Published on 20 April 2020

Make your own worm farm

Learn how to make your very own worm farm, and convert your organic waste into fresh useful compost with an easy method you can do at home.

Worms may not be the cuddliest pet, but they are one of the most useful. Worms are cheap, easy to take care of, and they eat most of the things you don’t want to eat. Better yet, they turn it into top-notch fertilizer for your garden.

Why worms?

If you’ve never had worms, you’re probably wondering why worms? Well if your household produces far more food waste than garden waste, then a worm farm is a great composting option for you.

Types of worm farms:

There are lots of different worm farms available. You can buy a Hungry Bin from our online EcoShop, or you can go ahead and make your own out of old tyres or a repurposed bath.

Getting Your Worm Farm Ready

1. Situate your farm in a spot that is shady and sheltered.

2. Once your farm is in place, put a 20cm layer of damp bedding like hay, compost, or paper in the bottom.

3. Add 1kg tiger (compost) worms on top, and cover with more damp paper. Now you’re ready to add your food scraps.

4. Start with a small amount - 2.5cms will be enough.

5. Cover the food scraps with damp newspaper to limit flies and odour.

6. Finally, make sure your farm’s contents are moist and exposed to air, but not light.

Harvesting worm juice and castings

Your worm farm will produce a liquid by-product (also known as tea, rum or worm juice) and fine compost like solids called castings, and more worms.

Before feeding the nutrient-rich worm juice to your plants, dilute it 1:20 with water. Harvest the castings from the bottom layer when the top layer is full. The castings should look like fine damp soil and contain very few worms. Restack the empty bottom layer on the top of the farm, ready to catch the next batch of castings.

Feeding your worms

What worms won’t eat:

• Spicy food & chilli

• Onion & garlic

• Meat

• Milk products

• Flour products

• Citrus & acidic food

• Shiny paper

• Large amounts of garden waste

What worms will eat:

• Most fruit & vege scraps

• Coffee grounds & teabags

• Unbleached paper products

• Newspaper

• Crushed egg-shells

• Vacuum-cleaner dust

• Hair

• Small amounts of green waste

• Cooked food

• Sawdust

Troubleshooting:

• Fruit flies or ants mean your worm farm is too acidic or dry. Cover food with damp paper and add garden lime to increase the pH or water

• Rotting food means you are feeding the worms too much, or the wrong things. Feed the worms less and double-check what’s going into the farm.

• Don’t let your worms dry out. The moisture content of your farm should be about that of a wrungout sponge.

• That said, too much moisture can drown your worms. If your worm bin is too wet, the combination of rotting food will produce a foul odour.

• If your worms are becoming pale in colour, or are skinny rather than fat and healthy, there’s probably too much moisture in your worm farm