Wiggly Wigglers, the company who have been encouraging us to compost with worms as a means of recycling our food waste for decades now have recently started selling a completely different type of wormery, the Subpod, which they have kindly sent me to try out.
Previous wormeries, such as their Urbalive (stylish enough to be used inside) system, are tray based and can be positioned anywhere. However, the Subpod changes all that, as it is buried in the ground. This means there is no need to worry about excess leachate/worm tea when it rains, or escaping worms - the leachate will feed the ground around it and the worms will come and go as they please through the holes in the sides (designed for free movement of both worms and compost). This is great because the worms can escape to the surrounding soil during hot or cold weather, breed freely (they are limited in space in a standard wormery), as well as aerating the surrounding soil, helping it thrive and become the best growing area possible. And then, when conditions are right/they get hungry, they will come back to feed on your waste, turning it into vermicompost (black gold) you can use elsewhere in your garden. Once running smoothly you will find they rarely go anywhere as they know a good thing when they see it.
The Wiggly website describes this a lot better with:
Being underground, Subpod creates a natural environment for compost worms. Having access to the soil means they can feed and breed as rapidly as they like, because there’s always room for their population to grow. Soil is an insulator, and in hot weather, compost worms will instinctively escape into soil to cool down. As the weather turns cold, it will keep your worms warm and active during winter (as long as the soil doesn’t freeze). Every time your worms leave Subpod, their movement aerates your garden soil and increases its nutrient content.
Setting Up
The starter kit includes 1kg composting worms, a 2kg bag of worm treat, 2kg lime mix for helping regulate pH, 500g of rock dust and a coir block for starting off the bedding.
Note: Before starting soak the coir block in a bucket of water as it can take a while to absorb the water and be ready to use as bedding. Leave for up to 24 hours to be sure though it can be ready a lot quicker.
The kit consists of the base, that can simply be unfolded and clipped together. It can be quite stiff so a little bit of force may be required - make sure when you do that everything lines up nicely so you don't damage the moulded plastic, though it is quite sturdy to be fair and can take quite a hammering.
Once together remove the mats and prepare to fit the lid. Now this can definitely be fiddly and was a lot harder (for me at least) than Subpod lead you to believe. Line up the hinges very carefully and make sure they clip into place. It may be better with an extra set of hands to help keep everything lined up when clipping the lid into place. I found this a bit of a pain on my own, but that could easily just be me!
Once the lid is clipped into place you can fit the middle section (again, I found this a bit fiddly) and then the hinge so the finished product looks like this:
Use your fingers to pull gently on the hinge so the lid can be closed
Siting the Subpod
And now the really fun bit - where to site this. Ideally it will go in a raised vegetable bed but you can place it in a border, or pretty much wherever you want really. Now it's quite big at 75cm long, 45cm wide and a height of 43cm (32cm of which will be buried underground) so you will be sacrificing some growing space. However, the ease of access, improvements it will make to the soil and the fact it really does make a great garden seat all work in its favour. And I've been meaning to expand my growing area anyway to grow more veggies at home so...
So now in situ, the coir starter bedding can be added. I placed a good few inches of shredded paper in the bottom before adding in the coir and mixing it all together, as this gives the worms that bit of extra bedding. I should add my coir was quite wet so the paper was damp rather than dry when the worms were added.
Soaked coir block mixed with shredded paper
Worms added
Once the worms were added I put another layer of slightly dampened shredded paper in and then covered with the supplied mat which helps with both moisture levels, insulation and allowing them to work in the dark (which is how they work best!).
Summary
I'm really looking forward to seeing how well this wormery works as it is completely different to my current tray based ones, and at least it's one less to worry about when it rains. The others require regular emptying of the sump to avoid the worms drowning and are all moved somewhere sheltered in the winter to avoid freezing temperatures. With the Subpod, and plenty of bedding for insulation the cold, wet, winter months shouldn't be a bother at all.
Other advantages, taken from the Wiggly website, are:
- Smell-free and pest-proof
- Composts up to 15kg of food waste a week
- Suitable for households of 1 - 6
- Dual compost chambers
- Effortless 5-minute-a-week maintenance
And finally, the packaging is cardboard and can be recycled, either shredded and used in the wormery or compost heaps/bins or via your household waste recycling. Being the perfect size the box has been laid as a path to my compost bins to avoid muddy feet thanks to the lovely UK weather.
For further information and the options available please see the Wiggly Wigglers page at https://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/collections/subpod-in-garden-compost-system
