Hi,
I'm interested in composting and have been told that wormeries are a
good way to start.
I have looked on line but they cost between £60 & £100 for the starter
sets so cant afford this.

Has anyone got any ideas regarding making one.

Thanks

(I have a fishing tackle shop round the courner so have an easy source
of worms)

Thanks

"tina" wrote in message
news
Hi,
I'm interested in composting and have been told that wormeries are a
good way to start.
I have looked on line but they cost between £60 & £100 for the starter
sets so cant afford this.

Has anyone got any ideas regarding making one.

Thanks

(I have a fishing tackle shop round the courner so have an easy source
of worms)

Thanks

Tina

Start your compost heap somewhere on the soil and the worms appear :-))

Been there, done that, time and time again.

Honest ;-))

Mike
(Christmas is coming and I feel certain that ANY money spent within the
house and the festivities is FAR better spent, ..... than on a wormery)

:-))

tina wrote:
Hi,
I'm interested in composting and have been told that wormeries are a
good way to start.
I have looked on line but they cost between £60 & £100 for the starter
sets so cant afford this.

Has anyone got any ideas regarding making one.

Thanks

(I have a fishing tackle shop round the courner so have an easy source
of worms)

Thanks

A word to the wise: -Don't get worms from a tackle shop, mine charges about
£7.50 for a tub that contains about 20 worms, most tackle shops sell worms
at exhorbitant prices, I worked them out at around 30 - 40p EACH!

The message
from tina contains these words:

I'm interested in composting and have been told that wormeries are a
good way to start.
I have looked on line but they cost between £60 & £100 for the starter
sets so cant afford this.

Has anyone got any ideas regarding making one.

Yes - don't bother.

--
Rusty
horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

Janet Baraclough wrote:
The message
from "Phil L" contains these words:


most tackle shops sell worms
at exhorbitant prices, I worked them out at around 30 - 40p EACH!

Fill your garage with wormbins and you can become a millionnaire in a
few months.
It just so happens I have a stud worm available for hire....

Janet

I rarely use worms for fishing and if I do I tend to lift the lawn cuttings
etc from my 'heap' and take a dozen or so each time, mine seem to be the
large rough worms asbout 6 inches long, those sold in the shops are
dendrobena, smaller, redder worms, like those found 'lurking' under
plantpots and other garden items, not actually in the soil....

"tina" wrote in message
news
Hi,
I'm interested in composting and have been told that wormeries are a
good way to start.
I have looked on line but they cost between £60 & £100 for the starter
sets so cant afford this.

Has anyone got any ideas regarding making one.

Thanks

(I have a fishing tackle shop round the courner so have an easy source
of worms)

Thanks

If you have a garden, and room for a small compost heap, a wormery
isn't necessarily the best way to start composting. Normal compost
heaps are normally more flexible in the amount of material they'll
accept at any one time, and maybe more forgiving of beginners mistakes.
Except for people without access to a garden, wormeries are often
started in addition to existing compost heaps.

As far as the worms are concerned brandlings, or compost worms, or tiger
worms because they have red hoops around their bodies (not stripes)
will appear in almost any compost heap after a time. Even if you make
compost in a plastic dustbin providing there's a hole in the bottom.
They're different to earthworms and presumably they live among
any rotting vegetation in the soil.

Commercial wormeries are merely purpose designed plastic versions of what
you can make for yourself. The point about wormeries is that they bye-pass
all the normal bacterial processes involved in composting - i.e breaking
down the plant material and so there's guaranteed to be no smell.
The worms eat the vegetation before it has a chance to get attacked
by the bacteria. In theory. As in theory there should be no smell from
any properly made up compost heap in any case. Its just you wouldn't want
to try it under the sink in the kitchen just in case.

What you're paying £60 - £100 for basically is the kit which all fits
together neatly - and a set of detailed instructions - and the worms.
The point being maybe that wormeries can be used by people who may not
even have a garden, who have no ready supply of brandlings, and
no knowledge of fishing bait.

Here's a picture of one which is basically a plastic waste bin with the
addition of a tap on the side for drawing off liquid,

http://www.greengardener.co.uk/wormeries.htm

However whatever you decide on, this time of year is probably not the
best time to start. As compost worms like most other life forms
are less active in winter, as the small bulk of material in a wormery
is usually insufficient to build up any heat.


michael adams

....

g'day tina,

i have a pic of one i made on my garden page take a look it's too easy
hey? or you can simply get one of those polystyrene foam trays the
ones without any holes and use that you need to make a drain hole of
course, but you can pretty much use anything that you can put a drain
hole into.

depending how large you want to go an old bath tub set up and raised
off the ground so you can collect the wee will do real good.



snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.users.bigpond.com/gardenlen1

"tina" wrote in message
news
Hi,
I'm interested in composting and have been told that wormeries are a
good way to start.
I have looked on line but they cost between £60 & £100 for the starter
sets so cant afford this.

Has anyone got any ideas regarding making one.

Thanks

(I have a fishing tackle shop round the courner so have an easy source
of worms)

Thanks

You should by now have had enough info from others to design your own
wormery.
It's fun but do nor expect to get much out of even a large wormery.
In my case I use the traditional compost heaps for all waste except the
kitchen stuff, which seems to attract vermin. I just use an old bin with a
few drainage holes and chuck in any small red worms I find in the compost
heaps.
The only advantage of a wormery is that you can keep a small neat one in the
kitchen and alarm any visitors

"tina" wrote in message

Start your compost heap somewhere on the soil and the worms appear :-))
Sorry I should have said that we already have a compost heap (well 3
actually, but we wanted to try a wormery as they can eat the kinds of
things that dont go on the heap e.g. meat etc.

I know that one should avoid lots of grass etc on the wormery as it
raises the temperature which the worms dont like.

Thanks

"tina" wrote in message
...
"tina" wrote in message

Start your compost heap somewhere on the soil and the worms appear :-))

Sorry I should have said that we already have a compost heap (well 3
actually,

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

"tina" wrote in message
news
Hi,
I'm interested in composting and have been told that wormeries are a
good way to start.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------


but we wanted to try a wormery as they can eat the kinds of
things that dont go on the heap e.g. meat etc.

....

And where exactly did you read that?


michael adams

....


I know that one should avoid lots of grass etc on the wormery as it
raises the temperature which the worms dont like.

Thanks

You should by now have had enough info from others to design your own
wormery.
It's fun but do nor expect to get much out of even a large wormery.
In my case I use the traditional compost heaps for all waste except the
kitchen stuff, which seems to attract vermin. I just use an old bin with a
few drainage holes and chuck in any small red worms I find in the compost
heaps.
The only advantage of a wormery is that you can keep a small neat one in
the
kitchen and alarm any visitors

We use our wormery the same way as you
the compost heaps attract rats when we put kitchen waste in, so we let the
worms
convert our kitchen waste to compost, and we get a good
few gallons of liquid feed out of it too.

Dave H

michael adams wrote:
"tina" wrote in message
...
"tina" wrote in message

Start your compost heap somewhere on the soil and the worms
appear
:-))

Sorry I should have said that we already have a compost heap (well
3
actually,

-------------------------------------------------------------------
------

"tina" wrote in message
news
Hi,
I'm interested in composting and have been told that wormeries
are a
good way to start.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
------


but we wanted to try a wormery as they can eat the kinds of
things that dont go on the heap e.g. meat etc.

...

And where exactly did you read that?


michael adams
[...]

This was perhaps the most important reply. Please don't let yourself
be carried away by commercial claims for wormeries. The various kinds
of earthworms live on dead plant material, as available in any cold
compost heap, or even any garden which doesn't have a compost heap at
all. They certainly don't eat meat, cereals, or even bits of
potato -- in fact they wriggle away from these things as fast as
their little wiggle-muscles will carry them, and if they didn't,
they'd die.

There is no point in a wormery: anything worms will eat can go on the
compost heap, and anything they won't eat will just discreetly
disappear in most heaps. Yes, I know rats can sometimes be a problem
with the meaty bits: but how much meat do you throw away, for
heaven's sake? I'd be more worried about blow-flies and their
maggots; and even they won't do you any harm. I'm even rather
sceptical about the value of the liquid feed you're supposed to get
out the bottom: I'm amazed that Dave gets gallons of it...I mean,
_gallons_?

Composting is about fungi and bacteria, not worms..

--
Mike.

There is no point in a wormery: anything worms will eat can go on the
compost heap, and anything they won't eat will just discreetly
disappear in most heaps. Yes, I know rats can sometimes be a problem
with the meaty bits: but how much meat do you throw away, for
heaven's sake? I'd be more worried about blow-flies and their
maggots; and even they won't do you any harm. I'm even rather
sceptical about the value of the liquid feed you're supposed to get
out the bottom: I'm amazed that Dave gets gallons of it...I mean,
_gallons_?

Composting is about fungi and bacteria, not worms..

--
Mike.

I can only say that in my experience the rats will turn up in the compost
heap for almost
ANY kitchen scraps not just meat, and the worms in the wormery eat pretty
well any
Kitchen waste we chuck in. (we don't dispose of meat by either method)
We have only had the wormery for maybe 3 months and have already used ~4-5
pints and have
~10-12 pints stored for next season
Dave H

Hiya,
I liked my wormery so much I bought another on ebay. It was the
'original wormery' (you can find pictures of it on the web its
basically a bin with a tap) and cost me £12 I think. Real bargin. This
Winter I got one of those pastic sheds in a 10% off sale and put both
the wormerys in (and some bubble wrap). Hopefully they will be ok. This
worked out £40 cheaper than the wooden shed charged for one wormery by
one of the wormery makers. The only thing I would say is that flies is
a real problem. No matter what I do they are always there and there
seems to be no way to really get rid of them. In Summer they are really
bad. I have to use one wormery and then the other to try and keep the
numbers managable. The wormery is by the back door which is useful, but
as I clean out my bunnies each day I have to goto the compost heap each
day anyhow. We use lots of onions, which means I keep 3 storeage bowl
in the kitchen (this is a pain) - one for the wormery, one for too acid
things and one for coffee (recently read you can put this straight on
the garden which I have been doing.) The flies and making sure the
drainage is working (sometimes blocks up and so it all becomes too
damp) is the biggest pain I would say. I also shred all our loo roll
and put egg shells through the magimix as something to keep the acidity
down. I will have had the 1st wormery for a year now. There was a
learning curve with it. Either down to bad luck or just being dumb, who
knows. But I found that with my compost heap also so there is not much
difference there.

Dave H wrote:
There is no point in a wormery: anything worms will eat can go on
the
compost heap, and anything they won't eat will just discreetly
disappear in most heaps. Yes, I know rats can sometimes be a
problem
with the meaty bits: but how much meat do you throw away, for
heaven's sake? I'd be more worried about blow-flies and their
maggots; and even they won't do you any harm. I'm even rather
sceptical about the value of the liquid feed you're supposed to
get
out the bottom: I'm amazed that Dave gets gallons of it...I mean,
_gallons_?

Composting is about fungi and bacteria, not worms..

--
Mike.

I can only say that in my experience the rats will turn up in the
compost heap for almost
ANY kitchen scraps not just meat, and the worms in the wormery eat
pretty well any
Kitchen waste we chuck in. (we don't dispose of meat by either
method)
We have only had the wormery for maybe 3 months and have already
used
~4-5 pints and have
~10-12 pints stored for next season
Dave H

I'm impressed. But not to the point of imitation!

--
Mike.