Reducing Waste With WORMS!! By Aidan Parker

Why Have a Worm Farm? Worm Farms will turn all your old food scraps into fantastic garden fertiliser for free! Worm Farms help to stop waste going to landfill, which will help to stop the production of methane which is a major greenhouse gas, and leachate which pollutes rivers. Two thirds of organic waste goes to landfill, and a lot of it can be used to feed worms and create gas free nutrients. Having a worm farm is a fun experience! (They are my first ‘pets’) It is very cheap to construct and quite easy to establish. You are helping the environment which makes you feel good.

How Do You Build a Worm Farm? A polystyrene box worm farm is easy, simple, and cheap to build! Equipment: 2 polystyrene boxes, one with a lid Old fly screen mesh 4 bricks A bucket of Soil, preferably damp Lots of thick, Shredded up newspaper Something sharp to poke holes with, like a screwdriver An old tea towel or some hessian Irrigation tap Around 1000 worms, to get a nice farm started. You cannot use ordinary garden worms as you need composting worms. You can buy these or even better, ask people. I got some from my grandmother’s compost pile.

How Do You Build a Worm Farm? The Bottom Box: The bottom box will be the collection box, and will carry the juice that the worms will produce. The bottom box is the easiest of the two boxes to make. 1) Take one of the polystyrene boxes, without the lid. 2) Put a hole into the bottom of the box. 3) Put the irrigation tap into the hole, make sure it fits well. 4) That’s It!!

The Top Box: The top box will be a home to your worms and will be where all your food scraps will be placed. 1) Take the other polystyrene box, make sure it has a lid. 2) Using your hole poking tool, place lots of holes in the bottom of the box. These will drain the juice the worms produce. 3) To make sure the worms don’t fall through the holes, place the flyscreen mesh onto the inside of the box’s base. This should stop the worms from falling through, but let the juice drip into the bottom box. 4) Fill the box with all the newspaper that you have collected. 5) Wet the newspaper to make the box moist. This will give your worms a nice environment for them to live in. 6) Pour your soil into the box. Make sure that the soil is spread evenly through the box, so everything fits into the box. How Do You Build a Worm Farm?

Top Box (Continued) 7) Now for the worms! Be careful when you add your worms into the box. They should go down into the soil where the temperature and conditions are nice for the worms. 8) (Optional but Recommended) Place several sheets of damp newspaper on top of the soil, to give the worms a better environment, but they will also eat that newspaper as well. 9) Place a old tea towel on top of you soil/newspaper to keep the area dark. 10) Place the lid on top, and that’s it!!

What Should You Feed Worms? After making your worm farm, you should wait 2-3 days before you feed your worms, to make sure that they settle into their new home. When you decide to feed your worms, make sure you DO NOT use the following things: Any Meat Dairy Citrus (Oranges and Onions) Salty Foods Pre-Packaged Foods with preservatives Spicy Foods and Oils

Worms eat a variety of different foods, mainly fruit and vegetable scraps. Good food for your worms are: Fruit and Vegetable Scraps (that aren’t citrus) Egg Shells Paper Tea bags Bread Pasta Coffee What Should You Feed Worms?

Feeding tips based on my experience are: DO NOT feed your worms potatoes scraps, as they won’t eat them. DO NOT over feed your worms Feed your worms egg shell occasionally, as it helps to balance the worm farm and stop it from smelling. Worms love eating newspaper Blend up your scraps, as they find it much easier to eat.

Worm Juice is the liquid substance that will be collected in the bottom box of your worm farm. After a few weeks, you should start seeing a small amount, and soon enough you will have plenty which will need collecting. Using your irrigation tap, I would recommend collecting the juice in old drink cartons, which have been washed out. Then make sure that the juice is kept in a warm dark place, to keep the juice fresh, and to make sure it doesn’t smell. OPTIONAL: If you can see small pieces of polystyrene in your juice, use a sieve to remove the polystyrene from the juice. When you are ready to feed your plants, make sure you dilute this worm juice with water or the juice will burn your plants. I would recommend 1 part juice, to 10 parts water (worm juice is fairly strong stuff!) What is Worm Juice And How Do You Get It?

How Do You Collect Worm Castings? Worm castings or vermicast, is basically worm poop. These castings are great for your plants and soil, as they contain lots of organic materials. With a single tier worm farm, here are some ways that you can use to collect your castings without harming your worms. Worm castings should ONLY be collected when the food box is or is almost full. I have not yet had to collect the worm castings, but these are 2 methods I will try when it is time. Method 1: Food Placement This method is really simple and can help you get out your worm castings. All you have to do is make sure that there is no remaining food in the farm, then when you feed them next, place all the food at one end of the worm farm. After 2-3 days, all the worms should be over at that food. Then simply take out the soil at the other end of the farm. That is it! A very simple way to remove worm castings.

How Do You Collect Worm Castings? Method 2: Soil Mounds For this method, take out the soil from the food box, and make it into lots of small soil mounds. Leave it for minutes to make sure the worms are at the bottom of the piles. Then simply take off about two thirds from the top of each pile, then place the remaining third back in your worm farm. That is it! Two very simple ways to collect worm castings without hurting your worms. The worm castings will still be in with the soil you’ve taken out, but that doesn’t matter as you can just add that soil as well as the castings to your plants.

References do-it/ polystyrene/