Worm Farms

About Tumbleweed Worm Farms:

Tumbleweed is an Australian family-owned business that designs and manufactures products from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic. For over 40 years, we have strived to make a significant contribution to our earth’s environmental sustainability by making innovative products that encourage consumers of all ages to reduce, re-use and recycle organic waste at home. Almost half of all household waste is organic and compostable. Tumbleweed composting and worm farming products enable people to divert this waste from landfill by recycling at home. The carbon-rich humus that makes up the worm castings and liquid will add valuable soil conditioner to your soil to increase its water and nutrient holding capacity, making your plants grow faster and healthier. This fertiliser also contains beneficial microbes that stimulate strong, healthy plant growth. A great benefit for your plants and for the environment!

Why recycle?
Food waste in landfill becomes compacted and anaerobic to produce methane and landfill leachate, resulting in air and water pollution. Diverting organic waste by composting at home reduces your households carbon footprint and is a sustainable waste solution. Almost half of all household waste produced is organic and can be composted at home!
Worms, worms, worms. Worms are amazing creatures.
These living fertiliser tubes are full of countless numbers of beneficial bacteria and enzymes.
As worms break down organic matter, they aerate, recarbonate and rehydrate soils, playing a vital role in sustaining the life and fertility of all our horticultural and agricultural systems.
What worms do I need?
The species of earth worm you need to start your worm farm are composting worms:
Red Wrigglers,Tiger Worms, orw, African Night Crawlers.
To ensure your worms are healthy, purchase from a reliable source such as the Tumbleweed website, a local worm farmer or a reputable garden center. Composting worms live high up in the composting layer of the soil where they decompose organic matter and turn it into rich plant food and a nutritious liquid for your garden. This makes them perfect for a worm farm.

How does a worm farm work? Worms and microbes take organic matter in through their mouth and grind waste up in their gizzards.
Worm farm trays
As the worm digest organic waste, they create smaller and smaller particles. They produce worm castings and worm liquid, both containing many useful nutrients for healthy soil. Above Ground worm farms work in a rotational tray system. Worms travel between the trays, moving up to the surface to feed, and down to deposit castings and liquid. Mature castings are always harvested from the lowest Working Tray. Once emptied, this tray is cycled to the top and becomes your new feeding tray and the whole process starts again!
Working Tray/s
The top Working Tray is where you feed your worms. When starting a worm farm, you will only have one Working Tray to begin with. As worms break down your food waste they will begin to fill the tray. You are ready to add a new tray when this becomes filled to about 5cm from the top.
The middle Working Tray/s are where your worms will continue to process organic waste into smaller and smaller particles, called worm castings. Once the material in these trays becomes very fine and mud-like with no visible food scraps, they are ready to harvest to use in your garden. Always harvest the lowest tray, as this contains the most mature castings. The newly emptied tray is now cycled to the top to become the new top Working Tray where you feed your worms.
Collector Tray:
The Collector Tray is where rich worm liquid it collected, to be used as a fertiliser for your garden. Dilute it with water until it is the colour of weak tea before pouring over your plants.

Start small:
Let your worms settle in Your worms need time to get used to their new environment, and increase their population - so for the first six weeks, feedthem in small amounts. Start with feeding a handful of chopped food scraps every second day. Once your worm farm becomes more established and the population increases, your worms can process more food. Gradually increase the volume you are

Feeding your worms:
Add grit to your worm farm to help worms grind their food. Crushed egg shells and soil are both good sources of grit.
Successful worm farming is all about balance Worms love a balanced diet, so it is best to feed your worms a mix of 70% greens (nitrogen) and 30% browns (carbon rich materials). As a guide, worms will eat anything that was once living -remember, variety is the spice of life!
Lift the lid and add a thin layer of food scraps to the surface of the top Working Tray. Every time you feed your worm farm, mix to incorporate new food with old food. This will increase the efficiency of the worm farm by making the food more accessible to the worms.
The finer you chop your food scraps, the quicker they will be converted into castings by microbes and worms. Things such as avocado seeds need to be broken up (a blender does a good job of this) so the worms can get their mouths around it.
Every time you feed your worms, sprinkle a handful of organic soil (from your garden is fine), crushed egg shells or vacuum cleaner dust. The grit from these materials help the worms’ grind the food up in their gizzards.
TIP
Use a Worm Blanket. After feeding your worms, add a dampened worm blanket to the surface before securing the lid. Worm Blankets keep the worm farm dark to encourage worm activity.