PURCHASING A EARTHWORM SYSTEM

First congratulations on purchasing your worm system/farm! You are well on your way on reducing your carbon foot print.

If your worms are consuming food, and no unpleasant odors are
produced, these are good signs that everything is okay!

Don't worry; I am sure you will get your worm wee soon enough! They take a while to settle, so be patient.

As you start a new worm farm system, depending on what food
materials you have and in what quantity, you will have different
moisture levels. Although it is called worm wee, the liquid is
actually mostly comprised of the moisture from the food you throw
in, and not the worm wee itself.

The new carbon source that you add in (the shredded paper/ newspaper /shredded cardboard/ coir bedding etc) are very moisture absorbent, and will be the first to absorb any moisture produced before it has that chance to drip into your collection tray. As more food waste is added, and more moisture is produced, it will no doubt start dripping through into your collection tray.

When you do start collecting your worm wee, (or more accurately
called worm leachate) do take care on using it for plant
watering. Since the liquid will have passed through the worm
compost, bringing many nutrients with it, the liquid will also
have passed through rotting food material and may carry some
unwanted things in there. Oxygenating it with an aquarium pump or
simply pour it from a watering can to another container which is inexpensive and can solve most of the problems with
anaerobic bacteria (bad bacteria), but do rely on your nose to
detect the smell.

Generally, if it smells bad, it is bad! Throw it away!!! Use the liquid as soon as you can or store it in a dark place out of light as it destroys microbes and nutrients when it is left in sunlight/light.

If after a while you still don't get any liquid, I will suggest
monitoring the moisture levels of your worm farm system as it may
be too dry, and a dry environment can easily kill off your worms!
How do you know if your worm farm is the right moisture levels?

Pick up some of the produced worm cast or soil and squeeze it
together. The soil should be able to clump together with drips of
water dripping out. If it does not, then it may be necessary to
re-wet the worm farm by adding some shredded paper/newspaper/cardboard soaked in water and tuck it into the compost.

Be careful not too add too much water which will over log it,
since this will reduce oxygen from getting into the lower levels
of the worm far system.

Mix, mix, mix the contents of your system as this aerates the compost and makes it easier for earthworms to move through it. Don't just put stuff in so that it ends up in layers and you will have problems with an upward migrating unit as Earthworms wont migrate if there is still food in the "working" tray.

Please send me some feed back on what l have posted here and if you have any questions l will gladly answer them for you.

Lynne