How does a 3 bin worm farm work? What about the bedding

by andrew
(county armagh ireland)

Hi all i am thinking about is starting my own worm farm just for the purpose of feeding my own plants and bringing my garden to a refreshed state.

I know nothing about worm farming apart from what i have read in the last week and one thing that puzzels me is the use of 3 containers.

The bottom one is used for excess liquid from castings and the 2nd is the one with the bedding and food. The 3rd is used when the 2nd is full and worms migrate up for the food. At this point the 2nd bin is taken out and castings are removed and used in the garden. Then the empty container is put on top of the container with the worms.

Now the bit i get confused with is there is no bedding for worms as bedding was in the container that was emptied. So have i missed something about bedding somewhere along the line. Any advice would be welcome.

Regards Andrew


Answer:

Hello Andrew, congratulations you have learned a lot about worm farming in just one week and analyzed the use of a 3 bin worm farm quite well.

Bedding is essentially only needed once you are starting up a worm farm. It ensures that the worms have a place where they can live and retreat into should the circumstances require it.

Over time the worms will recycle their bedding and the food they get into worm castings where they can live in as well. When the 2nd bin is full you will start adding worm food into the 3rd container on top. The worms can move up into it and recycle the
food. If they feel uncomfortable they can always return to the container below after they have saturated their hunger. But just within a few weeks they will have converted enough food from the top container into worm castings to allow them to stay permanently in the top bin.

If you want to avoid this transitional state you can as well remove the top 10 to 15 cm of food and worm castings containing most of your worms from the 2nd bin and place them in the top bin by hand.

Worms are top feeders and there should only be very few worms left in the 2nd bin once you the top layers and placed them in the 3rd bin.

No matter how you go about it both ways usually work quite well.

I wish you all the best for your recycling project.

If you have any further questions please feel free to contact me.

Kind regards

Stephan Kloppert
Author of "How to start a profitable worm business on a shoestring budget"

Editor:
www.worm-composting-help.com

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