[richy]

As the title says, has anyone got a wormery and if so how efficiant is it at making worm castings( how often and how much). Im thinking of getting one, a 4 teir one.

[brianbishop]

I've had one of the round ones for 3 yrs. and fill one teir per year with compost.but also get a couple of gallons of liquid feed(I call it "worm wee") ayear from  it. I think Istarted with 1/2kilo of worms, so I would think more worms more compost.!
Bish

[Chrysalis]

My OH gave me one for my birthday three years ago.  It's great!  They make lots of very rich compost and loads of "Juice"  

Just make sure you don't put too much citrus or onion in - it encourages the pot worms to grow and not the proper tiger worms.  The compost is then too acidic (You can add lime to neutralise it). We add it to our home-made normal compost and put it in the containers/beds.  Use the juice to add liquid feed for just about anything.

In this extreme cold they all gather together in the middle layers and do just fine.

Get one!!
NB. When you first start, the worms take about a week to realise that all the food is inside the box, so they may try and escape.  it was November for us, so they were loose all over the kitchen! 

Just another part of our menagerie now. 

[Trillium]

I'll be ordering a Worm Factory soon and thankfully it comes with a lid. OH is very unhappy that I'll have to keep them in the house over winters which is why I've delayed getting it until spring when they can go outside for summer. OH will have the summer to adjust to them. 

Definitely no onions or citrus, I'm told as well. Even better is if you can put the offerings in a blender or food processor for a quick whiz just to chop it up a bit more. That way the worms can eat it faster and produce more 'good stuff'  My Factory has a spigot at the bottom for easier wee collection.

This is the unit I'm getting HERE. It comes with 4 trays but I'll order 2 extra so I can get lots of production.

[sowitgrowit]

I would recommend researching how they are constructed, the function of each part, etc.  There are some good guides out there.

Before I got my allotment and started "proper" composting, I made my own stacking wormery out of Poundland washing up basins.

Not very professional looking, but chew and durable. Total cost would be around £10, including the wrigglers to go in it.

[thestens]

I have had one for a few years and I cant say I have been that successful , the compost is always very wet . I have tried lots of things but to no avail any suggestions by more successful wormery owners

[richy]

Thanks, everyone, i have done alot of research on wormeries over the past few days and altough some people have had succes there are an awful lot that havent, it would seem that i would need a very big wormery to get any kind of return out of it, basicly i would want someting that will produce at least 25kgs of castings a month other wise it just isnt cost effective.

[richyrich7]

Thanks, everyone, i have done alot of research on wormeries over the past few days and altough some people have had succes there are an awful lot that havent, it would seem that i would need a very big wormery to get any kind of return out of it, basicly i would want someting that will produce at least 25kgs of castings a month other wise it just isnt cost effective.

Thats a whole lot of worms 
Sounds more like worm farming, open pit type thing. You could sell the worms to local anglers

http://www.wonderwormsuk.com/farming/essential-equipment-for-small-scale-worm-farming

[Chrysalis]

That's a lot of compost per month.  Do bear in mind that it's extra rich and needs to be diluted....sometimes as much as 10 to 1.  Ours is used for fertiliser rather than potting compost as it can/will burn young seedlings if used neat.

[Trillium]

The unit I'm getting will easily handle a pound of European nightcrawlers, which I plan to sell the excess of worms for fishing bait. My biggest worry now is whether or not I can use all the worm wee that my unit will produce, which is a lot. As said, it must be diluted, up to 20 to 1 with water (1 part wee). The castings themselves are harvested every few months, never monthly as it's a futile job otherwise.

[richy]

Here are my options, ive got a black bin with lid, i could drill a hole in the bottom and put on blocks so it will drain with a filter in the bottom, news paper on the filter with a soil and compost mix from my existing compost bins, a  bit of manuar, worms and veg peelings for food, or i can get hold of a large 4ft x 4ft x 2ft wooden container and follow the ideas above and throw a carpet over the top, im thinking more along the lines of useing the bin for a trial period until the end of summer to see what the outcome will be, what are your thoughts on this?

[JohnB47]

Here's my comment on an old thread. I've still got my wormery. Oh and one additional point - don't bother putting egg shells in there. They don't break down at all.



"I've had one for about two years now. Here's my experience.

1. It was quite an expensive thing to buy - just over £100 for a complete kit.

2. It started off well, using the supplied worms and their 'bedding' (that they ate). But then it started to grow spectacular mould on top. I contacted the supplier and they could only suggest making sure it was sited in a well ventilated area and to turn the food stuff over. That didn't work and after much inspection over time I realised that it was pieces of bread and cooked veg (eg left over potatoes) that was the problem. So only put raw stuff in there, even if it's all veg and avoid bread of any kind.

3. After that things settled down but as someone else has said, it's pretty slow to work. Don't expect to get rid of loads of kitchen waste quickly.

4. Even when the lowest layer is ready to be removed, it doesn't produce all that much compost. Although it does produce a lot of worm juice.

5. I can't find anywhere that describes the actual makeup of the juice, only statements like ' dilute 1 to 10 for great plant food'. I tried feeding it to my tomatoes this year, then gave up when I realised that the plants just weren't thriving and started to drop their flowers. After about 10 days of using proper tomato feed, they recovered really well. So I won't be doing that again.

Conclusions?

A wormery is useful if you want to avoid having to give moderate quantities of raw kitchen waste to the refuse collection. It does not work very quickly and produces only small amounts of (very wet) compost and a fair amount of juice, although I have no evidence of how good that is. I will continue to use mine for now but I may decide instead to use a compost bin that I'm building for my new allotment. If I'd had the opportunity to see a wormery in action, over a period of a few months, I would probably not have bothered. I've read on the web about people who build their own bigger ones - they say the proprietry ones are simply too small. Google for wormery and see what you find.

Good luck."

[Bigbadfrankie]

We have had one for a couple years. I keep it in the green house in the winter. They do not produce as much compost for me as they should but I dont look after them that well. Lots of worm tea though. Over all a good idea

[richy]

Well ive gone ahead and made a wormery out of a 90ltr black bin with a lid i had lying around, i drilled a drainage hole in the bottom, some ventalation holes in the sides, stomped some chicken wire into the bottom of it for drainage, layed some newspaper on top off the chicken wire and wet it, put it up on 2 concrete block so i could get a container under it, put 3 inches of earth in the bottom, had a good dig in my compost heap and spent about an hour picking out worms, loads of babies too (half a ltr) and put them in on top of 3 inches of compost they were eating, chucked in about an inch of  semi rotted manuar a few peelings mixed it all up with my hands, sprinkled a bit of water in there put the lid on and bish bosh bash, done, i will now leave this for 2 weeks before i look or feed again, i will also be adding a kilo of composting worms to help it along, i will give it a year and see what i get out of it.