Vermicompost (also called worm compost, vermicast, worm
castings, worm humus or worm manure) is the end-product of the
breakdown of
organic matter
by some
species
of
earthworm.
Vermicompost is a nutrient-rich, natural fertilizer and soil
conditioner. The process of producing vermicompost is called
vermicomposting .
Vermicomposting organic waste is an environmentally friendly and
sustainable method of dealing with an organic waste problem, it
is equally effective in small or large domestic, agricultural or
industrial situations with the benefits of comparatively little
capital outlay and low management and maintenance costs.
The basic principles are the same in all situations and that is
the waste is added to a bed of material that contain sufficient
worms to digest the organic matter.
Worm facts
·
Worms will consume between 50% and 100% of their own weight in
food per day.
·
They will digest anything that has ever lived.
·
They multiply rapidly.
·
Worms do not get diseases.
Worms feed on the micro organisms that are responsible for the
decay in organic matter, any organic matter will grow these
organisms, some materials are better than others, some are so
slow they are best avoided all together, as the saying goes "if
it has ever lived, worms will compost it" to be more accurate it
should be "if it has ever lived, it will rot and worms will find
a meal!" In the domestic situation we are looking at kitchen
waste, garden waste and often overlooked, paper and cardboard.
Kitchen waste should really be limited to vegetables, raw or
cooked the exception being any vegetable that is a member of the
onion family, including leeks, these must be thoroughly cooked
first and mixed with other materials. All fruit can be fed to
worms but again all citrus fruit will need thoroughly cooking,
particularly the peel, when citrus fruit is fed raw it is often
assumed that it is the acidity of the fruit that causes the
problem to the worms, this is not necessarily the case, all peel
has a substance called "d-limonene" (the vapour that sprays out
when you are peeling it) it is harmful to worms but is driven
off when thoroughly cooked. Cooking and "mashing" all fruit and
vegetables is to be recommended, it will decompose faster,
provide a bigger surface area on which the micro organisms can
grow and is therefore processed quicker by the worms.
Used tea bags, coffee grounds, small quantities of bread can all
be fed. Avoid dairy products, fat, grease and oil, meat and fish
and bones, not because the worms will not compost these items,
they will, but they will attract unwanted pests, flies etc.
Any decaying organic matter that is really smelly (not a problem
to the worms!) once the worms start to process it, the smell
quickly disappears, if a worm system is working effectively
there is no smell.
Garden waste such as leaves, dead plants, grass clippings etc
can be put into a worm bin but this usually slows the whole
system down, particularly when woody material is involved, large
quantities, certainly with grass clippings can cause real
problems, even with small gardens the amount of waste after an
afternoons gardening will overload the average domestic worm
composting system, by far the best method is to pre-compost
these materials in a traditional compost heap or bin and then
feed the partially composted material to the worms, this way the
micro life is already well established and the worms can deal
with it much quicker, the same applies to the rabbit or guinea
pig hutch cleanings.
Newspaper, office paper, paper bags etc (avoid glossy magazines)
cardboard can all be shredded and added to the system, in fact
this material plays an important part in providing the worms
with a balanced micro life diet! Paper and cardboard are also
helpful when the bin has become too wet by mixing in shredded
paper or cardboard it will absorb some of the moisture and
aerate the bin.
The earthworm species (or composting worms)
most often used are Brandling Worms (Eisenia
foetida) or Red Wigglers (Lumbricus
rubellus). These species are only rarely found in soil
and are adapted to the special conditions in rotting
vegetation,
compost and
manure piles. Composting worms are available from mail-order
suppliers, or from
angling shops where they are sold as bait. Small-scale
vermicomposting is well suited to turn kitchen waste into
high-quality soil, where space is limited.
In addition to worms, a healthy
vermicomposting system hosts many other organisms such as
insects,
mould, and
bacteria. Though these all play a role in the composting
process, the earthworm is the major catalyst for the composting
process.
Vermicompost
is beneficial for soil in three ways:
Vermicompost can be used to make
compost tea, by mixing some vermicompost in water and
steeping for a number of hours or days. The resulting liquid is
used as a fertilizer.
This
article is licensed under the
GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from
Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
