Gardening – Saosis

The most simple way to turn your fruits and vegetables scraps into compost or potting soil for your plants is by creating a worm farm. Worm farms are productive all year long. Worm farming is particularly successful for those who likes to make compost but do not have the room for an actual compost bin.

Across the world people are building their own small worm farms in their backyard. Worms are one of the best low maintenance pet available. They don’t need daily walks, don’t require expensive food or costly trip to the veterinary doctor.

To start your worm farm you will need a few items:
1) Worms: Finding a great breed stock is best in a city gardener’s basement supply as well as established breeders. It is often suggested that you use red worms in your worm farm. Night crawlers and earthworms are not good worm farm inhabitants. Knowing the number of worms to start your worm farm with will depend on various factors including your budget, the scale of the worm farm you plan, the available space for the worm farm, temperature or seasonable changes in your local area, etc. Another factor that could determine the number of worms you need is if you plan to ship the worms all over the country or you just want to sell locally.

2) Plastic or wood container: If you intend to keep your worm farm inside your home do make sure that your container has no leak. A dark color container is always recommended as worms like dark place. Never keep your worm farm close to vibration; worms hate vibration.

3) Food- Worms eat about half of their body weight each day. Their favorite foods are typically what you want to convert into compost such as fruit scraps, bread, pasta and other starch foods. Please do not offer foods with high acidic concentration. When feeding your worms try to stay away from items such as coffee grounds, lemon and orange peels. These types of food scraps will cause your worm farm to smell, therefore attracting insects. If you do choose to give these scraps to your worms, you can maintain a recommended Ph balance of 7 or 8, by also adding cooked eggshells to their home.

4) Bedding materials- Mix moist shredded newspaper (not colored ads), crushed eggshells and a few handfuls of garden soil. Keep the moisture moist, this will help your worms to breathe.

Your worm farming bin must have good access to oxygen, therefore keep the lid of your farm bin cracked to let in fresh air. You should move the bedding around occasionally by turning it with a garden tool. Your worms will appreciate it if you keep the temperature of the farm between 40 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit.

Your red worms will reproduce frequently. You will notice little oval cocoons within the farm, this will let you know that the worms are reproducing. These cocoons will take several weeks to hatch. You can help your worms to reproduce by adding poultry shells to their habitat; this will give them the calcium that they need.

Using worms to create an eco-friendly garden may be one of nature’s best kept secrets. Worm farming does not require a lot of work and can be fun and educational for the entire family.

We use a strong plastic container that is about 20 inches tall, 16 inches wide and 12 inches long. These measurements are not critical but we use this for our convenience. The container must be water tight and dark inside. The worms are happier when kept in the dark. If your container is transparent, wrap it with newspapers or store it in a dark place. Make use the place where you put your container is free of vibrations. Your worms might pack and move to other digs if they are to close to vibration.

Now get some composting worms, about a kilo. We recommend red worms over other type of worms. These red worms are also called as red wrigglers or manure worms. But do not use earthworms or night crawlers. They are no good for this job.

The bedding can contain some shredded newspapers, moistened and not wet. You can also use black and white pages. The classified ads are good, as are the stock market reports. Don’t use the colored ad pages, it just makes the worms want to go shopping and you want them to stay in your box and convert the vegetable scraps. Add a couple of handfuls of garden soil, not potting soil, and a couple of crushed egg shells. Keep the bedding damp but not sopping. The moisture helps them to breathe, but too much water will drown them. Within a period of two to three months, the worms and other micro-organisms will eat the
food waste and bedding and produce a rich soil conditioner.

You can feed your worms fruit and vegetable scraps and starchy scraps, like bread, oatmeal, and pasta. You can also feed them grits if they are southern worms, like ours. Please do not feed these worms too much acidic foods, like citric fruits, coffee ground and tea bags. These worms do best in an environment having a pH between 7 & 8. You can also use egg shells to balance the effects of coffee grounds, orange and lemon peels. Make sure that the eggshells are cooked before adding them to the worm farm. If they are not from boiled eggs, you can cook them by putting them in a cup of water in the microwave. Never feed your worms meat, poultry, dairy products, or salty food , like potato chips. These will create odors and attract insects. Your worms will eat about half their body weight each day. Take this into consideration when you are deciding how much food to add to the bin.

Worms functions very well at room temperature and when there is sufficient oxygen. To keep oxygen circulate keep the lid partially open. You should also turn the bedding with a trowel periodically to improve air circulation in the farm. Keep the farm temperature between +40 degrees F and +85 degrees F. Remember that heat will build up quickly in the farm if it is left in the sunlight.

Red worms reproduce often. Small, oval shaped cocoons in the bedding indicate that nature is taking its course. Cocoons may contain several baby worms and will take several weeks to hatch. Watch for tiny white worms. Poultry egg shells added to the bedding will provide calcium the worms need to reproduce. Don’t worry about red worms taking over the estate, their population is limited by the size of their environment.