Here's todays question from Ann - a Wiggly Customer and Jo's reply on harvesting wormcasts from your wormery and worm juice production.
Re: Can-O-Worms Queries
1. I have had one of these for nearly six months and the worms seem to have survived the winter so far! My problem is the bottom tray is never free of worms so how do I remove the compost without losing all the worms? I put fresh kitchen waste in the second tray and finally the top tray but the top tray hardly gets touched and just eventually decomposes, especially during the colder weather when the worms are not so hungry! I was under the impression that once the bottom tray was finished with the worms moved up to the second tray and so on.
I do put worm treats and lime mix into the Can o¬πworms from time to time as well.
2. Another query is: we are going away for nearly a month in the early Autumn. How do I catch the liquid juice for that length of time as at that time of the year there is almost 3-4 pints a week. How can I put a large container under the tap so that it doesn¬πt spill over everywhere? What do other people do?
Thank you for your help. The leaflet does not seem to cover these two problems.
Warm regards
Ann
Hi,
The worms are usually happy to work in all 3 trays. The easiest way to remove them from a tray which is ready to harvest is to move it to the top and leave the lid off (only on a nice sunny day though!).
The light should force the worms to move down into the tray below where your fresh waste is, although if it dense you will need to take a bit off at a time.
With regards to the liquid - is rain getting in as 4 pints seems a lot for a week ?(if it is rain getting in, the liquid will be almost clear).
I would advise leaving the tap open if you leave the can o worms for more than a week.
Make sure you add plenty of dry cardboard with your waste (as a rule aim for about 1/4 of your wastes volume).
When you leave it, increase the cardboard ratio (I would start this a week before you leave, as the liquid draining off, should decrease as well).
Hope this helps,
Regards
Jo
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