xc Worm Farming

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

One and a half layers working

I have been adding quite a lot of waste, making sure that there is lots of cardboard (inside of toilet rolls, kitchen rolls and cardboard boxes etc.) and turning the contents of each layer regularly (to get air running through it. I also swapped the layers around a bit (moved top to bottom) so now can't remember which layer was which originally. Anyway, currently the lowest layer looks good, loads of worms, big and small, slithering about all over the place and clearly working on the waste. The middle layer is slimy and disgusting and has no worms in it at all. The top layer is looking OK: quite a lot of worms and only a little bit slimey. Have added extra cardboard to the top layer. New compost bin arrived today so we will have to see how we get on with that. The two should compliment each other quite well as the wormery can take dairy, plate scrapings, cooked food (which the compost can't) and the compost can take grass cuttings and leaves (which I don't think the wormery can).

posted by blogaboutstuff @ 1:36 AM   3 comments

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Moving on up....



The worms seem too comfortable in the bottom layer, there are always loads of them in there (see pic) and I can't retrieve composted material from the bottom layer until they move on up to the next layer. Not sure how to achieve this. Will put efforts into making upper layers more appealing!

posted by blogaboutstuff @ 3:00 AM   1 comments

Alive and kicking

Haven't added any fresh waste for a couple of months. To be honest, am losing confidence in the fact that these worms can do the job, they certainly can't keep up with the amount of vegetable waste we produce on a weekly basis, maybe there just aren't enough of them.

Have pretty much left them to their own devices for a couple of months but checked on them today and there are loads of them in the bottom and next layer up. Am feeling encouraged to try harder with them. Will start adding fresh waste and card/paper again to the upper layer. As can be seen in the pictures the decomposing waste in the upper layer is not pretty (and smells foul!) but the worms seem to be thriving in there.

posted by blogaboutstuff @ 2:53 AM   0 comments

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Slowly, slowly...

The majority of the worms are still in the lowest level but a few are starting to migrate up to level two. I'm putting minimal amounts of waste into the wormery and am a bit dissapointed at the amount that I am able to recycle in this way. Have noticed however lots of baby sized worms appearing, so they seem to be reproducing which must be a good sign. Maybe they will speed up a bit getting through the waste. I have got about 40 litres of worm wee! (organic plant food). Must talk to allotment friends about taking it off my hands! If anyone is interested in having some, please post here!

posted by blogaboutstuff @ 9:18 AM   1 comments

Saturday, July 29, 2006

So far, so good...

All is well with the new batch of worms. I am adding very little waste and a lot more cardboard (proportionally). There are encouraging slithers whenever I lift the lid to check what's going on inside.

posted by blogaboutstuff @ 11:10 AM   0 comments

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Taking it slowly



Am adding waste slowly and making sure I include lots of cardboard (to soak up the moisture). I notice that the cardboard does get damp very quickly so there is obviously a lot of moisture in there.

posted by blogaboutstuff @ 1:40 AM   3 comments

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

A fresh (?!) start....

Have just completed the rather disgusting task of cleaning all the rotting, decomposing, stinking, festering organic matter out of the wormery, yuk! Am now starting over again with a new colony of worms. Heather and the team at Wiggley Wigglers have very kindly sent me a new batch of worms and a new bedding block (free of charge, which is particularly kind of them). They arrived in the post today. On finding the small cardboard box I said to Alan (husband) "Ah, I think this must be the automatic door fitting for the hen coop........ oh, it's not, it's a new bag of worms!". This is not a sentance you hear yourself saying very often!.....With a half kilo bag of worms on the kitchen table I realised I needed to sort out the wormery and get the worms established in their new home asap, this wasn't really something that could wait for the weekend. So, they're all in the lower layer, they soon dug (slithered?) down into their bedding block. Will start adding waste, perhaps at a slower rate than before and with particular attention to including enough cardboard and shredded paper to keep the moisture levels down.

posted by blogaboutstuff @ 10:06 PM   1 comments

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

No sign of life


We have left the wormery for over 2 weeks now in the hope that a new generation of worms would be 're-born' but as the picture shows, it's pretty grim in there! Each level contains dark rotting matter, there are millions of tiny flies in the lower two levels.

I think we're going to have to start again.

posted by blogaboutstuff @ 12:44 PM   2 comments