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My Worm Farm

Armadillo

Armadillo

A few months ago I started my worm farm to produce my own fertilizer. The farm consists of a few plastic containers. One as a base. One with a valve for collecting the drain liquid, called "worm tea", a good fertilizer used in a 1:10 dilution for watering. One or two with a lot of holes drilled into the bottom for drainage and worm migration.
On the first picture you see the container with open grip holes.

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Later I closed the grip holes with mosquito web to keep off the fruit flies. The canister in the background contains worm tea.

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This is one of the few hundred earthworms I collected in my yard.

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I feed them with kitchen garbage, coffee grounds, weeds and max. 20% newspaper. They produce a fine worm compost.
 
Nice home made worm bin. Not sure if you've done in homework on "Worm Tea" or not, but the excess liquid that comes out of the bottom of a worm bin is not Worm Tea. It's actually Leachate. Leachate is produced when excess water is released from decomposing wastes. Partially decomposed materials are not nearly as well stabilized as mature composts, and thus can contain a variety of potentially phytotoxic (i.e. they can harm your plants) compounds. This liquid should be discarded and never put on your plants or the plants soil. It should also never be used back in your worm bin. If you have a large amount of Leachate you should add a few layers of news paper to the top of the bin because your worm bin is too wet. Worms prefer moist soil not wet so you want to try and keep the Leachate down to a minimum. I think I posted how to brew worm tea in the growing peppers section so do a search and learn how to "brew" worm tea because if your continue to use Leachate your really harming your plants.
 
I did some research in the web and a lot of German permaculture sites define that as worm tea and those people use it with success. I'll continue to read about it.
 
LGHT said:
Nice home made worm bin. Not sure if you've done in homework on "Worm Tea" or not, but the excess liquid that comes out of the bottom of a worm bin is not Worm Tea. It's actually Leachate. Leachate is produced when excess water is released from decomposing wastes. Partially decomposed materials are not nearly as well stabilized as mature composts, and thus can contain a variety of potentially phytotoxic (i.e. they can harm your plants) compounds. This liquid should be discarded and never put on your plants or the plants soil. It should also never be used back in your worm bin. If you have a large amount of Leachate you should add a few layers of news paper to the top of the bin because your worm bin is too wet. Worms prefer moist soil not wet so you want to try and keep the Leachate down to a minimum. I think I posted how to brew worm tea in the growing peppers section so do a search and learn how to "brew" worm tea because if your continue to use Leachate your really harming your plants.
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Good info LGHT. I have a couple of worm bins I started about a month ago and was wondering about the leachate. Thanks for your great info. because I will be making worm tea soon.
 
When you setup a worm bin or worm farm, decomposition takes place in three stages for the most active microorganisms.

Phsychrophilic bacteria begins to process at temperatures below 70 degrees Fahrenheit

Mesophilic bacteria, the fastest decomposers process between 70 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit

Thermophilic bacteria come into play at temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit

When managing decomposition, pay attention to the carbon (newspaper, cardboard…) to nitrogen (vegetable scraps, grass clippings…) ratio as well as moisture and oxygen.

Composting with worms is a more controlled method of basic composting as well as speeds up the process. You maintain a constant temperature which enables the most active bacteria, Mesophilic to take over. Worms move through the organic matter helping to aerate the decaying matter as well as making smaller particles of the decaying matter, hence leaving more surface area for beneficial microbes to work on.

If the moisture content gets to high, usually above 80%, the decaying matter becomes compacted, the same way the landfill does. This is when the worm bin can begin to change over to those nasty anaerobic organisms which can be harmful to your worms and even begin killing them off.

Once the moisture content begins to rise even more, the decaying matter releases a liquid called leachate. You will see many websites refer to this as worm tea, which it is not!

Worm tea is derived by brewing worm castings which are full of aerobic microorganisms. This process is done by aerating the worm castings, warm water and unsulphured molasses for approximately 24-48 hours in order to explode the aerobic microbe population.

Leachate is usually the opposite, full of anaerobic organisms.

If you are getting a little leachate from your worm farm or worm bin, try adding several inches of dry shredded newspaper on top and place the lid on it. This will absorb a little of the moisture. If you are getting a lot of leachate, it might be time to remake the bedding for your friends!

Now that you understand the process you can probably write to all those german websites that are trying to convence you that Leachate is actually worm tea. ;)
 
So, in reading your own post, all one needs to do to differentiate between "worm tea" and "leachate" is just make sure you dont use too much water when you are adding compost, etc?
Its the same exact material, essentially. Just one has too much water added through the process. If you use the CORRECT amount of water, you shouldnt have any problems at all.
I have been reading up on this because I am about to start my OWN worm farm, and it looks like every single web site I go to uses pretty much the same method....about once a week or so, add your compost to about half of the top of your worm bin, then add a little water for moisture. Some will add a little bedding (peat moss, newspaper, etc) on top of the compost when they feed. But again, ALL seem to use the same feeding method. If you do it correctly, you will get "worm tea." But, you can ALSO use castings to make "tea" as well.
 
I never add water to my worm bins and I still get a few inches of leachate on the bottom. There is alot of water in the vegetable matter I have put in, such as sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, and squash from my garden. Should I back off on those items and use matter with less water like grass clippings and peelings? I continue to add cardboard and paper.
 
my only question is... why didn't you build this out of clear acryllic!

i think it would be cool as crap to see all the little worm tunnels along the sides.
 
I happen to know of a grower that, even though I wont say his name, would quiet ANYONE that questioned his growing methods. In other words, what this man says, WORKS. PERIOD. He takes the liquid that comes off of his bins and dilutes it as a fertilizer. HAS for many years. Also uses the castings in his soil, obviously. So, if it works for HIM, it will work for anyone else.
I JUST bought MY worms last night, so I will have a farm soon. I live in the mountains with red clay as soil. Red worms are just easier to buy, ya know?
Chile...Im no expert, but for what I DO know, whatever the liquid is called, I would use it as a dilute mix for your plants. The person I was referring to above uses a 10:1 mixture oil "worm liquid" to water. Think about it THIS way...no matter what you call the liquid, worms produce it, whether they produce it in a "worm farm," or in nature. Its the same exact stuff thats in "natural soil." The next time you have worm castings in your hand, squeeze it. What comes out is the same stuff. Worst case scenario, it cant hurt. there are absolutely NO chemicals in it.
Quee...I have been told that anything that lets light in on these little buggers hurts them. I dont want to give you a weird reason. It wouldnt be hard to research it. Just heard that it was bad for them.
 
Quee...I have been told that anything that lets light in on these little buggers hurts them. I dont want to give you a weird reason. It wouldnt be hard to research it. Just heard that it was bad for them.
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bummer! it would be neat to have something like an ant farm going on...
shows how much i know about worms i guess.
 
lol...Im a novice myself. I have just been doing a LOT of reading, and asking people that actually know what they are talking about questions.
 
Hot Pooper said:
So, in reading your own post, all one needs to do to differentiate between "worm tea" and "leachate" is just make sure you dont use too much water when you are adding compost, etc?
Its the same exact material, essentially. Just one has too much water added through the process. If you use the CORRECT amount of water, you shouldnt have any problems at all.
I have been reading up on this because I am about to start my OWN worm farm, and it looks like every single web site I go to uses pretty much the same method....about once a week or so, add your compost to about half of the top of your worm bin, then add a little water for moisture. Some will add a little bedding (peat moss, newspaper, etc) on top of the compost when they feed. But again, ALL seem to use the same feeding method. If you do it correctly, you will get "worm tea." But, you can ALSO use castings to make "tea" as well.
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You might want to actually go back and read my post. Leachate has nothing to do with worm tea. Not sure what your reading or where your getting your information from, but Worm tea is derived by brewing worm castings which are full of aerobic microorganisms. This process is done by aerating the worm castings, warm water and unsulphured molasses for approximately 24-48 hours in order to explode the aerobic microbe population. This is not done in your worm bin lol.
 
chileaddict said:
I never add water to my worm bins and I still get a few inches of leachate on the bottom. There is alot of water in the vegetable matter I have put in, such as sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, and squash from my garden. Should I back off on those items and use matter with less water like grass clippings and peelings? I continue to add cardboard and paper.
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Do you allow your matter to break down before putting it into the bin? I know I have better results if I allow my kitchen scraps to break down a bit and allow it to grow mold first. I also mix in a bit of shredded paper to everything which helps absorb most of the water. If you have grass clippings or leaves you can add some of those as well as it will increase the nitrogen level and really give your bin a boost.
 
LGHT said:
Do you allow your matter to break down before putting it into the bin? I know I have better results if I allow my kitchen scraps to break down a bit and allow it to grow mold first. I also mix in a bit of shredded paper to everything which helps absorb most of the water. If you have grass clippings or leaves you can add some of those as well as it will increase the nitrogen level and really give your bin a boost.
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No, I have not intentionally let anything break down first. Sometimes the gnats are tough to deal with, but I do add paper, cardboard, dried coffee filters, etc. ocassionally.
 
chileaddict said:
No, I have not intentionally let anything break down first. Sometimes the gnats are tough to deal with, but I do add paper, cardboard, dried coffee filters, etc. ocassionally.
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What I do with mine is toss all scraps in a large trash bag and seal it up tight for about a week. Just long enough to help the bacteria get a start. This starts the decomposition process and builds up a good amount of Mesophilic bacteria at the same time. Plus since it's in a sealed bag it helps prevent fungus gnats which can cause problems in a worm bin.

Since I have a 7 tier bin I place the fresh matter about 2" below the soil on the top tier. Then I rotate the bottom tier out and remove the rich worm castings and replace it with a mixture of soil, shredded paper, and a small amount of manure. If you continue to rotate your bins the worms will keep going up each tray as the matter breaks down creating a cycle of sorts. I have had the setup going for over a year now and haven't had any problems. Actually I have 1 problem. Since I started with 1lb of worms my bin has grown to the point where I now have about 6 lbs of worms and it's growing to the point where I can't get them feed so I had to donate a couple of lbs of worms to a buddy.
 
I have a little fruit fly issue in my worm farm. Is there a way to kill the fruit flies without doing harm to the worms?
 
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