feed that I am giving them. This paypacket I’ll buy the requirements for fattening them and de-acidfying their environment (dolomite).

Dinetta said:

The farm has been moved under the fiddlewood, a much better position, lots cooler. I took the opportunity to move all the worms on the shadecloth to the top level and washed the gunk from the shadecloth onto that as well…brilliant piece of advice, thanks Happy Potter!

The legs are all in water containers.

They’ll get rained on so I’ll just have to ensure they don’t get waterlogged if a “wet” ever gets going around here…days and days of precipitation pouring down…

Eating well, I might be able to up the volume of feed that I am giving them. This paypacket I’ll buy the requirements for fattening them and de-acidfying their environment (dolomite).

No worries Dinetta.
I’m glad they are going well for you :)
The shade cloth will have some worms in it , as I’ve said, but I only put it in place to stop the manure gunk from blocking the taps, a prob with container worm farms. I’m not bothered by the odd worm coming out with the liquid.
I’ve since realised the layers of shade cloth created a cool spot for the wriggly ones to hang out in on hot days…thats why mine were ok in the heatwave. I did wonder where they went.

If you have a bit of tarp ,or can get hold of some tent offcuts, chuck them over on wet days. If you are going to be away and rain is forcast, put the lids on and leave taps open. They wont get that much rain in them.

I accidently spilt a 4 lt tub of undiluted worm wee on a dwarf lime, which is now bursting forth with new growth…

Mine would have all slid out the plughole if not for the shadecloth, during the recent warm-ish weather…

Dinetta said:

Mine would have all slid out the plughole if not for the shadecloth, during the recent warm-ish weather…

I think most of mine did! Still haven’t got hold of any shadecloth..

bon008 said:

Dinetta said:

Mine would have all slid out the plughole if not for the shadecloth, during the recent warm-ish weather…

I think most of mine did! Still haven’t got hold of any shadecloth..

Bon, I recycled the dog’s bed. She has an aluminium frame that you can slide a sling-type affair onto. It originally came with hessian but that bred ticks BIG TIME, so I got rid of it (great mulch in the garden grin) so I bought something else that the ticks couldn’t hide in.

Well Elle Mutto has chewed her way through two of these slings, and when I went to cut up a length of shade cloth that I have had mouldering for some years but not been able to put up yet, lo! and behold! the shadecloth was the same woven stuff as the bed sling.

So I left the shadecloth lengths alone and used one thickness of the dog’s bed sling instead.

I can only assume that this is almost sunblock shadecloth, it is woven and very thick.

Happy Potter used three layers but I think, as shadecloth has degrees of sunshade, hers might be a lighter material than mine.

Dinetta said:

bon008 said:

Dinetta said:

Mine would have all slid out the plughole if not for the shadecloth, during the recent warm-ish weather…

I think most of mine did! Still haven’t got hold of any shadecloth..

Bon, I recycled the dog’s bed. She has an aluminium frame that you can slide a sling-type affair onto. It originally came with hessian but that bred ticks BIG TIME, so I got rid of it (great mulch in the garden grin) so I bought something else that the ticks couldn’t hide in.

Well Elle Mutto has chewed her way through two of these slings, and when I went to cut up a length of shade cloth that I have had mouldering for some years but not been able to put up yet, lo! and behold! the shadecloth was the same woven stuff as the bed sling.

So I left the shadecloth lengths alone and used one thickness of the dog’s bed sling instead.

I can only assume that this is almost sunblock shadecloth, it is woven and very thick.

Happy Potter used three layers but I think, as shadecloth has degrees of sunshade, hers might be a lighter material than mine.

Yes I think the shade cloth I used is 50% shade, it’s quite an open weave.

Good recycling job with the dogs bedding :)

What are the maggoty looking things?

They have been there for about 2-3 weeks now, gradually getting bigger…I think their grey colour is due to the discolouration of the continually damp hessian…

As they grow bigger, they are reaching 1 inch in size, and their bodies are flattening out…

Do I keep or throw?

They look like soldier fly lavae…the body shape is about right…

The poor little blighters got so hungry they started on their wet hessian covers…I didn’t want to overfeed them but I think they might be staying put and multiplying…

Gave them about an inch of feed yesterday and between the soldier fly lavae and the worms, it is mostly gone. So I’ll mash up some more shortly as I have a “stash” of it, and apply that later this evening as we will be absent tomorrow…

They must like their new situation under the fiddlewood, as there are always plenty on the 2nd working level (which is the top level just now)

The soldier fly larvae appear to be boosting their numbers exponentially…is this OK? will they overpopulate and eventually perish?

Also, just checking between the layers of hessian, there are baby worms, little red threads about an inch long and about the size of size 100 crochet cotton

:) :) :)

bump

Any opinions on the soldier fly lavae?

My theory is these guys are eating the worms out of house and home…but not the worms, just their food…

Dinetta said:

bump

Any opinions on the soldier fly lavae?

My theory is these guys are eating the worms out of house and home…but not the worms, just their food…

Sorry Dinetta, I don’t know anything about soldier fly larvae.. looks around for Lucky…

good evening Bon, I was just about to sign off.

well the worm blurbs say soldier fly lavae are fine, and the websites say these guys are great composters, but with only MrD and me I’m flat out coping with the explosion of numbers of both wormies and larvae…

I think they were introduced to the farm with the horse manure?

Dinetta said:

good evening Bon, I was just about to sign off.

well the worm blurbs say soldier fly lavae are fine, and the websites say these guys are great composters, but with only MrD and me I’m flat out coping with the explosion of numbers of both wormies and larvae…

I think they were introduced to the farm with the horse manure?

The only thing I can think of is the technique to get rid of maggots… put in a piece of bread soaked in milk, leave it for a while and the maggots will all crawl into it – then chuck it in the bin. Might work for you soldier fly larvae??

bon008 said:

Dinetta said:

good evening Bon, I was just about to sign off.

well the worm blurbs say soldier fly lavae are fine, and the websites say these guys are great composters, but with only MrD and me I’m flat out coping with the explosion of numbers of both wormies and larvae…

I think they were introduced to the farm with the horse manure?

The only thing I can think of is the technique to get rid of maggots… put in a piece of bread soaked in milk, leave it for a while and the maggots will all crawl into it – then chuck it in the bin. Might work for you soldier fly larvae??

Yes I might try that Bon, collect the larvae and put the bread out for the birds…

Yes I might try that Bon, collect the larvae and put the bread out for the birds…
++++++

I mean, with the lavae on it…just to knock the numbers down…

bon008 said:

Dinetta said:

good evening Bon, I was just about to sign off.

well the worm blurbs say soldier fly lavae are fine, and the websites say these guys are great composters, but with only MrD and me I’m flat out coping with the explosion of numbers of both wormies and larvae…

I think they were introduced to the farm with the horse manure?

The only thing I can think of is the technique to get rid of maggots… put in a piece of bread soaked in milk, leave it for a while and the maggots will all crawl into it – then chuck it in the bin. Might work for you soldier fly larvae??

I wouldn’t be adding horse manure Dinetta, or any animal manures for that matter , if those animals have been recently wormed, that can kill all the worms in a day.

I wouldn’t be adding horse manure Dinetta, or any animal manures for that matter , if those animals have been recently wormed, that can kill all the worms in a day.
+++++++++++++++++++++

This pony has not been wormed for about 5 years (shame on me)…the worms are fine, they are breeding very well, it’s just the soldier fly larvae that concern me…

Dinetta said:

I wouldn’t be adding horse manure Dinetta, or any animal manures for that matter , if those animals have been recently wormed, that can kill all the worms in a day.
+++++++++++++++++++++

This pony has not been wormed for about 5 years (shame on me)…the worms are fine, they are breeding very well, it’s just the soldier fly larvae that concern me…

Chooks would adore you for the lavae. Get a chook :) I haven’t come across any maggot probs, other than vinegar flies , and when they get too numerous , just add some lime to lower the acidity and they dissapear. Maybe try some lime then ?

I’d love a chook! however housing it would be a problem…thought I was gonna get a chook house last year but guess it wasn’t meant to be…

I miss my guinea fowl…

OK, the bread trick it is…I’ll just do it for a few days until the larvae numbers go down…

Next pay (next week) I’m getting some dolomite (for the farm) and also some worm fattener stuff…chicken pellets etc…

Copied from the reln worm farm instruction booklet (link in this thread)

Take the soldier larvae fishing :D

A. Should you experience any influx of maggots, it will most likely be the soldier fly or vinegar
fly larvae. The soldier fly larvae grow up to an inch/2cm big starting out white but soon
turning dark grey with distinct ribbing bands. Fishermen say they make great bait. The vinegar
fly larvae are small, usually 1/4 inch/6mm or less. Don’t be too alarmed if they appear.
They are actually beneficial to the waste breakdown. If you want to remove them though, do
so by liberally applying lime, or placing bread soaked in milk on the surface of the compost.
Larvae love bread and should infest it. Remove the bread after 2-3 days and dispose of it.

Thank you Happy Potter! I was trying to remember this, and have been reading the pamphlet that came with the farm…obviously the information on the internet is more complete than what came with the farm…

I’m already doing head counts of the worms as both MrD and Sonny Jim have told me their first thoughts on seeing the worms was “great! fishing bait”….oh no you don’t!

Yes, I reckon if we lived on the coast the maggots would be better bait…don’t the South Australians call them “gents”?

I appear to have rid myself of most of the soldier fly larvae…there was just too many mouths to feed!

The worms are happily munching their way through their hessian…will have to (a) feed them and (b) buy more hessian…

Today I finally bought the ingredients for “Worm fattener”. Some I already had and some I needed to buy. I proportioned the ingredients by weignt, and it looked a bit dry so I added water.

Not many soldier fly larvae left now, all huddling under the last slice of bread.

Also added last week’s scraps after mashing in the Oscar…

The worms are still having babies…

I also poured about 1 litre of water over the hessian, but there has been no drainage so I think I might have to do this again tomorrow, as it has been some weeks since I poured water into the farm.

I was getting ready to process some food for the worms, but the last lot I threw on last week, without processing it, is still there and rotting…not really a bad smell but will the worms eat it?

Should I wait for this to go before putting more food on? This only applies to about 1/4 of the tray: the rest is ready for food…

They have finally consumed all their “fattener”

Dinetta said:

I was getting ready to process some food for the worms, but the last lot I threw on last week, without processing it, is still there and rotting…not really a bad smell but will the worms eat it?

Should I wait for this to go before putting more food on? This only applies to about 1/4 of the tray: the rest is ready for food…

They have finally consumed all their “fattener”

Hi Dinetta. When this happens at work we usually just dig the older food in.. seems to stop it going any further off. Don’t know if it is the right approach though – on our team we have some people who are cautious and will take out food if it looks a little bad, and some who won’t take out really mouldy stuff – just dig it in instead.

Dinetta said:

I was getting ready to process some food for the worms, but the last lot I threw on last week, without processing it, is still there and rotting…not really a bad smell but will the worms eat it?

Should I wait for this to go before putting more food on? This only applies to about 1/4 of the tray: the rest is ready for food…

They have finally consumed all their “fattener”

Maybe a light application of lime might help things along?

Dinetta said:

I was getting ready to process some food for the worms, but the last lot I threw on last week, without processing it, is still there and rotting…not really a bad smell but will the worms eat it?

Should I wait for this to go before putting more food on? This only applies to about 1/4 of the tray: the rest is ready for food…

They have finally consumed all their “fattener”

Now catching up.. I’d just give it a ‘fluff up’ Dinatta and add the next food. Sounds like they are breeding well there :)

Thanks muchly, Bon008, Happy Potter and Muschee…I appreciate your help…

I gave them their “fattener”, sprinkled it on dry this time and then replaced the wet egg cartons and hessian, and then I sprinkled about 1 litre of water over this…

They certainly are breeding up, it seems like every week there’s another batch of these little half-inch long worms in the hessian….

The fresh wet food has been processed, ready for adding during the week…I have decided 2 and a half vote wins: both Happy Potter and Muschee said to leave the rotting food, and Bon008 said half and half…there’s nothing to dig it in to as it just sits on the second tray with nothing under it…so I will just leave it until Monday PM as we are heading east tomorrow PM…

Dinetta said:

Thanks muchly, Bon008, Happy Potter and Muschee…I appreciate your help…

I gave them their “fattener”, sprinkled it on dry this time and then replaced the wet egg cartons and hessian, and then I sprinkled about 1 litre of water over this…

They certainly are breeding up, it seems like every week there’s another batch of these little half-inch long worms in the hessian….

The fresh wet food has been processed, ready for adding during the week…I have decided 2 and a half vote wins: both Happy Potter and Muschee said to leave the rotting food, and Bon008 said half and half…there’s nothing to dig it in to as it just sits on the second tray with nothing under it…so I will just leave it until Monday PM as we are heading east tomorrow PM…

One thing I think Lucky taught me – put the fattening mix (if it’s the same recipe I use, with lime in it) in the farm AFTER you poor water through – otherwise the lime will be washed through and not have a chance to work.

bon008 said:

Dinetta said:

Thanks muchly, Bon008, Happy Potter and Muschee…I appreciate your help…

I gave them their “fattener”, sprinkled it on dry this time and then replaced the wet egg cartons and hessian, and then I sprinkled about 1 litre of water over this…

They certainly are breeding up, it seems like every week there’s another batch of these little half-inch long worms in the hessian….

The fresh wet food has been processed, ready for adding during the week…I have decided 2 and a half vote wins: both Happy Potter and Muschee said to leave the rotting food, and Bon008 said half and half…there’s nothing to dig it in to as it just sits on the second tray with nothing under it…so I will just leave it until Monday PM as we are heading east tomorrow PM…

One thing I think Lucky taught me – put the fattening mix (if it’s the same recipe I use, with lime in it) in the farm AFTER you poor water through – otherwise the lime will be washed through and not have a chance to work.

Yep:D

bon008 said:

Dinetta said:

Thanks muchly, Bon008, Happy Potter and Muschee…I appreciate your help…

I gave them their “fattener”, sprinkled it on dry this time and then replaced the wet egg cartons and hessian, and then I sprinkled about 1 litre of water over this…

They certainly are breeding up, it seems like every week there’s another batch of these little half-inch long worms in the hessian….

The fresh wet food has been processed, ready for adding during the week…I have decided 2 and a half vote wins: both Happy Potter and Muschee said to leave the rotting food, and Bon008 said half and half…there’s nothing to dig it in to as it just sits on the second tray with nothing under it…so I will just leave it until Monday PM as we are heading east tomorrow PM…

One thing I think Lucky taught me – put the fattening mix (if it’s the same recipe I use, with lime in it) in the farm AFTER you poor water through – otherwise the lime will be washed through and not have a chance to work.

AAAuuuugh!

Now she tells me…

sob

Oh well, maybe next week…

I’ve got weevils in the rolled oats, they’re not too bad but what if I decide to feed the oats to the worms? can I just sprinkle them on straight or do I soak them first?

Dinetta said:

I’ve got weevils in the rolled oats, they’re not too bad but what if I decide to feed the oats to the worms? can I just sprinkle them on straight or do I soak them first?

would probably prefer them at least dampened down

Thanks BlueGreen :)

They’re still having babies…they’re really enjoying the egg cartons (soaked before laying on the food) …It is difficult to sources hessian bags at the moment… might have to ask at the friendly IGA across the road from the office…

While the worm farm thread is easy to get too..

Will I be able to leave my worm farm unattended for 6 weeks in June/July, or is that too long??

They’re in a sheltered spot so no rain. Could I just add a heck of a lot of wet shredded newspaper and hope for the best??

(P.S. hi all! Crazy busy these days so not around much. I’ll probably be back on the forum regularly a couple of days into the honeymoon :D )

(P.S. hi all! Crazy busy these days so not around much. I’ll probably be back on the forum regularly a couple of days into the honeymoon :D )
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I am surprised that you time to be around at all! Good luck for the wedding. Can’t help with the wormies though..sorry

AnneS said:

(P.S. hi all! Crazy busy these days so not around much. I’ll probably be back on the forum regularly a couple of days into the honeymoon :D )
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I am surprised that you time to be around at all! Good luck for the wedding. Can’t help with the wormies though..sorry

Thanks Anne :)

Bon I think the Can’o‘worms bumf said 4 – 5 weeks…heaps of food before they go and if they run out of tucker they will just regulate their population to suit…I’m guessing you would need to ensure that they have sufficient covering to keep their home moist…would a couple pieces of cardboard do it? soaked in water of course? I’m talking of the sturdy walled cardboard here…

Dinetta said:

Bon I think the Can’o‘worms bumf said 4 – 5 weeks…heaps of food before they go and if they run out of tucker they will just regulate their population to suit…I’m guessing you would need to ensure that they have sufficient covering to keep their home moist…would a couple pieces of cardboard do it? soaked in water of course? I’m talking of the sturdy walled cardboard here…

That sounds good Dinetta. I think I’ll put in about 3 inches of moist shredded newspaper, and then a couple of layers of wet cardboard. Generally this farm is very good at regulating its own moisture, I hardly add any water in the cooler months of the year.

bon008 said:

Dinetta said:

Bon I think the Can’o‘worms bumf said 4 – 5 weeks…heaps of food before they go and if they run out of tucker they will just regulate their population to suit…I’m guessing you would need to ensure that they have sufficient covering to keep their home moist…would a couple pieces of cardboard do it? soaked in water of course? I’m talking of the sturdy walled cardboard here…

That sounds good Dinetta. I think I’ll put in about 3 inches of moist shredded newspaper, and then a couple of layers of wet cardboard. Generally this farm is very good at regulating its own moisture, I hardly add any water in the cooler months of the year.

Yep that sound like a safe bet to me too Bon… I’d even include a wet hesssian bag on top of the cardboard if you’ve got it…I still rekon there’s a few odd hot days awaiting us…here as there…in the next few weeks.

Doesn’t your wedding day weather sound perfect….or what? Lucky you

Muschee said:

bon008 said:

Dinetta said:

Bon I think the Can’o‘worms bumf said 4 – 5 weeks…heaps of food before they go and if they run out of tucker they will just regulate their population to suit…I’m guessing you would need to ensure that they have sufficient covering to keep their home moist…would a couple pieces of cardboard do it? soaked in water of course? I’m talking of the sturdy walled cardboard here…

That sounds good Dinetta. I think I’ll put in about 3 inches of moist shredded newspaper, and then a couple of layers of wet cardboard. Generally this farm is very good at regulating its own moisture, I hardly add any water in the cooler months of the year.

Yep that sound like a safe bet to me too Bon… I’d even include a wet hesssian bag on top of the cardboard if you’ve got it…I still rekon there’s a few odd hot days awaiting us…here as there…in the next few weeks.

Doesn’t your wedding day weather sound perfect….or what? Lucky you

The six weeks away isn’t until June/July though – just thinking ahead :)

Yeh it should go pretty well :)

bon008 said:

Muschee said:

bon008 said:

That sounds good Dinetta. I think I’ll put in about 3 inches of moist shredded newspaper, and then a couple of layers of wet cardboard. Generally this farm is very good at regulating its own moisture, I hardly add any water in the cooler months of the year.

Yep that sound like a safe bet to me too Bon… I’d even include a wet hesssian bag on top of the cardboard if you’ve got it…I still rekon there’s a few odd hot days awaiting us…here as there…in the next few weeks.

Doesn’t your wedding day weather sound perfect….or what? Lucky you

The six weeks away isn’t until June/July though – just thinking ahead :)

Yeh it should go pretty well :)

Oh ok ….you shouldn’t have a prob then me thinks

OK, I now have ants in my worm farm…the Can’o‘Worms says to add liberal quantities of lime to where the ants are…nobody is on the Forum at the moment but I’ll ask anyway…how much is a “liberal” quantity? One handful, two? Can’O‘Worms says to add it to where the ants are…

Dinetta said:

OK, I now have ants in my worm farm…the Can’o‘Worms says to add liberal quantities of lime to where the ants are…nobody is on the Forum at the moment but I’ll ask anyway…how much is a “liberal” quantity? One handful, two? Can’O‘Worms says to add it to where the ants are…

Hi Dinetta,

I would think 2 or 3 – I think it’s fairly normal to add one handful a week to a farm even if there are no real problems, so I wouldn’t call one liberal. But that’s a guess.

I’m trying to think what we did to get ants our of ours at work – I think we just manually flicked off as many as we could – there were lots in the lids so by removing the lids we got most of them out, and then we set up moats around the farm feet.

The ants have gone :)

Not sure if it’s the cold weather or the drowning or the lime that got rid of them.

The worms have moved up into the second level … have eaten themselves out of house and home on the first level…

I gave them two soggy mangoes to tide them over …had to break the skin…but I think the mangoes might be a bit “acid”?

N E ways, Have fed them, laid down some worm fattener on a layer of their cardboard, and added more cardboard that has been soaking for the past 3 days…so they should be warm, ar?

I have run out of vegetable scraps, only myself and MrD to cater for, after all…

So I scraped some of Gambler’s droppings off the hardstand, they’ve been there for a good two months and get run over several times a day, besides which they have had a couple of good rainfall soaks…

Put these in a container and filled with rain water, kept filling until no more bubbles…left this for 4 days (to drown the soldier fly larvae, if any) and then placed in worm farm yesterday…

I was a bit worried: would the urea (pony is free-ranging…walks through the house too, if we’re stupid enough to leave gate and door open) bother the worms? Had a peek this morning and if worms could possibly be said to be squabbling over their food, then these guys certainly are…It’s awesome!

As I said to MrD, here I am, carefully Oskar-ing the veg scraps for the little darlin’s, and what do they prefer? Horses**t!!

BIG GRIN so there I have it…no more starving wormies…and I think we are gaining another neighbour with hosses…she reads Hoofs and Horns and the local saddler’s catalogue…

New neighbour has moved in…saddles and riding stuff everywhere…met her Dawg, darling little King Charles Spaniel by the looks, chestnut with a kelpie-type white chest…not at all sooky for a small dog…it followed Me and Puta home…MrD asked the owner if it was hers (as in I couldn’t tell who owned it, it snuck up on thte back of my legs) …she works just behind our office…she said yes so that was a relief…took Charlie (not his real name) home for some R & R after his hour of ruff and tumble with Elle Wuffles…but I digress…

Cleaned out the fridges and fed the worms tonight…Oscar’d all the veg scraps and mixed with worm fattener…couldn’t get the lid on..uh-oh…went and got the last working tray, had a nice piece of soaked cardboard cut to measure…had to scoop out about 2” of the 2nd working tray and place on the top tray…need to go and wrap it up still … Mr D keeps asking if the worms are being fed well…but I keep telling him they are skinny…they are NOT going fishing!

Oh I am so stoked about finally reaching the top working tray! At what point do I collect the goodies from the bottom tray?

Oh I am so stoked about finally reaching the top working tray! At what point do I collect the goodies from the bottom tray?
————————————————————
When ever you want…. if the waste is looking like castings…go for it;D

Oh I am so stoked about finally reaching the top working tray! At what point do I collect the goodies from the bottom tray?

———————————————————
Soon as it looks ready, almost wormless, fine black soil, thick mud like . You can scrape off the top bit of casts to use. A good general guide is 6 months to 10 months.
Tomorrow I’ll be starting to sort worms from earwigs to re start nummer one w/f up.

Dinetta said:

New neighbour has moved in…saddles and riding stuff everywhere…met her Dawg, darling little King Charles Spaniel by the looks, chestnut with a kelpie-type white chest…not at all sooky for a small dog…it followed Me and Puta home…MrD asked the owner if it was hers (as in I couldn’t tell who owned it, it snuck up on thte back of my legs) …she works just behind our office…she said yes so that was a relief…took Charlie (not his real name) home for some R & R after his hour of ruff and tumble with Elle Wuffles…but I digress…

Cleaned out the fridges and fed the worms tonight…Oscar’d all the veg scraps and mixed with worm fattener…couldn’t get the lid on..uh-oh…went and got the last working tray, had a nice piece of soaked cardboard cut to measure…had to scoop out about 2” of the 2nd working tray and place on the top tray…need to go and wrap it up still … Mr D keeps asking if the worms are being fed well…but I keep telling him they are skinny…they are NOT going fishing!

Oh I am so stoked about finally reaching the top working tray! At what point do I collect the goodies from the bottom tray?

You can do it anytime really. If you’ve reached the top there shouldn’t be too many in the bottom now.

Happy Potter said:

Soon as it looks ready, almost wormless, fine black soil, thick mud like . You can scrape off the top bit of casts to use. A good general guide is 6 months to 10 months.
Tomorrow I’ll be starting to sort worms from earwigs to re start nummer one w/f up.

Just went back to the beginning of this thread: it’s 6 months since I started the farm!

Oh yay,something to look forward to when I get home next week…

Bubba Louie said:

You can do it anytime really. If you’ve reached the top there shouldn’t be too many in the bottom now.

You wouldn’t think so, Bubba…last week I lifted the top working tray of the time and there was hardly a worm to be seen in the collection tray…

Happy Potter said:

Oh I am so stoked about finally reaching the top working tray! At what point do I collect the goodies from the bottom tray?

———————————————————
Soon as it looks ready, almost wormless, fine black soil, thick mud like . You can scrape off the top bit of casts to use. A good general guide is 6 months to 10 months.
Tomorrow I’ll be starting to sort worms from earwigs to re start nummer one w/f up.

I always just wait until the top feeding layer is full enough – then when I empty the bottom layer it goes straight on the top as the new feeding layer. Probably don’t get castings as soon as possible, but I think it ends up requiring less effort…

Well I’m back at my “Base”, also known as our family home…the worms did very well, all are apparently alive and accounted for…I have a camera for a couple of days so I will be taking photos and uploading them…the worm farm looks like a black and white Tardi…kind of…with all it’s swaddling…

Now, Q time…when I checked the little darlings last night, they were all on the lid…how they can swarm up there in clumps is beyond me…what does this mean? I doubt it means rain…it was warm and humid in the farm but the worms appeared quite lively…they have plenty to eat still, the farm smells “nice” (if you know what I mean)…I found some food, carefully, as there’s squillions of worms between the moist cardboard layers, and it does not appear to be hot to the stuck-in finger…

With the help of Sonny Joe, we have cleaned up the farm again…removed all layers, cleaned up the shadecloth and noted that next time we will add another layer as this one has a 1cm hole in it…by cleaned up I mean just that layer…Oskar’d the food scraps and Sonny prepared the fattener, which we mixed in with the food scraps…this has all been laid on top of the previous cardboard which is dissolving and I have another round or two of cardboard to add…this soaked all day yesterday…and am currently soaking some more aged HP…so once I wrap them up again, they’ll be right for two weeks, by my reckoning…

Left the blankets off last night because of the nice little drizzle…about 40 points by the puddles…between 25 to 40, anyhow…it gives the farm a nice soak of rainwater…

With the help of Sonny Jim, I have moved the bottom tray to the top. He rescued some worms that fell on the soil, bless him…

My question is, I am now in the process of “Harvesting” the bottom layer…am moving the goodies to one side to make the wormies move…however, how do I store the goodies? they are very damp…do I store in a cardboard box or a plastic one, and do I leave the lid off and keep stirring until the whole lot is dry?

OK, I moved the bottom tray to the top, and found the best way of doing things was to rake my hand through the “combs” that the worms nest into, and drop the worms plus some castings into a bucket…this has taken me two hours…then I dropped the worms onto the second level, leaving the “harvested” level on top so I can keep raking it until it dries, by which time the worms will have all migrated downwards…

Just a quick Q: those little ball-like things, they look like the slow-feeder fertilizer balls …have a hard outer and squeeze out a fine milky juice… what part of worm production are they? bearing in mind that there’s no slow-feeder pellets to be found at my house…

Dinetta said:

With the help of Sonny Jim, I have moved the bottom tray to the top. He rescued some worms that fell on the soil, bless him…

My question is, I am now in the process of “Harvesting” the bottom layer…am moving the goodies to one side to make the wormies move…however, how do I store the goodies? they are very damp…do I store in a cardboard box or a plastic one, and do I leave the lid off and keep stirring until the whole lot is dry?

What I do is I leave the castings in the worm farm and just remove as needed.

I have read where if the castings dry out …. its not as good as when damp….. having said that….I don’t know how much truth is in that statement.

Dinetta said:

OK, I moved the bottom tray to the top, and found the best way of doing things was to rake my hand through the “combs” that the worms nest into, and drop the worms plus some castings into a bucket…this has taken me two hours…then I dropped the worms onto the second level, leaving the “harvested” level on top so I can keep raking it until it dries, by which time the worms will have all migrated downwards…

Just a quick Q: those little ball-like things, they look like the slow-feeder fertilizer balls …have a hard outer and squeeze out a fine milky juice… what part of worm production are they? bearing in mind that there’s no slow-feeder pellets to be found at my house…

If they are an opiate colour about the size on the top of one of those colours pins used for hemming…that is a worm egg.

Dinetta said:

OK, I moved the bottom tray to the top, and found the best way of doing things was to rake my hand through the “combs” that the worms nest into, and drop the worms plus some castings into a bucket…this has taken me two hours…then I dropped the worms onto the second level, leaving the “harvested” level on top so I can keep raking it until it dries, by which time the worms will have all migrated downwards…

Just a quick Q: those little ball-like things, they look like the slow-feeder fertilizer balls …have a hard outer and squeeze out a fine milky juice… what part of worm production are they? bearing in mind that there’s no slow-feeder pellets to be found at my house…

I’m quite behind and this may have been answerd but, Dinetta the opaque little balls are worm eggs..
I put the worm casts into a bucket , no lid on, and what I don’t use immediately I leave in a dark shed with a cloth over. Best used when damp, if it dries out it sets like concrete ..
I chuck bits around fruiting trees, fernery and pot plants.

Happy Potter said:

Dinetta said:

OK, I moved the bottom tray to the top, and found the best way of doing things was to rake my hand through the “combs” that the worms nest into, and drop the worms plus some castings into a bucket…this has taken me two hours…then I dropped the worms onto the second level, leaving the “harvested” level on top so I can keep raking it until it dries, by which time the worms will have all migrated downwards…

Just a quick Q: those little ball-like things, they look like the slow-feeder fertilizer balls …have a hard outer and squeeze out a fine milky juice… what part of worm production are they? bearing in mind that there’s no slow-feeder pellets to be found at my house…

I’m quite behind and this may have been answerd but, Dinetta the opaque little balls are worm eggs..
I put the worm casts into a bucket , no lid on, and what I don’t use immediately I leave in a dark shed with a cloth over. Best used when damp, if it dries out it sets like concrete ..
I chuck bits around fruiting trees, fernery and pot plants.

Also make sure the castings aren’t laying around the garden but under some soil or mulch. Sun will leach all the goodness and the plants will get nothing.

Thank you Lucky, Happy Potter: some good points there that arent’ covered by the booklet that came with the farm…

Will harvest what eggs I can, am seriously considering buying a new farm structure. How much garden does a worm farm provide for, in terms of square metre-age?

Dinetta said:

Thank you Lucky, Happy Potter: some good points there that arent’ covered by the booklet that came with the farm…

Will harvest what eggs I can, am seriously considering buying a new farm structure. How much garden does a worm farm provide for, in terms of square metre-age?

Dunno……sitll trying to work out how much a square metre-age is…..lol

I just love my worms… I have 3 and I know that many isn’t need for my place.

Good morning Lucky!

OK:
1) How often do you use the castings?
2) How many handfuls / cups to what area?
3) What, mainly, do you use the castings for?

Oh, and
4) Please reassure me that all the eggs are not in this bottom tray?

Dinetta said:

Good morning Lucky!

OK:
1) How often do you use the castings?

When I sow seedlings I pop them in the hole and seedling on top.

2) How many handfuls / cups to what area?

I put what I think is okay in the hole/drill ………. enough so the soil is covered or a bit less.

3) What, mainly, do you use the castings for?

Seedlings mostly. Worm wee I use as a tonic.

Dinetta said:

Oh, and
4) Please reassure me that all the eggs are not in this bottom tray?

More than liking yes. As they go up in the trays they are breeding. Don’t panic… more than enough eggs to go round:)

Some eggs have more than 1 worm in them… about 3 (I think)…..They will be hatching in the upper trays as well.

So, if I put it on the potted parsley, say, I’d need to water it in well and then add about 2 inches (got a ruler here…) say 5 centimetres of sugarcane mulch?

Some say not to have worms in the pots, they create unnecessary drainage holes?

Also, I use well-rotted (as in run over by cars for a couple of weeks) HP on the pots cos I’m too lazy to fertilize …

Dinetta said:

So, if I put it on the potted parsley, say, I’d need to water it in well and then add about 2 inches (got a ruler here…) say 5 centimetres of sugarcane mulch?

sounds good

Some say not to have worms in the pots, they create unnecessary drainage holes?

yep

Also, I use well-rotted (as in run over by cars for a couple of weeks) HP on the pots cos I’m too lazy to fertilize …

lol smart woman. doesn’t burn the roots???

No, it doesn’t burn the roots…

The pony is mostly grass-fed, as in native pastures and buffell (not the dreaded Biloela buffell, thankfully) plus supplements of lucerne, oatchaff and molasses combo…“Triplemix”…

the burning HP comes from (I believe, from my readings) grain fed horses, in particular HP that’s been collected from stabled horses who may have urinated on it…now HPee is VERY burning…loaded with urea…when we had horses when I was a pony clubber, every time the horse pee’d on the lawn we ran behind it with a hose to dilute the manure…

Dinetta said:

Thank you Lucky, Happy Potter: some good points there that arent’ covered by the booklet that came with the farm…

Will harvest what eggs I can, am seriously considering buying a new farm structure. How much garden does a worm farm provide for, in terms of square metre-age?

No worries Dinetta!
With the worm eggs you see in the bottom tray, just pop them back into the new bottom tray and they will survive just fine.
To harvest worms, take the lid off and invert it onto something solid and about your height..so you’re not hurting your back, and place the top tray into the lid , and take the damp paper/hessian off. The worms will drop down into the lid over a few hours.
Last time I harvested some this way I got half a 2 lt ice cream container full of the things. Bit of wet newspaper on top , and ready to transport to a new farm.

I use worm casts whenever I have some ,under mulch near fruiting trees and when I’m building up a vege bed. Worms that remain in the casts will grow for some months as long as theres some mulch on top, and kept moist.

Dinetta said:

Correction:

…now HPee is VERY burning…loaded with urea…when we had horses when I was a pony clubber, every time the horse pee’d on the lawn we ran behind it with a hose to dilute the uring…

Thanks Happy Potter, but I’m talking of a whole trayfull of vermicast…

I think at least 4 litres worth…

I want to keep it and re-use the tray…toying with idea of worm farm for Fashionasta here…Happy Bathday dear?

Dinetta said:

Dinetta said:

Correction:

…now HPee is VERY burning…loaded with urea…when we had horses when I was a pony clubber, every time the horse pee’d on the lawn we ran behind it with a hose to dilute the uring…

Geez, think I’ve got Lucky’s keyboard here….LOL!

Dinetta said:

No, it doesn’t burn the roots…

The pony is mostly grass-fed, as in native pastures and buffell (not the dreaded Biloela buffell, thankfully) plus supplements of lucerne, oatchaff and molasses combo…“Triplemix”…

the burning HP comes from (I believe, from my readings) grain fed horses, in particular HP that’s been collected from stabled horses who may have urinated on it…now HPee is VERY burning…loaded with urea…when we had horses when I was a pony clubber, every time the horse pee’d on the lawn we ran behind it with a hose to dilute the manure…

Thanks for that info..good to know

Dinetta said:

Dinetta said:

Dinetta said:

Correction:

…now HPee is VERY burning…loaded with urea…when we had horses when I was a pony clubber, every time the horse pee’d on the lawn we ran behind it with a hose to dilute the uring…

Geez, think I’ve got Lucky’s keyboard here….LOL!

ROTFPIMP

Lucky1 said:

Some say not to have worms in the pots, they create unnecessary drainage holes?

yep

Smart woman yourself Lucky: excellent use of the “quote“s in that reply applauds Lucky’s tech savvy

:)

OKies, what if I dry some, rub it through the soil sieve that I have, thus bursting any worm eggs (*sniff**) and then use on the potted plants? Sound like a plan?

Lucky1 said:

Dinetta said:

No, it doesn’t burn the roots…

..now HPee is VERY burning…loaded with urea…when we had horses when I was a pony clubber, every time the horse pee’d on the lawn we ran behind it with a hose to dilute the manure…

Thanks for that info..good to know

We were headed towards a cookie-cutter patchwork of lawn before somebody told my Dad what was happening!

Dinetta said:

Lucky1 said:

Some say not to have worms in the pots, they create unnecessary drainage holes?

yep

Smart woman yourself Lucky: excellent use of the “quote“s in that reply applauds Lucky’s tech savvy

:)

OKies, what if I dry some, rub it through the soil sieve that I have, thus bursting any worm eggs (*sniff**) and then use on the potted plants? Sound like a plan?

Good plan….or if you don’t want to kill the babies…… just water the post with a liquid of 1/3 worm wee & 2/3 water….. but then do you have the time to do it this way????

Dinetta said:

Good morning Lucky!

OK:
1) How often do you use the castings?
2) How many handfuls / cups to what area?
3) What, mainly, do you use the castings for?

I wont have worm casts for months yet as I recently cleaned out both worm farms and started both from scratch again.

When I do have a tray of casts to use, I’m known just to tip the whole casts tray holus bolus into a hole near a tree. Worms eggs and all. Doing this has effectively made the mini orchard into a big worm farm. Apart from giving the citrus in there some organic fert and trace elements in spring and autumn, and manure mulch, I don’t feed it.

Dinetta said:

Lucky1 said:

Dinetta said:

No, it doesn’t burn the roots…

..now HPee is VERY burning…loaded with urea…when we had horses when I was a pony clubber, every time the horse pee’d on the lawn we ran behind it with a hose to dilute the manure…

Thanks for that info..good to know

We were headed towards a cookie-cutter patchwork of lawn before somebody told my Dad what was happening!

chuckle

Happy Potter said:

Dinetta said:

Good morning Lucky!

OK:
1) How often do you use the castings?
2) How many handfuls / cups to what area?
3) What, mainly, do you use the castings for?

I wont have worm casts for months yet as I recently cleaned out both worm farms and started both from scratch again.

When I do have a tray of casts to use, I’m known just to tip the whole casts tray holus bolus into a hole near a tree. Worms eggs and all. Doing this has effectively made the mini orchard into a big worm farm. Apart from giving the citrus in there some organic fert and trace elements in spring and autumn, and manure mulch, I don’t feed it.

Kind of like a worm-castings “bank”?

Dinetta said:

Lucky1 said:

Some say not to have worms in the pots, they create unnecessary drainage holes?

yep

Smart woman yourself Lucky: excellent use of the “quote“s in that reply applauds Lucky’s tech savvy

:)

OKies, what if I dry some, rub it through the soil sieve that I have, thus bursting any worm eggs (*sniff**) and then use on the potted plants? Sound like a plan?

Better still, make a slurry out of it , thinned, and use that on the pots. Composting worms won’t cause the same probs as earthworms in pots.

Happy Potter said:

When I do have a tray of casts to use, I’m known just to tip the whole casts tray holus bolus into a hole near a tree. Worms eggs and all. Doing this has effectively made the mini orchard into a big worm farm.
Apart from giving the citrus in there some organic fert and trace elements in spring and autumn, and manure mulch, I don’t feed it.

++++++++++++++++++++

That reminds me of the time I went to collect some fallen mango litter for my Mum’s roses…the soil there is famous (red gold / copper indicator clay) for it’s unwillingness to be turned into gardens in the “traditional” manner…however I found these humongous worms under the litter…don’t know how they got there but they were huge and very healthy…

Sadly that tree is gone as it was only ever a feral and was endangering the house…however it just went to prove to me that permaculture would have worked brilliantly on that soil, with some time and patience…

Have you ever noticed in the shops where gardening stuff is sold.??? Worm wee and castings are sold.

Amazing how people actually buy it, when they could be turning their scraps into worm gold….. go figure??????

Dinetta said:

Happy Potter said:

Dinetta said:

Good morning Lucky!

OK:
1) How often do you use the castings?
2) How many handfuls / cups to what area?
3) What, mainly, do you use the castings for?

I wont have worm casts for months yet as I recently cleaned out both worm farms and started both from scratch again.

When I do have a tray of casts to use, I’m known just to tip the whole casts tray holus bolus into a hole near a tree. Worms eggs and all. Doing this has effectively made the mini orchard into a big worm farm. Apart from giving the citrus in there some organic fert and trace elements in spring and autumn, and manure mulch, I don’t feed it.

Kind of like a worm-castings “bank”?

Yes, and I don’t go digging in there either. I did plant some leeks in spaces between apple trees, and noticed heaps of red composting worms.

All this worm talk is making my bum itchy……lol

Happy Potter said:

Dinetta said:

Lucky1 said:

Some say not to have worms in the pots, they create unnecessary drainage holes?

yep

Smart woman yourself Lucky: excellent use of the “quote“s in that reply applauds Lucky’s tech savvy

:)

OKies, what if I dry some, rub it through the soil sieve that I have, thus bursting any worm eggs (*sniff**) and then use on the potted plants? Sound like a plan?

Better still, make a slurry out of it , thinned, and use that on the pots. Composting worms won’t cause the same probs as earthworms in pots.

Thank you Lucky and Happy Potter! I am getting sterling information in this thread…

Lucky1 said:

Have you ever noticed in the shops where gardening stuff is sold.??? Worm wee and castings are sold.

Amazing how people actually buy it, when they could be turning their scraps into worm gold….. go figure??????

Well I wouldn’t have given it a go if it wasn’t for this Forum…they are probably turning their scraps into compost without really getting anywhere with that either…

I did plant some leeks in spaces between apple trees, and noticed heaps of red composting worms.
————————————————-
Yep I have the red wrigglers in my garden too. Amazes me how they survive being surface feeders. Must be the night feeding that keeps them safe from birds.

Lucky1 said:

All this worm talk is making my bum itchy……lol

ROFL!!!

Dinetta said:

Happy Potter said:

Dinetta said:

Smart woman yourself Lucky: excellent use of the “quote“s in that reply applauds Lucky’s tech savvy

:)

OKies, what if I dry some, rub it through the soil sieve that I have, thus bursting any worm eggs (*sniff**) and then use on the potted plants? Sound like a plan?

Better still, make a slurry out of it , thinned, and use that on the pots. Composting worms won’t cause the same probs as earthworms in pots.

Thank you Lucky and Happy Potter! I am getting sterling information in this thread…

Great:D

Dinetta said:

Lucky1 said:

Have you ever noticed in the shops where gardening stuff is sold.??? Worm wee and castings are sold.

Amazing how people actually buy it, when they could be turning their scraps into worm gold….. go figure??????

Well I wouldn’t have given it a go if it wasn’t for this Forum…they are probably turning their scraps into compost without really getting anywhere with that either…

More than likely.

Lucky1 said:

All this worm talk is making my bum itchy……lol

Sowwy LOL!!

I went and asked for some Vermox for Fashionasta last week, silly teenage girl did not even know what it was…told me they didn’t make it any more…so now I have choc-flavoured Combantrin…however Fashionasta managed to get her own Vermox…

She’s very puzzled as to how she could have got it… I said I always had a supply in my cupboard (of Vermox) and I knew what brands worked the best too…5 kids…of course I did…then there’s nits…

Whoops, hijacking my own thread…

egalitarian, I am…

Lucky1 said:

I did plant some leeks in spaces between apple trees, and noticed heaps of red composting worms.
————————————————-
Yep I have the red wrigglers in my garden too. Amazes me how they survive being surface feeders. Must be the night feeding that keeps them safe from birds.

Well they aren’t right on the surface , but a few cms to 20 cms under it.
I get feral birds digging little holes in the bed to get the worms , but theres plenty for all.
When I have lots of newspaper I soak it and place on top of places I know I’ve put a tray of casts.

Dinetta said:

Lucky1 said:

All this worm talk is making my bum itchy……lol

Sowwy LOL!!

I went and asked for some Vermox for Fashionasta last week, silly teenage girl did not even know what it was…told me they didn’t make it any more…so now I have choc-flavoured Combantrin…however Fashionasta managed to get her own Vermox…

She’s very puzzled as to how she could have got it… I said I always had a supply in my cupboard (of Vermox) and I knew what brands worked the best too…5 kids…of course I did…then there’s nits…

When they talk nits on TV my scalp crawls…..hence the bum comment..lol

Dinetta said:

Whoops, hijacking my own thread…

egalitarian, I am…

lol

Lucky1 said:

When they talk nits on TV my scalp crawls…..hence the bum comment..lol

scratching the back of my head

Dinetta said:

Lucky1 said:

When they talk nits on TV my scalp crawls…..hence the bum comment..lol

scratching the back of my head

ROTFPIMP

Ants nest! Ants nest! Damn! The farm had inched for’ard, unbeknownst to me, and a leg was resting against the side of one of the water containers…a good sprinkling of lime was applied to all levels except the top one where there were no ants, and a goodly flooding with the hose applied…all escaping ants were washed off…I now have 9 litres of “liquid gold”, but the ants appear to have disappeared this AM…

I have replaced that water container, which was a beetroot tin, with something wider. Also have placed the farm on a side of cable organiser: you know, the miles and miles of flex comes wrapped around a wooden centre, held in place on either side by two round pieces of wood?? This organiser has fallen apart and the worm farm is on one of the round sides, on the ground, with a couple of wooden slats to raise it off the ground…good toad trap, come to think of it!

Amazing how a “gunna do” (putting the farm on that cable organiser side) happened no trouble at all due to an emergency!!

All I have to do now is feed them: they have eaten all their cardboard as well as their food, munching on pumpkin seed roots (it sprouted in the worm farm)…have a nice piece of cardboard soaking, will do another piece today as extra insulation against the coming heat…

Oh if I saw an ant in my worm farms I think I’d go nuts. After the job of removing earwigs out of it , I check the water leg containers are always full.
I use 2 lt ice cream containers. They do move about… mine are at the back of the patio where the floor is uneven and I’d used a couple spare mosaic tiles to even up the legs in the tubs , but now and then I see that the tiles arn’t under the foot then the leg is nearer the edge of the container, and I’ve no idea why that happens.
As it is both farms are going great now, and getting worm wee again :)

The worm fattening mix works! these slimey things are twice the size they were last year.

I haven’t fed my poor little Trojans for 6 weeks :(
but when I do, it’s usually fortnightly and I always include worm fattener…

Dinetta said:

I haven’t fed my poor little Trojans for 6 weeks :(
but when I do, it’s usually fortnightly and I always include worm fattener…

As I understand it, the worm fatterner is used to beef the slitherers up for bait. And to strengthem them. I stopped feeding the mix to them now because I reckon, although I don’t actually know, that they may stop feeding on scraps if they keep getting the fattening mix. They go for it first ect. Just a theory …I’ll report back about their size and any changes in a few months.

My farms are booming along……. getting a bit extra fruit pieces with Pa here.

I am feeding rabbits, ducks, chooks, worms and the rats……..no food left over here in this house…lol

Lucky1 said:

My farms are booming along……. getting a bit extra fruit pieces with Pa here.

I am feeding rabbits, ducks, chooks, worms and the rats……..no food left over here in this house…lol

lol Lucky.
It gets that way at times here too.
Great that nothings being wasted though :)

Happy Potter said:

As I understand it, the worm fatterner is used to beef the slitherers up for bait. And to strengthem them. I stopped feeding the mix to them now because I reckon, although I don’t actually know, that they may stop feeding on scraps if they keep getting the fattening mix. They go for it first ect. Just a theory …I’ll report back about their size and any changes in a few months.

My worms are not being fattened up for bait…repeat after me…my worms are not being fattened etc etc…I think I might have to discourage MrD’s interest in my worm farm, come to think of it…fortunately he is not a keen fisherman…

However, my observations are that the worms go for the vegetable matter first…I think this is because the fattener is too dry, even tho I mix it with the vegetable matter (after hashing this in the Oscar) …in a bucket…before applying to the worm farm…then as the vegetable matter decays and after some water is sloshed over, the fattener becomes moist enough for the wormies to drink…

My outlook is that strong, fat worms are more likely to survive the coming heat than skinny little threads…

I’ve been too busy/lazy to cut up the worm tucker so it’s been going straight on…especially as I had to throw out 4 litres of it due to advanced composition…better rotting in the farm than in the icecream bucket…

However the south westerly, typical at this time of the year, is very drying so I had poured the hose onto the upper layers of cardboard (the middle tier has cardboard too but they’ve pretty much demolished that)…dough brain here wondered what to do with all the water pouring out…kept pouring it back on the farm and then finally the penny dropped (told you I was slow) and so I have poured it onto the new mints (common and vietnamese); the parsley; garlic and new bean shoots in the 3 sisters garden…not getting as good a strike so far with the beans and second sowing of corn as I would have hoped…it’s been a week…but maybe it’s been the cooler nights slowing things down…

Dinetta said:

I’ve been too busy/lazy to cut up the worm tucker so it’s been going straight on…especially as I had to throw out 4 litres of it due to advanced composition…better rotting in the farm than in the icecream bucket…

However the south westerly, typical at this time of the year, is very drying so I had poured the hose onto the upper layers of cardboard (the middle tier has cardboard too but they’ve pretty much demolished that)…dough brain here wondered what to do with all the water pouring out…kept pouring it back on the farm and then finally the penny dropped (told you I was slow) and so I have poured it onto the new mints (common and vietnamese); the parsley; garlic and new bean shoots in the 3 sisters garden…not getting as good a strike so far with the beans and second sowing of corn as I would have hoped…it’s been a week…but maybe it’s been the cooler nights slowing things down…

Its great when that penny drops isn’t it;P???? LOL

I at times if I have a good amount of food, take a shovel/spade to the worm tucker and give it a few chops and into the farm it goes.

bump

Cool, thanks Dinetta :)

:)

No worries

I’ve just taken the lid off, and placed a soaked hessian bag over the top…airconditioning for worms!!

Dinetta said:

I’ve just taken the lid off, and placed a soaked hessian bag over the top…airconditioning for worms!!

Yes I have been leaving my lids 1/2 off in this heat. Too hot for flies ATM.

With my farm I have been layering soaked cardboard (think banana box bottoms) on the top and next levels down. I find this helps insulate against the heat. However the top layer cardboard tends to dry off, so I have a towel that was nearly rotten on top of the cardboard. This I keep wet by dint of splashing the hose over it at least once a week, if not more often when there’s been a strong breeze.

Lately I have placed a soaked hessian bag on top of the towel to provide for protection whilst the lid is off on very hot days…I find the lid tends to trap the air and it gets a quite hot in the farm…if the worms are not tootling around in their usual wriggling masses just under the cardboard, then I figure it’s prolly too warm for them up there, and the spectre of worm soup a la Lucky floats in front of my eyes and this is when I figure out what can keep the top level cool.

Because of my generosity with the water, I get lots of worm wee, and in the end I used a plastic handbasin for ease of storage…

Does anybody else use this arrangement to keep their newly purchased seedlings alive until ready to be planted out? I just drop the seedlings, pot and all, into the worm wee until soaked, then stack beside the farm…this is also how I have been keeping the potted passionfruit going…

Dinetta said:

With my farm I have been layering soaked cardboard (think banana box bottoms) on the top and next levels down. I find this helps insulate against the heat. However the top layer cardboard tends to dry off, so I have a towel that was nearly rotten on top of the cardboard. This I keep wet by dint of splashing the hose over it at least once a week, if not more often when there’s been a strong breeze.

Lately I have placed a soaked hessian bag on top of the towel to provide for protection whilst the lid is off on very hot days…I find the lid tends to trap the air and it gets a quite hot in the farm…if the worms are not tootling around in their usual wriggling masses just under the cardboard, then I figure it’s prolly too warm for them up there, and the spectre of worm soup a la Lucky floats in front of my eyes and this is when I figure out what can keep the top level cool.

Because of my generosity with the water, I get lots of worm wee, and in the end I used a plastic handbasin for ease of storage…

Does anybody else use this arrangement to keep their newly purchased seedlings alive until ready to be planted out? I just drop the seedlings, pot and all, into the worm wee until soaked, then stack beside the farm…this is also how I have been keeping the potted passionfruit going…

Hey Dinetta. All of this is pretty similar to how I look after my worm farm in the hot weather.. not that we’ve had much of that lately.

The only thing which does sound strange to me, is putting cardboard in levels other than the top level – I would worry that perhaps it would make it tricky for the wormies to come up to the top level to eat, if there’s a solid sheet of cardboard in the way??

Once I add an empty feeding tray on to the top of my farm, I don’t so much as peek into the layer below until the top layer has filled and it’s time to re-jig everything and get the bottom layer out for castings harvesting.

Don’t worry Orchid, where there’s food the worms will get up to it…the cardboard is not tight-fitting, there is about 1 cm space around the edges and in any case, once the worms get through that they then spread across the cardboard, munching on the goodies above…they eventually eat the cardboard…

I have not been totally scientific with my wormfarm, swapped the top two levels around for some reason I can’t remember but not going to do that again…I also provide some food in the second top level to keep the worms spread out …I just harvest the castings when I need them, from the bottom level…

The heat here is constant: in the 30’s most days from September to April, and as Rook found, the days heat up about 8 am and don’t cool off until after 17:00 hours…so the cardboard is an insulation experiment…we won’t be getting those lovely 20C days again until May next year…hope this answers your question…

Dinetta said:

Don’t worry Orchid, where there’s food the worms will get up to it…the cardboard is not tight-fitting, there is about 1 cm space around the edges and in any case, once the worms get through that they then spread across the cardboard, munching on the goodies above…they eventually eat the cardboard…

I have not been totally scientific with my wormfarm, swapped the top two levels around for some reason I can’t remember but not going to do that again…I also provide some food in the second top level to keep the worms spread out …I just harvest the castings when I need them, from the bottom level…

The heat here is constant: in the 30’s most days from September to April, and as Rook found, the days heat up about 8 am and don’t cool off until after 17:00 hours…so the cardboard is an insulation experiment…we won’t be getting those lovely 20C days again until May next year…hope this answers your question…

err I think you mean Bon :)

Anyway – we don’t get nearly so much heat so it makes sense that my worms don’t need as much insulation as yours.

Must be hard to get into the second layer once the top one fills up a bit though!

A UHF radio would have came in handy on the way home today, Few semis trying to Move a Mining trucks Dumper Body, Bumper to Bumper for a few kms didnt know it was there.

veg gardener said:

A UHF radio would have came in handy on the way home today, Few semis trying to Move a Mining trucks Dumper Body, Bumper to Bumper for a few kms didnt know it was there.

Woops wrong topic will move to chat.

bon008 said:

Dinetta said:

Don’t worry Orchid,

err I think you mean Bon :)

Anyway – we don’t get nearly so much heat so it makes sense that my worms don’t need as much insulation as yours.

Must be hard to get into the second layer once the top one fills up a bit though!

Beg your pardon Bon, can’t think how that happened…

Do you mean, it might be difficult to lift the top layer once it starts to fill up? I find it doesn’t fill up!

Dinetta said:

bon008 said:

Dinetta said:

Don’t worry Orchid,

err I think you mean Bon :)

Anyway – we don’t get nearly so much heat so it makes sense that my worms don’t need as much insulation as yours.

Must be hard to get into the second layer once the top one fills up a bit though!

Beg your pardon Bon, can’t think how that happened…

Do you mean, it might be difficult to lift the top layer once it starts to fill up? I find it doesn’t fill up!

Oh.. well.. that sounds sort of like magic!! :)

Your worm farm is intriguing :)

bon008 said:

Dinetta said:

Do you mean, it might be difficult to lift the top layer once it starts to fill up? I find it doesn’t fill up!

Oh.. well.. that sounds sort of like magic!! :)

Your worm farm is intriguing :)

Perhaps the fact that I forget to feed them for a couple of weeks at a time might explain a lot…they then munch their way through the cardboard and I get the hint…

Conscripted one of my lads and went out to place bigger water containers under the worm farm feet…I can see we’re going to have to go out weekly and tip the water out of the damn things (wrigglers)…didn’t realize I had left my tap turned off so the bottom was full of water…

We successfully managed to save all the water, rescued most drowning worms, but the farm is a bit of a mess…the shadecloth was rinsed off and replaced, the bottom tier is now the top tier, I need to harvest it soon…

Not putting any more crushed egg shells into the worm farms, they clog the holes…after I clean up the (now) top layer, all egg shells are going straight into the compost…apart from this I can report the worms really need a new home, they have survived the winter in great numbers…

Cardboard is really the best way to go for topping the tiers…it breaks down very nicely and is super for keeping the heat in/out of the worm bedding…

Dinetta said:

Conscripted one of my lads and went out to place bigger water containers under the worm farm feet…I can see we’re going to have to go out weekly and tip the water out of the damn things (wrigglers)…didn’t realize I had left my tap turned off so the bottom was full of water…

We successfully managed to save all the water, rescued most drowning worms, but the farm is a bit of a mess…the shadecloth was rinsed off and replaced, the bottom tier is now the top tier, I need to harvest it soon…

Not putting any more crushed egg shells into the worm farms, they clog the holes…after I clean up the (now) top layer, all egg shells are going straight into the compost…apart from this I can report the worms really need a new home, they have survived the winter in great numbers…

Cardboard is really the best way to go for topping the tiers…it breaks down very nicely and is super for keeping the heat in/out of the worm bedding…

I hear ya re the eggshells, I stopped putting them in because they were not breaking down and I was getting cut fingertips when harvesting the casts.

If you have shade cloth to filter the liquid, how does the eggshells block the tap ?

If you have shade cloth to filter the liquid, how does the eggshells block the tap ?

————————————————————— Err.. how do the eggshells manage to block the tap, even…

These are the shade cloth rounds from one worm farm, rinsed on the lawn and replaced today. They’ve become moulded to the round farm shape. They all fit in nicely and don’t move when the bottom cast tray is back in place.

Happy Potter said:

Dinetta said:

Not putting any more crushed egg shells into the worm farms, they clog the holes…after I clean up the (now) top layer, all egg shells are going straight into the compost…apart from this I can report the worms really need a new home, they have survived the winter in great numbers…

Cardboard is really the best way to go for topping the tiers…it breaks down very nicely and is super for keeping the heat in/out of the worm bedding…

I hear ya re the eggshells, I stopped putting them in because they were not breaking down and I was getting cut fingertips when harvesting the casts.

If you have shade cloth to filter the liquid, how does the eggshells block the tap ?

They’re not blocking the tap, they’re setting in a crust along the bottom of the tier…

Dinetta said:

Happy Potter said:

Dinetta said:

Not putting any more crushed egg shells into the worm farms, they clog the holes…after I clean up the (now) top layer, all egg shells are going straight into the compost…apart from this I can report the worms really need a new home, they have survived the winter in great numbers…

Cardboard is really the best way to go for topping the tiers…it breaks down very nicely and is super for keeping the heat in/out of the worm bedding…

I hear ya re the eggshells, I stopped putting them in because they were not breaking down and I was getting cut fingertips when harvesting the casts.

If you have shade cloth to filter the liquid, how does the eggshells block the tap ?

They’re not blocking the tap, they’re setting in a crust along the bottom of the tier…

OK, they are setting in an almost impenetrable crust along the bottom of the tier, and the water won’t drain…I think this might be about 18 months worth of accumulation…

Dinetta said:

Dinetta said:

Happy Potter said:

I hear ya re the eggshells, I stopped putting them in because they were not breaking down and I was getting cut fingertips when harvesting the casts.

If you have shade cloth to filter the liquid, how does the eggshells block the tap ?

They’re not blocking the tap, they’re setting in a crust along the bottom of the tier…

OK, they are setting in an almost impenetrable crust along the bottom of the tier, and the water won’t drain…I think this might be about 18 months worth of accumulation…

Oh ok. I’ve never seen that. When I did put eggshells in the farms they wern’t crushed but halves. I noticed the worms loved congregating inside them and assumed they used them as shelter from unkind temperatures. Or worm porn love nests!

I’m back up because I was too bloomin hot! I checked the weather site and it’s currently 17C !!
We have barely reached those temps in the daytime, last night a light frost even, and tonight out of the blue we have a hot night!
The weather’s gone completely bonkers.

Dinetta said:

Conscripted one of my lads and went out to place bigger water containers under the worm farm feet…I can see we’re going to have to go out weekly and tip the water out of the damn things (wrigglers)…didn’t realize I had left my tap turned off so the bottom was full of water…

We successfully managed to save all the water, rescued most drowning worms, but the farm is a bit of a mess…the shadecloth was rinsed off and replaced, the bottom tier is now the top tier, I need to harvest it soon…

Not putting any more crushed egg shells into the worm farms, they clog the holes…after I clean up the (now) top layer, all egg shells are going straight into the compost…apart from this I can report the worms really need a new home, they have survived the winter in great numbers…

Cardboard is really the best way to go for topping the tiers…it breaks down very nicely and is super for keeping the heat in/out of the worm bedding…

I ripped the tap out and leave a bucket under it permanently.

Dinetta said:

Dinetta said:

Happy Potter said:

I hear ya re the eggshells, I stopped putting them in because they were not breaking down and I was getting cut fingertips when harvesting the casts.

If you have shade cloth to filter the liquid, how does the eggshells block the tap ?

They’re not blocking the tap, they’re setting in a crust along the bottom of the tier…

OK, they are setting in an almost impenetrable crust along the bottom of the tier, and the water won’t drain…I think this might be about 18 months worth of accumulation…

Weird. I’ve never had a problem with egg shells. Maybe your lot eat more aggs.

Happy Potter said:

I’m back up because I was too bloomin hot! I checked the weather site and it’s currently 17C !!
We have barely reached those temps in the daytime, last night a light frost even, and tonight out of the blue we have a hot night!
The weather’s gone completely bonkers.

I would have thought that was normal Melbourne weather? That was my experience of it anyhow, 34 years ago…

bubba louie said:

I ripped the tap out and leave a bucket under it permanently.

I usually leave the tap open, with a permanent bucket under it, but during the cold and then very dry weather, to seal the farm off a bit better, I closed the tap.

The eggshells were going in after having been “Oscar-ed” along with the vege scraps…I can see Happy Potter’s view that the half shells provide love-in pads…but I won’t be throwing all my eggshells in the worm farm any more, just a few every now and then…the worms very much like the half-shells of avocados for love-in pads as well, or for hiding under…

bubba louie said:

Maybe your lot eat more aggs.

Yep, we get through about 1 – 2 doz a week, what with my boiling 6 to start the week with (emergency rations) and then eggs for breakfast for the lads (if they want it) plus the odd baking episode…

Dinetta said:

Happy Potter said:

I’m back up because I was too bloomin hot! I checked the weather site and it’s currently 17C !!
We have barely reached those temps in the daytime, last night a light frost even, and tonight out of the blue we have a hot night!
The weather’s gone completely bonkers.

I would have thought that was normal Melbourne weather? That was my experience of it anyhow, 34 years ago…

That was the hottest spring night I’ve ever known, for an extreme temp swing. Stormy stuff today and 23C top. And this is in the wrong thread..

Dinetta said:

Happy Potter said:

I’m back up because I was too bloomin hot! I checked the weather site and it’s currently 17C !!
We have barely reached those temps in the daytime, last night a light frost even, and tonight out of the blue we have a hot night!
The weather’s gone completely bonkers.

I would have thought that was normal Melbourne weather? That was my experience of it anyhow, 34 years ago…

first really warm night in a long time. It has been mostly single figures.

Dinetta said:

Happy Potter said:

Dinetta said:

Not putting any more crushed egg shells into the worm farms, they clog the holes…after I clean up the (now) top layer, all egg shells are going straight into the compost…apart from this I can report the worms really need a new home, they have survived the winter in great numbers…

Cardboard is really the best way to go for topping the tiers…it breaks down very nicely and is super for keeping the heat in/out of the worm bedding…

I hear ya re the eggshells, I stopped putting them in because they were not breaking down and I was getting cut fingertips when harvesting the casts.

If you have shade cloth to filter the liquid, how does the eggshells block the tap ?

They’re not blocking the tap, they’re setting in a crust along the bottom of the tier…

Egg shells are more for the pH levels… I have no problem with the egg shells in the castings.

Dinetta said:

bubba louie said:

I ripped the tap out and leave a bucket under it permanently.

I usually leave the tap open, with a permanent bucket under it, but during the cold and then very dry weather, to seal the farm off a bit better, I closed the tap.

The eggshells were going in after having been “Oscar-ed” along with the vege scraps…I can see Happy Potter’s view that the half shells provide love-in pads…but I won’t be throwing all my eggshells in the worm farm any more, just a few every now and then…the worms very much like the half-shells of avocados for love-in pads as well, or for hiding under…

Supposed to be good for forming a snail/slug barrier, aren’t they? Egg shells, I mean. Could be an alternate use for them.

bon008 said:

Dinetta said:

bubba louie said:

I ripped the tap out and leave a bucket under it permanently.

I usually leave the tap open, with a permanent bucket under it, but during the cold and then very dry weather, to seal the farm off a bit better, I closed the tap.

The eggshells were going in after having been “Oscar-ed” along with the vege scraps…I can see Happy Potter’s view that the half shells provide love-in pads…but I won’t be throwing all my eggshells in the worm farm any more, just a few every now and then…the worms very much like the half-shells of avocados for love-in pads as well, or for hiding under…

Supposed to be good for forming a snail/slug barrier, aren’t they? Egg shells, I mean. Could be an alternate use for them.

Yeah and also if you put the egg shell down….white cabbage moths think its one of them and they fly off else where…..not sure how much truth is in that.

I’ve been checking the farm, the top bit (that was previously the collection tray) is still very sludgy and drying out ever so slowly…there’s still worms in it…am going to try leaving the lid off today to dry the sludge out to a manageable consistence…hopefully the worms will move down to the feeding trays…

Dinetta said:

I’ve been checking the farm, the top bit (that was previously the collection tray) is still very sludgy and drying out ever so slowly…there’s still worms in it…am going to try leaving the lid off today to dry the sludge out to a manageable consistence…hopefully the worms will move down to the feeding trays…

maybe some shredded newspaper mixed in will help.

bluegreen said:

Dinetta said:

I’ve been checking the farm, the top bit (that was previously the collection tray) is still very sludgy and drying out ever so slowly…there’s still worms in it…am going to try leaving the lid off today to dry the sludge out to a manageable consistence…hopefully the worms will move down to the feeding trays…

maybe some shredded newspaper mixed in will help.

Thanks BlueGreen but mine would probably just eat it…“no need to move, she’ll just keep feeding us”…

Have left the lid off, but there’s been a couple of scuds…never never never again will I leave the tap shut…never…this stuff holds onto water worse than pug clay…I’m about to go out and peg out the towels from yesterday…slack I know…I’ll check the farm on my way…

Checked this morning, forgot to put the lid back on last night…the worms are moving down (or they’ve been et) so not long now and I can harvest that tray…it’s drying bit by bit …nice manageable clods at the moment…

Voraciously feeding on the feeder tray…

Dinetta said:

Checked this morning, forgot to put the lid back on last night…the worms are moving down (or they’ve been et) so not long now and I can harvest that tray…it’s drying bit by bit …nice manageable clods at the moment…

Voraciously feeding on the feeder tray…

Do you want the cast mix to dry out for some specific reason ? I ask because I’ve never let that stuff dry. Only because it doesn’t get time to dry out. I harvest it and it’s in the garden or dig it into pot plants or seed mix within a short time. If I want to keep some for a few day, then I put it into an ice cream container and pop the lid on.
The worms will move down quicker if you scrape off the top layer periodcally ,over a couple hours.

Happy Potter said:

Do you want the cast mix to dry out for some specific reason ? I ask because I’ve never let that stuff dry.

Yes I’m told it sets like concrete, but up until this morning it was unmanageable sludge…I just want to be able to crumble the clods and get rid of the worms in them, and then I will pack in ziplock bags and leave under that tree…for future use…

Dinetta said:

Happy Potter said:

Do you want the cast mix to dry out for some specific reason ? I ask because I’ve never let that stuff dry.

Yes I’m told it sets like concrete, but up until this morning it was unmanageable sludge…I just want to be able to crumble the clods and get rid of the worms in them, and then I will pack in ziplock bags and leave under that tree…for future use…

Mine never gets to crumble stage.

Just leave it uncovered and start scaping off the top layer. The worms will keep going down away from the light.

bubba louie said:

Dinetta said:

Happy Potter said:

Do you want the cast mix to dry out for some specific reason ? I ask because I’ve never let that stuff dry.

Yes I’m told it sets like concrete, but up until this morning it was unmanageable sludge…I just want to be able to crumble the clods and get rid of the worms in them, and then I will pack in ziplock bags and leave under that tree…for future use…

Mine never gets to crumble stage.

Just leave it uncovered and start scaping off the top layer. The worms will keep going down away from the light.

That’s just it, until it started to dry yesterday, I couldn’t scrape…think “goop” Bubba Louie: “goop” that didn’t ever hold its shape for those couple of seconds…