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Gardening in Oz

can i put worms from the wrom farm into the garden ?

18 years ago

hi, i have a worm farm, that is working wonderfully..can i put the worms from the worm farm into the garden? i do not no what type of worms they are, it has been a long time since i bought the worms :-) if i can put the worms into the garden do i still have to feed them veggie scraps or will they feed on the organic matter that is in the garden ??? mainly cow poo.. hope someone can help..thanks in advance

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Comments (7)

User
18 years ago
Yes, I think you can do that. With that cow manure it will be a veritable smorgasbord for them.
Dee.
trancegemini_wa
18 years ago
hi clare, its not really a good idea, the worm farm worms like the red wrigglers like different conditions to normal earthworms, and because theyre surface dwellers theyll most likely get picked off by the birds anyway. if you have lots of goodies in your garden like manure and compost youll get regular earthworms arriving on their own so it's not necessary to add the worm farm ones into the garden.
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You could have skipped most of this thread by going to vermicomposting thread first. But as far as using chicken poop in your home compost, you're not in much danger of having contaminants from a home flock. Unless they are being kept in filthy conditions, underfed, get only rainwater to drink and house garbage to eat. Most likely you keep their coop clean, feed and water them daily and provide fresh greens whenever possible. Most likely your hen yard is also clean and free of contamination. The suggestion to store the compost for 60 days before using it makes sense. After your compost is finished, you should sift it to separate out anything that is not finished and place it in covered containers and leave them in the sun. This heating will complete the cooking process without killing the good microbes in your compost. Your dog's poop is another issue. Dogs digestive systems have harmful disease micro organisms that you really don't want around your food crops. Some people over in the vermicomposting forum have a system to dispose of pet waste out in the yard. You cut the bottom out of a 4 gallon plastic can, dig a hole in the yard deep enough to set the can down into it with an inch or two above ground level. After Fido leaves you a gift you shovel it into the can and replace the lid. The earthworms will come up from the ground and dispose of the contents of the can. You may be able to use the same site for a year or more since much of the waste is carried down into the sourrounding soil by the worms action. Personally, I don't worry about the compost made from chicken manure, leaves, grass and kitchen waste. But I don't want my dog's poop in my garden or near my food. DH works for the health department and has a degree in chemistry and environmental health and he makes all our compost so I just don't worry about it. The composting process that we use is a slower method with 4' square bins. We have 8 of them and have most of them going at any one time. He turns the compost about every 6 weeks so it takes nearly a year for one load as each one travels down the row of bins. After it's finished and screened it's packed into clean barrels for storage until we are ready to use it. Cheryl
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Welcome Aussie from Oz! I have only limited experience, but that experience is in Alaska, so I am 'sensitive' to temperature issues with worms. As sbryce pointed out, the PRIMARY issue is really just TIME. Even at an ideal temp of 70F/21C, I would expect it to take monthS - PLURAL - for "things" to get "cooking" worm-wise in your bins. (My bins are at 72F and it was AT LEAST 3 months before they started showing signs of "increase".) I have found that reported "doubling" times AND how much compost worms - like Eisenia fetida - eat per unit time are GREATLY exaggerated by those who would part one from one's money. "Keep on truckin' " as we used to say in the '60s when we were encouraging people to stick with something. I have only one 'thing' to add: others with far more experience than I recommend "LEAVE THEM ALONE". I would add my limited-experience voice to theirs in that recommendation. Paul
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It is almost like there is a glass ceiling on vermicomposting. Somewhere around a persons Zillionth millionth worm this thing happens and worms die and even tons of correct application of worming principals do not save the worms. Posters who are serious about vemicomposting are seeing this happen. The same thing happened I think to redhen on another board. I do not see any practice you are doing wrong. You probably know that. And yet this worm dying thing seems to happen to the best. Yet it should not. It is a mystery. Thus your accurate depiction you gave is very valuable. Anecdotal evidence might be the key. This just seems to happen. It is the detailed observation of the armature vermiculturest that may solve it. Just like most observations of new things in space are by hobbyists. Why do these worms decide to die? Is it carbon dioxide? Acid? Lack of bedding? Stress? How does one determine if a worm is "happy"?
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Comments (1)
for me i'd be putting them in the garden wherever now, storage might result in loss of benefit, also would need to be dry i would imagine as stored wet in bags it could rot or mildew. our worm farming now occurs in the gardens where the benefits are delivered direct and where they are needed most. len Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page
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Robert_NSW
18 years ago
If you originally purchased worms for your worm farm they are likely to be Tiger or Red worms or a mixture of the two. They are specifically for compost and worm farms where there is a high concentration of fresh organic matter and lots of moisture. They will be most unhappy in the soil.
gardenlen
18 years ago
g'day clarebear,

i have used worm farm worms in my gardens i did it here so i had some worm action happening in the new beds, i also use a lot of mulch cover. they do need a lot of fresh sort of organic matter but they did their job, and now when i use the material from the composting toilet they are in there so they continue to work this material in the beds.

they seem to last well in the beds like i say while the suitable material is kept up to them so if you are putting your kitchen scraps or adding fresh from the farm mushroom compost they will continue. in brisbane we got a lot of rain in one season so the beds where very wet they didn't like that they actually climbed the walls of the house and congregated around the window ledges.

len
trancegemini_wa
18 years ago
I accidently moved a few into garden beds when I used the castings but they didnt look very well when I discovered them, lol, I have a very dry garden though with drought tolerant plants so I think they were feeling poorly from the lack of moisture.
User
18 years ago
I am sure that all worms will be happy in the ground given moisture and something to nibble on! After all, that IS where they all originated from.....isn't it?
Cheers,
Dee.
Robert_NSW
18 years ago
Here is an answer from a worm composting web page.

"Only put composting worms in your garden if you have a thick surface layer of mulch in your garden. Compost worms require moist conditions all year round because they don't tunnel deep like pasture worms to find moisture. If you cannot provide this environment in your garden, don't introduce compost worms."

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