Hi, I purchased a worm farm at the beginning of the year. I have two questions which I hope you can answer. One, at what point do you start to get the worm tea? I have lots of castings but no liquid. Two, the worms keep going down to the base. Why is this? I usually collect them and put them back into the top where they are meant to be. Is that okay to do? Thanks.

Hi Wendy, 

There are several reasons for worms to not move up. If it is too hot, the worms move down but will move back up when temperatures cool, however as it is winter, it probably isn’t that reason. If you're putting too much new food in before they have eaten the previous food this can also cause worms to go down. Give them time to eat the scraps before adding more. Worms move up to the surface to eat as that is what they naturally do. Also, if the contents of your worm farm have become acidic then the worms will migrate down, use Tui Worm Farm & Compost Conditioner to rectify this, especially if there are white speckles in the worm farm.

In terms of worm tea, are the contents of the worm farm moist? There is a lot of moisture in food scraps, but if the worm farm isn’t producing tea, you may need to sprinkle some water on the food scraps to moisten it. If you use shredded paper or cardboard in the worm farm you will definitely need to add a sprinkling of water. Make sure you don’t drown the worms - the bedding should be very moist, but not dripping wet. You may need to sprinkle water over the bedding for a couple of days to get the moisture level right, but take care not to add too much water.

Thanks, Tui Team