Worm Farms

[chairman]

I have two Home's Hingebacks that love earthworms, and I was wondering if anyone here has ever tried raising their own. Normally I just collect them from outside, but because of my torts my yard only gets fertilizers/pesticides applied once a year (beginning of fall, so everything has plenty of time to go away), so I'll be back to buying them for a season and a half.

From my research it looks like the process should be fairly easy and would even be a great way to recycle the bits of fruits and veggies that my torts don't eat. However, I would be really interested to find out if anyone has had any successes or failures that I should know about.

Thanks!

Mike

 

[Yvonne G]

Its pretty easy, but if you want to start with a kit there's this:

http://www.unclejimswormfarm.com/

Yvonne

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Or you can get some sturdy type of wire fencing, and bend it into a circle. Place it in the shade off the beaten track. Put a layer of leaves in the bottom, then some grass clippings, maybe a layer of horse manure. Add clean kitchen garbage (egg shells, coffee grounds, tea bags, orange peels, etc) You can even put in newspaper. The worms eat it all. You have to keep it moist, and turn it occasionally to keep oxygen in it. If you start the bed on the dirt, you don't even have to add worms, as they come up from the ground into the bed.

Yvonne

 

[dmmj]

It is super easy I have been raising them for over 20 years, I always have a steay supply of them I vermcompost my yard clippings, when I trim my plants back and any left over turtle food plus left over human food(fruits and vegetables), I even vermcompost cardboard from old moving boxes and pizza boxes.

 

[terryo]

Here's a great site.
http://www.nyccompost.org/how/wormbin.html
I have also been doing this for over 20 years. I use the worms for my boxies, rescue water turlte (only have the one now) and now I give one or two to my tortoise. Also makes your house plants so green and healthy. Outdoor flower gardens ...try it.

 

[Yvonne G]

Here's a great site.
http://www.nyccompost.org/how/wormbin.html

That's a great tutorial, Terry! Thanks for the link.

Yvonne

 

[chairman]

Thanks for all the info. One thing I haven't quite noticed... is freezing during the winter a problem for one of the indoor setups? I know worms can be kept for at least short periods of time in a refrigerator, but I am wondering whether I should put this in the shed or find a spot in the garage.

Mike

 

[Yvonne G]

When the weather reaches freezing, the worms go deep, so I would assume you would have to keep them above freezing if they're not in the ground.

Yvonne

 

[terryo]

I live in NY and the first year I started to do this I left them outside in the winter, and they all died. I keep them indoors now year round in my basement.

 

[dmmj]

To avoid winter freezing the soil needs to be at least 18 inches deep, here in calif we don't get as cold so I do not have to woory about that, plus the natural decomposition of the oorganic matter actually produces a lot of heat, mine are active thru-out the calif winter.

 

[chairman]

Well, here in southern IN it doesn't get too cold too frequently, but probably enough that I'll want to find a spot in the garage for them. Anyone see a problem with using a 10 gallon fish tank for keeping the farm in? I've got a couple hanging around that I used to winter my smaller pond plants in before they got bigger.

 

[dmmj]

the only problem I see is it may not be big enough. I persponally have several "farms" and my smallest is a big rubbermid container.

 

[GBtortoises]

I have kept the same, ongoing earthworm set up in a dark corner of my basement for about 12 years or more now. The temperature in the area averages about 62 degrees. It's a very basic set up but has worked very well: I have a solid sided Rubbermaid container, I think about a 30+ gallon size. It has a hinged lid. It's about 2/3 full with a mixture of organic potting soil, leaf litter and sphagum moss to the point where the soil is moist, but not noticeably wet. On top of that is a layer of sphagnum moss. Whenever there is leftover vegetables I simply peel back the top layer of sphagnum and place the veggies on top of the soil in the center of the container. The key is to maintaining them succefully is to not overfeed them or allow the set up to become too dry. The dryness part has never been a problem for me. To "pick" the worms I simply move the vegetables out of the way and there are always hundreds underneath at the soil surface. The key to harvesting is to not take too many, if you find that you're depleting the colony than a new, seperate colony should be started. Once a year in the spring I remove about half the soil and replace it with new and change the sphagnum moss, all of which goes into our vegetable garden outdoors. In the early fall when we're cleaning up the vegetable garden I collect new earthworms to add to the indoor colony. I don't have any idea how many worms are in that container but there are several hundred of all sizes! As I said in the beginning, I've been raising them this way for probably 12 years now and with almost no effort.

 

[terryo]

So they are NOT red wigglers? Just plain earth worms?

 

[GBtortoises]

Yeah, mine are just earthworms from outside.

 

[chairman]

On everyone's advice I moved to a large rubbermaid bin for the farm. It contains soil, grass clippings, leftover veggies, and some water hyacinth clippings on top to hopefully mimic the moss mentioned earlier. I'm stocking it with large nightcrawlers of the fishing bait variety and some smaller worms I found in the yard. I realize that I won't have a self-sustaining farm for a year or so, but until then it should be a good way to store worms. For some odd reason my wife doesn't like it when I keep them in the fridge. I guess I'll just buy worms at a quicker rate than in the past to keep the population where it needs to be.

 

[egyptiandan]

What temperature is it where you have the worm farm? Nightcrawlers don't do well at most home temperatures, they like it cooler (low 60's high 50's) to do well. Redworms though do great at room temperatures and breed up a storm.

Danny

 

[dmmj]

As an experiment I started a small farm with 12 nightcrawlers and in about 14 to 16 month period I had over 2000 worms from just 12, I counted them and stopped at 2000, now granted they were small to medium not the giant ones you find in the bait stores, but still I think that is an impressive number. Im my personal experience the smaller container usually breeds more and quicker, then you can move the bulk to a larger bin to start large growth.

 

[chairman]

I'll be keeping the farm in the garage. It isn't climate controlled, but it is insulated well enough to prevent extreme temperatures.

That is an interesting idea about using a smaller container as a breeder. I think I'll give that a shot, though probably not till next spring. I imagine the worms will need the bigger container for the winter.