Worm Farm/vermicomposting

[Royiah]

I've decided to start a worm farm for compost and wormcastings. I came up with the idea when someone told me that worm castings were good for my garden. I hope to have it done by next week so I can start vermicomposting.
I'm really excited about it. I'm building it using what I have around the house so its pretty much free. As soon as I finish building my farm I'm going to order my red worms.
Is there anyone here whos done vermicomposting? And if so do you have any tips?

[cynthia_h]

I've done plenty. I killed my first set of worms, but my second set has flourished to the point where I've given quarts of worms to three / four Freecyclers to start their own vermicomposting set-ups.

If you do a Search of the forum for worm composting and use my name

cynthia_h

(the underscore is required; otherwise, Search won't return anything), you'll find quite a bit of...ah...chatter about what didn't and then did work for me. You'll also be able to find what I was responding to when you read the entire threads in which my posts appear.

There's one small but crucial book (IMHO) on this subject: Worms Eat My Garbage, by Mary Appelhof. She probably founded the field in modern America. We lost this great lady in 2005; read about her at https://wormwoman.org

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[Royiah]

Eh really I hope I have better success with mine. Its wonderful that youve helped others with their freecycleing. Would you mind sending me some if you have any extra?
Thanks for the info! I'll read up on all of it when I get a chance.
Mary sounds really interesting I'm gonna read up on her too. Thanks again!

[baconfiend]

Cynthia - I've set up my worm bin, but haven't bought my worms yet. I'm going to check out the book you recommended! Thanks for the info!

[Jill @ Lilliworm]

I've been worm farming on a small scale for a while now and just started a garden this year- what an adventure

Best of luck!

[tomc]

Composting worms die at about 90 ...° F. Setting up composting worms above that temperature don't work very well.

[lukywest]

I had my worms for about 3 months and they took off awesomely. I had a bad case of fruit flies in the house and had to move them outside in the shade, but in Arkansas we had the hottest summer on record. They all died. The smell was down right diabolical. My questions is how to raise bigger farms outside during the summer without nuking them.

here is the video to the bin I made with my kids. It works great for small kitchens.

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpwr0hODkRk[/url]

[tomc]

I had my worms for about 3 months and they took off awesomely. I had a bad case of fruit flies in the house and had to move them outside in the shade, but in Arkansas we had the hottest summer on record. They all died. The smell was down right diabolical. My questions is how to raise bigger farms outside during the summer without nuking them.

Luky, I might be too south here in SE-OH. To keep composting worms in any place warmer than a cellar.

Colder than 50 ...°F or warmer than 80°F and worms die off.

I had worms die off in transit in early May from my old gardens in NH