Des orques dans la brume

Q. Do they eat a lot? Can you feed them anything?
A. Here it becomes a bit more complicated. No, worms don’t just eat anything and you should not overfeed them, otherwise the composter will start to stink and you will face an invasion of fruit flies (those ugly tiny flies that are young geneticists’ favorite guinea-pigs…)
So, first week, you feed them about 2 pounds of food, second weeks about 4 pounds and from the third week on, you can fed them about 6 pounds. If you have a large family and you eat loads of fruit and veggies, you may as well get two or three boxes.Then, you have to cut up the food a bit, so to make their work easier. Don’t just dump an old rotten carrot in, cut it up in smaller pieces.

You can feed them fruit, veggies, peels, coffee grinds with the filter if it is not bleached, tea bags if you take out the staple, ground egg shells, green garden clippings (in reasonable amounts), brown paper bags (no glossy magazine paper), and some cardboard if you tear it up into pieces.

NO cooked stuff, dairy or grain, not cat litter, not too much acidic stuff such as citrus fruits, unless you add a bit of garden lime to correct the acidity. (Garden lime can be found in any garden supply shop)


Q. Isn’t there a risk of overpopulation?
A. Well yes, worms don’t just eat; they also make babies from time to time. Don’t panic, in about 4 to 6 months, it will be time to collect your compost. When collecting the compost, you will separate the worms from the compost and you can grossly separate the worm population in two. Then you can start two composters, give worms to a friend or, if you live in Vancouver, donate back worms to CityFarmer who can use them in schools for outreach programs.

There are several techniques to separate the worms from the compost. I haven’t tested any yet but will post about this when the time comes to share my impressions.

Q. Is « worm tea » really a good fertilizer for plants?
A. Excellent ! As long as you dilute it one for ten in water before watering your plants with it. To collect the tea, it’s really simple; I use a turkey baster and put the "juice" in an empty bottle. I recycled old milk gallons and juice bottles to keep my home made garden products, whether it is worm tea, natural insecticide or fongicide against powdery mildew (a plague here in wet Vancouver!)

Tools for worm composting: a garden claw to lift up the bedding and pour in the food, a turkey baster to collect the worm tea and the book «Worms eat my garbage », Mary Appelhof’s best-seller, where the worm farmer will find all the answers she/he needs!