worms

VERMICOMPOSTING

The art of converting kitchen scraps and other household wastes into organic food for our plants and gardens with the assistance of earth worms.

You will find on this page the following:

Article on Vermicomposting written by Wally Richards

Picture of the WORM-A-ROUND.

General Information

What to do when you receive your Worm-A-Round.

How to feed your worms.

Harvesting of Vermicast

Harvesting of worms.

Questions and Answers.

To order your worms.

Worm-A-Rounds are made by KBL

Order your Worm-a-Round on line here.

Other worm sites and information
Up Dated 12/05/11

Note Dimensions of the Worm-a-Round are: 650mm diameter and 550mm high. VERMICOMPOSTING

Worms are the most efficient method of recycling household wastes into high value nutrients for the garden.
There are about 3000 types of worm species but of these there are only about a half dozen or so that are important to cultivation.
Eisenia foetida, commonly known as the Manure Worm, Red Wiggler or Tiger worm, has alternative bands of yellow and maroon down the length of its body.
You know you have one when you pick it up, it thrashes about, wriggling and squirming.
The amazing attributes of the Tiger worm include, being able to consume their own body weight in food each day.
The daily food intake of organic material results in a wonderful, organic material called vermi-cast.
They also produce 60% of their body weight in urine each day which is referred to as leachate.
This leachate is very high in nitrogen and can be diluted 10:1 for use as a highly nutritious plant food.
Tiger worms are surface feeders and they thrive in organic materials such as manure and kitchen scraps when these materials are mulched on top of the soil.
Tiger worms have another interesting aspect as they are a little like Monarch Butterfly's caterpillars in so much as they are distasteful to predators such as birds.
Thus many birds will leave them alone and being surface eaters this is most important as they are easy prey otherwise.
These wonderful worms are the best compositors in the world, turning waste material into high value nutrients for plants to use.
Everyday you likely throw out kitchen wastes, which clog up our tips and sewer systems.
Such a waste of wastes.
Now what say you could convert your wastes to top quality plant food (leachate) plus highly nutritious soil for gardens and containers (vermicast) and be able to collect these valuable products cleanly and simply?
Well now you can with an amazing unit called WORM-A-ROUND.
Worm-a Round is a special double bin that allows you to run your own Vermicomposting unit and collect the valuable plant nutrients.
Simple to use, you start off with newspaper and kitchen wastes to which is added 250 grams of Tiger Worms. (These are available from worm growers through out NZ)
Each day you simply add your kitchen wastes for that day and once in full operation your Worm-A-Round bin can cope with 2 kg of kitchen waste per day.
A tap is on the lower, collector bin and each week you can collect about a litre of leachate. This can be stored for use as required.
If you think about it, that's about $20.00 worth of top quality plant food a week.
Over the following weeks and months the worm population will increase till it reaches its optimum level.
(Worms are self regulating in this aspect)
At this time you could remove some of the worms and place them in the garden under a layer of organic mulch.
Mushroom compost would be ideal for this.
You may like to add them to your own compost heap to get more action from it. If you don't remove any worms it does not matter as they will not over crowd their home.
It takes between 3 to 6 months to reach this point.
After a period of time vermicast will reach the top of the first tray and then the second tray should be added to the bin. Food scraps can then be placed in this top tray, daily.
Once this top tray is three quarters full of vermicast most of the worms will have moved up into it.
At this time you can remove the bottom tray (full of vericast) for use with your potting mixes, as seed raising mix, mulch around plants, or for use under plants at planting time.
It also can be added to water as an additional liquid additive in the garden.
Vericast, like ordinary worm casts is a beautiful crumbly material just busting with plant nutrients.
Each harvest will save you many dollars in potting mixes and other plant foods.
Except for your initial outlay for the bin, instructions and worms the whole process will not cost you a penny in the future but will return you many dollars worth of products every week for years.
Vermicomposting is an interesting aspect of gardening and of great value to your plants as well as the important principals of recycling.
An activity that even the younger members of the family can enjoy and participate in. Giving them a better concept of nature and the world around them.
I currently throw my kitchen wastes into my plastic composter but have found that it has encouraged rats and mice this winter.
(Mind you they do a fine job digging through the compost and aerating it)
The Worm-a-Round is rat and mice proof so you wont have that problem.
So I am now thinking of investing in a Worm-a-Round farm as a far better alternative to my unintended rat and mice farm.
Worm-a-Rounds are available through a limited number of garden centres at this time. (As time goes by more will likely stock them)
But can be obtained by Mail Order through these pages.
Vermicomposting is very popular overseas and is highly valued by persons conscious of the need to recycle as well as gardeners both organically minded and otherwise.

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GENERAL INFORMATION
The WORM-A-ROUND worm bin is a household organic recycling device using the power of Tiger Worms to convert kitchen vegetable waste into highly nutritious liquid and solid plant foods.
The Tiger Worms are able to tolerate a range of temperatures from 0 - 35 degrees C and will eat almost all organic household waste.
They will eat cooked and raw vegetable and fruit scraps, paper, cardboard, tea bags, coffee grounds, egg shells, hair and contents from your vacuum cleaner bag.
Tiger Worms are not keen on citrus or onion skins. However they will eventually eat these too and of course it will be broken down by other decomposers as well.
The Tiger Worms are surface feeding worms and work in conjunction with fungi and bacteria.
As the Tiger Worms do not have teeth, they must wait until the natural action of the fungi and bacteria have partially broken down the food material to a usable form.
Vegetables and fruits contain around 80% water. It is not normally necessary to add water to your wormbin.
As the worms eat the food, the liquid is released into the bin and this gradually filters into the bottom collecting tank.
This is the liquid vermicast or leachate and is a highly nutritious plant food. It MUST be diluted 10 : 1 before you water it onto your garden. It is very safe to use on delicate houseplants too.
When your bin is working near its maximum capacity you should get around a litre of this leachate per week. It keeps very well and has no offensive odour.
As the worms digest the food they will begin to form a dark rich compost called vermicast in the base of the bin.
This is a very nutritious plant food, it is very stable and safe to add to seedlings, houseplants and your general garden.
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WHEN YOU RECEIVE YOUR WORM-A-ROUND
(Then order your worms. They will take 2-3 days to arrive.)
The WORM-A-ROUND wormbin should be placed in a convenient position away from the full afternoon sun and with some protection from heavy frosts in the winter.
The WORM-A-ROUND worm bin comprises: 1 x base tank with tap
2 x working trays
2 x aerated floors
2 x black aerated tubes
1 x lid
For ease of collecting the liquid plant food from the tap, the WORM-A-ROUND should be elevated enough to be able to get your container underneath the tap. This can be achieved in several ways:
The wormbin legs can stand on bricks or concrete blocks, lengths of standard 5Omm PVC waste pipe can be cut and placed over the legs or the whole bin can be placed on a small sturdy garden table.
(Be aware that a working wormbin could weigh approximately 60 kg)
Place your WORM-A-ROUND base tank in its chosen position.
Fill each leg cavity with small stones. (Not Supplied)
Place one of the working trays on top of the tank and then drop in one of the aerated floors.
Stand the black aerated tube in the central hole.
Prepare some bedding material for your worms.
Take a sheet of dry newspaper and fit to the inside floor covering the aeration holes.
Either of the following may be used for bedding.
A. Pre-soak overnight approximately 20 litres of shredded newspaper or cardboard. Squeeze out all the excess water, (There should be enough wet paper to cover the tray about 5 - 7 cm deep.)
B. Well composted garden waste or peat.
Add your container of Tiger Worms (Einsenia Fetida) and then some vegetable food scraps.
Place the lid on your worm farm and let the worms do their job.
They are sensitive to the light and will burrow down if the lid is removed.
Feed only slowly until your population of worms has built up.
As the worms begin to multiply you may see the eggs in the bedding material.
They are about the size of a match head, coloured dull yellowish-brown and will contain approximately 4 immature worms.

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FOOD AND FEEDING 1NSTRUCTIONS
Worms will eat anything organic but have preferences.
It is easier to mention their dislikes.
They will leave citrus and onion skins to last.
Food such as tea bags, coffee grounds, tissue paper, human hair, etc can be added.
Untreated wood ash and egg shells will help to regulate the pH.(Acidity level)
The smaller the food particles, the faster it can be ingested by the worms.
Worms ingest food only after it has been processed by other decomposers like fungi and bacteria.
It takes approximately 2 weeks for the fresh food to become available to the worms.
Lawn clippings - this model is not designed to cope withdomestic lawn clippings.
The average home lawn produces about 60 L of lawn clippings (approx. 20kg).
This is high in fibre and produces heat if fed directly.
However this material can be composted first and added when the heating process has stopped, if insufficient food scraps are available.
The WORM-A-ROUND bin can cope with up to 2kg of household scraps per day. (When the population has stabilized)
The population will reach this point after approximately 3 - 5 months depending on the season of the year.
Feeding levels are in direct relationship to the weight of the worms in the bin.
Worms can eat up to their own weight in food per day.
The bin is usually started with 250 grams of worms but it has to be taken into account that worms will get nutrition from the bedding material in the first few weeks. (They love newspaper)
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HARVESTING OF VERMI-CAST
Over many months this vermicast will reach the top of the first working tray.
At this point you should add the second working tray and aerated floor and extension tube on top of the first tray.
(The food in the lower tray must be able to touch the food in the second tray).
Begin to add food scraps to the top working tray.
The worms will begin to feed in the top tray and once this tray is approximately three quarters full of vermicast, most of the worms will have moved up into it.
The bottom tray can now be removed and harvested for your garden.
A. Firstly drain all the leachate from the tap.
B. Lift the top tray off and place it on the ground.
C. Remove the lower tray from the tank. Please note.. this tray will be very heavy and may require help to lift it.
D. Collect any worms that may be in the tank and place them back in the 3/4 filled tray with the fresh food.
E. Rinse out the tank and collect the liquid for the garden.
F. Replace the fine stones into each leg cavity and place the tank back into its original location.
G. Lift the 3/4 full working tray onto the tank ensuring the aeration tube is located in the centre hole of the tank.
This now becomes the lower working tray.
H. Replace the lid.
The full tray of vermicast can now be used on the garden, in seedling trays or for your houseplants.
It can be used in its solid form, or water may be added to form a thick liquid additive.
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HARVESTING OF WORMS
If you wish to share your Tiger Worms with another gardener, or start another worm farm of your own, the worms may be harvested after the population stabilizes.
This occurs after around 3-6 months depending on the temperature.
Stabilization point is reached when very few capsules (bright yellow ones) are observed.
While worms may be harvested from your WORM-A-ROUND, it is not necessary to do so, as the population is self-regulating.
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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
1. What should I do when I go on holiday?
Worms can survive for some time without food. A thick layer of food (5cm deep) will last them 2 - 3 weeks.
2. My bin smells, what should I do?
Dairy products, meat and fatty gravy should not be added to the bin as they become smelly.
A covering of jute fibre carpet underlay, hessian or black plastic directly on top of the food layer will contain smells.
3. There are some worms in the liquid tank. what is wrong?
Bedding could be too dry /wet.
Too much disturbance by curious fingers.
Too much light - lid was left off.
Too hot - added green lawn clippings? - move into a shadier spot.
The worms can return to the working trays themselves up the ramp, but if you want you can help them.
4. The food level is not going down. What is wrong?
Food scraps first have to decompose before worms can ingest them.
This takes about 2 weeks.
In the first month of use worms are still feeding on bedding so you should feed less than 250 gms per day.
5. There are little white "worms " in the bin. What should I do?
These are nematodes.
They are not harmful, but their presence indicates bedding mixture is too acidic.
Add a small amount of rock lime /garden lime, wood ash (untreated) or egg shells to lower the pH.
6. There are lots of little flies in the bin. what should I do?
These are vinegar flies.
They are particularly fond of pineapple, tomato and other fruits.
A small handful of lime and a top cover of plastic or carpet underlay will deter them.
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ORDERING YOUR TIGER WORMS
Information for a current worm supplier will come with your Worm-a-Round Bin.
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WORM-A-ROUNDS are manufactured by
Stallion Plastics LTD
In Palmerston North.

Mail Order your Worm-A-Round from these pages by email at
wallyjr@gardenews.co.nz
They come in one colour, Black (as Henry Ford said you can have any colour as long as its black.)
Price of the worm-a-round is $200.00

Price includes courier fee to your home.

Send a cheque to Garden Enterprises
P.O. Box 489
Palmerston North.
Dont forget to include your home address for delivery
Alternative is phone 0800 466464 with credit card details.
Allow about 5 working days for dispatch from us receiving your order.
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Sites about Worms
Happy Ranch Worms
Good information on earth worms from Canada.
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Map of these pages.