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Wormeries - pros & cons?
I am sure this subject will have been discussed here before, but as
Google has done away with its 'groups search' feature, I was unable to check! Can anyone please enlighten me: a) For a single person (with a larger than average garden, who doesn't throw away much, if any, vegetable matter from the kitchen, are wormeries worth the trouble? And if so, b) what are the pros and cons of maintaining one? And, c) can anyone provide instructions, or a link to a good guide to starting an maintaining a home-made wormery? Thank you, Al |
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Wormeries - pros & cons?
On 03/04/2012 20:12, AL_n wrote:
I am sure this subject will have been discussed here before, but as Google has done away with its 'groups search' feature, I was unable to check! Can anyone please enlighten me: a) For a single person (with a larger than average garden, who doesn't throw away much, if any, vegetable matter from the kitchen, are wormeries worth the trouble? And if so, b) what are the pros and cons of maintaining one? And, c) can anyone provide instructions, or a link to a good guide to starting an maintaining a home-made wormery? Thank you, Al I've had wormeries for years, but they can be a lot of trouble - particularly in winter. An easy way that I have found to get the benefit of wormeries, using your kitchen waste in the process, is this. Get a large plastic container - I make home-brewed beer, and find the old 5-gallon brewing buckets ideal for this - and make a number of small holes in the botton - about 1cm in diameter. Put this container somewhere in the garden - in an area that's convenient, and particularly one that you'd like to improve the fertility of - and then just tip your kitchen waste in to it. In the fullness of time composting worms will find the bin and colonise it (and dreed rapidly). fill the bin with your waste and keep it topped up - starting more bins when you run out of space. The advantage of this method is that the worms will leave the bin when it gets too cold or dry for them and go into the soil - returning when things return to normal. The soil around the bin will improve enormously - and you can move the bin after a while to spread the benefit. After several months you will need to empty the bin and start again - using the residual worm cast material in your composts, etc. |
#3
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Wormeries - pros & cons?
On Apr 3, 8:12*pm, "AL_n" wrote:
I am sure this subject will have been discussed here before, but as Google has done away with its 'groups search' feature, I was unable to check! Can anyone please enlighten me: a) For a single person (with a larger than average garden, who doesn't throw away much, if any, vegetable matter from the kitchen, are wormeries worth the trouble? And if so, b) what are the pros and cons of maintaining one? And, c) can anyone provide instructions, or a link to a good guide to starting an maintaining a home-made wormery? Thank you, Al Wormeries are a load of bolix. The reason there are so many about is that there was a national pyramid selling scam going on a few years back. Don't waste your time and money. |
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Quote:
__________________
getstats - A society in which our lives and choices are enriched by an understanding of statistics. Go to www.getstats.org.uk for more information |
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Wormeries - pros & cons?
On Tue, 03 Apr 2012 22:11:00 +0100, Farmer Giles
wrote: On 03/04/2012 20:12, AL_n wrote: I am sure this subject will have been discussed here before, but as Google has done away with its 'groups search' feature, I was unable to check! Can anyone please enlighten me: a) For a single person (with a larger than average garden, who doesn't throw away much, if any, vegetable matter from the kitchen, are wormeries worth the trouble? And if so, b) what are the pros and cons of maintaining one? And, c) can anyone provide instructions, or a link to a good guide to starting an maintaining a home-made wormery? Thank you, Al I've had wormeries for years, but they can be a lot of trouble - particularly in winter. An easy way that I have found to get the benefit of wormeries, using your kitchen waste in the process, is this. Get a large plastic container - I make home-brewed beer, and find the old 5-gallon brewing buckets ideal for this - and make a number of small holes in the botton - about 1cm in diameter. Put this container somewhere in the garden - in an area that's convenient, and particularly one that you'd like to improve the fertility of - and then just tip your kitchen waste in to it. In the fullness of time composting worms will find the bin and colonise it (and dreed rapidly). fill the bin with your waste and keep it topped up - starting more bins when you run out of space. The advantage of this method is that the worms will leave the bin when it gets too cold or dry for them and go into the soil - returning when things return to normal. The soil around the bin will improve enormously - and you can move the bin after a while to spread the benefit. After several months you will need to empty the bin and start again - using the residual worm cast material in your composts, etc. I understand that the best worms for compost are brandling worms which can be bought at fishing shops .... and are not cheap. They are not the same as earthworms, yet can be found in piles of rotting manure. So where do they come from? How do they get into compost bins and into manure? Pam in Bristol |
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Wormeries - pros & cons?
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#7
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Wormeries - pros & cons?
On Apr 4, 10:12*am, Pam Moore wrote:
On Tue, 03 Apr 2012 22:11:00 +0100, Farmer Giles wrote: On 03/04/2012 20:12, AL_n wrote: I am sure this subject will have been discussed here before, but as Google has done away with its 'groups search' feature, I was unable to check! Can anyone please enlighten me: a) For a single person (with a larger than average garden, who doesn't throw away much, if any, vegetable matter from the kitchen, are wormeries worth the trouble? And if so, b) what are the pros and cons of maintaining one? And, c) can anyone provide instructions, or a link to a good guide to starting an maintaining a home-made wormery? Thank you, Al I've had wormeries for years, but they can be a lot of trouble - particularly in winter. An easy way that I have found to get the benefit of wormeries, using your kitchen waste in the process, is this. Get a large plastic container - I make home-brewed beer, and find the old 5-gallon brewing buckets ideal for this - and make a number of small holes in the botton - about 1cm in diameter. Put this container somewhere in the garden - in an area that's convenient, and particularly one that you'd like to improve the fertility of - and then just tip your kitchen waste in to it. In the fullness of time composting worms will find the bin and colonise it (and dreed rapidly). fill the bin with your waste and keep it topped up - starting more bins when you run out of space. The advantage of this method is that the worms will leave the bin when it gets too cold or dry for them and go into the soil - returning when things return to normal. The soil around the bin will improve enormously - and you can move the bin after a while to spread the benefit. After several months you will need to empty the bin and start again - using the residual worm cast material in your composts, etc. I understand that the best worms for compost are brandling worms which can be bought at fishing shops .... *and are not cheap. They are not the same as earthworms, yet can be found in piles of rotting manure. So where do they come from? How do they get into compost bins and into manure? This is a fiction spread by worm sellers. Leave well alone. |
#8
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Quote:
More earthworms he British earthworms | Natural History Museum
__________________
getstats - A society in which our lives and choices are enriched by an understanding of statistics. Go to www.getstats.org.uk for more information |
#9
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Wormeries - pros & cons?
Terry Fields wrote in
: Farmer Giles wrote: On 03/04/2012 20:12, AL_n wrote: Can anyone please enlighten me: a) For a single person (with a larger than average garden, who doesn't throw away much, if any, vegetable matter from the kitchen, are wormeries worth the trouble? b) what are the pros and cons of maintaining one? c) can anyone provide instructions, or a link to a good guide to starting an maintaining a home-made wormery? Get a large plastic container - I make home-brewed beer, and find the old 5-gallon brewing buckets ideal for this - and make a number of small holes in the botton - about 1cm in diameter. Put this container somewhere in the garden - in an area that's convenient, and particularly one that you'd like to improve the fertility of - and then just tip your kitchen waste in to it. In the fullness of time composting worms will find the bin and colonise it (and dreed rapidly). fill the bin with your waste and keep it topped up - starting more bins when you run out of space. In the days when SWMBO composted the (non-meat) kitchen waste, I used to add the output of the paper shredder. It was astonishing: worms would turn up from seemingly nowhere and in seven days you couldn't tell that any paper had ever been put in there. I think they liked the paper best of all! Terry Fields That's great, I think I'll have a go with the highly acclaimed red wigglers. Can anyone recommend an online source of these? TIA Al |
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Wormeries - pros & cons?
On Wed, 4 Apr 2012 14:59:06 +0000, kay
wrote: 'Pam Moore[_2_ Wrote: ;954967'] I understand that the best worms for compost are brandling worms which can be bought at fishing shops .... and are not cheap. They are not the same as earthworms, yet can be found in piles of rotting manure. So where do they come from? How do they get into compost bins and into manure? Depends what you mean as "earthworms". Most gardeners mean Lumbricus terrestris. But brandlings are earthworms too, of genus Eisenia, and like a soil high in organic content. So the answer is, they are around in the soil in small numbers, but they flourish in high organic conditions, so when you provide these, they breed and multiply, and become a lot more evident. More earthworms he 'British earthworms | Natural History Museum' (http://tinyurl.com/dydus5x) Thanks Kay Interesting info! Pam in Bristol |
#11
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Wormeries - pros & cons?
On 4 Apr 2012 10:02:18 GMT, "AL_n" wrote:
snip I gather that the commercially-sold wormeries are designed to produce liquid fertilizer, and not much else. Is that correct? Al No this is no true. The worms eat the vegetation and produce the "compost". ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Worms can eat up to half their own body weight every day and can double their population every 60-90 days. If you start your wormery with 1 kilo of mature worms they will consume up to 500g of food waste per day*. After a few months you should have double your population and you can feed them more. As you become familiar with your system you will learn their rate of food consumption. * This is dependant on the time of year, and how long your wormery has been running as an approximate guideline a 75 litre wormery should be able to manage 2 - 3 kilos of food per week. This is dependant on the season and how long your wormery has been running for http://www.wormcity.co.uk/wormfaq.ht...erywillcompost -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
#12
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Wormeries - pros & cons?
In article , jmsmith2011
@hotmail.co.uk says... On 4 Apr 2012 10:02:18 GMT, "AL_n" wrote: snip I gather that the commercially-sold wormeries are designed to produce liquid fertilizer, and not much else. Is that correct? Al No this is no true. The worms eat the vegetation and produce the "compost". ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Worms can eat up to half their own body weight every day and can double their population every 60-90 days. If you start your wormery with 1 kilo of mature worms they will consume up to 500g of food waste per day*. After a few months you should have double your population and you can feed them more. As you become familiar with your system you will learn their rate of food consumption. * This is dependant on the time of year, and how long your wormery has been running as an approximate guideline a 75 litre wormery should be able to manage 2 - 3 kilos of food per week. This is dependant on the season and how long your wormery has been running for http://www.wormcity.co.uk/wormfaq.ht...erywillcompost -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You appear to have confused the amount worms consume, with the amount of compost worms produce. IME the amount of compost produced is so minimal it's not worth the trouble. The largest usable product of wormeries is the liquid waste , a good liquid fertiliser but no better than effortless ones such as nettle and comfrey tea. IMO (and IME of both) any gardener with enough room (and waste) for a compost heap will get a much better worm-return by introducing a colony of brandlings to it. You only need to do it once and never have to do any worm care ; and if you know someone with a successful compost heap they can easily supply you with a handful of brandlings. Janet |
#13
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Wormeries - pros & cons?
Janet wrote in
: You appear to have confused the amount worms consume, with the amount of compost worms produce. IME the amount of compost produced is so minimal it's not worth the trouble. The largest usable product of wormeries is the liquid waste , a good liquid fertiliser but no better than effortless ones such as nettle and comfrey tea. IMO (and IME of both) any gardener with enough room (and waste) for a compost heap will get a much better worm-return by introducing a colony of brandlings to it. You only need to do it once and never have to do any worm care ; and if you know someone with a successful compost heap they can easily supply you with a handful of brandlings. Janet Failing that, would it be worth paying £5 for 100 dendrobaena worms? I have a compost heap (about 5 cubic meters) the composting process of which, I'd love to speed up! Whenever I turn it over, I don't find many worms. Al |
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Wormeries - pros & cons?
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Wormeries - pros & cons?
Janet wrote in news:MPG.29e7d30d26e1e2e198b339
@news.eternal-september.org: No stables with horse-manure heaps in the neighbourhood? You should find some in there. Janet, Thanks for the tip. Yes, I do have horse dung-heaps locally. I hope I can identify the said brandlings! Pinkish-brown with lateral stripes, yes? Al |
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