Vermicompost – now I've got my wormery at full tilt…….

[RhysParticipant]

Charles

I set up a wormery in January 2014 and now it appears to be getting to the stage that we might actually have some product to use. I’ve got two trays in a three tray vertical wormery fully rotted down and the top tray is happily getting on with rotting, being about 1/3 – to 1/2 full right now.

As the amount I will have this year to use won’t be huge, are there any applications where use of vermicompost has particularly beneficial results or is a tablespoon per 30cm tomato pot as good a place as any to start?

[charlesModerator]

Its precious and I would use it in a potting mix, so your tomato pot idea is a good starting point. Have you been using the juices on plants?

[RhysParticipant]

I did use some juices last summer when I was not quite getting the balance of brown and green waste right, but didn’t do anything too planned – just diluted it and put it on Defender Courgettes which I tried growing in a breathable fabric pot – the plant kept producing courgettes until early October so it clearly did n’t do any harm!

Any thoughts on what to try it on or should I boldly go where no Dowding has gone before?!

[zufParticipant]

I use it pure or mixed with peat in module trays to sow any seeds of veg.
It is good to use it when you transplant seedlings into a garden.
You can make compost tea!
I use it a lot in containers.

[slasherParticipant]

I have just moved a load horse muck, it had a load of red worms in it , do these worms do the
same work as the earthworm.

[zufParticipant]

No, earthworm lives in soil and drags his food (organic matter) into channels bellow.

What you found are composting worms, which live in organic matter and feed on it. If you are asking yourself, no, they don’t “attack” living plants, roots etc – they only feed on decaying organic matter.
They don’t survive in soil. When organic matter is gone, they move or go dormant.

Compost worms make amazing compost called worm castings.
Unfinished compost, fresh fruit and similar are their favorite.
They are amazing at turning fresh kitchen waste into compost.

[RhysParticipant]

I agree with you – the bottom two trays of my wormery now look like the most perfect lawn of compost imaginable – absolutely perfectly ripe. The top layer has plenty of kitchen waste to eat just topped up today with 6 month old horse manure – composting worms really, really love that stuff.

[zufParticipant]

Yes! 🙂

We took an old bath, put a mesh inside on a drainage, place the bath a bit off level so excess liquid goes into drainage and fill it half full with half year old cow manure. This was in late spring last year.
Then we added kitchen scraps on top.
It’s quite full now, everything looks like regular compost now, but it’s not yet finished, worms are turning this into even better black gold (worm castings) – we will wait now for them to process the whole thing.
At the same time we will start the new bath.
This is really good article – http://permaculturenews.org/2015/01/21/updated-worm-farming-at-zaytuna-farm/

[HawfinchParticipant]

I have a Dalek-type composter where all the kitchen waste goes and it is full of small wiggly red worms, are they the same worms as the ones in a wormery? The compost I dig out at the bottom is fantastic and quite different from what comes out of the compost piles.

[zufParticipant]

You are composting with worms already. 🙂

[HawfinchParticipant]

Thanks Zuf 🙂

[jjat8cvParticipant]

I have a problem with the tap blocking up and I cannot therefore drain the bin properly. Has anyone else had a problem with this and how did they solve it. Many thanks.

[RhysParticipant]

Yes, I had that at the start. Firstly, you just have to take the tap out and wash it clean with water, draining the bin through tipping after removing the wormery trays .

Going forward, it suggests you need to add more things like horse manure, grass clippings, newspaper shreds and cardboard to your wormery as you currently have too much food waste/plant waste with all its liquid inside it……

[jjat8cvParticipant]

Thank you Charles. I will thoroughly wash the tap on an empty bin and transfer the contents to that bin adding some cardboard and grass cuttings as I go. I do add shredded newspaper but that is obviously not sufficient.

[jjat8cvParticipant]

Sorry Rhys I should have thanked you and not Charles. I will be dealing with the problem this afternoon.

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