Question 1

How Do I Use My Worm Casts And Compost?

Accepted Answer

Using your Compost

The compost is very rich in nutrients and organic matter and can be used as an excellent medium to grow plants in. It is rich in soluble plant foods and its fine crumbly texture will greatly improve soil structure. It is not necessary to sterilise the compostbefore using it in the garden, its bacterial content comprises beneficial species which will not harm your plants. It can be

If you want to make your own potting compost try the following mix:

25% Worm casts
25% Coir or alternative
25% Perlite (or equivalent)
25% Sand

Liquid Plant Feed

Don’t forget that the liquid that you drain off from the sump

Question 2

What do worms do in the soil?

Accepted Answer

They can consume their own body weight per day in food and so this means that they are processing 90 kilos a year, and providing you with several centimetres of new topsoil. They bring up rich minerals and nutrients from the subsoil and deposit them as castings on the surface making them readily available to our plants.

Physically as they burrow into the soil the channels they leave behind channels which aerates and drains the soil. If you have a good population of earthworms 5% of your soil will be made up of aerating earthworm burrows

Question 3

Are composting worms - Earthworms?

Accepted Answer

The worms you need for domestic composting are still earthworms but are often termed surface litter worms: These include Eisenia Foetida (Tiger Worms), Eisenia Andrei or, Eisenia Hortensis (often known as a Dendrabaena Veneta) They are all reddy brown in colour and they live in the soil in the surface layer of decaying vegetation.

You will find them naturally on the floor of a forest or they often migrate into your compost heap. They are all UK native species of Earthworms.

Shop Worms and Composters

Question 4

Do woodlice cause a problem in my wormery?

Accepted Answer

No. Woodlice are primary composters so eat organic waste and produce compost so they can live along side your worm population. They can be a sign that your wormery is a bit too dry but not necessarily. By the way one interesting fact about woodlice is that they eat their own faeces for the copper content they contain.

Question 5

Are your wormeries rodent proof?

Accepted Answer

The great thing about a tray system wormery is that a: It's off the floor so very unlikely to be attacked by rodents and B: Worms compost waste as you add it so they really help to neutralise the odours. We have had no problems with rodents with Urbalive or other tray system worm composters.

Question 6

What food should I add to my wormery and when?

Accepted Answer

The main thing to ensure your worms work well for you is to feed them regularly with kitchen scraps. Usually adding waste every couple of days is the most efficient way of ensuring they are working. They don’t like a glut of waste, and underfeeding means you won’t get them working to their optimum level.

Question 7

Why am I not getting any worm juice?

Accepted Answer

Usually a lack of worm juice is one thing… You are not adding enough waste into your wormery. After all 96% of vegetable waste is water and so if you are adding waste there will be liquid draining. It’s not good to add a glut of waste at once for your worms – they need regular feeding so adding waste every couple of days will work best for your worm and your liquid feed production.

Question 8

What’s the difference between worm leachate and worm tea?

Accepted Answer

We often refer to the liquid that you get out of your worm composter as worm tea but technically it’s leachate – the run off from making your worm casts. Obviously it will have drained through the casts so it’s a great product but technically it’s a bit different to actual worm tea which is made from suspending the worm casts in highly oxygenated water (like when brewing tea.

Worm tea - The end result of suspending worm castings in highly oxygenated water (brewing).

Every wormery has good and bad microbes. This is ok of course, as long as the good ones outnumber bad. Leachate is made when the excess water seeps down through the worm composter into the collection area. The leachate should be drained regularly and if you are getting more than a few cupfuls a week, the composter is probably too wet!

Not only are you feeding the plant, but you increase the number of beneficial microbes in the soil, thus crowding out the bad. It has been proven that the tea, along with the castings, can significantly increase plant growth, as well as crop yields, in the short term (a season) and especially the long term over a period of seasons

Question 9

My worms are eating the moisture mat, is this okay?

Accepted Answer

Your moisture mat is just there to encourage your worms to work in the surface of the waste and as it is biodegradable the worms will eventually eat it. If the moisture mat is disintegrating quickly you can add more waste.

Question 10

How to know if my wormery is too wet

Accepted Answer

You will soon see if your worm composter is too wet – it looks visibly sodden. To check pick up some of the made compost/bedding and squeeze… It should have the consistency of a wrung out sponge. If water leaks out between your fingers – then it’s too wet. (If it’s dry and crumbly… it’s too dry.)