We have all heard of composting. Composting is simply the decomposition of organic waste like yard waste and kitchen waste into a very rich and nutritional dirt-like substance. Vermicomposting is very similar to composting, but vermicomposting uses worms to help speed up the composting process, resulting in a final product of a soil-like amendment which is literally loaded with nutrients for plants.
The first thing to know point out is that the worms about which we are talking are not your everyday backyard worms. Those little guys would die in a minute in a compost pile. The worms needed for vermicomposting are called Red Wrigglers. These Red Wrigglers love to spend their time in piles of manure and love eating organic waste, which is why they are so perfect for the job of vermicomposting. The worms that you find in your backyard garden are usually regular field worms which would not be able to survive in a pile of kitchen waste.
When considering what size bin you want to use, the container should be on the shallow side rather than really deep. It should also be wider than it is tall. The surface of the container should be about one square foot for every pound of waste you wish to place in it each week. There should be about 500 red wrigglers equaling about a half-pound for every cubic foot of the container. The container should have plenty of air holes, since air is necessary not only for the composting process, but for the worms' survival as well. There should also be holes on the bottom of the container to allow drainage. There should be a screen covering each air hole and drainage hole to guarantee that the holes do not become worm holes or compost holes as well as air holes and/or drainage holes. If you produce too much organic waste for one normal sized container, it is much easier to maintain several small worm containers than one really big one.
To keep your worms happy, it is important to make sure that they are in an environment with the proper temperature, ventilation, and moisture. The air holes should be able to provide the necessary ventilation. There should be enough moisture to give the compost pile the feel of a wrung out sponge - not too wet, but not too dry. The temperature should be room temperature. Although worms can survive in a wide range of temperatures, anywhere from forty to ninety degrees Fahrenheit, they will be the happiest and therefore do their best work if they are at a comfortable room temperature.
There should be bedding on the surface of the container. This bedding should consist of shredded paper if the container will remain indoors. If the container will be kept outdoors, the bedding can consist of shredded paper or organic yard waste, such as dried grass clippings, sawdust, mulched dried leaves, etc. Yard waste should NOT be placed in an indoor container, because they can cause the compost pile to heat-up significantly which may kill your worms.
You can feed your worms a large variety of foods. Red Wrigglers will eat just about any organic kitchen waste you may produce, including carrots lettuce, cabbage, celery, banana peels, and tea bags. Tomatoes, coffee grounds, and citrus peels can be added into the container but only in moderation, since the acid could kill the worms. They also like to eat small amounts of bread, pancakes, grains, and noodles. Chopping up the food before you put it in the container will help it decompose.
You should harvest the vermicompost every two months or so. You will know that it is ready to be harvested when you can no longer make out the waste or the bedding, since they will have already decomposed. A good way to harvest the vermicompost without taking out the worms is to shine a light over the pile. This will chase the worms deeper into the pile in about ten minutes. You can then scrape up the top layer of vermicompost. Keep the light on to chase the worms even deeper into the pile, and then take out the next layer of vermicompost, and so on. It is very important to not take out any worm eggs that may be in the pile. They will hatch and turn into more worms which could make your vermicompost pile better, or enable you to use them to start another vermicompost container.
Once you have the vermicompost out of the container, you can use it to help just about anything grow. You can add some into your houseplants; you can sprinkle it on your flowerbeds; you can add it into the soil in which you want to plant seeds; and you can even sprinkle it around your lawn to help your lawn grow.
When a gardener goes out to his fields to start planting, one of the top concerns that he has on his mind is what will potentially be able to kill his crops. Modern man has created many alternatives to natural protection of crops such as pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides which can be harmful not only to the soil but also to the people that eat the plants as well as the aquifers that hold our drinking water beneath the ground. One of natures natural fertilizers as well as insect and disease repellents is called a worm casting. These small nodules are created by red worms as they participate in the composting process, something that they naturally do and have done for millions of years. Here are a few ways that you can use worm castings to not only enhance your organic garden but also protect it from harmful invaders.
Redworm compost is used by many people as a source for organic compost. By simply feeding them some organic scraps from their garden, over a period of time these scraps are processed into a compost that can be used as a mulch or a fertilizer. As the worms process the waste into compost, they also create what are called worm castings. Basically, the poop of the worm, castings can be used for a variety of reasons.
Primarily used as an organic fertilizer, most organic gardeners rely on worm composting and castings to not only balance the pH levels in the soil but also to help retain as much moisture as possible, something that all worms need an abundance of. Unlike most fertilizers, castings will not burn plants or roots if used too much. Moreover, they act as repellents for both insects and diseases that may strike your crops without you knowing.
Worm castings also contain a great variety of nutrients that are used by almost all plants today. Some of these nutrients include magnesium, nitrogen, and potassium which are necessary ingredients for a healthy crop or garden regardless if it is organic or not. What is also interesting is the castings are almost like a time release capsule that will, over time, release the necessary water soluble ingredients into the soil thus making it possible to simply top dress the castings on the soil and allow them to disintegrate over time.
Another aspect of castings are that they have many living components such as aerobic bacteria, the good kind, and organisms that will actually take gasses such as nitrogen from the atmosphere and fix them into usable nitrogen in the form of nitrate, thus feeding the roots of the plants even more.
Castings are naturally harvested over time. They tend to move to the lower levels of the worm bin and if the worms and their environment are regularly aerated by moving the dirt around, through vibration and churning, the castings will fall to the bottom of the bin to be harvested.
Many people are confused as to what worm castings actually are because some people have been shown a bag of castings mixed with compost. Pure castings look like black sand grains with no compost or dirt mixed in. If you get a bag of compost, and there is anything that does not look uniform, like sand grains, then you know that the castings were also not sifted properly from the compost itself. Having a mixture of vermicompost and castings can be beneficial as it will provide a steady stream of fertilizer as bacteria continue to break down the compost over time.
As a general rule, you can spread 10 pounds of worm castings over 150 foot to 200 foot area and be assured that this will properly fertilize your soil in the days to come as it begins to break down in a natural way. Many people that have large gardens or if they are growing crops on a commercial level may have their very own red worm compost generating system where they can access thousands of pounds of castings in order to maintain the vast spread that they are growing.
Another way to extract the nutrients from the castings is to add water to them and aerate them, then spray this castings tea which is high in organic nutrients onto the leaves, called foliar feeding, and into the soil. This is used by those who will use the bacterial nature of the castings to fight outside microorganisms that may land on the leaves and begin to sicken or weaken the plant. These beneficial microorganisms will destroy bad bacteria, fungus, and molds that may be growing on the leaf surface.
If you ever do decide to create a little organic garden, be sure to find a way to get worm castings for your garden. If you like the aspect of doing very little manual labor to achieve compost and fertilizer for your garden then create a supply of vermicompost and spread the compost and castings over your garden soil. Then let nature begin to naturally decompose these castings, through regular watering, so that your soil will have the optimum amount of nutrients necessary for a successful organic crop.
Chris Dailey has sinced written about articles on various topics from Gardening, Organic Gardening Tips and Gardening. Chris Dailey is the owner of Super Organic Gardening Secrets, a free online service that provides valuable information on organic gardening and