The other night I was out feeding the worms, the air was still and quiet. As I leaned down I could hear the worms eating! A sort of a squelchy sucking sound. It was delightful. I was having real trouble with them growing in one of those off-the-shelf plastic 'farms' until I realised that you really have to leave the juice tap open. This seemed to make all the difference, also I stopped feeding them for a while as they seemed to be overwhelmed. Now until they build up their numbers they really only get a few scraps. I'm hoping they will get to a point where they can munch through a lot more stuff, otherwise I'll need a few farms going at once...
Re: The pleasures of worm farms Yeah, I suspect they liked hanging around in that stuff more than the food I gave them, then last summer when the heat was on, they just all up and died. Drowned perhaps? So I got some from a friends compost heap (I bought the original one from from the nursery) and they have been going really well. I've been giving them a drink on the hot days and they seem fine now.
Worm castings This is a bit of a naff question from a newbie - bear with me. I have a round worm farm, in layers (commercial variety). It's been going great guns until just the last couple of weeks. Two things have happened in that time - no three. I added the final layer (that's 3 layers now that have had or are having scraps put into them), the temperatures have got really hot and where the farm was occasionally got some morning sun (doesn't anymore, but it's still hot - ie 34 today), and a friend has started giving me her scraps for them which included wraps (ie like pita bread) that had gone moldy. Now the food on the top layer is looking really yucky - slimy, and the hessian bag over it is really moist all the time, and slimy. There are some worms in the scraps, but not the handfuls of worms all knotted together that used to be there. My questions: 1. Do I have to urgently remove the bottom layer of castings to allow better drainage and the top layer to 'dry out' a bit? I'm still getting plenty of worm juice. 2. If I do, how to I store what I presume will be very moist worm castings? 3. Could my slimy scraps be as a result of losing worms to the hot weather and hence being overfed? 4. Should bread (and wraps) not be added to the worm food? ( it was gluten free organic :wink: ) TIA
Re: Worm castings Might be too hot... worms usually group together for warmth, and spread out to cool down...
Re: The pleasures of worm farms Bedding is the first layer at the bottom of the worm farm and can consist of any clean material hay, shreeded paper or typically cocopeat. It gives the worm somewhere to go after work to unwind. Tulipwood, it is important to not over feed the worms. If it is not consumed that day or in a couple of days then remove it and give some fresher stuff. Never put bread or peanut butter or peanut butter sandwiches for that matter, into your worm farm as the levels of salt can be fatal. regards
Re: The pleasures of worm farms Cool does it go at the bottom of each layer in commercial systems or just in the bottom one,and how thick?
Re: The pleasures of worm farms Just on the bottom layer and at about 30 cms thick should do it depending on the material as you should allow for flattening with hay or paper.
Re: The pleasures of worm farms Yeah it sounds like you may have just put a little too much food on the new top layer Tulipwood. Also if there is still some food on the layer below it may take the worms a while before they feel the urge to move up into the top layer. It might be worth sprinkling a handful of dolomite over what you have there and just laying off the feed for a while until you see them getting excited about it again.
I find that digging the semi-decomposed food into the top 5cm helps the worms to access the food under the soil.. makes my farm work much faster
