"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
Farm1 wrote:
"Trefor Jones" wrote in message

I was going to add the new worms to the wormery as it was but
decided to have a good look first so I cleared it out and found the
grand total of 26 worms of which 25 were short fat red ones and one
long grey one. The bottom of the container where allegedly the
liquid was supposed to collect was full of dead worms! (Were the
escapees trying to get away from a noisome mix?)

Try adding some old leaf litter and some oldish composted hose poo on
one side of the wormery and see what happens. I had a simialar
problem with a worm stampede and concluded that I was killing them
with too much kindness. All went better when I threw out the
recommended mix and tried to replicate the sorts of conditions where
I saw worms in my own garden.

I don't know about worms in the UK but if I saw red worms here, I'd
know they were manure worms and that the grey worms were common old
garden earthworms. You'll probably find when it does work taht you
will have one lot of worms thrive and the other lot die off.

Should I throw the old mixture away and start afresh? If I do that,
could I use two year old garden compost with torn newspaper and a
good handful of calcified seaweed - I am concerned that the raw
compost may be too acidy, or would the contents of an organic
compost which I saw in a garden centre be better?

Give them a good base and only add stuff on top and only add it as
yous ee them working int he old lot you added before. Having it in
the kitchen may also be a location that is too warm for the worms.
Got a coolish spot (not really cold) outside where you could cover
the wormery with old carpet or bagging?

The thing to do is to ask yourself what you want a wormery _for_. Then,
having debated the matter thoroughly, weighing all the advantages and
disadvantages, chuck it away and start a sensible compost heap. If
there's no room for a heap, just bury the odd bit of kitchen waste in
the garden somewhere.

We have both: a big double compartment compost bin and a wormery. We had
hoped to use the wormery to get rid of kitchen waste.
As it is, we use the compost heap for uncooked vegetables and that is fine
and works well. The wormery was for leftovers and cooked food. It has not
really worked out. It is quite tricky to get a good throughput. I know,
one regular compost expert here (Alan Holmes??) says to put food in the
normal heap but I am not brave enough to do that yet.
A possible compromise is to use big "cones" stuck over/in holes in teh
ground. You dig a hole, put yer waste food in and stick the cone over to
stop foxes and rats getting to it. It gradually breaks down and then you
start again when it is finished.




--
Mike.