How to Start a Worm Tower /Bin / Farm and What I Would Do Differently.
Back in February, I decided I wanted to start a worm farm. The worm castings would help my garden this summer. I ordered a worm tower and worms off of Amazon. It’s been quite the experience from Day 1.
Be prepared to have a home for your worms if they should arrive before your worm tower. That happened to me and they arrived at 6 or 7 pm at night. The worms will be stressed after traveling so have a new home ready to go for their arrival.
I grabbed a clean storage tub and drilled holes around the top and in the lid for ventilation.
I grabbed some leaves from outside to also add to the bin.
I mixed some coco coir with peat moss and added that to the leaves. I ended up crushing the leaves up but I don’t have a picture.
Now that I had a nice bed for them, I took the worms from the bag and poured water on top for them to rehydrate back to a more normal shape. When you get them, they are quite skinny and not very lively. After waiting the three days, mine still weren’t lively and it didn’t appear to be as many as I bought. In the instructions it said if after a certain amount of time the worms weren’t ok to call the company and they would ship more. I did just that and the company shipped a new batch of worms and this time, all was well.
I placed a light over top because worms don’t like the light and it will force them to burrow down into the bin.
My worm tower came with a magnet worm food guide.
This is the bottom tray that catches the worm tea. (Also known as worm pee.) Next, I have a tray of dirt/shredded paper/dried leaves and you want it moist like a wrung out sponge not soaking wet. This was my first worm tray. After a couple of months, I added a new dirt/paper/leaves on top of this one and my worms will begin to move up to that tray and I can harvest the bottom tray.
Some more information about the bottom. First are the feet, then the basin and spigot that catch the worm tea. On top of that is a white grid for things to filter through. On top of that, I have a worm bin layer with a piece of cheese cloth type material to keep your worms out of the worm tea basin. All of these things were included with my worm tower.
Wherever I lift one of the layers, I need to be care of hitchhiking worms before I put it on a flat surface.
I have lots of worms now. I don’t know how fast they multiply but I think it is pretty fast.
I think this looks ready for my garden but they haven’t all moved up to the next layer yet. I’m going to give them some time before I evict the stragglers.
Here’s a mango peel and my worms get a good bit of avocado.
Once a week, I “flood” the worm bin. I think this keeps unwanted bugs out and keeps the bin moist.
The worm bin was going great and I had two going and then I got some foster puppies and forgot to check the moisture. One bin dried out and my worms did not make it. If you think life might get crazy put a reminder in your phone or on your calendar to check on your worms.
Things I would have done differently…
- put a reminder in my phone
- bought a moisture meter to tell if the bin had the correct amount of moisture
- bought a worm blanket
I used a coconut plant liner but a blanket would have worked better. I would soak the liner wait till it stopped dripping and then put it on top to keep my worm farm moist.
I hear that fertilizer is going to be hard to come by this year. I am hoping this little worm farm helps my garden.
As far as the worm tea. I dilute it and pour it on different outside hearty plants, grass, compost pile but I am cautious. There a lot of conflicting info on if it is usable or not. Do you use worm tea and what is it safe to put on?
Just a quick video of how I flood the worm tower once a week.
Comments
Join the conversation
-
Your dogs are so cute!!
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?