A worm farm is a self-contained system that retains most nutrients for re-use. Worm farms break down your organic rubbish into nutrient-rich compost-like substance (worm castings) and ‘worm juice’ that can then be used in your garden.
Worm bins can be bought at hardware stores or garden centres, or made from an existing container or from recycled materials. Commercial bins often have a tap for collecting the ‘worm juice’ that you can then use as a fertiliser.
Making a worm farm from recycled materials
Materials
- Three or four used car tyres.
- Old carpet or sack.
- Old phone books.
- Corrugated iron – approximately 60 cm x 60cm.
- A lid (for example a piece of wood with a rock on it).
- About 35 newspapers.
Directions
- Soak the newspapers in water and stuff into the sides of the tyres.
- Slightly raise one edge of the corrugated iron base with old phone books.
- Cut out a section of carpet the same size as the base of the tyre and join them together.
- Place the bottom tyre on top of the carpet and add bedding material (soil or compost) and worms.
- Continue stacking stuffed tyres until it reaches the desired height. Your worm farm is now complete.
- Just remember to feed your worms regularly and keep the mixture moist to touch.
Buying worms
Worms can be bought in bulk - look up worm farming in the Yellow Pages. The Tiger Worm is best suited to composting. For a family of four, start your worm farm with about 1000 mature worms (about 450 grams). These can process up to 225g (about a quarter of an ice-cream container) of food scraps a day. In ideal conditions the worm population will steadily increase, doubling every 40 days or so.
Worm feeding
Worms don’t have teeth, so they like their food scraps small: But they are insatiable eaters! You can feed your worms:
- Vegetable peels and fruit peels (except acidic fruits)
- Waste from vegetable juicers
- Tissues, paper and soaked and ripped cardboard
- Coffee grounds and tea bags
- Dirt and leaves
- Hair
- Egg shells
- Wood ash
Worms don’t like:
- Citrus or acidic fruit - lemons, oranges and kiwifruit (these are OK in small quantities)
- Onion and garlic
- Spicy foods
- Meat and dairy products
- Large quantities of grass clippings – these can overheat the worm farm and kill the worms
Worm farms produce three useful products:
- ‘Worm juice’. This is very high in nutrients and can be used as a liquid fertiliser by diluting with 10 parts of water. Diluted vermi-liquid can be used on office plants and in the garden.
- Compost. This can be mixed with potting mix, garden soil or used as mulch.
- More worms! Over time your worms will breed. You can then give them to friends to start their own worm farms.
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