Vermicompost - Organic and Natural Products

VermiCompost

- VermiCompost Means Composting with Worms. Usually Red Worms.

Worms - Use of worms to produce organic fertilizers.

Organic Kitchen - Use of home wastes to produce Fertilizer

Compost Box - How to compost ?

Compost Bin and Piles - How to build and install a Compost Bin

VermiCompost FAQ - Frequent questions about compost and worms

Red Worms - California Red Worms

Vermi Compost: It is 100% pure eco-friendly organic fertilizer. This organic fertilizer has nitrogen phosphorus, potassium, organic carbon,sulphur,hormones,vitamins,enzymes and antibiotics which helps to improve the quality and quantity of yield. It is observed that due to continuous misuse of chemical fertiliser soil losses its fertility and gets salty day by day. To overcome such problems natural farming is the only remedy and Vermi compost is the best solution.

Vermi Compost or Vermicompost :

Vermicompost is a solution for produce a organic fertizer using Kitchen wastes. This organic material can be converted to a rich humus with the help of redworms.

Most kitchen waste or table scraps, any vegetables, grapefruits, orange rinds, apple peels, lettuce and cabbage, celery ends, spoiled food from the refrigerator, coffee grounds, tea bags, egg shells are all suitable worm meals.

Vermicompost - Is also called - Worm Compost - Vermicast, or Worm Manure or VermiCulture is end product of the breakdown of organic matter by special varieties of earthworms. Vermicompost is a nutrient-rich, natural fertilizer and soil conditioner. The process of producing vermicompost is called vermicomposting .

The earthworm species (or - composting worms - ) most often used are Brandling Worms (Eisenia foetida) or Redworms (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 - Small scale vermicomposting is well suited to turn kitchen wastes into high quality soil where space is limited.

In addition to worms, a healthy vermicomposting system hosts many other organisms such as insects, molds, and bacteria. Though these all play a role in the composting process, the earthworm is the major catalyst for the composting process.

Vermicompost properties - Vermicompost, also known as worm castings and vermicast, is very different from compost produced in compost piles by bacterial decay,and is much richer in many nutrients. Worm compost is usually too rich for use as a seed compost, but is useful as a top layer of soil or an addition to potting composts. Some types of pitted seeds are reportedly easier to germinate when placed in vermicompost for several months. Vermicompost is beneficial for soil in many ways:
It improves the physical structure of the soil.
It improves the biological properties of the soil (enrichment of micro-organisms, addition of growth hormones such as auxins and gibberellic acid, and addition of enzymes, such as phosphates, cellulase, etc.).
It attracts deep-burrowing earthworms already present in the soil. Vermicompost - 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.

Temperature - The worms that are used in composting systems prefer temperatures between 55 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit (c. 12-21 degrees Celsius), and temperature of the bedding should not get below freezing or above 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius).

Feeding methods - There are basically two methods of adding more matter to the bin or box.

In the first method, known as top feeding, organic matter is placed directly on top of the existing layer of bedding in a bin and then covered with another layer of bedding. This is repeated every time the bin is fed.
The other method of feeding is known as pocket feeding. In this method a top layer of bedding is maintained and food is buried beneath. The location of the food is changed each time and often the bin is fed in more than one location. As bedding runs low more is added. Vermicomposters often use a combination of both methods. Sometimes unburied food can attract fruit flies.

Problems

Odors - When this occurs it is usually due to the overabundance of "greens" in the bin, which is actually too much nitrogen combining with hydrogen to form ammonia. To neutralize the odors you want to add a fair amount of carbon to the mix. The carbon will instead absorb the nitrogen and form a compound that is not smelly. Paper and dried leaves are good sources of carbon. Take note - too much carbon added slows the decomposition process considerably.

Pests - certain types of material, as well as odours from these, can attract pests such as rodents and flies. This is especially true if the loading contains lots of kitchen waste, especially meat. This problem is largely negated if a sealed bin is used where the pests cannot access the material. Most domestic vermicomposters are advised by local authorities to avoid the problem of pests by avoiding using materials that attract them rather than relying on special containers. Ants can become a problem as well. No-see-um netting can be used. Regular mosquito window screen is too large and lets fruit flies and possibly ants in as well.

Note: Red Wiggler worms are not native to North America. They are an invasive species and have become naturalized in most of the globe. Do not dump worm-containing compost in natural areas as they can have the effect of displacing the native worms.

Worm compost or vermicompost. These denominations worm humus, vermicompost and worm composted are used for worm castings, a smooth, crumbly, clean bio organic fertilizer, with a wet ground smell, stable for an extended period of time and without rottenness. The transformation of the coarse humus is made by the grinding and digesting of worms and by micro organisms that produce mass fermentation. But then the last transformation of humus is owed to the fundamental labor for worms attacking the wall cells of vegetals by means of its digest enzimes and altering the structure of the grain of rock and minerals. From all this process worms estract sap, calcium, magnesium and other elements eliminating them in larger proportions of those they were absorbed.

Compost - Physic characteristics - The compost have "coloidal" properties that besides increasing soil porosity and airy, contribute to the infiltration and retention of water as well as root development.
Chemical characteristics - Vermicompost powers cultivation incorporating nourishments to the root zone inmediately.
Microbiologic characteristics - Vermicompost estimulates bioactivity with the same beneficent micro organisms that soil has, but in greater quantities, creating an anthagonic medium for some pathogens ones, neutralizing toxic substances such as herbicide and insecticide remains. Vermicompost turns the nourishments soluble and in available conditions for plants absorption owed to the enzymes prescence incorporated. Without this prescence it wouldn't be possible any biochemist reaction. Worm humus controls dumping for its pH close 7 and its microbian life activity that does not allow the very best medium to pathological fungus development.

Container composting, Leaf mold, Spent mushroom compost, Sheet composting, High fibre composting, German mound

Worm Digest - includes articles on vermicomposting, links to suppliers and a discussion board

Worms Eat My Garbage (ISBN 0942256107), by Mary Appelhof. A "how-to" book on starting and maintaining a vermicomposting bin.

TheGardenForums : composting and vermicomposting community and forums

GardenWeb: vermicomposting forum - For discussions of vermicomposting and vermiculture

Solid Waste at Klickitat County Site - Contains plans for Continuous Vertical Flow Worm Bin - See OSCR JR. links on this page

Vermicompost and Worms - Frequent asked questions - FAQ

There are more than 1,800 species of earthworms in the world. The African giant earthworm can grow to 7 metres (22 feet).

Most worms are very small, but there can be as many as 1 million per acre.

Tunnelling earthworms let air into soil. This allows plant roots to grow more easily.

Aerated soil also absorbs water more easily, reducing the risk of soil erosion.

Worms expel what they eat as casts. Casts look like spaghetti mounds. They are higher in essential plant nutrients (like potassium) than ordinary topsoil.

Worms can regenerate. But a worm chopped in half will not re-grow into two worms. Usually it's only the head end that lives on.

Worms were one of the first multi-cellular animals to evolve. Fossil casts have been found dating back more than 600 million years. That's 300 million years before the dinosaurs.

Worms cannot see or hear. They have between one and five pairs of hearts and are mostly muscle. Pound for pound they can be 1,000 times stronger than the strongest man.

Want to compost your kitchen waste but don't have a garden? Try an indoor worm bin. The nutritionally-loaded worm casts can then be used as soil.