Building a wormery

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Building a wormery

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Bazil

Joined: 26 Sep 2005
Posts: 181
Location: Near Shrewsbury, Shropshire

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 05 5:08 pm Post subject: Building a wormery

I borrowed a wiggly wigglers catalogue the other day with a view to buying one of their wormerys and after some research decided not to bother, so...

They also sell Beehive composters which I could easily build so I am going to combine the two and have a large scale wormery disguised as a beehive.

I'll post pictures when I have some.

For the bottom section I am going to use pond liner to waterproof the bottom tray, I assume this would withstand the composting process and not rot? it puts up with dirty duck ponds which are on par for smell.

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 05 5:11 pm Post subject: Re: Building a wormery

Sounds like a great idea - I think the beehive composters are really attractive. I'll look forward to the pictures.

Bazil wrote:

For the bottom section I am going to use pond liner to waterproof the bottom tray, I assume this would withstand the composting process and not rot? it puts up with dirty duck ponds which are on par for smell.

Do you not need to be able to drain off the liquid from the bottom tray? Or do you intend to incorporate a tap to do this?

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 05 7:35 pm Post subject: Re: Building a wormery

Bazil wrote:

I think the theory behind wormeries is that any smell is fairly enclosed/short lived - they recommend them for flats

As Judith says I believe you'll need to have some way of draining the tray, I think the worms have suicidal tendencies if they can access water - are you planning to use the liner to collect the "tea"?
I'd have thought the liner would stand up to the stuff, but that you might want something more firm to attach a tap to.

The HDRA has a booklet on building wormeries and somewhere on here, there's a link to a site that gives instructions for building a wormery from stacking storage boxes, which won't be as attractive as your plans but might help with design ideas.

Bazil

Joined: 26 Sep 2005
Posts: 181
Location: Near Shrewsbury, Shropshire

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 05 9:17 pm Post subject:

I am going to attach a tap to the bottom of the bin, been thinking about raising the lowest section up on legs but having boards around like the rest of it to disguise it and have the front board removeable to access the tap.

I'm going to get a stop tap or similar and it will go through the boarded bottom and liner and use a couple of good nylon washers with some silicone sealant.

Anyway, I'll give it a test run over the weekend and do a report on the progress.

ross

Joined: 07 Mar 2005
Posts: 123

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 05 7:12 am Post subject:
I know it's not as pretty, but here's how to build a wormery on the cheap. I've done it and it's very easy: https://www.troubleatmill.com/wormbin.htm If you want to save even more money, omit the tap, as I find the wormery produces so little liquid, it's not worth putting a tap on, and if you do need to drain liquid off, just lift off the top boxes and tip the liquid out.

ele

Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Posts: 814
Location: Derby

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 05 8:08 am Post subject:

ross wrote:

If you want to save even more money, omit the tap, as I find the wormery produces so little liquid, it's not worth putting a tap on, and if you do need to drain liquid off, just lift off the top boxes and tip the liquid out.

The tap is a good insurance policy in case things go a bit wrong, in some conditions wormeries can produce a fair bit of water and the smell of dead worms festering in stagnant water, oh boy ....

Anyone here know about the worm tea controversy? some people say the liquid you drain is an excellent plant food, others say that it isn't tea and can be, even diluted, potentially bad for your plants, and that true worm tea is made by infusing worm compost in water. No idea whose right, anyone?

ross

Joined: 07 Mar 2005
Posts: 123

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 05 8:11 am Post subject:
the design on that website separates the worms from the liquid, so you won't have that problem. I've heard that about 'worm tea' as well, some say that a properly run wormery shouldn't produce liquid and the liquid can stunt plant growth.

ele

Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Posts: 814
Location: Derby

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 05 8:33 am Post subject:

ross wrote:

the design on that website separates the worms from the liquid, so you won't have that problem.
I've heard that about 'worm tea' as well, some say that a properly run wormery shouldn't produce liquid and the liquid can stunt plant growth.

Sometimes they go places they ought not go, say if the bin gets a little hot by accident or something, it starts sweating liquid and they go to the bottom and drown, it shouldn't happen but it does sometimes... cos mine did that

Congrats on getting yours working well

.. more than I ever really did but on the upside my conventional bin is heaving with composting worms

giraffe

Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Posts: 272
Location: Nottingham

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 05 3:50 pm Post subject:

I was out digging this morning and I found a worm the thickness of my little finger

! Anyway, I'm thinking of buying some worms to put in my ordinary compost bin to help it along a bit. Does this sound like a good idea? I know I could just dig them out of the soil and plop them in individually, but they are sold in packs of 500, which would take me all year to dig out and also cause worm armageddon in my garden! I'm also concerned that the worms you can buy from wormery companies might be somehow different to ordinary earthworms - obviously introducing a different species to an ecosystem is a dodgy idea. Anyone know anything about this?

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 05 4:18 pm Post subject:
It's not the earth worms you need for a wormery but the compost type worms. To get them either sift the compost, lay out a sheet of polythene or look under pots or rotting veg, or buy them. I tried taking a picture and put the details here: https://forum.downsizer.net/about3008.html

ross

Joined: 07 Mar 2005
Posts: 123

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 05 4:42 pm Post subject:
if you buy, get them from a fishing bait shop -much cheaper. At my local bait shop I can get a kilo of dendras for £14 if I pre-order.

culpepper

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 638
Location: Kent

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 05 6:15 pm Post subject:
I beleive the worms in compost are called Brandling worms.They arent the same as earth worms.If you've a compost heap,you've probably got loads already.

ross

Joined: 07 Mar 2005
Posts: 123

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 05 7:58 pm Post subject:

there's quite a few different types of worms that can be used for composting, but def. not earth worms, the type usually found in the lawn.

If you don't want to buy any, there should be lots of suitable worms in well rotted horse manure if you can find some at a farm or stables. Start your worm bin off with a spade full of horse manure, add some brewers yeast which apparently helps them breed, and the population should increase quite quickly. Go easy on how much food waste you add though until you have a good population.

Recommended book: 'Worms Eat My Garbage' ISBN: 0942256107

Bazil

Joined: 26 Sep 2005
Posts: 181
Location: Near Shrewsbury, Shropshire

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 05 8:02 pm Post subject:

ross wrote:

I'm off to see the local horse keeper! cheers.

BTW, My beehive composter I made is in a thread now.
Wormery coming soon!

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