Worm cafe - the first 3 days!!!

[Flytrap]

Quick update.

My wormery is now over a year old. All going well, worms are obviously continuing to reproduce as there are lots of young worms in there.
Although it is very slow to produce worm compost, after a year still not full, in fact only on the second tray and that is no where near full yet. Maybe I'm not feeding them enough. Only 2 of us in the house and don't produce that much veg/fruit waste.
That's no problem as I'm not doing this to produce compost as such, more just for the fun of it.

As a side question...
Can I overdo it with banana skins? We have at least 2 bananas each day. I like to have a variety of foods in the wormery and don't like to over feed with any one particular item. Would 14 skins a week be too much? I tend to chop them first but have been putting half of them on the garden instead.

Cheers.

[DGoulston]

wow worm cafe sounds like such fun, I really do not think my wife will agree though, maybe once we have kids, I can blame it on the kid... hehe.

[zazen999]

Quick update.

My wormery is now over a year old. All going well, worms are obviously continuing to reproduce as there are lots of young worms in there.
Although it is very slow to produce worm compost, after a year still not full, in fact only on the second tray and that is no where near full yet. Maybe I'm not feeding them enough. Only 2 of us in the house and don't produce that much veg/fruit waste.
That's no problem as I'm not doing this to produce compost as such, more just for the fun of it.

As a side question...
Can I overdo it with banana skins? We have at least 2 bananas each day. I like to have a variety of foods in the wormery and don't like to over feed with any one particular item. Would 14 skins a week be too much? I tend to chop them first but have been putting half of them on the garden instead.

Cheers.

I don't think so, we feed ours at work with nanas all through the summer and it seems fine.

What I did with ours is to split the worms over all 4 trays, and add peelings to the trays in turn, during the summer - to get them moving a bit quicker. They also like egg shells, and shredded paper and pretty much anything you would compost except onions and citrus fruit peelings.

[horticultural_hobbit]

I have a wormery, immigrants from the city of worms; bought as I acquired my 'lotment. Was all very exciting when I first got it. Had some fun working out how to put it together, was simple enough

Our wormery sits right next to two compost bins, as a family we don't produce masses of peelings etc; and I was a little worried about feeding the little darlings enough and keeping them warm too. They are wrapped up in three folded up old fitted sheets that cacoon them, with several layers of black bin bags to act as a waterproof barrier. I got really quite worried as they stop playing when the temperature drops to ten degrees or below.

Sadly, I've left them to it for a few weeks. Had been thinking about them for a few days, so went down to play with them today. Lo and behold, I have some beautiful black stuff. I've not had a butchers at the darlings for about three weeks, have had them since early October. I know that the little darlings do go into semi hibernation over the winter, so I don't think I have to feed them that much.

I did have a few escapees that I had to return, and a couple of ex worms. What I must do, is check of any more have drowned in the sump. There was a little bit of liquid. This is contingent of the moisture level of what you feed the worms. I like my wormery, see it as a little science project just like the rest of the 'lotment.

[zazen999]

Keep the tap open at all times, and a bucket underneath. Much easier than checking on it all the time. I leave mine weeks without doing anything except bung more food in for them.

I'm waiting for the first frost though to pack the whole thing with shredded paper. It worked last winter and as mine is in the courtyard - it doesn't get as frozen as things in the garden or lottie.

[horticultural_hobbit]

Never thought about the open tap. I felt all too bad about the ex-worms. I'll go and double check on them tomorrow; it gets dark all too quickly and I don't get to play with them for long.

I think I need to put some food in the next tray and hope they move up. Have just put a load of peelings and tea bags into the compost, dammit. There's lots of black stuff under the shredded newspaper. I've read about the packing thing. So fill it with dry shredded paper, rather than damp stuff? I really don't want them to get cold, and ex-worms make me feel really bad. Seeing them in the sump is not nice.

Reckon they will mind teabags, Zazen?

[zazen999]

Teabags will be fine, but a good mix is what you want. I split mine between all 4 trays earlier in the year and they live on all 4 now. So sometime soon, put some food on the next tray, pack it [and the lower one] full with shredded paper, open the tap and leave it until the spring. On warm winter days, have a check and see if they are ok but I'm sure if they are insulated they will be fine.

[horticultural_hobbit]

Cheers, my lovely, I will certainly add some food. And I can stuff with shredded paper. Sounds like a plan

[veggiechicken]

Re the open tap. I have attached an empty plastic tonic bottle from the open tap, secured with a bit of wire to the tap. I can see what comes out (very little!) and its ready packaged for diluting. Also I can move the bin without fear of losing any liquid.

[Two_Sheds]

Reckon they will mind teabags...?

Beware, some teabags are now plastic. Really.
Even real paper ones are best torn before adding to compost systems, or else sometimes they just don't rot down

I have attached an empty plastic tonic bottle from the open tap, secured with a bit of wire

Corking idea, I'm nicking that one

[horticultural_hobbit]

Have checked the tea bags. Paper and sodden through

I like the bottle idea too..