Organics - Worm Farming Brochures
Worm Farming Brochure
Worm farming is a simple way of converting food scraps and other organic material into a nutrient rich organic fertiliser called worm castings. This brochure will help you get started in five easy steps.
Do-It-Yourself Poster and Brochure Kits - Worm Farming
Templates and images for schools and community groups to create fun and educational materials on worm farming.
Worm Farming
Worm farming or vermiculture, uses compost worms to breakdown food scraps into an organic fertiliser. It is an alternative to hot composting garden waste and fruit and vegetable scraps from the kitchen. Worm farms are ideal for people living in flats or houses with small backyards.
The worm castings produced are one of nature's best composts and fertilisers. They contain more ready-for-use organic plant nutrients than any composted material or factory made fertiliser. The liquid waste from worm farms is a highly concentrated fertiliser that can be collected, diluted and applied to gardens. The bedding in the worm farm is highly absorbent. Water rarely needs to be added.
With the right worm farm you can start with only half of a kilogram of worms and within a few months you will have enough worms to consume most of the household food waste for two people.
Commercial containers are available through some local councils, and through gardening shops and traders in the Yellow Pages under worm farms. For larger scale worm farms, old refrigerators and bath tubs are excellent.
Special earthworms, called compost worms, work best in a worm farm, as they thrive in the rich, moist conditions. The most common compost worms are Tiger Worms, Red Wrigglers and Indian Blues. These worms should not be added to compost piles as the conditions are too hot and they will either leave or die.
Worm Facts
- Earthworms are hermaphrodites. That is, each worm has both male and female sex organs.
- All worms can have babies. After mating, a worm will form a capsule (or cocoon) containing eggs. In about 21 days, 2-20 baby worms will hatch from the capsule. In about 2-3 months, the young worms are ready to breed.
- Earthworm eggs can survive in very dry conditions for a long time, the baby worms will hatch when the soil conditions are right.
- Compost worms breed every 7-10 days and so the population in a worm farm will double every 2-3 months if the conditions are right.
- Earthworms have no eyes, but can sense vibrations, light and temperature through special organs in the skin.
- Earthworms breathe through their skin and expel urine through special pores.
- There are 350 species of earthworms in Australia. Most compost worms and earthworms found on farms and in gardens are introduced species. Compost worms are rarely found in the bush as the conditions there are not suitable.
- Worms have 5 pairs of simple hearts.
- The worm has rings of muscle along its body that relax or stretch to allow movement.
- If worms don't like the conditions they will try to leave. If they don't find a new home in composted material they will die.
- The worm has a long gut running from one end to the other. It is like a big muscle that squeezes food particles and dirt until the nutrients are absorbed.
Compost Worms:
- have no known diseases
- have a dry body weight that is two thirds protein
- do not interbreed
- will generally die if you cut them in half
- do not like light. Exposure will eventually kill them
- may eat up to two thirds of the average household's waste
- will normally live 2 to 3 years
- can live up to 15 years
- can be used for fishing.