“Vermicompost is the product of composting. It utilizes various species of worms, usually red wigglers, to create a heterogeneous mixture of decomposing vegetable or food waste, bedding materials, and vermicast. Vermicast, also known as worm castings, worm humus, or worm manure, is the end-product of the breakdown of organic matter by a species of earthworm. Containing water-soluble nutrients, vermicompost is a nutrient-rich organic fertilizer and soil conditioner.”
-Wikipedia-
Worm Composting, also know as Vermicomposting is a really simple, clean and odourless way to deal with one of our most important problems: garbage. Instead of getting rid of your organic wastes and increasing the volume in your local landfill, you can use your kitchen scraps to feed your worms and make your own castings. At the same time, you will be reducing the amount of the dangerous greenhouse gas, methane, in our atmosphere. Vermicomposting is fun and a great way to teach all ages about simple steps to make our world a better place.
When you see the results of adding castings to your garden or house plants, you will realize that there is no need for chemical fertilizer. It’s a great natural fertilizer that you can create in your own home!
Red Wigglers (Eisenia Foetida) are the most popular worms used for composting. They’re also called red worms or manure worms. These worms are the composting champions because in the right conditions, they will process half their weight in organic waste every day! Red Wigglers are also extremely prolific, so a small amount of worms goes a long way! Unless you need to compost a large amount right away, you don’t need more than one, two or even ½ pound of worms to start. In the right conditions, they will double in population within three to four months.
Because of these hard workers, composting with worms is a very easy process. Everyone can be successful in a variety of spaces and budgets. We carry a composter system designed specifically for vermicomposting. However, a basic plastic container will also make a compost bin. Composting takes little time and even less money and once you have your worm composting system in operation, it’s free for the rest of your life!
Composting with worms is becoming popular for a few simple reasons:
- It is the best way to compost whether you live in a house or condo.
- The process is speedy.
- The worms do all the hard work!
- No more problems with animals getting into your outdoor compost.
- It is a great tool to teach your kids composting, recycling and dealing with living creatures.
- Our composting systems can be used by corporations and commercial kitchens because of their high processing volume.
Composting with worms helps to speed up the process of composting. Especially in Canada, traditional composts piles will slow down or even stop processing in winter because of the cold weather. In the summer, we still must monitor the compost pile to make sure it not going to get too dry (which stops the composting process too). Even when all the conditions are looked after properly, we still need to turn our outdoor compost. On the other hand, worms are really easy to look after. They keep on eating and they eat a lot!! You can expect your worms to process up to half of their weight every day.
Please go to Caring for Your Worms to learn about the few basic things you need to know before you are ready to begin your system at home.
