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    Fact Sheet - Wormfarming

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    Roger Yatan Ibañez Jr.
    Worm farming involves keeping worms in captivity and providing optimal conditions for them to breed and feed on food scraps. Worms eat decomposing organic material and turn about 80% of it into liquid and 20% into dense, nutrient-rich castings. To keep worms healthy, their environment must be kept cool, moist, and dark, and they should be fed decomposing food scraps once a week. Worm farming produces liquid fertilizer for plants and castings that are useful for gardens, lawns, and seed starting.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Fact Sheet - Wormfarming

    Uploaded by

    Roger Yatan Ibañez Jr.
    54 views2 pages
    Worm farming involves keeping worms in captivity and providing optimal conditions for them to breed and feed on food scraps. Worms eat decomposing organic material and turn about 80% of it into liquid and 20% into dense, nutrient-rich castings. To keep worms healthy, their environment must be kept cool, moist, and dark, and they should be fed decomposing food scraps once a week. Worm farming produces liquid fertilizer for plants and castings that are useful for gardens, lawns, and seed starting.

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    Fact_Sheet_-_Wormfarming

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    Worm farming involves keeping worms in captivity and providing optimal conditions for them to breed and feed on food scraps. Worms eat decomposing organic material and turn about 80% of it into liquid and 20% into dense, nutrient-rich castings. To keep worms healthy, their environment must be kept cool, moist, and dark, and they should be fed decomposing food scraps once a week. Worm farming produces liquid fertilizer for plants and castings that are useful for gardens, lawns, and seed starting.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    54 views2 pages

    Fact Sheet - Wormfarming

    Uploaded by

    Roger Yatan Ibañez Jr.
    Worm farming involves keeping worms in captivity and providing optimal conditions for them to breed and feed on food scraps. Worms eat decomposing organic material and turn about 80% of it into liquid and 20% into dense, nutrient-rich castings. To keep worms healthy, their environment must be kept cool, moist, and dark, and they should be fed decomposing food scraps once a week. Worm farming produces liquid fertilizer for plants and castings that are useful for gardens, lawns, and seed starting.

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    Introduction to

    WORMFARMING

    What is worm farming?


    Worm farming is the keeping of worms in
    captivity and maintaining their optimum
    conditions to encourage breeding. Worm
    farming is not to be confused with
    composting. A compost system relies
    mostly on the activity of micro organisms
    to break material down and steps are taken
    to increase the temperature to heights of
    60-70 degrees. Larger organisms,
    including worms, beetles and ants, will
    either leave or die in the compost when it
    gets too hot. For more information contact
    Council’s Waste Education Officer for a
    brochure on composting.

    What to put in a worm farm the scraps need to be in a suitable state of decomposition.
    Worms ‘suck’ their food and will eat the material that is the
    Worms most soft and slimy. Chopping it up or running it through a
    Worms can be purchased from some nurseries and hardware food processor will help speed up the process.
    stores or directly from a local breeder. You must use the
    right types of worms - red or tiger worms. Common garden
    earthworms are not suitable for a worm farm. How often do you feed the worms?
    Once a week is best. If possible, it is better to store your
    scraps until the worms have finished eating the previous
    Bedding scraps. If storing rotting vegetables is a problem for you, try
    If the worm supplier does not provide enough bedding to line keeping them in a sealed container in the fridge.
    the bottom of the worm farm with at least 4cm layer, you can
    use lawn clippings and shredded newspaper. Potting mix is
    okay too. What if you go on holidays?
    If you go away for an extended period of time, just leave a
    large wad of damp newspaper or an old damp cotton towel
    Food Scraps and the worms will feed off that quite happily.
    Worms eat dead and decomposing organic material. Novice
    farmers should avoid certain organic materials such as meat,
    dairy, grain and citrus. Also avoid large amounts of the same Vinegar Flies?
    material. For instance, 1kg of rotten tomatoes may create an Vinegar flies look like fruit flies and are often seen hovering
    acidic environment that is toxic to the worms. around the fruit bowl. If you keep putting fresh scraps into
    the worm farm, which are not decomposed enough for the
    worms, then you will attract vinegar flies. They are harmless
    How much do you feed the worms? and, unlike fruit fly, they will not infect your fruit trees.
    Worms can eat half their weight everyday. 1000 worms
    weigh 250g, therefore if you start your worm farm with
    1000 worms you should be able to add approximately 125g Bad Smells?
    of food scraps per day, nearly 1kg per week. Remember that There should not be any noticeable odour coming from the
    worm farm. An unpleasant smell indicates that the worms above 30ºC, you need to cool it down immediately. The
    are not working or there is too much, or the wrong type of fastest way is to put the hose in and allow cool water to run
    food in the farm. First check that there are plenty of worms through it. Make sure it drains freely or the worms will drown.
    moving through the food scraps. If not, check the conditions Then relocate the worm farm to a cooler place. You won’t
    are cool, moist and dark. If the worms are active, gently poke need a thermometer to know it’s too hot. The worm farm will
    around the food scraps and check for maggots. Maggots are have an unpleasant smell and all the worms will be huddled
    harmless, however they indicate the presence of meat, dairy together in the coolest part of the box. In winter, cover the
    or bread, which may be causing the smell. worm farm with a thick blanket, relocate to a warmer part of
    the garden or bring indoors.
    What do you get out of a worm farm?
    Approximately 80% of what you feed to the worms will be MOISTURE
    turned into a liquid – often known as ‘worm juice’. The liquid Worms breathe through their skin and their skin must be
    can be diluted and used to fertilise gardens and lawns. It may moist or they will die. They will also die if the moisture
    also be sprayed directly onto foliage to give plants an instant builds up so much that they are ‘swimming’ in the box. The
    boost. If you are making your own worm farm at home, make dampness of a sponge that is wet but not dripping is a good
    sure you include a hole near the bottom of the container to example of what you must aim for. Keep a wet cotton or wool
    drain the liquid. cloth over the food scraps as well as a lid on the box.
    The remaining 20% of the food scraps is turned into
    ‘vermicast’ or ‘worm castings’. Vermicast is a dense, black- LIGHT
    brown material that looks like mud. The worm castings build
    up relatively slowly and can remain in the container until it is Worms are highly sensitive to light. As soon as the worm
    taking up too much space. farm is exposed the worms will stop eating and start hiding.
    This interrupts their work. Continued exposure to light will
    kill them.
    Gardeners use vermicast as a
    fertiliser, for top dressing on WHERE TO GET MORE INFORMATION
    lawns, or as a medium for seeding Websites
    Department of Environment, Climate Change & Water NSW
    and propagating. http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/downtoearth/worm.htm
    Worms use vermicast for living in Total Environment Centre
    and laying their eggs in. http://www.safersolutions.org.au

    To harvest the castings expose one half of the container to


    light. The worms will wriggle into the part of the container Books
    that is darkest and leave you with just the castings. Murphy, David (2005), Organic Growing with Worms A
    WARNING: increased exposure to light will kill the worms so Handbook for a Better Environment, Viking
    be careful when performing this operation.
    Be sure to leave a layer of castings, at least 4cm, in the Rutherford, P & LaMonda (1996), The Australian Compost and
    container as this is the medium where worms lay their Worm Book, Apollo
    eggs. Worm eggs are contained within cocoons, which
    are brown or yellow and a bit bigger than fish eggs. Each Windust, Allan (1997), Worms Garden for You, Allscape
    cocoon has between 2 and 16 eggs but not all of the eggs
    will hatch. Generally your worms will double in number every
    few months depending on the season and environmental
    conditions.

    How to keep your worms alive


    • K eep them COOL by storing the worm farm in the shade or
    indoors
    • Keep MOIST by placing a damp cloth over the food scraps
    • Keep them in darkness

    How to get the most from your


    worms
    • O nly feed them once a week and leave them alone as much
    as possible
    • Feed them food that is already breaking down
    • Keep them away from citrus peel, onion and mould

    TEMPERATURE
    The temperature in the worm farm must stay in a range of
    15 – 25 degrees. If the temperature in the worm farm rises

    THE HILLS SHIRE COUNCIL


    3 Columbia Court, Baulkham Hills NSW 2153
    PO Box 7064, Baulkham Hills BC 2153
    Phone 02 9843 0555 Email [email protected]
    Facsimile 02 9843 0409 www.thehills.nsw.gov.au

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