Worm Farm Harvest

[Lesgold]

Hi Folks

just thought I’d post a bit of info on my worm farms. Today was the day to harvest worms in preparation for emptying the castings out onto the veggie patch. I have 8 worm beds in total and keep the little fellas in old bath tubs. A couple of times each year the beds are emptied. The compost goes onto the veggie patch and the surplus worms are sold to a commercial worm farmer.

The tubs are full and need to be emptied so I work through a process of harvesting about 50% of the worms each time the beds fill.

As you can see, there is not much room so the castings will have to go. An old piece of carpet sits on top of the worms to keep the moisture in and also most of the light out.

The first step in the harvesting process is to take off the top layer of castings and spread it out on a tarp. A good proportion of the worms are in the top 100mm of compost (where most of the food is.)


The worms in the windrow burrow down to get away from the light. After about 10 minutes, the top layer of castings is raked off and is placed back into the worm bed.

The exposed worms dive down to escape the light for the second time. This process is repeated until most of the compost is removed.

Each pile becomes smaller and contains an ever increasing concentration of worms.

The worms continue to try to push compost above them so they are covered. Eventually you end up with a solid mass of worms.

These worms are then covered in a thin layer of moist soil and are stored over night it a cool place until I can deliver them to the worm farmer for packaging. Next week I will remove about 100mm of the castings from the top of the bed (which contains most of the remaining worms) and then empty the remaining compost onto the garden beds. The material that I initially removed is then placed back into the tub and the worm farm starts again. Hope this is of interest to some of the gardeners out there.

cheers

Les

 

[Jaros]

Great write up Les.

 

[Manpa]

My uncle in Bendigo had a similar set up, he also had a great garden, a by product of his worm farming.

 

[Teemore]

Thanks for sharing ...

 

[WalnLiz]

Would it be safe to say Les that you never have any problem with bait when you go fishing. Last tub I paid 8 bucks for and half were dead.... ...I know you mostly fly fish so your worms are probably fairly safe.

 

[Nightjar]

Would it be safe to say Les that you never have any problem with bait when you go fishing. Last tub I paid 8 bucks for and half were dead.... ...I know you mostly fly fish so your worms are probably fairly safe.

Harry & Pauline (both worms) & family started off our worm farm, there is no way we would put any of them on a hook. They have contributed to our much loved garden as much as they have loved chomping on our vegie scraps. Just one of their contributions to a some wonderful colour.

**Thanks LesGold for your post**

 

[Wishfull]

Hi Folks

just thought I’d post a bit of info on my worm farms. Today was the day to harvest worms in preparation for emptying the castings out onto the veggie patch. I have 8 worm beds in total and keep the little fellas in old bath tubs. A couple of times each year the beds are emptied. The compost goes onto the veggie patch and the surplus worms are sold to a commercial worm farmer.
View attachment 4616
The tubs are full and need to be emptied so I work through a process of harvesting about 50% of the worms each time the beds fill.
View attachment 4617
As you can see, there is not much room so the castings will have to go. An old piece of carpet sits on top of the worms to keep the moisture in and also most of the light out.
View attachment 4618
The first step in the harvesting process is to take off the top layer of castings and spread it out on a tarp. A good proportion of the worms are in the top 100mm of compost (where most of the food is.)

View attachment 4619
The worms in the windrow burrow down to get away from the light. After about 10 minutes, the top layer of castings is raked off and is placed back into the worm bed.
View attachment 4620
The exposed worms dive down to escape the light for the second time. This process is repeated until most of the compost is removed.
View attachment 4621
Each pile becomes smaller and contains an ever increasing concentration of worms.
View attachment 4622
The worms continue to try to push compost above them so they are covered. Eventually you end up with a solid mass of worms.
View attachment 4623
These worms are then covered in a thin layer of moist soil and are stored over night it a cool place until I can deliver them to the worm farmer for packaging. Next week I will remove about 100mm of the castings from the top of the bed (which contains most of the remaining worms) and then empty the remaining compost onto the garden beds. The material that I initially removed is then placed back into the tub and the worm farm starts again. Hope this is of interest to some of the gardeners out there.

cheers

Les

Excellent. Thank you

 

[Lesgold]

Gee Wal, it’s been a while since I‘ve “cracked a fly off a tippet”. The biggest threat to the worms is the family of kookaburras who sit on a branch above where I’m working. They don’t miss much if a worm drops to the ground.

 

[trev111]

Good info and well thought out

 

[Catapult]

Considered giving this a crack myself.
any tips on getting started?

 

[Lesgold]

Hi Catapult. Location is your first consideration. You don’t want worm farms in the sun. They can get too hot in the summer. I’ve got my farms in a shaded area surrounded by trees. The bath tubs are on 4 treated pine posts at about waste height. The bath outlet is covered with a piece of fly mesh to allow for drainage. Silicone this in place. Add about 50 mm of gravel to the base of the bath and then cover the gravel with geo fabric or shade cloth. Start the worm bed with some coconut fibre or damp, shredded cardboard mix in a small amount of garden soil and add some well rotted cow or horse manure to the mix. Make sure the bed is damp it not saturated and then add the worms. If using town water, leave the bed for a day or so to allow the chlorine to disappear. Cover the worms with an old piece of carpet and then build a lid. I feed the worms once a week and add water as needed. Hope this helps.

cheers

Les

 

[user 23515]

Considered giving this a crack myself.
any tips on getting started?

Only thing I would add to the advice here is that if you cover the beds with carpet make sure you know the history of the carpet. Old carpet can be contaminated with all sorts of chemicals. Leave it out on the ground in the rain or spray a heap of water through it. I had a small worm farm in the 90s and until we moved to having the worms in uncovered windrows putting a "new" bit of carpet on a bed was a worry. Went to feed one bed after new carpet then rain, the worms were curled up like tight cork screws and they were pumped up hard as though full of water. (Better get round to putting an intro of self into that section soon.)

 

[Lesgold]

Good point. I always water the carpet down and soak it Before leaving it sit outside in the elements for a few weeks.

 

[Lesgold]

Hi Folks,

Its been about 3 weeks since harvesting the worms so it’s now about time to empty the beds. The worms were fed a little bit of molasses and wood chips followed by some horse manure about a week later. This tempted many of the little critters to come to the top for a bit of a snack. This is what the beds look like at this stage.

With gloves on, I removed about 3” of the top material (with worms) and placed it in buckets.


I was then left with the castings. They went into the tractor bucket and were moved to the first garden bed.



This left the bed empty. Shade cloth is used as the filter to stop worms and compost from getting to the gravel drainage below.


The three buckets of worms/ castings are then tipped back into the bath tub and the first worm bed is ready to go again.


Seven more worm farms to empty and the job is done for another 6 months. Casting will be spread across the garden beds and then dug in. Weeds should now grow exceptionally well.

cheers

Les