Worm farms

Worm farming is an easy way to compost food waste. You can keep a worm farm inside in a garage, laundry, or outside in the shade. Worm farms are particularly suitable for people living in units, small residential lots and small families.

You can buy worm farms from large hardware or gardening stores. Alternatively, you can make your own from two polystyrene boxes. One worm farm can consume the food waste created by a two or three-person household.

Make your own worm farm

Materials

You will need:

two polystyrene boxes, such as broccoli boxes (one should have a lid)
a piece of fly screen or damp cardboard to fit in the bottom of the box
a piece of hose or tubing about five centimetres long.

Method

Take one box. Using a screwdriver or pen, make air holes in the lid for airflow and holes in the bottom of the box for drainage. Make sure your holes are evenly spaced.

Spread the insect screen or cardboard in the bottom of the box over the holes. This will stop the worms from falling through into the tray below.

Take the second box. Cut it in half horizontally with a sharp knife so that the top box (where the worms will live) fits on top of the box just cut in half. This smaller box will act as the liquid collection tray for the liquid that will be generated by your worm farm.

Make a hole at one end of the smaller box. Insert the hose or tube in the hole for drainage.

Place the worm farm on bricks or wooden blocks in a cool, shady location. Place a container below the hose outlet to collect the worm farm liquid.

Setting up a worm farm

Begin by lining the top tray with damp cardboard. This will prevent worms from falling through the holes into the drainage tray.
Place a five centimetre layer of 'bedding' material on top of the cardboard. If purchasing a new worm farm this will come with a block of coir peat (coconut fibre) that requires soaking. Other bedding materials you can use include shredded paper, leaves or mulch. These should be dampened before use.
Start with a minimum of 1000 worms or at least three or four decent sized handfuls. Worms breed very quickly and double their population every three months. Don’t be afraid to give worms away to other new worm farmers. You can purchase compost worms online. Do not place earthworms from your garden into your worm farm. Compost worms are a particular type of worm that breed very quickly. They can consume large amounts of fruit and veggie scraps.
Place your worm farm in a cool, shaded area as worms don’t like heat. Even a little sun can cook them. Worms enjoy a dark and moist environment. Keep a layer of damp cardboard, hessian or carpet on top of the food waste to encourage the worms to come to the surface to feed. They will eventually eat this layer, so replace it as necessary.

Step by step guide to worm farming video

This video tutorial is 3 minutes and 43 seconds long. This video will take you through the process of setting up a worm farm, maintaining your worm farm, harvesting castings and worm tea and using castings and worm tea in your garden.

Worm liquid

The liquid that accumulates in the bottom tray can be used in your garden as a fertiliser. You must dilute the liquid until it is the colour of weak tea (approximately 1:10 ratio). Use this to feed your plants every two to four weeks.

Feeding your worms

Feed your worms in the top tray, underneath the layer of cardboard. You can feed your worms every day or even once a week. Worms will eat approximately half their body weight in food per day. A standard-sized worm farm will cater for approximately two to three people’s food scraps.

If you produce a lot of food waste, you may have to use a compost bin to take care of the rest.

Compost worms eat almost all the food scraps you would add to a compost heap. However, there are some ingredients you should avoid in a worm farm including:

citrus products such as orange and mandarin peels
onions
chilli and garlic
meat
dog and cat manure.

The smaller the food scraps are when you add them, the faster the worms will get through them.

If you are going away on holidays, the worm farm will be fine to leave for up to a month. You can fill a separate tray with harder vegetables such as:

celery
pumpkin
carrots
broccoli stems.

Harvesting the castings

As the worms consume the food in the main tray, they produce castings that resemble dark soil.

When the main tray is full of castings, it’s time to add another feed tray to your worm farm. Fill the new tray with worm food and add a new layer of damp newspaper on top. The worms will move up to the new tray when there is no food left in the first tray. This may take several months. Once the worms have migrated to the new tray, you can harvest your castings. They will be full of rich nutrients for your garden.

If you have a home-made worm farm, expose the castings to the sun. The worms will burrow away from the sunlight. You can then scrap the top layer of castings off for use. Repeat this process as necessary.

Using the compost (castings) from your worm farm

Your worm farm castings are very good for your garden.

You can use these in a variety of ways, including:

using an equal amount of castings to garden soil to make potting mix
digging the castings into the top 10-15 centimetres of soil in your garden beds before planting
digging the castings into your established garden beds, taking care to keep it away from plant stems
using it as a top dressing for your lawn.

Solving worm farm problems

Table about solving worm farm problems.
Problem	Cause	Solution
Smelly	Too much food Not enough worms Not enough oxygen Too acidic	Reduce food Add worms Aerate by stirring Add dolomite or garden lime and shredded paper or cardboard
Slow to break down	Food pieces too big Too much food Cold weather	Cut food into smaller pieces Reduce food Feed less during cold weather
Other creatures in worm farm	It is normal for small insects or other creatures to attract to the food. Some animals can help with the decomposition, others may harm the worms.	Place feet of worm farm in bowls of water, or wipe Vaseline on the legs (ants) Stir food scraps into castings Add extra water
Vinegar flies around worm farm	Too much food Exposed food	Reduce food Stir food through and cover food with shredded paper or cardboard
Worms are dying	Too wet Too dry Not enough food	Add shredded paper Add water, place in shade Feed more often

Compost rebate program

Council is making your food waste recycling system easier with our compost rebate program.