Have you got Worms?

 I'm sure I have written about worms and their many benefits before but seriously there is just so much to share about these amazing little creatures. I'm a late developer or late lover of worms but seriously these guys know their business. We have a worm farm here at work and often sell packs of worms from our operational bin, the problem arises when we have a lot of sales of worms in one week and so the population deminishes rather quickly, however the best thing is they also replenish in an amazing amount of time. Only two weeks ago I said no more worms for sale for a couple of weeks and today as I placed yet another banana skin in the bin, OMG they are popping out from everywhere, I didn't have to go looking for them, they were just there in their hundreds. This should really reassure all of you out there that wonder if your farming experience is sufficient...take it from me ! it is. I often have customers say that they don't see a lot of action in their worm farm or that they think there are no worms left in their bin. So listen up folks!, there are a few simple steps you can take to ensure worm production flourishes. Keep your bin dark and cool. (Worms are shy) Keep the bin and compost within, moist but not soggy (worms are not swamp lovers) Keep a good amount of fresh leafy produce happening, worms don't start processing the food until it has started to break down so if you want to give them a bit of a helping hand, pop your kitchen scraps in a plastic bag in the freezer over night then take out and leave to thaw before putting them in your bin, the material will be a bit wet and stoggy , this will give your creatures a real head start on the work they have ahead of them. (I do have a couple of customers who put food through the food processor first, but not me, thats way to many dishes.) Oh yes and banana skins, the super food for both us and worms, again they wont start to eat them until the skins are all black and slimmy Yum Yum) A few wormy facts Worm eggs or cocoons hatch every 21 days and in each egg there are 3 to 5 babies...you do the maths. Did you know that if the worm farm enviroment isn't right for the cocoons they wont hatch, but at the same time they won't die either, they just stay dorment until their enviroment is right and then hatch, amazing stuff... So if you are concerned about your worm farm population take the following steps and WALK AWAY!!!!

• make sure the compost within the bin is moist
• Place your bin under the eve of your house on the cool side
• layer fresh leafy matter and banana skins in the bin
• sprinkle with a generous handful of Rok Solid(if you have some)
• Add a light sprinkle of lime flour
• Add a thick layer of wet news paper and then top with a wet hessian sack if you have one
• now walk away and try to fight off the urge to poke about in the bin for at least a couple of weeks,and then boom your worms will be back in action eating their body weight in food every day.

So you can see that really its not rocket sicence but you do need to let them get on with the job at hand. Then you can look foward to benefiting from your worms liquid gold. This stuff works amazingly on seedlings at a ratio of 10mls to 1 litre of water, I use it in a spray bottle and then gently mist the underside of the leaf, only do this for the first 2-3 weeks as you don't want to over do the nitrogen. As for the black gold or casting, what is not to like about it, you can pack it about the base of trees and shrubs that are poorly, mix it with your potting mixes, compost or add straight into your garden. Again its a fantastic source of dense rich nutrients that aids in replenishing your soil. Worm Castings are Ph Neutral so no harm can come to adding this brew to your patch. Finally a healthy worm farm has no odour only that beautiful rich smell of composting material like on a forest floor. To keep your worm bin smelling sweet, never add protein products or the likes of bread, cakes and other highly processed food waste.