Do you have to buy a commercial worm bin to set up a worm farm?
Image by davnull
red worms’ farm on april 24, 2008 at the OK mediendeck for the crossing europe film festival in linz, austria. for more go to davnull.webhop.org
Question by sugar: Do you have to buy a commercial worm bin to set up a worm farm?
Is it possible to have a worm farm any other way? Has anyone made a worm farm using recycled material?
Feel free to answer in the comment section below
4 Responses to Do you have to buy a commercial worm bin to set up a worm farm?
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yep, make your own, all kinda ideas on line,
William B
May 24, 2011 at 1:11 pm
yes you can do it. you really can. try it.
Big Will
May 24, 2011 at 1:27 pm
You can make your own by using a large rectangular plastic bin – but it needs to be a dark colour not to let light in. It also needs to have some holes on the bottom to let the fluid out. (You will need two, as you see below).
It must not be too deep. It needs to have a lid if possible, or you can use several layers of newspaper – the ones closest to the compost must be damp, the rest dry, and you need to keep adding newspaper as it will get eaten by the worms.
Because it seeps fluid which is excellent to add to your garden, you need to raise it slightly from the ground and place something under the drainholes to catch the liquid.
You need to start it off by using one of those coir or coconut husk bricks that you loosen up in water. Then you need to add a layer of something organic and loose, such as shredded newspaper or pulpy garden waste that has been composted. You also need some grit such as ground eggshells.
Layer your stuff and add your worms. You need to give them kitchen waste, and anything organic from the house – they will even eat shredded computer paper and old envelopes if you cut them up.
Worms tend to work upward, eating things on top rather than below them, leaving their castings behind down the bottom of the bin – you need to be able to get your hands on this for your garden. It is basically dark brown earthy stuff.
To do this, you need to attract the worms up into a new layer of stuff they want to eat, through some kind of mesh – remove the new layer including the worms into a new bin, and start again. The old bin will be full of great compost for the garden. Tip it out and use it, rinse the bin and prepare it for the time when the worms have filled the other one and want to rise into a layer of new stuff.
Depending on how much you feed them, a colony of worms will take a few weeks to fill a bin with composted material.
Yes – it’s perfectly possible to do it with a non commercial bin – but you will have to find your own way to get them out of one bin and into another!
Good luck.
elmina
May 24, 2011 at 2:00 pm
You can make them out of simple cdx exterior plywood for the bottoms and 1×4 sides…This is copied and pasted from a link that I will provide below…
What kind of container is best?
1. Almost any type of container can be used for housing worms. A medium sized worm box can process more than five pounds of food waste each week.
2. You may already have what you need to make a worm-bed. My experience has proven that wood containers are best but not necessary. Find an old wooden crate, a sturdy wooden box, a plastic storage container with a top, even a wash basin or an old toilet bowl will do. Whatever you use, your worm box should be shallow. Red worms like to live near the surface where they can breathe.
3. A Container that is 12 to 18 inches in depth works well, depending on the number of worms you start with two to three square feet of surface area is best.
4. Usually one pound of worms is enough to get started. One pound is between 800-1200 worms.
5. Your worm bed should also have a tight fitting lid and holes drilled in the bottom for ventilation and drainage.
pcbeachrat
May 24, 2011 at 2:10 pm