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worm farm with volume

by agatornz on June 1, 2008 Table of Contents worm farm with volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Intro: Worm farm with volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 1: What you Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 2: Whats a worm Farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 3: Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 4: Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 5: The basement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 6: The bed room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 7: Dining room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 8: Time to empty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 3 4 4 5 6 7 8 9

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Intro: Worm farm with volume

Join Instructables ( Free) and you can view this Instructable on one page. The Bath House I found this old bath lounging in my back yard and noted that among the garden rubbish laying around in it seemed to be a rather healthy population of worms. This got me wondering just how many would move in it a little more attention to detail was added to their low slung cast iron housing unit. ( it sure was not going to go any where - man those old baths weigh something) So with the help of logs and a car jack I managed to get the bath up on blocks on all cleaned out worms reserved. (Picture one, two and three below )

Image Notes 1. note the ballast topped off with a wedge nailed in place to accomodate the curve of the bath bottom for stablity 2. Picture Two the bath house with the roof closed 3. Picture 13 - the new iron roof... it allows the rain flow to be controlled but possible prevents plant germination - good if you are putting weeds in not so good if you want to grow your seeds

Image Notes 1. Picture one, This is the bath house, with the new tin roof on hinges - that i am trialling as the last one started to get too holey ( let you know how it goes) 2. Note the strong ballast under the bath - this is a cast iron and very heavy bath. its a bugger to get high so the bucket will fit, and you need to make sure its very firm and cant tip off easily

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Image Notes 1. The old timber roof for the bath house... the cracks had the spin off of letting in enough sunlight so that seeds would germinate from scraps - and then i could plant them out.... but it also let in any rain and didnt allow me to control the release of worm tea! 2. Picture 13

Step 1: What you Need

What you need. - The bath (got that - ideally other than the old cast iron ones which are mighty heavy) - A pile of rubble (bust up some bricks, mortar or a pile of pebbles- sufficient to cover the bottom of the bath in a single layer) -Bedding material (shredded office paper or light cardboard or coconut fiber) - Food scraps (see step 7 for types) - Worms (see step 7 for sourcing) - Fittings and tap to fit the old plug and thread (optional) - Wooden blocks or cement blocks (to elevate on) - Winching, jack or lifting gear or friends if its the old cast iron type ( thanks Dad for that sail boat main sheet you gave me 25 years ago its been so useful) - Water - Patch of fly screen - Planks - untreated (to make a lid) - or a sheet of iron, cutter bolts, and drill / bit

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Image Notes 1. Picture 4: one common or garden bath - this one of the #$%@ heavy cast iron variety. in Auckland you can get a free plastic bath from the waitakere council rubbish dump if you say its for a worm farm.

Step 2: Whats a worm Farm

There are three parts to a worm farm, 1.) The basement Sewer (were the wonderful plant nutrient "worm pee" collects) 2.) The middle floor Bedroom (who wants to sleep in their sewer) 3.) The top floor Dining room (food has to be involved) The majority of commercially produced worm farms have separate containers for each of these function areas. This has two distinct advantages in that; - The basement can be used as a worm pee tank and access via a tap is easy - House keeping is easy in that you just lift off a box and access the room you wish The disadvantages of the separate containers includes; - The size or volume of the farm is constrained by your access to the individual containers (ie you need to be able to lift them) - The bedding material must be topped up to the bottom of the food container. In the bath farm, the rooms are are present at layers and thus care must be taken in particularly to prevent the basement backing up in to the bedrooms.

Image Notes 1. basement 2. Bed room 3. Dining room 4. worm tea collection 5. raising to clear the bucket top 6. Picture 5

Step 3: Construction
Block the bath up high enough(Picture ) that you can access the drain plug with a low container or some kind of plumbing attachment and or reservoir system. Be careful with a cast iron bath when putting it up high - the bigger and heavier they are the harder they fall and the more they wreck of soft fleshy bony things that happen to be underneath. Once you reach your final height, then wedge it in place so its rock solid and can stand some one climbing up if there are kids around...(Picture )

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Image Notes 1. if its a cast iron bath, make the blocks sturdy and stable - you don't want it crashing down on any one! 2. Picture 6 Image Notes 1. when you have reached full height, put in a wedge block on each side and nail in place this makes it more stable 2. using a car jack and socket wrench with extension for more leaveage - avoid doing it this way unless you have a jack with a wide top on it other wise its dangerous with a heavy bath and if it falls on you - it will be pretty hard to get away from... 3. since i was using a jack i kept adding ballast as much as i could in steps to hopefully prevent a painful fall if it did fall off.. 4. Picture 7

Step 4: Construction
First the basement needs to be built Place a piece of fly screen over the old plug hole (plug removed) and weight down with little pile of fine pebbles ( Picture 8) then with a pile of rubble(Picture 9) just to prevent the "lifers" slipping away. Ensure the drain doesn't become blocked to easily. Either place a bucket immediately under the plug hole(Picture 10) . Avoid using a tape system other wise if lots of water gets in the top there is a good chance you could drown your workers..

Image Notes 1. Picture cover the plug hole first with a pieces flyscreen mesh - and push down in to plug hole, then cover with a pile of peebles 2. fly screen mesh sticking out 3. picture 8

Image Notes 1. Picture 9 2. next cover the pebbles with larger stones - here is brick rubble

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Image Notes 1. Picture 10 2. then place a bucket under the plug pipe -

Step 5: The basement

Good Drainage in the basement Because of the closeness of the layers in this bath home a layer of crushed shell (Picture 11)was used in optimize drainage. We also ensured that the water rain freely from the head of the bath to wards the plug hole - by ensuring the tail of the baths is slightly higher than the plug end. Instead of the crushed shell - you could use brick or mortar rubble or pebbles ideally you would want to make at least a quater of the bath depth in to the drainage layer... Also enusre that when you block up the bath the plug hole end is a couple of centimeters below the other end to ensure the water goes the right way.

Image Notes 1. crushed shell layer still tainted with soil for previous life 2. Picture 11

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Step 6: The bed room

Worm Bedroom Fill the bath to the top with your choice of bedding material(Picture 12). Dampen down with the hose and fill up again. At the time we built this one, we had just got a new lounge suite, which came wrapped from head to toe in thin corrugated cardboard. This once shredded made perfect royal bedding material. (just have to work out what to do with the lounge suite now) Don't use newspaper or glossy paper as its full of ink and the worms tell me they get a headache eating the stuff. (they do eventually eat out their bedding too during mid night snacks) After completion, you will need to periodically scrap back the dining room and refresh the bedding with new shreddings, before placing the castings and food back on top. Roof The roof for this farm, we constructed out of several bath length boards, (picture 13) with a rock on top to keep it down. Cracks in the roof allows water to wash in with rainfall - so makes sure the wood roof is not made from treated timber or plastic.

Image Notes 1. Picture 12 - halve full

Image Notes 1. Picture 12 - full - here i have used a mixture of paper and cardboard shredded

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Image Notes 1. note the ballast topped off with a wedge nailed in place to accomodate the curve of the bath bottom for stablity 2. Picture Two the bath house with the roof closed 3. Picture 13 - the new iron roof... it allows the rain flow to be controlled but possible prevents plant germination - good if you are putting weeds in not so good if you want to grow your seeds

Image Notes 1. The old timber roof for the bath house... the cracks had the spin off of letting in enough sunlight so that seeds would germinate from scraps - and then i could plant them out.... but it also let in any rain and didnt allow me to control the release of worm tea! 2. Picture 13

Step 7: Dining room

Worms Worms are introduced to their new bedding along with some soil from their last house.(contains worm eggs) Then you start adding the food directly on top of the bedding. Obtaining worms If you are starting fresh then then you need worms. Technically i understand there are at least two types of worms in New Zealand, those that live in the humus (compost layer) and those that live deeper. I have always used the compost worms without difficulty, trapping them by placing pieces of carpet or commercial 40 litre bags of potting mix (how i discovered this) flat in the garden for a few days to a week, then harvesting when i lift. You can also by worms in a box from some garden stores / Hardware stores. Food Food of the kind that worms like best needs to be served in the dining room on at least at a weekly basis, if not daily as we do with the vegetable scraps. Worms dont attually directly eat the food you put in, rather they wait for the microbe population to reduce it to an appertising mush. Generally thus we dont add meat scraps of any kind and, only citrus or onions skins(really slow to break down) when we are kind enough to pre mush the food - ie using a liquadiser. All other kinds of food are ok, just break up the large bits and maybe break open things like pumpkins or stalks... Shower and Drinking water. All worm farms need to be kept moist, the bigger the farm the easier that is, this one we rarely added water - relying on rain water coming through the cracks in the roof. In a more dry enviroment you will need to add a weekly shower to the list, using about a 5 litre watering can fully each week or so - you will work out your level.

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Image Notes 1. Picture 14 2. happy residents... little white dots are worm eggs... worms live on a very simple system - the more food the more reproduction the more worms.....

Step 8: Time to empty

Then about a year later when all that yummy food has been consumed and the dining room has increased in size to almost fill the bath, its time to have a clean out. Block the drain pipe and give a heavy watering so as to fill the Bedroom and most of the dining room(wet but not floating - just like on a rainy day..) This will force the worms to the surface, once rescued from impending drowning, you can unblock the drain and let it all drain off. (Remember this will be good nutrient rich "pee" by this time. Casts are then shipped off to other parts of the garden to be treated like rich compost The bedding is refreshed and the system starts again. Worm Reproduction Well feed worms make more worms... as simple as that - you can if you look closely see little white eggs,(cocoons)hence the reason for including handfuls of worm casts in any new start. There is plenty of information, regarding worms on the Internet - it pays to get to know your workers just like any big boss.

Image Notes 1. pure sweet smelling Worm casts - by the barrow load - Still a bit wet in this picture , but once this was vege scraps only ...

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Comments
13 comments Add Comment

CapnChkn says:
Hello Folks,

May 11, 2010. 10:55 AM REPLY

I know this Instructable is 2 years old as of this writing, but I have to point out that old cast iron washware was made with as much as 88% Lead Oxide in the glaze. There are even examples of people going through the same problems the Romans experienced by soaking foods in these tubs. As for what our boomer generation has experieced due to these affronts, I can't tell. However raising worms for their ability to create soil we would then grow food plants in seems at the least, risky. Google seach, keywords: bathtub, Lead Glaze

water456 says:
what do you do for winter, we have freezing temps here, do you just close it down or ???

Jul 28, 2008. 5:22 PM REPLY

agatornz says:

Jul 29, 2008. 4:25 AM REPLY Hi, I am in the non freezing temperature part of New Zealand - so i can honestly tell you .... i guess the answer lays in what earth worms normally do in the wild in freezing temps? perhaps they hibernate? This bath farm is covered by a wooden lid ( not shown in the pictures) .... sure like to know what you find out...

drawe21 says:
I'm guessing they go deep and dig under the frost line (3 to 5 feet down) around a meter.

Mar 23, 2010. 10:35 AM REPLY

agatornz says:

Mar 23, 2010. 12:29 PM REPLY they probably do in nature but in a bath worm farm one doesnt have a meter of space for them to go deep but then certainaly in the upper north island we dont get freezing temperatures so there is no concern lol Mar 23, 2010. 10:31 AM REPLY

drawe21 says:
Most modern news paper ink (Black) is made of Soybeans so it is earth worm friendly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soy_ink

agatornz says:
oh thats good to hear.... all though one must always remain skeptic if wiki is the only reference.

Mar 23, 2010. 12:28 PM REPLY

dont know bout where you live but in Newzealand if you handle to much newspaper - ie tearing it up you end up with a smudge of black ink on your hands that is pretty hard to get off... doesnt seem all that botanic to me.. and makes every thing associated with it black...

madcow354 says:

Mar 23, 2010. 2:21 AM REPLY Hi I made a worm farm out of my old bath want to know if i can put one catcher of lawn clipping in the farm but I have oxalis in the lawn is any good or should I dump the clipping can any one help me

agatornz says:
hi there, no i wouldnt put lawn clippings on mass in a worm farm - a gentle yes but not a catcher full.

Mar 23, 2010. 12:26 PM REPLY

This is because grass cuttings are a wonderful activator for a compost heap, the process by which they decompose (i guess) means they generate heat among other things - equally a big mass of grass clippings you will notice often gets slimy - air is excluded and the decomposition goes anerobic... ( with out air) both of these factors are not all that inviting to worms. if you were to mix those grass clippings with carbon material like leaves and food scraps in a compost heap *(recommend the rotary ones) then good compost comes ...

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starterpistol says:

Jun 11, 2009. 3:28 PM REPLY Tip for collecting the worms: Blend leftover salad to a fine green shake and pour it in one spot on the worm bed, than put a plate over the salad (face down) and wait until dark(10ish ), then look under the plate. The secret is the worms like the dark as opposed to the moon light, where predators lurk, plus it stays moist there longer.

agatornz says:
aursome thanks.. that gives me and idea;-) love to see pics of your worm farm.

Jun 12, 2009. 2:29 AM REPLY

professorzed says:
I live in Canada, where it gets to freezing temperatures in the winter (in case you hadn't heard).

Mar 28, 2009. 3:11 PM REPLY

In this instance I would insulate the outside of the worm farm/ tub by putting some insulation materials around it, such as straw bales for example. You could also put a specially designed soil-warming electrical cord designed for cold frames in the bin to help keep them warm in the winter. A regular 25 watt light bulb will also keep it warm enough for the worms in the winter. Additionally, adding some fresh Horse manure will help keep them warm all winter. Red wigglers are actually manure worms, so horse manure is their favorite food (which is also bedding). You just have to make sure that the horses haven't been given and de-worming medicine for parasitic worms, since this will also kill your worms. Also, you have to be careful that the manure doesn't contain any Horse urine. The nitric acid in the urine will kill the worms too. In freezing cold temps, you DO close down the outdoor worm farm in that you no longer feed them scraps until the temps go above freezing. If you open the lid, you will expose the worms to freezing temps and this will instantly kill all of them. Red Wigglers are natives of warm places like California. They tolerate temperatures between 5 Celsius and 40 Celsius. When the temperature gets cold they huddle into a ball and remain dormant. If it goes below 5c they die.

agatornz says:

Mar 28, 2009. 4:35 PM REPLY wow thanks - always good to get a different prospective... here in New Zealand's north island we don't have that problem at all and can happily keep the guys feed and watered all year around...

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