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Book review: Organic Farming with Worms

Worm farm kits from Biome

I've had a compost worm farm for several years now.  Actually I currently have three worm farms.  They are a little addictive!  I didn't know anything about compost worms before I got them, but I fell in love with the concept of having somewhere to dispose all our organic (vegetative) waste that would also reliably produce compost and liquid fertiliser.  The worms and I have been very happy with our relationship and I thought I knew everything I needed to know, but then a neighbour (who we respect as a very good hay farmer) recommended this book - Organic Farming with Worms, by David Murphy (and that's not even an affiliate link because its not on Amazon).  Not just recommended it, he actually raved about it and showed us his new compost worm farm, and he said he'd bought copies of the book for all his friends!  This really got my interest, so I ordered a copy for myself.


eight acres: book review - Organic Farming with Worms


This book is for anyone who is serious about getting more out of their compost worms than just waste processing and a bit of compost.  This is about maximising yield in garden and paddock by knowing how to manage both compost worms and earthworms to improve your soil (You might need to catch up on some soil info back here).

Wonderful worms
  • Earthworms make top soil at a rate of 2 mm every year, considering how small they are, this is an impressive rate
  • Earthworms increase the organic matter in soil, which in turn increases the cation exchange capacity - this means that minerals are not leached from the soil
  • And organic matter improves water holding capacity
  • Vermicast (worm poo) contains enzymes which solubilise minerals, making them available for plant growth, this will also neutralise soil pH (move towards pH 7) 
  • Vermicast contains sticky compounds that create stable aggregates (lumps) of soil, which improves soil texture
Worms in the garden
This book explains how to use compost worms in your garden and how to attract earthworms to take up residence.  A couple of key points that I found interesting:
  • You can use vermicompost (worm farm compost) as a compost activator because it contains beneficial microbes
  • Seeds sprout better in vermicompost (I know, that's where all the tomato plants in my garden came from!), so you can use it in seed starting mixes
  • Don't think of the compost as "fertiliser" with an NPK ratio, its actually inoculating your soil with good microbes
  • You can attract earthworms to your garden by making a temporary worm farm in the soil.
Since I read this I've been trying to use more vermicompost in my garden.  Previously I have tried to pick all the compost worms out of the vermicompost before I put it on the garden.  Now when a bin is full, I just dig a trench, dump in the vermicompost including worms and cover over with some mulch.  The compost worms will continue their work until all the compost is converted and then the earthworms will take over.  This is easier than picking out the compost worms and should be better for the soil.

eight acres: book review - Organic Farming with Worms


Worms in the paddock
This book has some really good data and ideas about how and why to encourage earthworms in farmed paddocks.  The two main suggestions are:
  • leave stubble in the ground after heading grain or cutting hay
  • don't plough - use a no till seeder (but also don't spray herbicide)
The reasons for these suggestions are that stubble in the soil continues to provide food for earthworms and keep the soil cooler and retain moisture.  Ploughing obviously is very detrimental to worms as it chops them up and turns over their burrows.  I have seen our neighbour implement both of these methods and I'm looking forward to checking in with him after a few months to see if he's noticed an improvement.  The data from studies showed that both these methods worked to increase earthworm populations with the resulting benefits as listed above.

The book notes that it can be difficult to maintain earthworm populations on dry land farms, as it can just get too dry for worms to survive.  A couple of solutions are offered:
  • Use a worm farm to generate vermicast and solution (worm wee) that can be used to spray onto the paddock, therefore conveying the advantages of the beneficial bacteria and enzymes present in the vermicast - only a very low dilution is needed, so a small worm farm can be used to cover several hundred acres
  • Inoculate a small area with earthworms, maintain the moisture in this area and as the earthworm population increased, eventually the water-holding capacity will improve, you can then gradually expand the area
This chapter also included an interesting explanation of biodynamic farming methods.  If you are familiar with burying cow horns filled with manure (preparation 500) you might like to know its probably just really conducive to worm activity.

I have been wanting to brew up some vermicast solution for a while now, and we have the spray rig, so we will be trying that.  I think I will also try developing small earthworm friendly areas when we have the water supply set up (around water trough overflows would be a good spot).

Growing your own worms
If you're interested in commercial scale worm farming, there is an entire chapter on this topic, as well as domestic worm farming.  The author was very critical of the stacking basket farms, however I have two of these that are doing well.  I do want to build a larger worm farm and I'll consider the advice in this book when designing that system.  A "flow-through" system is recommended, including plans and instructions.

Overall this was an incredibly informative book and everything that my enthusiastic neighbour promised.  If you are interested in getting more from your worms, I highly recommend this book for gardeners and farmers alike.

Do you have a worm farm?  How do you use the vermicast and solution?


Read more about my worm farms here:

Eight Acres: I'm a worm farmer!

Eight Acres: Worm farm compost

Eight Acres: Worm farm maintenance

Eight Acres: Setting up another worm farm


Worm farm kits are available from Biome, click on the banner below:


Worm farm kits from Biome

Comments

  1. does it include wet wormeries ( as in several buckets) or just earth worms? sounds an interesting read

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It covers both earthworms and wormfarms and how they work together.

      Delete
  2. Hi Liz,
    interesting post. We have two worm farms,which we used to keep very well fed, but now that we have so many chickens and turkeys, a lot of the vegie peelings ect go to them, so the poor old worm farms really don't do as well as they used to.
    We will really have to pay them a little more attention.
    All the best Liz
    Take care
    Cheers
    Jane.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know what you mean Jane, the chooks get all the tasty stuff (that the dog doesn't want) at our place too, I find I can fill the worm farms with weeds, cuttings, shredded paper, banana peels and anything too far gone for the chickens, seems to keep it all going :) (and I don't really worry about weed seeds etc as we have so many anyway, it doesn't make any difference if there are some in the compost!)

      Delete
  3. I love worm farms. I used to have a 4 tier stackable one at the farm and I was so sad to part company from it. The benefit of the 4 trays is that the worms tend to move up into the top trays to be closer to the food leaving the bottom one pure castings. Thankfully my Mum has a big one in NZ so I will have easy access to lots of worm wee when we get there.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love tip about using vermicompost for raising seeds. I am going to try that!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Read your blog regularly Liz and am informed and entertained ;-) Just a note about worms - they don't wee. The liquid is either leachate (water put through the 'farm' and caught or condensate from the interior of the 'farm'. It's great stuff.
    Murphy's book is very good, clear explanations and leaves little to nothing out that's worth knowing. Borrowed it from the Library and since then have bought it. A good reference to keep handy.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Almost 2 years ago I gave up my gardens, fruit trees and worm farm to move to an apartment. I miss them all terribly. When I get back into a house, one of the first things I'm going to do is set up my worm farm again.

    ReplyDelete

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Thanks, I appreciate all your comments, suggestions and questions, but I don't always get time to reply right away. If you need me to reply personally to a question, please leave your email address in the comment or in your profile, or email me directly on eight.acres.liz at gmail.com

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