Growing Worms: How to Build Your Own Worm Ranch

If you've ever been fishing you'll know what a nuisance it is trying to buy decent worms. Why not grow your own worm ranch? Growing worms can be interesting and educational for kids. Worms are extraordinary creatures who are vital to maintaining a healthy garden, as well as a good fishing trip.

Building Your Worm Bed:

To make a healthy, rich worm bed you will need to take your car and trailer to a horse farm and pick up some manure. A standard 6ft X 4ft trailer will be ample. If you don't have much room, decrease your load to half quantity. Having selected the area to put the bed, hammer in a few wooden pegs and make walls for 3 sides by simply standing some old iron up. The pegs will hold these sheets of iron in place. Shovel your manure into the bed, and sprinkle in your worms.

*Caution: Do not buy horse manure which comes from freshly drenched/wormed horses, the chemical will kill your worms.

It is best to keep your worm bed covered up to protect it from drying and to prevent weeds from growing out through the manure since it will contain grass and weed seeds. You can use brown cloth carpet underlay, the type under most old carpets is best as there are not the chemicals in the fabric as there are these days. Spray with the garden hose, over the carpet and repeat once weekly, or enough to keep the soil moist enough that it clings together when a handful is squeezed. Buy a couple of small tubs of worms to get your worm farm started. You can buy them at any large store where hunting equipment and fishing licenses are sold for about $5 per tub.

If you're keen to get tarted but need to do it on a smaller scale, take your bought worms and load them into a large storage tub. These can be bought at department stores or discount stores. You will need to drill lots of drainage holes in the bottom. Worms cannot tolerate copious amounts of water and they will drown very easily and become smelly.

Feeding Worms:

If using the tub option, and manure is unavailable, use some clean fresh dirt from your garden and make some worm food using the following recipe:

-One part dried full cream milk powder.

-One part wheat germ.

* Sprinkle it on top, don't mix it into the soil.