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If you have been searching for a way to exercise your “green” thumb jump into this fun and unique world of “vermiculture.” or “vermicompost” is an organic gardening process of natural composting using earthworms, known as the Red Wriggler (Eisenia fetida). The Wrigglers transform food scraps into rich compost and liquid fertilizer. It is the perfect hobby to support the “cradle-to-cradle” return of organic matter to its origin, mother earth.

It is also perfect for small spaces. The worms only need about 1 square foot of surface area to digest each pound of waste material generated per week. Supply your worms with a container, some bedding material, food scraps, and the worms do the rest.

They consume food scraps, hair, and dust reducing organic waste by 25% in about 60 days; and produce worm castings, which contain the richest form of fertilizer known to man. Concentrated worm castings are very potent fertilizers and must be mixed with potting soil or water to dilute the concentration. Worm castings promote higher than average growth in plants and are rich in phosphorus, nitrogen, and trace minerals.

To start your new worm venture you will need the following supplies:

· Compost Bin (DIY or commercially available)

· Compost Scrap Keeper (Holds food scraps, ceramic or stainless steel)

· Bedding Materials

· Food Scraps

· Worms (Red Wrigglers or Nigh Crawlers)

Compost Bins

You could make your own DIY worm compost bins but to keep things, clean, easy and well-organized, I would suggest investing in a commercially produced vermin-culture compost bin. They are well worth the money spent.

Vermiculture Compost Bins automatically separate food scraps from finished compost, and most-importantly, does not need to be emptied or restarted like some DIY bins. Some recommended vermin-culture compost bins include:

· The Expandable Worm Tower

· Worm Condo

· Worm Bungalow

· Down Under Farm Worm Compost Bin

· Pet Poo Converter and Worm Compost Bin

· Friendly Habitat Worm Compost Bin

· Advanced Biosafe BioSystem

Other helpful accessories to look for are worm bedding (good if you are new vermiculture), a compost scrap keeper (ceramic or stainless steel), soil moisture & pH meter, compressed coir fiber bricks (bedding) and the “Compost and Worm Reference Wheel”

Worms

Oh and of course, don’t forget the worms, Red Wrigglers or Red Worms (tolerate a wide range of environmental conditions) and/or Night Crawlers (feed on deeper parts of the bin) will do the job. A mixture of the two will create rich and abundant worm castings.

Bedding

After you have made or purchased a compost bin, you can fill it with bedding. The worms prefer a cool, moist, but well-ventilated, dark environment between 50 and 80 degrees. Worms shun light and are photophobic—they shun both sun and artificial light, burrowing as deep as they can to flee the light. Heat and sunlight will dehydrate the little Wrigglers and all you’ll end up are “fried” worms.

The bedding material can be peat moss, aged manure, sawdust, dried grass clippings, hay, garden loam, coir (coconut fiber), straw, damp newspaper, Hessian, cotton rags, aged horse/cow manure (fresh manure heats up) shredded cardboard, newspaper, grocery bags, and most types of shredded leaves. Oak and other highly acidic leaves are not recommended since these worms don’t like an acidic environment. Stay clear of inked and glossy papers, since they contain toxic substances which can exterminate your Wrigglers.

Keep in mind the worms have a hearty appetite and will eat whatever is put in front of them, including the bedding.

Feeding

Worms will eat ½ their weight of food each day. Be careful to not overfeed your worms. Like you feed your family, only feed them once they have partly eaten their previous food. This means no desert before dinner. Worms lack teeth and prefer their food mashed, chopped or pureed.

Worms need a variety of foods, and greatly appreciate a well-rounded diet. Worms will happily consume fruit and vegetable scraps/peels (except citrus fruit, onion, garlic and chilies), tea bags/tea leaves, coffee grounds and filters, crushed eggshells, newspaper, cardboard, egg cartons and shredded/soaked pizza boxes, old flowers and small amounts of garden waste, pasta, rice, wet bread & cereal, hair and small amounts of dust from vacuum cleaner. Avoid onions, garlic, citrus, dairy products, seafood, meat, oil, and pet droppings, or the wrigglers will run for the hills.

Worms

The Red Wrigglers are the hardiest, fastest reproducers of the vermin culture world they efficiently gobble up waste and create worm castings. Well-fed worms reproduce even faster, at an alarming rate. They double there population in 3-4 months. Young red worms are a shade of white but turn red at maturity.

Harvesting Worm Castings

Harvesting the compost is easy, just push the bedding and worms to one end of the box and fill the other end with fresh bedding and table scraps. Within a few weeks, the worms will munch their way over to the fresh food and you can scoop out the compost from the deserted side of the bin.

With commercial vermi culture compost bins, the work is done for you; just collect worm casts from the bottom trays, and fill the top trays with food.

If you find that cultivating worms and worm castings are not your thing, you could always take the day off and hang a sign on the worm bin that says “Gone Fishin!”

How to make your own organic fertilizer

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