Worm farms are ideal for people living in flats or houses with small backyards and for dealing with lunch scraps at the office.
Worm farms use special earthworms called compost worms that thrive in the warm, rich, moist environment of the worm farm.
The most common compost worms are Tiger Worms, Red Wrigglers and Indian Blues and they can eat about half of their body weight in one day.
The population in a well maintained worm farm doubles every two to three months.
If you don’t want to buy a commercially prepared farm, a polystyrene foam fruit/broccoli box about 28 cm high with drainage holes cut in the bottom is ideal for a first worm farm.
Add small amounts of food at the beginning and over 6 months gradually increase the amount.
The trick to healthy worms is a diversity of food and all in moderation.
A worm farm with a surface area of one metre square and around 10,000 worms will eat about 10 kg of food waste each week.
Worms will breed and grow in direct proportion to the feed provided and the size of the worm farm.
It is best to feed your worms weekly. If uneaten food remains, then you know you have overfed the worms.
It is important to keep the worm farm moist, as the worms may die if it dries out. However, the worm farm should not be soggy either. Remember, there is moisture in the food scraps.
After feeding the worms, cover the food scraps with some compost or soil to avoid attracting vinegar flies.
Worm wee (tea) and poo (castings) are a superb source of fertiliser for your garden. Vegetables will taste better and flowers will flower earlier.
Using worm castings is like any other gardening activity, so wear your gardening gloves and wash hands thoroughly after handling materials.
What can I feed my worms?
Food the worms LIKE:
Plate scrapings (cooked vegetables and stewed fruit leftovers)
Fruit peelings (not too much orange or lemon peel)
Vegetable scraps and peelings (not too many onions)
There are 350 species of earthworms in Australia and most of those found on farms and in gardens are introduced species. Compost worms are rare in the bush because the conditions are not suitable. Compost worms are a special type of earthworm. Compost worms are generally more active than normal earthworms.
An earthworm breathes through its skin, has 5 hearts and a circulatory system, calciferous glands for neutralising food, a crop and a gizzard with stones for grinding food, a digestive system, a brain and nervous system, several hundred kidney type organs, both male and female organs and abilities, and a saddle which secretes mucus for egg capsules.
Earthworms are hermaphrodites, which means each worm has female and male sex organs, so every worm can have babies. But reproduction can only occur between two mature worms of the same species.
After mating, both earthworms form a capsule (or cocoon) containing up to 20 eggs. Even though each mature compost worm might mate every 7 to 10 days and produce about 4 to 20 capsules a week, only 3 of these capsules produce babies. Each capsule produces around 4 baby worms, which makes a total of 12 babies per adult per week.
Babies hatch after about 30 days and are ready to breed 55 to 70 days later.
Earthworm eggs can survive in very dry conditions for a long time. The babies usually hatch when the soil becomes moist.
Although earthworms do not have eyes, they sense light as well as vibrations and temperature through special organs in their skin.
You can also add compost worms to standard compost bins or heaps, as long as you do not let the contents of the bin get too hot.
For loads more information on Worms, Worm Farms, read our article Wriggling for Joy
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