WORM FARMING GUIDELINES

At Charlie’s Garden we aim to make worm leachate and worm castings to promote the healthy growth of nutritious vegetables which we grow using organic principles. In the future we are planning to use the worm leachate to brew a compost tea which will stimulate vegetable growth with active microbes.

We have one worm farm which produces worm leachate and worm castings continuously.

As our worm farm is managed co-operatively, using the following guidelines, please use the tick boxes on the reverse side of this sheet to record our management.

Initial start up of a worm farm
• Site worm farm in the shade.

• The bottom tray is used to collect the water that flows through the worm farm. To prevent this water from becoming stagnant and enabling optimum aeration of the worm farm keep the tap open all the time. Place a jug under the tap to catch the brown liquid coming out and , each day, empty into the storage bucket labelled Worm Tea.

• The middle tray is the ‘home’ for the worms. Fill this tray with good soil, compost or potting mix. Add 1 teaspoon of dolomite, wet it well and then put in approximately 1000 worms.

• Place the ‘feeding tray’ on top of the ‘home’ tray ensuring the bottom of the empty tray is touching the soil in the ‘home’ tray. Check often to ensure the ‘home’ tray is always full so the worms can climb up to the ‘feeding tray’.

• Feed worms with a small amount of finely chopped vegetables . Do not feed citrus fruit or onions to the worms. At the same time sprinkle a few handfuls of soil on top of the food to give the worms some grit which the worms use to grind their food in their gizzard.

• Cover the surface of the ‘feeding tray’ with a worm blanket , which air can pass through, to encourage worms to feed right up to the top of the ‘feeding tray’.

Maintenance of the worm farm

• Once a week sprinkle 1 teaspoon of dolomite onto the surface of the ‘feeding tray’ to balance the pH level.

• Immediately after this flood the ‘feeding tray’ with 5-6 litres of water and collected worm tea can be poured into Worm Tea bucket.

• Aerate ‘feeding tray’ with a small tool frequently.

• Once a month sprinkle a handful of basalt rock dust into the worm farm to mineralise the castings.

• When the ‘feeding tray’ is full remove and set aside. Lift off the ‘home tray’ and empty the contents and clean this tray. Rinse out the bottom liquid collection tray.

• Now the full ‘feeding tray’ becomes the ‘home tray’ and the empty tray is placed on top as the new ‘feeding tray’.

Use of Worm Tea and Worm Castings

Worm tea, diluted with water 1 :10, can be poured directly onto the soil at the drip line of vegetables.

Small amounts of worm castings can be applied as a top dressing to the garden beds. As these castings contain live microbes take care to scratch them into the soil or to cover them with mulch to protect them from the heat of the sun.