Making a worm farm

Setting up a worm farm instructions
Building a worm farm and setting up your own home worm farm is very easy just a few easy steps to follow. Just follow the free worm farm set up information.

You will need the following:

Worm farm – It can be a commercial built worm farm or you can build your own, Just make sure that it is big enough for the amount of organic material that you want to process and the number of people in the household.

Bedding – Follow the link below to the worm farm bedding information – as this is one of the most important aspects of maintaining a healthy worm farm.

The moisture content – Once you learn this vital step you are well on the way to home worm farming. You must never let the worm farm dry out, but you don’t want it too wet either most problems are from the worm farm been to wet. Just moist, Is what you want, you only want a drop or two of water to come out when you squeeze a hand full of worm bedding in you hand.

Sand or Soil – You will have to put a small amount of sand or soil into the worm farm so that the worms can eat this, as they need grit in there stomachs to grind up there food by muscle action as worms have no teeth, This also provides decomposer bacteria to assist in the break down of the food source and as a food source for the worms to eat.

Food – Follow the link below to the information. Compost worms are surface feeders and will eat any organic matter or manure but care should be taken in the amount of food given to worms in your worm farm as to much moisture will end up with the worm farm been to wet and the food will rot causing a bad smell. Keep an eye on how fast the worms are consuming the food and only feed them as required. As your worm stock increases, so will there food requirements.

Worms – Follow the link below to the information. We use a mixture of Red worms, Tiger worms and Blue worms. These three worms are all compost worms, they are surface feeding worms. They are the most commonly used compost worms in the vermiculture industry and suitable for all of Australian climatic condition.

Set up

1.) The first step is to give your worm farm a quick wash to make sure that there are no chemicals in it that might affect your worms. Dry inside.
2.) Put a couple of sheets of news paper in the bottom of the worm bin to stop the fine material falling out until the worm farm is established but still let the excess water drain out The worms will eat this paper later.
3.) Add moist bedding to the worm farm, make sure that you squeeze as much water out of the bedding as possible it only has to be damp. I like to use shredded newspaper and cardboard to start a new worm farm but you can use aged manure, compost and old leaves or whatever suitable bedding that you have decided to use. Make sure that the bedding is not compacted but loose. If you have some worm compost or worm cast. I like to add a thin layer on top of the bedding.
4.) Gently add the worms to the surface of the bedding material. I like to start a new worm farm with a kilo of mixed compost worms. You can then add some food scraps to the worm farm and cover the food with bedding to stop pests and flies. I like to put a piece of damp Hessian on the surface of the worm bin to keep it moist and dark for the worms. Now leave the worms alone and let them settle into there new home only feed small amounts of food to start with until you see how much they are going to eat this will increase as the worm population expands.