Get Into the Action with Some Worm Farming Tips

If environmental concerns are slowly seeping into your consciousness and you would like to do something ecologically sound, composting is something that is practical and doable even in your own backyard. You can grow a small patch of garden where you can use your own compost and grow your own vegetables. You can also farm your own worms if you want to accelerate the production of organic fertilizers. For these, you will need some basic worm farming tips that can reward your efforts with good results.

Here are some basic practical worm farming tips and tricks to help you grow your own worms for composting:

• If you are composting, the Red Worms are good to use. These are prolific worms that grow and reproduce fast even under less ideal conditions. They do not dig deep into the ground and are hardy species that are easy to take care for and maintain.

• Worms do not like direct sunlight in summer, but want some warmth during winter. The ideal temperature is about 15 to 20 degrees Celsius.  Feed them less during winter too when they are less active.

• When feeding, put the food in one spot at a time so that monitoring is easier. Do not feed until the previous one has been consumed to prevent fouling of food and the unnecessary growth of bacteria and fungi. Worms hate garlic, onions and citrus and love green leafy veggies and peelings. They even eat papers and cartons that were moistened. Chop up the food materials to make it easier for worms to break them down.

• When there is fouling in the worm bins, it is a sign that you are overfeeding them. You can starve the worms for three weeks and they will manage to survive, but not when you leave them to dry out or without moisture.

• Make sure that the worms are well oxygenated. Wooden worm bins work better than plastic bins because oxygen circulates better in wooden bins. If you are using plastic containers because you are recycling, make holes to allow air to circulate.

• Adding or feeding the worms with biodegradable matters can increase the acidity of the soil medium within the worm bins. The pH of the soil in the worm bins must be neutral. The acidity is caused by the decomposition of the decaying matters. So, controlling the pH means regulating food supply. This can be neutralized too with the addition of lime every now and then.

• Worms are prolific. If you are successful, they can double their population in about 18 months and 15 to 20 thousand in 2 to 3 years. Before reaching this stage of population, make sure that you have some plans with regards your excess worms. You can perhaps start going into the commercial side by selling them to certain target markets or you increase the scale of composting to enable you to sell the compost to neighbors or small organic farmers. You can also sell the worm castings as well as the worm urine.

• If you want to use the worm urine, also called 'worm tea' in your gardens, make sure to dilute this up to 50 percent to ensure that your plants will not be “burned” in the process.

Growing your own worms can be a very rewarding experience as they help you grow a garden of luscious fruits and vegetables too. If you become so adept with the breeding of these worms, you may be encouraged to increase its scale to the point of building a commercial worm farm.  Starting small is among the good practices and worm farming tips to begin with. You do not need to invest much money at the start. This way, your hobby can grow into a commercial business while building skills and knowledge necessary in successful worm farming.