News from Paul Maher at Worm-Farm.co.za
Freezing Food
I know a number of people who take the time and effort to liquidise the food that goes into their worm farm. I achieve a similar (although not quite as good) effect by freezing the food that goes into mine.
Freezing bursts the worm food’s cell walls which means that it will decompose quicker once defrosted, this helps the worms eat the food easier.
Another big advantage of freezing food is that it kills any insect eggs. When you leave vegetable peels and fruits lying around in the kitchen, very often fruit fly will lay their eggs on them. This means that although you will be trying to keep fruit flies out of your farm you will be introducing them with the food. Freezing then is a big advantage.
Our kitchen never really produces a consistent amount of waste. Some days we have a lot and some days we have a little. I put all our vegetable peelings into a ice cream container and when this is full it is emptied into a bag and it is frozen. This will keep for many months and it can be used when it is needed.
One of the more common problems I come across when looking at what goes wrong with peoples worm farms is overfeeding. A lot of people think they are being kind and overestimate the amount that their worms can eat. This can result in the contents of the farm rotting, becoming acidic or anaerobic and killing the worms.
When a farm is first established it usually has a starter amount of worms which can weigh anything from 100-400 grams, these worms will only eat 50-200 grams a day. So until the worms have had a chance to multiply only feed a handful of food at a time and wait for the food to disappear before feeding more. Rather put the food in your freezer until it is needed.
