Worm Tower update

Changing the compost

It’s been over a month since I changed the compost in the worm towers. Here’s a little update…

The Red Wrigglers and friends have been really busy in the worm towers. In each tower, they’ve managed to change four good handfuls of compost into black gold. I think, now the warmer weather is upon us, their activity can only increase.

When all the food scraps in the tower have been converted to crumbly black castings and the juices have drained into the garden bed, it’s time to remove the castings and add some more food. I remove about 3/4 of the column of worm castings in the tower and sprinkle them over the bed the tower is in. Then I add the compost nearly to the top.

On the top of the pile, I add an handful of worm castings. Then I pour on a couple of cups of water with some bicarbonate of soda dissolved in it to reduce the acidity a little. I think this helps distribute the bicarb soda evenly through the tower and also picks up a little worm goodness from the handful at the top which, in my mind, might encourage the worms to travel to the top of the pile, thinking someone else has already been there.

I like to add Bokashi composted vegetable scraps, because the worms really love them. Because they’re a bit acidic, I usually add a bit of bicarbonate soda or dolomite dissolved in water. This neutralizes some of the acidity, making everyone happy!