On Thu, 27 Apr 2006, adm, gave forth these words of wisdom:
Dear All,

I'm thinking of getting a wormery to dispose of all my organic and food
waste. I like the idea of having it all enclosed rather than just sitting on
the top of the compost heap attracting rats etc...


Does anyone have nay experience with this kind of thing, or can you
recommend another approach ?

http://www.originalorganics.co.uk/wormeries.htm
Basically, you need a plastic dustbin with a tight lid. Drill two rows
of holes for drainage, about 50mm & 100mm from the bottom and put plenty
of air-holes in the lid.
Add a layer of rotted vegetable waste and tip your worms into this
(you'll need about 100 to start, soon you'll have hundreds more).

After this, keep adding layers of torn paper, alternated with vegetable
waste until the bin is full (it may take a long time to fill, as the
worms keep digesting the waste and it sinks and compresses). Eventually,
when the bin is full and it' s obvious that all the waste has been
digested, sieve the compost to spread on your garden and use the worms
to start a new bin - you'll have hundreds by now.
Don't use any old worms. Brandlings (Eisenia foetida - also known as
tiger worms because of their stripes) are best for making compost. They
breed fast and are easiest to farm, or there are the plain red small
worms you can often find in compost. These will breed more slowly, and
won't convert the waste to compost so fast.
Mind you, you'll probably end up with both types
I've had wormeries in both my garden and allotments for years now. Then
again, I am an angler so have an interest in worms for bait as well as
for making compost!
You shouldn't have to purchase your first lot of worms, they can be
found in any good compost heap. Only problem this year is that it has
been very dry lately and they are a bit hard to find. Still the fishing
season is still a couple of moths off yet...............:-)
Don't use lob worms they will only die!!!!!!
The RHS also have a pretty interesting web page about wormeries he
http://www.rhs.org.uk/research/horti...omposting2.asp
this also give a list of suppliers, but why waste money when, with a bit
of patience, you can easily find them yourself
Hope this all helps
Alec Powell
--
Alec Powell
Watlington Oxon. UK
Skype name: alecpowell