IS OLD COFFEE GROUNDS ANY GOOD FOR RAISING WORMS? IF NOT WHAT IS?

THANKS
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Good question, been looking at starting one myself...without having to buy one

I've heard of people using coffee grounds but not sure if its any good or not.

You can put coffee grounds in, but you will also need to put in grain ground very fine.

Growing up my grandpa always had a compost pile about the size of a pallet or so and that was his worm farm, so you get all the worms you need and then you get great soil for your flowers.

The old retired Colonel who taught me to fish used cheap old dried dog food and layers of newspaper in his worm farm. He raised the little red 'wiggler' type of worms. They were great for perch. From what I have read, I think you can add just about anything organic to the farm, and the worms will give you back some real nice, nutrient-rich compost.

This is something I'm also very interested in. Theres a lot of info out on the web, so much info that its confusing. A lot of it is contradictory. I've seen starter kits at Walmart before, but not lately. Canadian night crawlers would need to be kept real cool, but there are African nightcrawlers that are supposed to be heat resistant. Red wigglers grow good down here(I've heard). I wonder if theres much of a market around Texas for wigglers, everyone I know prefer nightcrawlers.
Yellowcat raises worms I think. Maybe he'll chime in.

Check this out- http://www.wonderwormsusa.com/
Go about halfway down the page on the right and there are links on raising and feeding worms and setting up your own worm beds

I knew a guy who used to raise them under his rabbit pins. He always had a bunch of them but I just don't know if I want to dig through those "milk duds" for red wigglers.

My grand dad put grounds in, but every few days he dusted the top with fine ground corn meal

Not sure where I got this from, but should help

How to build a worm farm
Feeding fruit and vegetable scraps to earthworms is a cheap and simple way of recycling food and garden waste. Worm castings make a great fertilizer for gardens. Worm farms are ideal for people living in flats or houses with small backyards and for dealing with lunch scraps at the office.
Worm farms use special earthworms called compost worms that thrive in the warm, rich, moist environment of the worm farm. The most common compost worms are Tiger Worms, Red Wrigglers and Indian Blues and they can eat about half of their body weight in one day. The population in a well maintained worm farm doubles every two to three months.
What You Will Need to Build a Simple Worm Farm
� A container for the worm farm. There are many types of suitable containers for keeping worms, from simple polystyrene or wooden boxes from the fruit shop to stackable worm farms and plastic worm factories, which can be bought. The container must have drainage holes. A polystyrene foam fruit box about 28 cm high with drainage holes box is ideal for a first worm farm.
� At least 2,000 compost worms. These worms will breed and multiply to about 8,000 worms in 6 months. There are many companies that sell compost worms.
� Three sheets of newspaper.
� A bucketful of 'bedding' material, which is a blend of partly decomposed compost, straw, grass clippings or shredded paper or leaf mould.
� A suitably sized loose cover, such as hessian. If you do not have hessian, you could use a sheet of cardboard or even a whole newspaper.
� Fruit and vegetable scraps from your kitchen.
� Two bricks to support the box.
To buy worms or worm farms, consult the Yellow Pages under 'Worm Farms'. Some local councils also sell worm farms. Contact your local council's waste and recycling services section for more information.
Method
1. Choose a shady spot outdoors for your worm farm, preferably on a spot with good drainage. Tree roots or grass runners may invade open based worm farms seeking out water and nutrients. To avoid this problem, place the worm farm on a plastic sheet.
2. Line your container with a few sheets of dampened newspaper.
3. Half fill the container with bedding mix that is moist but not soggy. Bedding mix can consist of compost, grass clippings and shredded paper. It is important to provide a bedding mix that is not as fresh as the main food source. The best material for this is well-rotted compost, which is a great way to use compost produced from garden waste. Prop the container on bricks to make sure the drainage holes are clear.
4. Add the compost worms.
5. Cover the container with a layer of hessian and water till moist but not wet.
6. Add fruit and vegetable scraps each week. Add a small amount of food in the first week and over 6 months gradually increase the amount. A worm farm with a surface area of one metre square and around 10,000 worms will eat about 10 kg of food waste each week. Worms will breed and grow in direct proportion to the feed provided and the size of the worm farm. It is best to feed your worms weekly. If uneaten food remains, then you know you have overfed the worms.
7. After feeding the worms, cover the food scraps with some compost or soil to avoid attracting vinegar flies.
8. Add water every few days or when necessary to prevent the worm farm from drying out. More water may need to be added on hot, windy days. It is important to keep the worm farm moist, as the worms may die if it dries out. However, the worm farm should not be soggy either. Remember, there is moisture in the food scraps.
After 6 months, it may be necessary to start another worm farm, either by starting the whole process in another container, or, if using a box with holes in the bottom, by placing the second box on top of the first and only putting food scraps in the top box. The worms will migrate through the holes to the top box to feed.
To collect the worms from an established worm farm, remove the castings and place on a piece of shade cloth held over a tray. The worms will migrate through the cloth onto the tray below.
The worm castings can be used in the garden in the same way as compost or mixed with commercial potting mixes to pot plants. However, do not remove all of the castings as the worms need a good bedding mix for breeding.
What to Feed the Worms
Worms will eat almost any type of vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grindings, paper, leaves and even damp cardboard. Do not add onions or too much acidic food like oranges, mandarins or pineapples. Avoid materials contaminated with toxic chemicals, for example, sawdust from treated wood. Chop up food before adding and try to feed the worms a mix of materials.
Worm Facts
� There are 350 species of earthworms in Australia and most of those found on farms and in gardens are introduced species. Compost worms are rare in the bush because the conditions are not suitable. Compost worms are a special type of earthworm. Compost worms are generally more active than normal earthworms. They thrive in the rich, moist and warm environment of a worm farm and can eat about half their body weight in one day.
� The population in a well maintained worm farm doubles every two to three months. Earthworms are hermaphrodites, which means each worm has female and male sex organs, so every worm can have babies. But reproduction can only occur between two mature worms of the same species.
� After mating, both earthworms form a capsule (or cocoon) containing up to 20 eggs. Even though each mature compost worm might mate every 7 to 10 days and produce about 4 to 20 capsules a week, only 3 of these capsules produce babies. Each capsule produces around 4 baby worms, which makes a total of 12 babies per adult per week.
� Babies hatch after about 30 days and are ready to breed 55 to 70 days later. Earthworm eggs can survive in very dry conditions for a long time. The babies usually hatch when the soil becomes moist.
� Although earthworms do not have eyes, they sense light as well as vibrations and temperature through special organs in their skin.
� You can also add compost worms to standard compost bins or heaps, as long as you do not let the contents of the bin get too hot.
Note
Using worm castings is like any other gardening activity, so wear your gardening gloves and wash hands thoroughly after handling materials.
The information on worm farms is varied. This page provides information on what is believed to be commonly accepted practice.


There can be no doubt that worms are the best thing for your garden. Not ordinary worms, but true composting worms - red worms from the Amazon, and Tiger Worms. Their job is to live in a worm farm and decompose organic matter to produce marvelous stuff, called worm castings, which gives the garden a surge.

It�s easy to get a worm farm established. It�s made up of levels of plastic containers. Start with a solid base, and then add others with perforation. The aim is to build layers for the worms to move through. Look for a base that collects the liquid, (which will drain from the top), and a tap at the bottom means it�s possible to collect the liquid in a bottle. It�s absolutely fantastic for watering all your pot plants but it needs to be diluted at 10 to 1.


When setting up a worm farm firstly consider where to put it. A cool, dry space is fine, but not in the hot afternoon sun. Next step is to set up the base, or bedding area, which needs to be put down with a layer of moistened newspaper.

The worms are available in bulk from hardware stores or a general nursery. About 500 come in a little bag with some bedding material, which is usually sawdust. Just spread that out.

Only feed a little bit at this stage because they are getting settled into the bedding material. Use lettuce, old bits of banana, anything that you've got that's wasteful in the kitchen sink. Then add just enough newspaper or hessian over the top to keep them moist. Always make sure that the newspaper, or hessian, is kept moist. They will start to feed and after about two weeks, add the next layer on top and that's the time to start feeding all organic waste and the worms will travel up through the perforations.

Worms like moistened cardboard or newspaper, food scraps, and they love eggshells, but crunch them up a little. It gives them variety in their diet. Coffee grindings and tea leaves are absolutely fantastic and throw in all the kitchen scraps. But don�t add too much citrus and onions, which are acidic and worms don't like them that much. Just use a few.

Things to avoid include tough garden clippings because it takes a long time for a worm to chew through them and meat, because that attracts vermin. But dog hair and vacuum cleaning bags are fantastic. Then put the lid on to seal it.

If the worm farm is too dry and has ants, then add vegetable matter that rots down and some water to ensure it isn't too dry. Little vinegar flies hovering means it's too acidic, so add some lime and ruffle it up a little.

After four or five months the worm casts or vermicast on the bottom level will be ready to use. It�s powerful stuff. To get the worms out before putting the vermicast onto the garden, just put them in the sunlight and scrape the top layer of the worm castings off. The worms will then tunnel down to get away from the sunlight. Use vermicast wisely because it is potent. A piece about 10cm is enough to put around a shrub or pot plant. Just sprinkle it around plants and they will love it.


Many people think worms are yucky, but in fact they are quite clean. They have no known diseases and their digestive system destroys pathogens. The job they do cannot be compared to anything else. If everyone had a worm farm our compostable garbage would be reduced by 1 tonne per person per year. That's an amazing amount and worms do it all for you. They are really fantastic - so happy worm farming.

I used to do it. Most of the above stuff is true. However, this stuff about kitchen garbage will get you some maggots and a heckuvan odor. The maggots were no REAL problem but my wife didn't like it.

I used a G.I. metal wall locker with a lid. The lid will keep the cats from using it for a latrine. I used good top soil with about 25% peat moss to help hold moisture. Keep it moist but not really soaking wet. About every couple of days, scratch a couple of long holes from end to end and put in corn meal, oatmeal or whatever. Put a couple of layers of newspaper over the whole works and wet it down. They can out reproduce welfare recipients. Ants will kill every worm in the place so watch out for them.

My grandpa used to use an ole broken deep freeze. Worked perfect! just good soil, he would occasionally throw some cornmeal in there and he used grass clippings from mowing the yard to keep the moisture in the dirt.

grandpa put coffee grounds in his worm farm