Worm Cafe'

[Scott A.]

Ok, got the farm planted.

The first problem I have encountered was the worms wanting to or had already escaped.
The second problem was discovered on day three... A peculiar odor was emitting... is this normal I thought, maybe its just the wet coconut. Day 4 the odor was unbearable, I was still asleep when it came to me...the little critters must have worked thier way to the bottom layer where the spigot is. Shure enough there was 20 or so wurms rotting away. The smell was terrible,...no wonder they wanted out they had no fresh air.

So how do I take care of this problem?

Is there someting I can lay between the bottom layer and the collection bin so that the worms dont drown?

Like a screed or something....

[Flomax]

Hello Scott,

welcome to our forum. We are pleased to help you with some advices.

You can jam a kind of fleece between the bottom layer and the collecting bin. Like ground fleece which is used to avoid the growing of weed or other undesirable plants. Do you know such fleece material? You have to cut the fleece into the right shape and lay it over the collecting bin. At least you just have to stick the bottom layer on the collecting bin like you do it without the fleece material in between.

The odor was caused by to less oxygen in the bedding - or better by to much humidity in th bedding. Because the moisture displaces the needed oxygen. Try to dry your worm-bedding with paper or carton.

I wish you good luck and much fun with your Wormfarm.

Best regards
Flomax

[Scott A.]

Thank You, I'll try that.

So, what I did was add one of the layers bought another coconut block and mixed it with grunplfanzenerde,The kind for indoor plants. Most of them moved to the second layer . Its almost like another colony going on. Since I did this -they seem to be happy campers! But they dont seem to like zuccinni or atleast not yet. The one in the upper room just love the coconut mat - they are all woven into it. every couple of days I add a little water to the mat if detect that the soil is to dry. Also I leave the lid off for a while to airate.
My father-in-law gave me tea leaves - they are eating it up. Today they get thier handful of vitamins, as you'all instructed.

[Wurmmann]

Dear Scott,
how is it going so far? Have the worm become accustomed to the zucchini? Do they spek english already ?

[Scott A.]

Dear Scott,
how is it going so far? Have the worm become accustomed to the zucchini? Do they spek english already ?

Hello Again, just recieved your email about compost tee and did a few searches on the net about worm tee.
everyone is saying you have to add sugar to the worm tea, is that true? very interested in the composttee!

Since I last wrote about my experience so far, there has been a lot of activity.

At first observation I thought I had a worm nursery under the lid. But later discovered that they were not all baby worms! Most of them are some sort of larvae that seems to thrive in this wet moist environment. The adult of the larvae seem to be no bigger than a compost fly. (The kind that are always gathering on the window near our little compost bowl.) But they do not seem to fly...? Now get this...after close observation, the adult worms eat the larvae! I solved the problem of drowning worms by adding enough coconut carpet . Also these larvae seem to thrive in the water as well. I think maybe they like the nutrients. I keep a small bucket underneath the spigot to catch the worm tea and now a few spiders have moved in to control the population of the adult larvae. Whatever they are called? knat maybe? P.S. They speak Dinglish!

[user123]

Hi!
I bought a Worm Cafe recently and I'm very excited about it. The quality is very good, even the plastic which is used for the farm smells good.
But there is a small problem with the tap. It leaks from the top (exactly below the lid with arrows and "ON" inscription). The leakage is minor, probably a single drop in a minute or two.
The farm will be used indoors, therefore the leakage is not acceptable.
I tried to find information about taps of Worm Cafe, but it seems that nobody reported any leakage problems. I read that there was a problem with its predecessor, the Can-O-Worms, but it was solved when the manufacturer redesigned the tap (http://perrone.blogs.com/horticultural/ ... -mats.html).
Therefore I'm not sure, if this problem is only with my tap, or is it a common problem, which is not reported because most of people use the farm outdoors? And how can I fix it?

[Peter_86]

I don’t think that a leaky tap is a general problem of the “Worm Café”. Otherwise, there would be complaints about it also in the German worm compost forums, which is – as far as I know – not the case. I also have a “Worm Café” since several years and the tap was never leaky.

You could try to close the leakage with glue that is used for underwater gluing*, e. g. glues for leaky aquariums (sold in building supplies stores or in pet shops).
* Other glues will soon dissolve in the (very) wet surrounding.