"Compost Crazy" FAQ's

Following several very succesful sessions of Soil Enrichment Training at the Royal Edinburgh Community Gardens the people who attended have been getting back in touch with questions about how best to look after their wormeries and worms.  As these questions come in we'll post them and their answers in this blog for everyone to see. 

1.  Is the wood already treated?  Can I paint/treat the wood to make it waterproof or will this affect the worms?

The wood has already been pressure treated so it should be fine as it is.  If you want to paint/further treat your wormery then that's fine but make sure that whatever you choose to do this with is breathable so that the worms don't suffocate!

2.  Do I need to cover my wormery in cold or wet weather?

In wet weather your wormery will be fine - it does not need covering.  You should perform a squeeze test on the bedding now and again to make sure it's not too wet.  When squeezed only a couple of drops of water will appear.  If it's too wet tear up some cardboard to mix in.    

In cold weather the wood and the waste in your wormery will offer some insulation to your worms and they should be fine.  Make sure you keep your bedding layer thick (more than 150mm) and keep putting food peelings in - as they rot they will release heat. 

If it is forecast to be very cold (as it has been in England recently) then it would be advisable to cover your wormery or to move it inside a garage/porch to prevent severe frost killing the worms.

3.  What are the do's and don't's of what you can put in your wormery?

There are two types of materials to put in your wormery.  Bedding and food.

Bedding needs to be topped up every few weeks.  Good materials for bedding are:

Semi-rotted compost from the compost heap.

Brown, fibrous cardboard (e.g. egg-boxes torn up and made moist)

Soft leaves 

Horse/sheep/rabbit bedding

Horse manure

Grass cuttings (not too much as they heat up quickly and may cook your worms!)

You should feed your worms once a week.  Good materials to feed your worms are:

Fruit and vegetable peelings (Try not to put too much onion, garlic or citrus fruit in - it gives worms indigestion!)  

Crushed eggshells

Coffee grounds (with filter paper)

Tea bags

Pasta 

Rice

Potatoes

Brown cardboard

You should ideally chop scraps as finely as possible.  Worms' favourite foods are banana and melon.

4. Is there a difference between a "Wormery" and a "Worm Box"

No.  They are often used to the same thing.  There IS considerable variation, however, in what people refer to as 'wormeries' and 'worm boxes'.  The wormeries we make in our training sessions are used to make worm-cast compost.  

Some wormery systems are designed to create 'worm-juice' which is drained off and used as liquid fertiliser.  

5. Should I aim to fill it up immediately with compostable material or do it slowly adding small amounts weekly?

You should first create a bedding layer 150mm thick from the materials recommended in Q3 above (semi-rotted kitchen waste/chipped and shredded garden waste).  Then you should add your kitchen waste weekly by digging a trench in the bedding, adding the scraps, and then covering it over.  When you come to add your second week of scraps, move the trench along to evenly feed your worms.

6. Can I use eggshells?

Yes, but make sure you crush them up into small parts first.  Coarse material like this, or sand and rockdust, actually helps the worms to digest their food (they don't have teeth you see!)

7.  What is the maximum diameter for woody stems?

When creating your bedding any woody material should ideally be chipped.  Some woody stems can help create air pockets in the worm cast but these should be sieved out when it comes to harvesting.

8.  What should you do if the worms are all over the inside of your lid?

If your worms are all living near the top of your wormery - congratualtions!  Your wormcast compost is ready to harvest.  

9.  How do you harvest the compost whilst retaining the worms?

Your worms should all be living in the top layer of bedding.  You should remove this and put it in a bucket for safe keeping.  Find where the wormcast layer starts - it will be black, sticky and heavy.  Remove this and store in a watertight container.  You can now put the bedding and worms back into the box, feed them and start the process again.