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Gardening in the UK

Worms in Compost

20 years ago

The time has come to empty out some of my compost barrels -and what hard work it is, especially now it is sodden with rain. The stuff at the bottom of the barrels has probably been there at least two years, and has rotted nicely. I notice, however that one barrel has far more brandling worms in than the other, and seems slightly less well-rotted i.e. you can still see soft, fibrous material it. If it still actively has worms in it, does that mean it should be left a bit longer? It seems perfectly OK otherwise.

And is it bad for the worms to be put onto the garden along with the compost - I gather Brandlings are sensitive to cold?

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Comments (6)

shrubs_n_bulbs
20 years ago
Yes, they are sensitive to cold. They certainly won't survive in thew garden indefinitely. But normal garden earthworms work just fine in normal compost piles.

You can leave the material as long as you want, it will continue to decompose almost indefinitely. Once it starts to smell like a forest instead of like compost then you can use it for anything you like. I regularly incorporate partially complete compost into garden beds without a problem, or even just lay it on the surface. I don't have enough bin space and sometimes it just has to be moved on before it is a sweet dark powder :)
garden_nerd
Original Author
20 years ago
Thanks, S&B. Presumably the brandlings can just romp about the garden until the winter kills them?
I now have 6 bins, thanks to LCC, and am probably beginning to exceed the ideal plot to bin ratio. 'Bout time these green waste bins turned up. Call itself an eco-city? No way. I still have to chuck loads of stuff into my black wheelie bin because I can't manage to compost it at home.
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One more try.... Rotting is not necessarily composting. If you have mush sitting in a bucket rotting for two weeks, what you have is NOT compost!!! What you have is anaerobic decomposition, which will form volatile organic compounds. It is the VOCs that cause the rot to stink. VOCs are toxic to worms and just about anything else. Unless everything that has ever been true about composting suddenly changed in the last few weeks. Judging by what is being posted on this board lately, it seems that it has. Letting food decompose for a few days, great. Though I prefer to let that happen in the worm bin than in a bucket. Putting it in a bucket for two weeks to get slimy and smelly is not good. Hopefully, I have finally made my point. As for the onions and citrus, have at it. My worms were fine with onion peels, though they broke down slowly, and they loved citrus once it had a chance to break down a bit. Celbrise, you had a new bin with three worms in it, none of which were composting worms, and suddenly you are the resident expert in the subject, while those of us who have been successfully managing worm bins for years, and learned from experts in the field who used to frequent these forums, know nothing. Something is not right with that. Please try managing your bin for a few months before you try to tell the rest of us how to manage ours.
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Comments (9)
I've had compost worms live very, very well outside in a pile, and they love it and seem to speed things up. I've also had them live through (very long and could) winters no problem - although of course they're not active in winter. Hot weather I think is more of a problem than heat in the pile - but as long as they have somewhere to hide, they should survive. Mainly in a good-sized pile, there should be enough 'cool spots' for them. This is just my own experience, might depend on local conditions and worms. I'd also say it's far more likely to work well if you can find local worms in a manure pile - they're almost certain to be adapted to local conditions.
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tox, after reading the OP's post I tried to figure out if the objection to bread had ANY truth to it after all (rather than exclusively fun), and *thought* I'd found that it seemed to have at least some kind of connection to the aforementioned sog, which planaria are attracted to. Still . . . even if it was all for fun, I don't think I'll ever be able to compost baked goods, not after hanging out on this forum. Plus, my dog likes bread too much to waste it in compost anyway.
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Comments (16)
@Richard, redworms and other compost worms live in the wild as well, and not just in compost bins. I can state for a fact that some can survive quite nicely even in summer and in winter - or at least they exist in compost piles in the winter, either in stasis or by laying their cocoons which hatch in spring. Obviously they need places in summer that are damp and cool enough (by 'going to ground' or whatever), and I won't claim to know how they survive very cold winters (they won't eat much if the pile is frozen solid), but they do. I am not trying to advocate anyone believing that they will thrive in a garden - earthworms really are completely different. But again, I know for a fact they can live in compost piles, and I presume in the wild that they live in leaf litter in forests or something similar. I'm in a place with relatively cool summers and very cold winters, so YMMV - the 'native worms' in any given locale will differ. That's why I say that if someone wants to have compost worms in a compost pile outdoors, the best way to find them is in compost or manure piles. Anyway, putting some in a pile won't hurt, and adding earthworms to a compost pile - well, that'salso not their native habitat, they live in something more akin to soil and burrow, etc.
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pnbrown
20 years ago
What are 'brandling' worms? The reddish ones commonly seen in manure?
garden_nerd
Original Author
20 years ago
I believe so. You can buy them from mail order, but mine (if I've identified them corectly) just turned up. They collect under the lids of my compost bins when the compost is pretty well broken down, but not finished yet. You can get special no-smell indoor compost bins for the kitchen scraps that are basically brandling farms.

I still don't know what happens to them if they are put into the ground along with the compost.
shrubs_n_bulbs
20 years ago
If they "just turned up" then I wouldn't worry about them. They'll leave or die or whatever they can manage, and "turn up" again when they are needed. If I fill any container with compost that has alteady gone through the heating phases, it will be absolutely full of worms within a few weeks.
weatherlawyer
20 years ago
I have just bstard trenched a run of weedkiller treated council flats garden border. I took lawn clippings from a neaby cricket club as they are fairly weed free but a lot of it was midewy. There is about a bin bag full every 6 feet.

How soon will worms take up residence in fairly dry, ill used clay?

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