Worm Farms - Waitaki District Council

Worms Farms

What Are They?

A worm farm is a self contained composting system that uses worms to break the organic material down to a nutrient rich humus material. Providing they are well run, worm farms don’t smell, and are an efficient way of turning food scraps into compost.

How Do I Build One?

Built entirely from reused and recycled materials.

You will require:

Old carpet or sack if available (optional)
Phone books or old bricks
Base – 44 gallon drum lid or something similar
Small piece of plastic silage wrap or similar (eg polythene)
3 car tyres of similar size
One close fitting lid (piece of wood with a rock on it is okay), or plastic covered hub cap
35 newspapers
1 container such as an old pot or bucket
Lots of Tiger worms or Red worms (they like to live above the ground)

Operating Instructions for your Worm Farm

1	Soak the newspapers in water and stuff all three tyres full, one sheet at a time, avoiding coloured or glossy pages.
2	Place the base on top of the bricks or telephone books, wrap it in silage/ heavy plastic so that the liquid doesn't touch the metal.
3	Put the first stuffed tyre on top of the base. Put an old sack or carpet inside to make a sort of nest for the new worms
4	Fill this bottom tyre with bedding material (ie horse manure, rotting peastraw, compost) and then tip the worms in. Cover immediately with a thick layer of under-felt, carpet or wet newspaper. Place the onion sack on top and then put the other two stuffed tyres on top.
5	Feed regularly with kitchen scraps by lifting up the newspaper. Make sure the farm is kept moist to the touch. Always replace the newspaper to keep it dark.
6	Keep the worms and bedding covered with damp newspaper, plus an old sack or carpet (also damp). Place your lid on top of the tyre stack to prevent fly problems. Make sure the worms’ bedding is always moist – you may not need to add extra water if you give them lots of moist food scraps.
7	As the tyre stack fills up (normally takes several months) you can slide out the bottom tyre and empty it of worm castings/ vermicast. The paper in the tyre will probably be full of worms and can be replaced as is, used in your garden or compost heap or given to friends to start new worm farms.
8	The empty tyre is now ready for reuse - stuff with fresh, moist newspapers and place on TOP of the tyre stack.
9	Regularly empty the pot of worm rum - dilute 8-1 with water and spray or pur on to and around your special plants.
10	The nutrients from your kitchen scraps are now available for you to use in your organic garden and yoru worm population will have increased remarkably.
11	Worms suitable for your worm farm can be found in animal manure or rotting pea straw. They are also available from Jenny McDonnald, College Street, Oamaru, Ph: 03 437 0904.

Thanks to the Waitaki Resource Recovery Park for the information above.

Where Do I Get The Worms From?

Worms suitable for your worm farm can be found in animal manure or rotting pea straw. They are also available from Jenny McDonald, College Street, Oamaru, Ph: 03 437 0904.