Can anyone recommend a good wormery?

[Becci]

I am looking to buy a wormery and am completely baffled by all the different types on offer.

My main problem is that many of the sellers' websites seem to focus on badmouthing their competitors' products, which is making it very difficult to compare. I am thinking of a whole kit, something along the lines of the WormWorks or Can o' Worms wormeries. It needs to be something a total beginner can work with reasonable success as thus far I have no experience whatsoever of anything wormy

I would be interested to hear if anyone has any experience of ready-made wormeries.

Thanks in advance

Becci

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by Becci

I am looking to buy a wormery and am completely baffled by all the different types on offer.

My main problem is that many of the sellers' websites seem to focus on badmouthing their competitors' products, which is making it very difficult to compare. I am thinking of a whole kit, something along the lines of the WormWorks or Can o' Worms wormeries. It needs to be something a total beginner can work with reasonable success as thus far I have no experience whatsoever of anything wormy I would be interested to hear if anyone has any experience of ready-made wormeries. Thanks in advance Becci

Do you have a definitive reason for wanting a wormery, as opposed to a composting system ? The main comparative advantage of a wormery is that it can be used to deal with cooked food, not just vegetable and fruit peelings. Even then the actual volume of food waste that a wormery can process is usually fairly small when compared to a composting system. From an environmental perspective - reducing the amount of cooked food waste created is a better option.

Wormeries are far less robust systems than composting and require much greater attention in terms of location and management, for that reason I'd only advise the very dedicated to go down the wormery route. Apologies if I'm preaching to the converted but if you are not familiar with the relative advantages of wormeries/composting this thread may help: Composting 101

CM

[Becci]

Thanks CM, that's helpful.

The main reason I want a wormery is as a 'project'. I just like the idea of using my fruit & veg waste to give lots of worms a happy home!!

The compost would be a bonus but is by no means the main reason for doing it as we already have separate compost heaps. Incidentally one of them is of the 'dalek' variety and has loads of worms in...no idea how they get in there as the nearest soil is a good long wriggle away!

[wormcity]

Hi Becci

Can I give any advice at all ?

I know its really hard to do a comparison when there are quite a few different types of wormery available, it all really depends on what you want to pay and how big you want it. Do you want a 'dustbin' type or a 'stacking' type, plastic or wood, do you want it on a stand, do you mind where it comes from - I can safely say that I have trialled out all the different plastic wormeries available (bar 1) so I do know what does work

Its very true that a wormery wont be able to compost as much as a compost bin, however the product that you get out at the end (the vermicompost) is far superior to normal compost.

We have been wormcomposting for years and yes it is quite satisfying to put your food into the wormery and go back a few days later to see it already starting to compost down - put in a pile of mashed potato and see worms in it and on it.

A few pointers - surface area is a must the bigger the surface area the better the food will break down, get as many worms as you can afford - then your wormery will get off to a great start. Always try to chop up food, and the most important - don't overfeed.

Any more questions - please ask

Ronnie
Wormcity

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by wormcity

Its very true that a wormery wont be able to compost as much as a compost bin, however the product that you get out at the end (the vermicompost) is far superior to normal compost.Ronnie
Wormcity

Do you have any figures to put on the 'far superior' claim ? I can see that 'vermicompost' could be more concentrated than standard composting system product, but where does any additional nutrient come from ? Or conversly, where in comparison, in a standard composting system, is nutrient lost ?

There's nothing magical about worm processing of waste, and neither is worm produced material unaffected by bacterial processing, so given that the end product can not have anything in it that wasn't put in at the top end - how does a 'far superior' product come into existence ?

CM

[wormcity]

Hi
The benefits of wormcompost (vermicompost) are well documented - its not called 'black gold' for nothing.

I have included a link below to an article that Toby Buckland wrote about worms whilst trialling out our Ecowormery.

http://www.wormcity.co.uk/pdf/kitchengarden.pdf

Some of the main reasons that Vermicompost is so good

Vermicompost contains worm mucus which absorbs water faster and holds it better than normal compost

Vermicompost makes plant nutrients more available, worms concentrate minerals in their castings in a form that is easy for plants to absorb

plant growth stimulants such as Auxins are produced in the castings, these hormones stimulate roots to grow faster and deeper.

worms neutralize soil pH, cast analysis shows that the product coming out of the back end of a worm is closer to neutral than what goes in the front end.

its been found that earthworm produced compost (vermicompost) dramatically increases germination and growth in many plants. Adding only 5% of the compost to commercial growing media (95%) significantly increased plant growth

Analysis of earthworm castings reveal that they are richer in nutrients than surrounding soil, often 3 times more calcium, several times more nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. (depending on what was fed to the worms)

A small amount of Vermicompost goes a long way.
Small handfuls need to be scattered around the bases of plants.

Hope that helps

Ronnie

[Becci]

Thanks, Ronnie, its really good to hear from someone with actual experience of shop-bought wormeries )

I have in mind one of the plastic stacking-type systems which you can buy with the whole set up - from reading around your success does indeed seem to depend on the number of worms you have so I will opt for 1kg of the little loves. One website in particular supplies the worms in a big bucket which they will be quite happy in until you can put the wormery together. I like the idea of this far more than the companies that send them out in a packet (I'm sure its not a jiffy bag but that's the impression you get!!)

I have narrowed it down to 3: WormWorks, Worm Cafe and Can-O-Worms as you can buy a package that includes everything you need to get started, so I would be interested to hear about your experiences of these.

Many thanks
Becci

[wormcity]

Hi Becci

Shame our wormcity wormery isnt on your list

When we send out worms they are actually in a breathable woven sack with bedding - which is the same as wiggly wigglers except theirs is a strong paperbag.
It does help to have extra bedding as it helps the worms settle in quicker, however we always suggest that you put some used compost in with the worms when setting up, as this gives the wormery a boost of beneficial bacterias, micro-organisms, fungis and moulds.

Ok
I did mention that I had trialled out all the different wormeries bar 1 and that one is the worm cafe, however it is very similar to the canoworms except its rectangular.

Im not sure that I can be totally objective as we produce our own wormeries, which obviously we feel to be superior and tick all the points below, but I will do my best.

Canoworms - made in Australia and exported worldwide, probably the biggest selling wormery in the UK.
Each tray holds approx 25 litres of waste, so a good size for family use.
and is strong and robust. composting size is approx 75 litres
there are a few main problems with this wormery.
1) the legs have been known to come off, and topple over when all the trays are in use/ full
2) The trays don't fully sit on the waste below, they are held on a ridge inside, when the worms consume the food the volume of waste decreases significantly, what ends up happening is a gap forms between the layers, so the worms cannot get up into the higher trays
3) The sump is flat and has a cone shape rising out of the middle which is supposed to allow the worms that fall down to get back out, unfortunatly this doesnt work and the worms drown in the liquid.
We had to leave the tap open so all the liquid is drained out and the sump is filled with newspaper to give the worms somewhere to live.
4) The Canoworms is designed for the Australian climate not the British. The lid has lots of ventilation holes in it, which with the amount of rain we get, the canoworms can get easily flooded.
A raincap can be purchaed to eradicate this problem.

WormCafe Made by the same company as the Canoworms, rectangular shape means it fits against walls easier.
I believe its the same volume (about 25 litres per tray 75 litres in total) and I think the legs are far stronger on this model.
Im not sure but from pictures Ive seen, points 2 & 3 above still apply.

Wormworks
Originally imported from the USA where it sold as the Worm Factory by an Irish Company, who redesigned the lid. I believe they now make the WormWorks in Northern Ireland.
This is a nice robust wormery that doesn't suffer from any of the problems written above.
The only bad comment I can make about it - is its size. The Wormworks trays only hold 15.7 (height per tray = 12 cms) litres of waste each so you need to buy 5 trays to be the equivalent to the canoworms or worm cafe.

Stacking wormeries are easy to manage, and have good air flow. Also because they use trays you get increased surface area which helps the food to compost quicker.

The bits that come with it - worm food and lime mix aren't needed nor are moisture mats.
You want your worms to eat your leftovers not worm food
Dried eggshells works in the same way as lime mix, basically it changes the ph of the wormery from acidic to neutal,
Moisture mats your worms will eat, instead of buying more - either cover the top with newspaper / cardboard / cotton tshirt / woolly jumper to stop any flies getting in

So there you are a comparison of the 3 wormeries, the good and the bad.

Good Luck in your choice

Ronnie

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by wormcity

Some of the main reasons that Vermicompost is so good

Vermicompost contains worm mucus which absorbs water faster and holds it better than normal compost.Vermicompost makes plant nutrients more available, worms concentrate minerals in their castings in a form that is easy for plants to absorb plant growth stimulants such as Auxins are produced in the castings, these hormones stimulate roots to grow faster and deeper.
worms neutralize soil pH, cast analysis shows that the product coming out of the back end of a worm is closer to neutral than what goes in the front end.
its been found that earthworm produced compost (vermicompost) dramatically increases germination and growth in many plants. Adding only 5% of the compost to commercial growing media (95%) significantly increased plant growth.Analysis of earthworm castings reveal that they are richer in nutrients than surrounding soil, often 3 times more calcium, several times more nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. (depending on what was fed to the worms) A small amount of Vermicompost goes a long way.
Small handfuls need to be scattered around the bases of plants. Ronnie

So your answer to my question: Do you have any figures to put on the 'far superior' claim ?

Is "No" ! None of the (unattributed) figures you've given in any way distinguish wormery produced compost from that produced in standard garden composting systems. 'Black gold' is a neat marketing phrase but in the context of comparing the usefulness of a wormery system with other composting options, it's meaningless. Ultimately, for most people in most circumstances, where the option to operate a standard garden compost exists, wormeries are expensive and unnecessary.

CM

[Jason Green]

Hi Becci,

What is your main, not sole reason, for wanting a wormery - to aid the production of garden composting, or to study worms? I think the latter is more the case. If so, read on...

Why don't you make a wormery yourself? I have done with my Mum in the past when I was home-educated. If you're interested, we used a small plastic aquarium. The substrate was layers of sand interspersed with garden earth and potting compost. This went up to a height of about 4-5ths of the tank and had a top ground-layer of leaf-litter. Now, before worms were added it was watered well and allowed to air for a while.

They were put in and then for the food - they seemed quite happy on the leaves, as well as various food waste such as waste potato peel. Every other night we would use a spray-mist to moisten the top surface, and the worms would feed by night.

The tunnels were quite fascinating, clear to see because of the clear plastic sides. The unit's sides were covered by black paper up to the height of the surface to prevent light getting in to what was essentially underground, and occasionally removed to have a look at the excavations. It was quite an interesting project.

I hope this is the sort of thing you were after!

Take care,

Jason