Worm Farm

5 Worm Farming Tips to Boost Your Worms – Worm Farms

If you purchased your worm farm, followed the basic instructions and in time experienced unpleasant results then read on because all you need to do is tip out all the ‘manky’ smelly contents and start again.

Worm Farming Tips ti Boost Your Worms

Constructing or buying a worm farm means that you have volunteered to be a ‘Farmer of worms’. ie. Just like any farmer you need to provide ideal conditions to a creature that was not meant to be contained in order to get the results you are looking for. Wether its to recycle food waste and or to gather the resultant vermi compost or leachate then understanding a few principles will assist you in this.

Worms survive on food, moisture and oxygen. However the ENGINE that drives a successful outcome is COMPOST!  Worms naturally live breed and eat in moist compost on top of the earth surrounded by oxygen in darkness.

It is compost that houses Trillions of Bacteria which are the essential element necessary to break food waste down (rot) and without it being in abundance in a healthy symbiosis with other chemical matter then worm population will lag and smelly odours will occur.

If you don’t have access to compost (that has composted) any form of carbon will suffice.

Worms Eat Rot

A healthy microbiology of Bacteria or ‘Compost’ is the beginnings of ‘Ideal Conditions’. It is the healthy happy home for worms to live. An oxygenated compost of elements interacting together, predating on each other and pigging backing each other around produces trillions more bacteria which in turn transform organic waste into rot and Boost your Worms. 

Tip 1 House and re supply your worm farm with compost

Worms habitat naturally in compost not a coir fibre brick. Home made compost is easy to make and will provide the platform for a bio diverse community of microscopic creatures to interact and present the means of making organic waste viable for worms to eat.

Food

Anything organic, however worms favour some foods over others such as vegetable waste and farm animal manures.

Tip 2 Process food waste in a blender. The finer the material the quicker it will rot down.

Moisture

Worm take their oxygen from water and use it to assist their travel. Worms mostly passively breed by passing sperm on the moisture of their skin to an opposing worm.

Tip 3 Keeping worms feed and together means greater breeding conditions.

Oxygen

This is the most important element and it is the one thing missing from many worm farm designs.

Tip 4 Use a ‘Flow through’ system or manually aerate the worm farm contents regularly. This ensures bacteria will continue to break down waste and reduce ammonia off gas which slows down worm activity.

UV Light

Tip 5 UV light attacks a worms nervous system causing them to rapidly retreat. Maintain a blanket cover of hessian or cardboard on top of the food layer to once again maintain the colony together on top of the compost under the cover of light.

In Summary. Keeping your worms together in an oxygenated bedding of compost and maintaining a supply of organic waste in an moist environment under the cover of light means your worms will passively breed. If you want to increase your results then just increase the surface area of the worm farm. 

4 Comments
  • Dean
    Posted at 04:05h, 20 July

    Hi Tony,
    It was a pleasure to meet you today. I really appreciate all the advice and knowledge you shared with me. I am very excited about getting my worm farm established and processing the households organic waste.

    Cheers
    Dean

  • Bruce McCoombe
    Posted at 07:08h, 14 July

    Hi
    I would like to bred worms for fishing can i use composting worms and is that the same process

    • wormz_admin
      Posted at 08:59h, 15 July

      Hi Bruce. Avid fishermen purchase my compost worms with delight. However most ad hoc fisherman ask for large worms and these really means ‘Earthworms’. So to answer your question – Yes you can!

      Regards

      Tony

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