Worm farming
Feeding organic waste to worms gives people an effective and easy way to turn food scraps into a rich fertiliser. Adding worm casts or worm tea (liquid produced in the composting process) to the soil promotes soil fertility, moisture retention, and encourages plant growth. Worm composting is easy and fun and can be done indoors or outdoors. All you need to set up your worm farm is:
A guide to worm composting (PDF, 1,674KB, free PDF reader)
A worm farm is an ideal way for pre-schools and schools to reduce food scraps from their waste. It is also an excellent way for children to learn about nature, recycling and the environment, and makes a fascinating addition to any schools science or environmental curriculum. Try making a worm farm out of recycled tyres.
A container
You will need to get one or more suitable worm containers, which can be either plastic, wood or metal. Use your imagination and recycle an old bath tub or wooden box, a plastic basin, bin, or crate. Worm farm containers can either be bought from your local hardware store or garden centre, or you can make your own out of recycled materials. Wooden containers provide good insulation, and because they are absorbent, excess moisture in the wormery may be less of a problem. Plastic containers are convenient but have a tendency to keep the compost too wet at times. Experiment and find out what works for you and your worms.
Bedding material
Worms require moist bedding in which to lie and lay their eggs. Shredded paper with a couple handfuls of soil is ideal.
The worms
The type of earthworm suitable for farming is the tiger worm Eisenia fetida. This species prefers to live at or near the surface of the soil or compost and does not burrow into the ground. Tiger worms especially like to eat moist organic matter such as food scraps.
Local suppliers of tiger worms can be found in the Yellow Pages under Worm Farming.
Food
Worms are omnivorous (eat both plants and meat) so most organic waste can be fed to them. They will eat most kitchen waste - including vegetable and fruit scraps or peelings and shredded paper.
Suitable food:
- Handy towels
- Tea bags/leaves
- Grinds/filters
- Bread scraps
- Cereal
- Ice cream
- Biscuit crumbs
- Meat
- Fish
- Dairy products
Unsuitable food:
- Onion and Garlic
- Spicy foods
- Citrus or acidic fruit should be given in small quantities only (e.g. lemons, oranges and kiwifruit)
Make your own recycled worm farm
A guide to worm composting (PDF, 1,674KB, free PDF reader)
Here is another way of building your own worm farm out of reused and recycled materials.
You will require: 
- Old carpet or sack if available (optional)
- Three phone books or some bricks
- 1 piece of corrugated iron 600 x 600mm
- 3 or 4 car tyres of a similar size
- 35 Saturday newspapers (approx)
- 1 small container ( to collect liquid)
- Old onion sacks or shade cloth
- Lots of tiger worms
- 1 close fitting lid (a piece of wood with a rock will do)
Operating instructions for your tyre worm farm
- Place the corrugated iron on top of the telephone books - two books on one side and one on the other to make a slope.
- Stack the tyres on top of the corrugated iron. Dig out a hollow for the container to collect the worm tea which runs off the iron.
- Fill the bottom tyre with bedding material (shredded paper and some soil) and add the worms (250gms)
- Feed regularly with kitchen scraps and keep the mixture moist to touch.
- Keep the worms covered with newspaper, cardboard or carpet, then place the lid on top to prevent flies getting in.
- Make sure the bedding for your worms is always moist - you may need to add extra water every two or three weeks in the summer, depending on how moist the scraps are that you feed them.
- As the tyre stack fills up, this normally takes several months, you slide out the bottom tyre and empty it of worm castings/vermicast. The paper in the tyre will probably be full of worms and can be replaced as is, used in your garden or compost heap, or given to friends to start new worm farms.
- The empty tyre is now ready to be re-used. Stuff it with fresh, moist newspaper and place on top of the tyre stack. The nutrients from your kitchen scraps are now available for you to use in your garden and the number of your worms will have increased.
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