The new and improved Worm Farm.

Made from untreated pallets, the worm farm’s life span is about five years, so the cost is the screws and hinges. The improvements on my mk3 model are around rat proofing as I am sure that rats eat worms, or maybe they are just looking for a warm space to hang out, but either way, I do not want them in my worm farm. Also, I have increased the size and have better access flaps, as the intention of this worm farm is to enhance the biology of the wider farm. With vermicomposting you can make a biological compost amendment with very little effort and that does not involve the process of making compost.

A term that we need to appreciate before we move on is the “Soil Food Web”. This science comes from Dr Elain Ingham, a soil biologist who has advanced our knowledge of the soil ecosystem since the 1970s. The soil food web is the community of organisms dwelling in the soil. It describes a living system and how it interacts with the environment, plants, and animals.

Plants are called autotrophs because they produce energy from the sun and make it available for other organisms to consume. Heterotrophs are consumers that cannot make their own food, so to obtain energy, they eat plants, organic matter, plant exudates or other heterotrophs, the soil organisms fall into this category. The interactions between plants and soil biology are complex, but the result generates soil stable plant available nutrients that increase plant immunity from most diseases.

Creating the “Soil Food Web” follows the process of creating a well-made aerated aerobic compost using a balance of the right materials. The compost is analysed under a microscope to ensure you have the four layers of biology in the precise quantities.

A Biological compost is challenging and time-consuming art. Firstly, you must have access to the material needed to make a balanced compost. Then watch it closely in the first week to keep it aerobic (not over-heat), it may need turning more than once to control the temperature. Once you pass that phase, moisture levels are controlled until it cures. But there is an easier way, and that involves utilising composting worms.

Across your farm or garden one of the key indicators for soil health are your worm populations. Without the worms your soil is dirt; a mineral mix of sand, silt and clay, that is essentially lifeless. Where you see worms, you see moisture, organic matter and soil aggregation. This is normally a good indicator of the Soil Food Web activity that you can’t see. So, if worms promote life in the soil, then by farming composting worms, we could create a biological amendment that has the potential to boost the micro-biome of the soil and make it more beneficial and appealing for earth worms. Creating the Soil Food Web is a precise science, that needs to be scrutinised under a microscope, but what we promote is the art of pure observation and the earth worm is central to your observations into your soil conditions. So, then we need to understand worms a bit more.

Composting Worms

Our farmed worms are the compost varieties tiger worms (Ensenia Foteida) and red wiggler (Eisenia fetida). Composting worms primarily consume well broken-down organic matter that has already been processed by, and still containing the heterotrophs; bacteria, fungi, nematodes, protozoans and microarthropods. The passage of the microbes through the digestive system lowers the pathogenic microbes, encourages the plant and soil specific species and promotes a healthy ecosystem. The casts created by composting worms are a mixture of worm manure and partially decomposed plant or bedding material, and still containing beneficial organisms, in the form of organic matter.  Distribution of your worm farm cast into your garden or farm soil is the perfect food and environment to encourage the earth worm, as well as giving plant available nutrients to whatever you are growing.

Earth Worms

Earth Worms have the capacity to eat their own body weight in food every day and their diet consists of organic matter, animal excrement, other soil heterotrophs and dead animals. Earth worms break down and recycle this organic matter within the soil creating vital nutrients, in the form of castings or worm manure. These casts contain 5 times the nitrogen, 7 times the phosphorus and 1000 time the bacteria, then the original soil. The moisture holding capacity is 90 percent less without the activity of worms, so drought prone soils is indicative of a lack of worm life, as is moss in wet environments. An important aspect of high worm activity is the reduction of parasitic nematode, such as thread worms, hook worms and round worms, making worms an asset and essential for farming soils.

The Never Full worm farm.

The worm farm is essentially a box. On the bottom is about 200mm of composted wood mulch and this is there to give the worms a bed. In the box I have placed about one thousand worms. The life cycle of a worm from egg to adult is about two months, and between three and six worms hatch per egg, so in 6 months you could expect approximately 30,000 worms. The worm farm should be placed in a cool area out of full sun, but some where you pass daily works best for me. It needs a spray of water occasionally to keep thing damp and feeding. They like a little grit for their gizzard, so add crushed eggshell or lime or pumice. The extra calcium apparently keeps things sweet.  Feeding depends on the quantity of worms and giving only what they can eat in three days works well. Along with the worm feed they will require some brown material and leaves works well or shredded paper or cardboard also works. This is to keep an airy bed available, and 50/50 food and bedding is good.  The heat from the biological activity will hasten the breakdown of this feed and as you see the worms move in placing the next few days food mixed with bedding on top offers them shelter and protection.

In the warmer months they can produce castings very quickly and in cooler months this all slows off. With this style of worm farm, you could fill it with cow poop and just watch over the next few months until they need re-feeding. But this tends to place worms right through the box, so harvesting is difficult. Feeding them twice a week has them near the food source, which is near the top, so easier to get worm free castings. Otherwise, house scraps, coffee grinds, weeds out of the garden, grass or manure. Chicken manure seems a little hot for them and apparently, they don’t like citrus or onion, but they have never complained to me about that.

What I love about these boxes is the life that is all through it. I open the lid and they all duck for cover, thousands of them, but not just worms. There is mites and little crawly things and little flying things, they all go still, “you can’t see me” they seem to say, as they wait for the lid to go back down and the darkness to return.

And that’s it, the Never Full Worm Farm and the busy man’s compost.

Written by David Stewart

See our instructions to build a Never Full Worm Farm here.

Our smaller two year old garden worm farm (also made from untreated pallets) is still solid and producing about 5 wheelbarrow loads of vermicompost per year.