Let Worms Do The Work

Most of these notes come from the knowledge and experience of HOGS members Mary Hardy of East Maitland. The rest are taken on a HOGS field day at the Teralba Worm Farm. Worms can work for you in a lot of ways, but the two ways that concern us most in this booklet are the breakdown of waste material in a rich compost-like material called worm castings, and the tunneling activity of worms in the garden which saves you having to dig yourself. There are many different types of worms, and they do not all do the same work. There are terrible Latin names for worms, which we won't go into now. Sufficient for us to say that you need "compost" worms for your worm farm, and "pasture" worms for your garden. The conditions in your worm farm would not suit pasture worms and if you put compost worms in your garden, they would probably disappear in a few days. We will discuss ways you can encourage pasture worms in your garden further down. For now, we will talk about setting up a worm farm.

CONTAINER

There are a number of commercially made worm farms on the market and they do the job extremely well. It is not necessary, however, to spend a lot of money, as there are cheap ways of getting into worms. Polystyrene fruit boxes from the greengrocer, old wooden boxes. Laundry tubs and old baths have all been used with great success. Our most successful container was on old water tank which we put divisions into. Whatever you use, your container should have some drainage, a cover to protect your little treasures from the weather and probably be open in some way to the ground at the bottom. The next step is to prepare the container for its new occupants, and then get some worms.

Here is Mary Hardy's Quick Recipe

1. Cover the bottom of your container with leaf litter, or hay or straw.
2. Place a layer of manure (preferably cow manure) on this
3. Put 2-3 mm (l inch) of soil on top of the manure.
4. Sprinkle on sand and Dolomite or lime.
5. Place worms onto this. They will make their way down into the mixture.
6. Feed the worms manure and food scraps, Make a hole in the mixture to put the food into. Keep the mixture moist but not wet and cover it with newspapers and carpet. This is to keep the mixture drained, dark and cool.

Further Comments. Some people fork their bedding and worms over, but I prefer not to do this. Always make sure that the worms are damp, and that they don't overheat. Cow manure, for instance, is a cold manure and is very suitable for worms. But horse and pig manure, and of course chicken manure are apt to heat up, so use them very carefully. Let those manures age for a while before you use them, and never use them over the whole area at once. You can use fresh manure, although you will find that the worms won't go into it until it is about three days old. Rabbit manure is the best manure you can get and sheep manure will break down beautifully into great castings, ensure that the animals which supplied the manure have not been wormed during the previous fortnight, as the worming medicine will kill the worms. I don't put fresh vegetable scraps into my worms. I put the scraps into a bucket or drum with a lid on, for about three days before feeding it to the worms. I only rinse the bucket rather than washing it, because it contains the bacteria that will break down the vegetable scraps.If you pick up hard cow manure from the paddock, don't put it straight into the worms. Soak it overnight. strain off the liquid, then put the manure into the worms and they will get straight into it. The worms really like the big pats. The liquid you strained off makes wonderful fertiliser for your garden.peak breeding times are between September and Christmas, then again in the Autumn. They lie dormant for a month in the hot weather, and again in the winter.

LAKE MACQUARIE COUNCIL WORM FARM.(These notes are from a visit to the Lake Macquarie Worm Farm at Teralba which is a large venture, but the principles are the same for any size project.

1. Large bays have been build out of timber and placed directly on a concrete floor.
2. The floor of each bay is covered with sheets of wet newspaper and cardboard.
3. Shredded paper is placed on top and watered down.
4. Added to this is a quantity of grass clippings which has been kept in silage (a non-aerated pile),
5. This is mixed with the shredded paper. and then manure and, on occasions, vegie scraps are added.
6. This is allowed to settle for a week or so, and kept watered.
7. Worms are then added.
8. The worms are now covered with hessian bagging. This is sprayed with a fine spray of water each morning, and a second time during a hot day. The hessian bag serves two purposes. One is to keep out the light, and the other is that it catches the water and just lets it drip through to the worms. The bay is forked over twice per week. The worms are fed once per week and sometimes more if they have eaten all their food. You can tell because they gather at the top of the heap waiting for more food.
9. The food is placed down the middle on the top. This is so the worms will go up to the centre to eat which allows the sides to be harvested for worm castings and eggs. Cow, pig and horse manure are used as well as food scraps. It takes about 3-4 months for the finished product, which consists of wonderful worm castings.

The worm farm breeds 3 varieties of worms, namely: Lumbriens Rubellus (Red Wrigglers or Blood),Fetida (Tigers. Banded and Yellow Tail), Perionyx (Oval worms and Big Blue). These are the best fishing bait.

GARDEN OR PASTURE WORMS. Fisenia Bxcavatus worm. It is quite easy to have worms for free in your garden to do your digging. Firstly, do not use poisonous sprays or artificial fertilisers which either kill the worms or the soil. Secondly, put copious amounts of organic matter into your gardens, and use plenty of organic mulches. The worms will soon appear as if by magic. If you think there are no worms in your ground, try this experiment. Get a large cardboard carton, break it open so you have a large flat piece of cardboard, choose a piece of waste ground and soak it with your hose. Lay the cardboard down, and soak it too. Hold it down with a couple of bricks or stones, and check under it in about a week or so. You should have worms.

WHERE CAN I GET MY WORMS? Look for ads in garden magazines, daily newspapers, on the roadside. Some HOGS members, including Mary Hardy, have worms for sale. Make sure you get COMPOST worms.

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