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vermicompost
3 months ago  ::  Sep 02, 2009 - 1:46AM #1
james
Posts: 37

vermiculcture is a method of raising worms, usually red worms in boxes and feeding them kitchen waste and organic matter to build vermicompost, worm castings, worm humus or worm manure. this pooh is an excellent, nutrient rich organic fertilizer and soil conditioner. It can be used as water-soluble nutrients and or a soil inoculant, vermicompost is said to be one of the best know manures next to guano.


worms can eat their own weight in one day, so a pound of worms could turn a pound of waste to one of the best organic composted manures. The benefits of vermiculter  go beyond the greatness of plants and  soil health/biology; vermicompost also has economical and environmental benefits as well.


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermicompost 


this link explains more and gives a nice amount of infromation on vermicomposting.


I built a worm bin not to long ago and i thought id share my new hobby. I was told that is quite easy to do and from what i have learned, it pretty much is.

I made my bin very similar to the one in this link
www.associatedcontent.com/video/90056/ho...

Its built out of a old rubbermaid i had sitting in my garage.
All i had to do was drill some holes on the sides and the bin was done.
The holes are to help aerate the bin and prevent excessive water from drowning my worms.



 


the worms prefer to be kept in a moist, cool, shady environment and should be fed daily or every other day with kitchen waste or organic matter. Bedding is recommended for worms to live happily and can be made by well shredded paper and or loose organic matter.


soaked shredded papersoilless potting soilpeat mossfresh finished compost


 


I used both shredded paper soaked in ACT, mixed with peat moss, finished compost, soilless potting soil and parshley composted material. I also added a hand full of dolomite lime, fish meal, kelp meal and moistened the bedding down with aerated compost tea (ACT).


soil amendmentsACT
I then added some worms that I collected from my garden soil and also added some red wigglers i got at the garden store.


small red wigglers


After adding the worms I then added some unfinished compost, coffee grounds, crushed egg shells, corn meal, bread crumbs, freshly chopped up food scraps and organic matter collected in the garden; fennel, marigold, basils etc.



total price was 10$, that was spent only on the red wigglers..


vermicompostworms getting biggerworm foodgetting bigger 3rd weekanother layer of fooddone and ready for sifting


  im hooked, i really enjoy this and the worms eat like mad. I have been adding material every week to every other day..but not in mass amounts!!
i add a thin layer of material on the surface, IMO less is best and from experience with composting; its not a good idea to add mass amounts of green or brown material. BALANCE is key
(actually all my compost bins never smell bad because of this simple rule!)


how i harvest harvest 

First i moved all the vermicompost to one side of the bin.
I wanted to collect the sifted finish compost on one side (empty side) and use the vermicompost on the other side to sift.
the mesh screen 


the mesh screen perfectly sat on top of my bin and you can see that i used a divider to help with dividing finished from unfinished.(preventing worms and chucks from falling or crawling to the sifted side)


getting my hands dirty
I placed the vermicompost on the the screen and used my hand to genly sift the vermicompost threw the screen. Worms don't like the light and many run to the bottom of the bin. The ones that don't either get hand removed or wiggle there way threw the screen.


mesh screen
the screen collects uncomposted material and chunks on the top, and fine finished vermicompost falls threw the mesh to the part of the bin i divided for harvesting.
After some time i got tired and called it quits, but i still got a very very nice fresh product, for tea brewing



By the way, the bin never ever smelled bad ,the only smell i get from this bin is a earthy good organic compost smell. The way my fished homemade or ORMI purchased compost smells
Even when the organic material isnt done composting yet, no bad order!! 


those who are interested i say give this type of composting a try, the benefits are worth the effort and IMO its fun.

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