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#1
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Wormery: Has anyone got any ideas for making one?
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 |
#2
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Wormery: Has anyone got any ideas for making one?
"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) :-)) |
#3
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Wormery: Has anyone got any ideas for making one?
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! |
#4
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Wormery: Has anyone got any ideas for making one?
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/ |
#5
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Wormery: Has anyone got any ideas for making one?
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.... |
#6
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Wormery: Has anyone got any ideas for making one?
"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 .... |
#7
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Wormery: Has anyone got any ideas for making one?
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 |
#8
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Wormery: Has anyone got any ideas for making one?
"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 |
#9
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Wormery: Has anyone got any ideas for making one?
"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 |
#10
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Wormery: Has anyone got any ideas for making one?
"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 |
#11
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Wormery: Has anyone got any ideas for making one?
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 |
#12
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Wormery: Has anyone got any ideas for making one?
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. |
#13
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Wormery: Has anyone got any ideas for making one?
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 |
#14
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Wormery: Has anyone got any ideas for making one?
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. |
#15
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Wormery: Has anyone got any ideas for making one?
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. |
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