Comments on: Turbo Vermicompost

By: Rich

Rich — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 06:42:06 +0000

Make sure you mix-in the top layer when you add food, and cover it with a layer of coir. Blending the scraps before you add it to the compost makes the mixing-in easier, hence my question about the "kitchen composter",

By: michael

michael — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 19:36:47 +0000

How do I maintain worms in my compost and get rid of the other Fly maggots ?

By: Patrick of Perth

Patrick of Perth — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:40:13 +0000

For extra trays contact your local supplier or the manufacturer RELN – they supply individual trays to wholesale clients on special order – but don’t deal with retail clients – they are about A$20 a pop.

The unofficial advice is to not use any more than 5 trays or it will be too heavy for the legs. The added bonus is that the extra capacity gives the full trays more time to mature and the worms, baby worms and eggs have more of a chance to eventually move onward and upwards. This conserves your population with no great effort or having to sift them out, and allows for a greater total population as they self-regulate according to available space.

To deter ants add crushed egg shells and keep your trays as “moist as a damp sponge” as per the instruction booklet. As a preventative put each leg in a small bucket of water – the ants will not be able to enter.

Good Luck.

By: Orest

Orest — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:01:52 +0000

To Anna,
Having ants moving into your worm bin usually means that your bedding material is not moist enough. To fix this problem gently turn the bedding material with a garden fork and water the bedding material remembering not to over water. Also if possible rest the legs of your worm bin in a container of water so as to discourage the ants from returning. Alternately you can make trenches on the upper crest of the tanks and keep them filled with water.

By: Anna

Anna — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 07:38:04 +0000

Linda,
How did you manage with the infestation by ants?
Mine it’s terrible, and I’m worried for my worms…

By: Joel

Joel — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:48:26 +0000

To Linda,
you don’t need to sterilise it, it is heaving with beneficial bacteria, funghi and protozoa so you want all of that in there.
Generally food would be largely free of pesticide residues or at least present in very low concentrations so there shouldn’t be a huge problem but I guess there is always a risk of the skins and peelings from vegetables containing heavy metals from the soil as well as other undesirable chemicals.
I wouldn’t worry about it – life’s too short

By: Rich

Rich — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:50:47 +0000

Hi dehdashti banafshe,
what are you hoping to learn?

By: dehdashti banafshe

dehdashti banafshe — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 09:08:30 +0000

hi
I am master student in ferdosy univercity of mashhad in iran
i need consultation of vermicompost and vermiwash ,becasue my
project about this and it name is my project :
effect of vermicompost in different levele in tamato,pepper and
eggplant seedling.
if youe consultation me i will thanck so much of you.
Thancks so much of your cosultation
dehdashti .banafshe

By: Linda

Linda — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 10:59:35 +0000

Hello there

With a bit of trial and quite a lot of error (fruit flies and dramatic infestation by ants!) I have managed to produce some worm compost from my Can O Worms. So far so good, but I now need to know if it should be sterilised before use in a part of my seed compost as proprietory compost is sterilised. I am concerned that the compost msy contain organisms that will infect my seeds. Also, I try to use organic food as much as possible to feed the little fellas but sometimes the food is not organic, does this mean the compost will contain chemicals from the non organic food?

Linda

By: Rich

Rich — Wed, 31 May 2006 14:29:58 +0000

Thanks Lynne! I tried their website before but found nothing… and tried again today and also drew a blank (even with the search); so I went all lo-tech and called them.

Armed with a bit more information (a.k.a. the catalogue number) I was able to find the extra trays by performing this search.

WW’s recommended that you can run an extra two layers without any worry (if on a flat and stable surface), but beyond that it may get a bit too heavy for the plastic legs.

By: Lynne

Lynne — Wed, 31 May 2006 11:15:50 +0000

I am also running out of room in my Can of Worms and was looking to buy another tray or two. I noticed that they are available at http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk at Â£15 each.

Hope this helps.
Lynne

By: Faye

Faye — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 21:53:53 +0000

If you want to speed up your worm bin, try putting the scraps through a blender or food processor before adding to the bin. This provides more surface area for decomposition, the worms don’t have to work as hard, and there will be more room, physically, in the bin for the next days food scraps.

By: Lesley

Lesley — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 15:07:42 +0000

We eat ‘real’ food. We have three compost bins tucked away at the end of the garden. As you say, when you use fresh produce, in our case, lots of vegetables which are locally grown on a farm a mile down the road, there is a huge amount of extra biodegradable stuff…. like peelings, skins etc, however, not many veges come in nasty layers of plastic wrapping, so the landfill is unused.

We rotate the 3 bins and are about to gain rewards from two of them as the coming flowering season will mean lots of seedlings to be potted and the borders to be restocked, all requiring compost.

We have a bit of a battle with the resident bird population as they, too like the worms from the garden, but any we find in teh garden before the birds, join the fun in the tubs.

I din’t quite underestand how it all works, as I always thought that compost heaps were hot, so we should get cooked worms?… but the resulting, smell-free brown stuff is producing loads of budding daffodils just now. So something useful is happening.

By the way, egg shells can go in but they need to be crushed first… I wrap them in a piece of kitchen paper have a good squeeze. I understand they are doubly useful in their next incarnation since not are they a source of calcium, they are not very comfortable for slugs to walk on, so keep the next generation of vegetables slug free.

Good Composting!