Does anyone have a Wormery?

Don't have a wormery, but do have two compost heaps. It never ceases to astound how many brandling worms live in there. The top is fresh stuff settling down, the bottom is proper compost and the bit in the middle is, in places, a solid layer of writhing red worms.

Where do they come from? We never introduce any. And where do they go when the compost is spread on the garden. I never see a red brandling when digging. Just earth worms.

When I was teaching, we had a 3 tier wormery. Fill the top tier, then, rotate the tiers. In theory, the bottom tier eventually has the decent compost, top tier is the one being filled with waste and the one in the middle is decomposing. Ours also had a reservoir for the liquid waste. We sold the compost or the gardening club used it. The liquid waste was an excellent fertiliser when diluted and we sold that as well.

I did a horticultural course at a Botanic Garden and asked the tutor why you never find brandling worms in the soil. He said it was because they live in rotting vegetation not in the soil. The reason you never find them elsewhere in the quantities you do in your compost is that the eggs hatch in there and so there are baby booms! Sounds feasible.

I have had a 3 tier wormery going for at least 13 years and it works fine. I have a small garden with no room for a traditional compost heap. It takes kitchen vegetable waste, and I feed my container plants with the liquid. When the bottom tier is completely finished, I pop it on the top with the lid off and any remaining worms disappear below. I then use the compost either on the garden or mixed in with bought compost.

I have had a wormery for some years. It works really well so long as the worms are not too hot and not too cold….obvious really! My only complaint now is that the trays are heavy and cumbersome as I get less athletic.

I had one years ago but it didn’t seem to work. I would like to get anothther one, though, especially when I’m in Northumberland where vegetable scraps just go into the bin as they don’t collect garden waste separately and we can’t have a compost heap for fear of encouraging rats.

Oh wow. I haven’t had one since the child was a youngster.

I'm a little confused, also looked o Youtube.

Could someone explain in stages please

I thought the bottom box without the holes was for the liquid.
The second tray on top had the worms
The thirds tray where you encourage the worms to go so you can collect the castings.
How do you know when to start moving the worms to tray three?
There are difference types of bedding used, which is best.
I used potting compost and shredded paper and card.

The worms move themselves! When all the veg etc has ‘disappeared’ and everything is nice and brown you just put the bottom tray on the top and leave the lid off for awhile so more worms leave but it doesn’t matter if they don’t as they will continue to work in your garden. It’s doesn’t really matter what you put in…you will soon find what doesn’t get eaten….potato peelings and stalks are a no.

midgey

The worms move themselves! When all the veg etc has ‘disappeared’ and everything is nice and brown you just put the bottom tray on the top and leave the lid off for awhile so more worms leave but it doesn’t matter if they don’t as they will continue to work in your garden. It’s doesn’t really matter what you put in…you will soon find what doesn’t get eaten….potato peelings and stalks are a no.

So which is the one that you have? I had the dustbin type one years ago but it was a disaster. I opened it up one day and it was full of tiger worms but the liquid at the bottom was like a sort of putrefaction. It was horrible.

I did have a wormery, but had to go away for a week or so, leaving plenty of veg scraps for them. I came back to find that they had all done a runner. I suppose they were having a good time in the garden, alternatively, the local robins were having a feast.

We used to have an allotment and thought that a wormery would be a good idea but it was a disaster. We had a couple of very successful compost heaps though.

I have one like this…. www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/products/moisture-mats-cow. I don’t think they are made like this any more. Mine must be about seven/eight years old. It has a tap at the base so I can empty it, I leave a bucket underneath and leave the tap open. It does have a lid.

Thanks everyone for your comments.
I have the two boxes I've used for the last two years so I'll buy one more and have a go, see if this works out better for me. Just want the casting for putting round my shrubs and tubs, I don't do veg only have a small garden. My daughter in law bought me a compost box and it's really been good over the winter for all the kitchen waste I have. Not sure how long it is take to become compost though.

Our three-tier wormery worked really well for a few years but then I sold it when we moved house.
GS had one at school so he was my guiding light in this. He said that onion skins and orange peelings irritated the worms so we avoided putting those in.
They seemed happy enough outside through the winter with the box well wrapped up in hessian and a tarp.