Planet Veggie Garden

…hard workers.

We’re all familiar with worms in the soil, most typically Earthworms.

But worms are multi-faceted squigglers. You can corral them and assign them to composting – “vermicomposting”.

Worms live to eat organic materials, excrete worm castings and reproduce rapidly. You can corral them in a dark, moist “farm”, feed them some throw away scraps and they couldn’t be happier.
In return, they’ll turn those food scraps into nutrient dense soil that you can use in your garden.

Done correctly, it’s very clean and efficient… and rather easy.

When worms are in the ground, they aerate the soil – digging tunnels and allowing air to get to plant roots. They also fertilize the soil.

When you set them up in “worm farms”, they’re happy to eat half their body weight a day and double their population every few months.

Down in the farm, worms eat organic material, digest it and excrete the digested material – called “castings”. Castings are the worms version of composted manure – plant-ready soil richer in nutrients than commercially available top soil or potting soil.

– Castings are pH neutral. They won’t burn plant root systems the way fresh raw animal manures can. Compared to potting soil castings have about 5 times more nitrogen, 7 times more potash, 3 times more calcium and several times more phosphorus and potassium.

– The nutrients are water-soluble so they’re immediately available to plant roots. And castings hold 2-3 times their weight in water… keeping moisture in the soil longer.

– Worm castings have a high amount of humus which helps create channels within soil that better hold water and allow air to pass through.

– Additionally, worm composting produces a liquid – leachate – commonly called “worm tea”. You can use this as a plant fertilizer too – best to dilute it in water – about a 4:1 ratio.

Build or Buy?

You can build your own worm farm without a great deal of work.
Plastic or wood are the best materials. Of the two, plastic tends to be easier to work with and maintain.

The container itself should be wider than deep. A good size is 2′ wide, 3′ long and 1′ deep. It should also be dark, so if you’re using transparent plastic, cover the outside with some light blocking material.

You’ll need to provide for drainage… drill 1/4″ holes into the bottom about every 3 inches.

And You’ll want to elevate your farm off the ground to allow air flow. You can put a tray under the bottom to catch any liquid (leachate) that drains off.

If you’re not ready for the science project build your own, you can buy a ready made, designed for worm composting, worm farm. They generally come with removable panels and leachate tray, making them easier to maintain.

Worm farm

Here’s our worm farm.
The base collects leachate. Open the spigot in the front to drain it off.

There’s one tray going with Red Wigglers. When that tray gets full, simply pop another tray on top that one. Put new food on the top tray and the worms work their way up.

The top closes securely and has a number of vent holes which aren’t clearly visible in the picture.

Setting Up the Farm

Start with the bedding material. Use shredded and moistened newspaper – black and white pages only.
Moisture in the bedding helps the worms breathe. However, avoid too much water (sopping wet) as the worms will drown.
You can also use peat moss or coconut fiber. (soak in water first and squeeze out to pull out some of the acidity).

Sprinkle in some garden soil or aged compost – a couple handfuls.

Add Worms

Which worms are best… Red Wigglers, more properly known as “Eisenia fetida”.
Red Wigglers have voracious appetites, are prolific reproducers and do ok in high density environments. They’re more surface seeking worms – so they eat upward. Whereas earthworms tend to tunnel downward.

You can get wigglers by mail (an Internet search will pull up numerous vendors), tho you may want to check locally first to avoid the trauma of being transported for the worms. If you can buy them nearby, you can get them in their new home quickly.

Start with a pound of worms… generally about 4,000.
Dump them in with the top off.
Like vampires, worms don’t like light so they’ll quickly start burrowing down into the bedding.

Harvesting

When you can no longer detect the bedding, it’s time to harvest the castings.

Never smash it down… that will suffocate your worm friends.

The commercial worm farms come with trays that make this quick and easy. You put a new tray on top the full one. The worms will make their way up and after a few weeks you can take the full tray out and put the castings to work.

If you built your own farm…

Because worms eat up and leave castings behind, you’ll find that most worms are near the top (top 4-6″) and the castings are on the bottom.

The easiest way to harvest the castings is to do a partial harvest. (You can do a complete harvest by picking all the worms out and putting them in new bedding… with thousands of wigglers that’s quite the task).

With a partial harvest you want to lure them to one end…
Put food only at one end. The worms (or most of them at least) will head for the food.
After about a week, remove the casting from the other end. This will give you half to two-thirds of the casting.

Then remove the rest of the material (castings, any remaining food and worms). Set them aside temporarily in a container.
Thoroughly clean out the bin and set up new bedding. Add your worms (with the rest of the material) into their freshly cleaned home.

Farm Operation

Worms do need oxygen so be sure your bin is not air tight. You can use a tight lid, just drill some holes in the lid, or the sides of the bin close to the top.

Red Wigglers like the thermometer set at 72-75 degrees Fahrenheit. They’ll tolerate a range of 50-90 degrees (10-30 Celsius)… this is inside bin temperature not outside ambient temperature.

If the bin gets too hot you can: put it in a shaded and well ventilated area, keep it a little more wet, freeze the food before adding it in, sit a few frozen water bottles in the bin.

If the bin gets too cold the worms will decrease their activity (eating and reproduction). Worms won’t survive being frozen, tho cocoons will… and they’ll hatch after they thaw out.
To warm up the bin you can add more carbon materials such as leaves and newspaper. They generate more heat when decomposing. You can also cover the bin with a blanket of sorts.

Red Wigglers reproduce rapidly. Tho no need to worry about worms spilling out of the bin. They self regulate their reproduction rate so they don’t over-populate their space. Interesting concept, eh?

Calcium helps reproduction. You can add crushed cooked egg shells to their food mix.

Happy farming!

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