Worm Farm Update

It's time for a little worm update!!!!!!

Okay it has been just over a month and I thought I would tell you how it has gone so far. So I set up the first tray like I showed you in this post and I fed them a good heaping handful of food scraps that I blended up in my food processor. I did that because the worms are able to eat them faster and they make it easier for them. Well a few days later I started getting fruit flies. So I looked online to see if anyone else had that same issue and it was recommended to freeze the food before it goes in the bin. So I would chop it up and bag it and place it in the freezer. The day I planned to feed them I would take it out and let it come to room temp and place it in the corner of the bin that I feed them on.

Well my bin moisture level got way to wet and the worms were beginning to go through the bottom in the overflow section. It was about 4-6 worms in that section daily, so I thought it was to wet of conditions and was stressing them out. I would say about 2 week in I added a new tray on top of the first tray. I set it up just like how I set up the first tray! This time when I added food i squeezed out the extra water from the thawed scraps and that was the key to controlling the moisture!   When you add a tray you only feed the worms on the tray you can see you don't feed each tray. You want them to continue to climb up and eat the food on the top level.

I have shredded paper above the dirt and food

sheets of paper on the top of shredded paper

sits in the dining room

this is what worm poo looks like!!!! ha ha

The bottom tray is about a month old and the compost is so fluffy and full of amazing nutrients ready to go in my garden. My worms have also multiplied because I am seeing tons of baby worms in the bin. I am feeding the worms a good heaping handful every 2-3 days. The other day I placed the center part of a mango in the bin and the worms went crazy there were hundreds of worms on that enjoying a yummy treat. I also have gave them a half of a avocado in there that was no good to eat and they totally cleaned the inside of the avocado out.

look at the size of that worm compared to my finger nail

the avocado they ate

I have to stop myself from opening it up and playing in the dirt to see what they are doing. I don't want to disturb them from what they are doing or stress them out. My plan is in the next week to make a batch of worm tea which is a liquid fertilizer. So I will let you know how I do that when we get around to making some. 

its so soft fluffy dirt

I have had people ask me tons of questions about this....

Does it smell?  No!!!! you can stick your nose in and it smells like earth because it has some dirt inside.

Do they crawl out? No I have not had one get out of the worm bin, beside crawling to the overflow section on the bottom but even then they can get out

Is it a lot of work? No not at all! I was going to put my food scraps in my outdoor composter anyway and this is producing compost at a faster rate!

Have I convinced you to get a worm bin for your house yet? They don't take up much space but have great benefits for you garden. Plus it's great way to teach your kids about worms and how they help your soil.  I say get messy and learn something!