Worm Flow

Create a flow through worm farm to start Giving Soil

Composting worms are designed to consume microbes as they move through top 10-15cm of mulch in the forest. As they feed, these little soil intestines process bacteria, fungi and other microbes in large amounts, killing pathogens in the process. Their excreted waste, the digested microbial biomass, is turned into plant available nutrients as both fungi and bacteria are super nutritious. Composting worms also move and disseminate some of the undigested microbes, inoculating soils and plants as they move.

Worm farming or vermicomposting is recognised as a beneficial way to deal with our food waste but not all worm farming systems are created equal. There is a science as to the nutritional value and microbial diversity that is created in the castings (worm poo) , depending on the foods we feed to our worms and the conditions set up in the worm farm such as moisture and oxygen availability. In fact, some worm farms can be quite anaerobic and allow pathogenic organisms to thrive, so it is important to understand the requirements worms have to produce castings which is beneficial, rather harmful to plants.

The ideal worm farm system is one that is 60cm in depth for the worms to live in the top 10-20cm and for the vermicompost (worm castings) to mature and be harvested from the bottom. This is called the continuous flow through worm farm. The bottom of the system has bars through which the castings are harvested by scratching them out with a pronged tool. There should also be at least 30cm space below the bars on which the 60cm worm farm sits, to be able to harvest the castings reasonably comfortably. Commercial systems use a cutting bar or wire to separate and harvest the mature castings.

Some ventilation and water misting system should also be considered to ensure oxygen and moisture at 70% is available in the system.

Below are images of different systems to get your creative juices flowing.

At the moment I prefer the wheelie bin system, as it is easy to move, has the right dimensions and is relatively easily modified into a flow through worm farm.

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