Download Let Worms Eat Your Garbage, and Improve Your Soil!!

Wondrous World of
Worms!!
Rhianna Simes
OSU Land Steward Coordinator
Vermicomposting
Vermi-culture- is the artificial rearing or cultivation of earthworms
Worm bin- is any container that holds earthworms, their bedding
and food (used in vermicomposting)
Vermicompost- is the excreta of earthworm, which is rich in
nutrients, necessary for healthy plant growth (aka castings)
The Chinese character for worm
translates to ‘Earth Angel’
“Feliz como un lumbris”
Earthworms are also called ‘nature’s plough’
“It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have
played so important a part in the history of the world as these lowly
organized creatures” (Charles Darwin 1881)
Earth worms are amazingly strong,
and can easily shift stones 60 times there own weight.
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4400 named species of earthworms
on this planet
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Broken into three categories, largely
descriptive of their habits in the soil,
endogeic, anecic and epigeic.
Worm species and categories
Endogeic-
• Epigeic-
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Lateral burrows
Rarely surface
Eat soil
Medium sized
Anecic-
Live in top soil
Prefer loose organic litter
Feed on surface debris
Do well in dense populations
Ex: Eisenia fetida
(night crawlers, Lumbricus terrestris)
Permanent lateral burrows 6ft+ (personalized)
Build midden mounds near burrow entrance
Have little retractable hairs (setae)
Very large with less pigmentation
Worms in the soil
• They took human sewage slug, cow dung and rice
straw and composted it with worms.
• They checked it for deadly bacteria.
• They found it contained all 7 of the deadly bacteria,
(ecoli, etc.).
• They checked every 7 days
• At the end of 35 days, all the deadly bacteria had been
destroyed through the process generated by the
worms.
• Study of Earthworm activity, India, 2006
Advantages of Vermicomposting
• Vermicompost is an eco-friendly natural fertilizer
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Prepared from organic waste
Free to produce
100% natural and organic
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It improves soil aeration, texture and soil tilth
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It increases the water retention capacity of soil
• Keeps food scraps out of the landfill
• Does not take much space
• Great way to get rid of sensitive documents
• Nutrients are available immediately
• It is fun!
Anatomy of the Earthworm
Interesting Worm facts:
-Both male & female organs
-Have 5 hearts
-Breathe through their skin
-Baby worms are hatched from a
worm egg called a cocoon
-Use their pharynx to make their
food small enough to eat
Life Span
• Red wigglers can live for three or four years.
• Each worm can release 100 or more eggs per
year, and two or more young worms hatch
from a single egg.
• A baby worm takes four to six weeks to reach
sexual maturity.
Building a worm bin
Similar ingredients to composting:
1. A container with air holes
2. Kitchen Scraps or yard debris
-Fruit peels, veggie scraps, old
flowers, grains, or cereal
3. ‘Bedding’ or dry, organic material
-Newspaper, coco fiber, straw, or
leaves
4. A bit of native soil
5. A protected place to keep them
Worm bins
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Don’t have to be fancy or expensive
Any container with air holes will work
Avoid temperature extremes
Examples of common bin styles:
Coolers make great outdoor bins
What do I feed my worms?
• Fresh or decaying organic material
– anything found in natural world (with exceptions)
• The smaller the pieces the better
• Examples: fruits, old food, leaves, veggies, grains,
pasta, grass, & other plant matter
Avoid:
-Overloading your bin with citrus or fruits with a lot of seeds
Seeds will often re-sprout
Worms do not want to eat
»Dairy Products like Cheese and milk
»Synthetic fibers or plastic
»Sugary foods like cake and cookies
»Animal meat
»Manure from carnivorous animals
( like dogs, & cats)
What ‘bedding’ should I use?
• Shredded newspaper
• Old documents (no colored inks)
• Old cotton rags, sheets, blankets
• Dry leaves
• Coco fiber
• Straw
Avoid magazine or glossy pages, lots of colored inks,
& synthetic fibers
Layering your worm bin
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Start with bedding
Then add organic material / veggie scraps
Add your worms
A little native soil
Then more bedding
Repeat layers
Note: Always end with
bedding to prevent
flies and bad smells
Always end with bedding
Helps reduce fruit flies, bad smells, and retains moisture
Worms crawling up the sides of the bin
• Take the lid off and let the bedding dry out a bit
• Add crushed egg shells to reduce the acid level in the
bin
• Mix shredded newspaper in with the bedding (the
worms may be lacking air space).
• Moisten dry bedding so it is slightly damp.
Other creatures in the worm bin
• Spring tails (look like little grey mites)
• Pot worms (tiny, transparent worms)
• Soldier Fly larva (segmented, tan)
Avoid letting flies, gnats, earwigs, centipedes, or beetles in your worm bin
Separate worms
from their castings
Methods for Harvesting Castings
• There are many ways to harvest worm castings:
1. dump and sort
2. let the worms do the sorting
3. divide and dump
4. alternate containers
Dump and Sort
Migration Method
Worms go towards food and away from the light
Creating Sections
Bag method
Optional: Screen castings
Utilizing your Worm Castings
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Use an old spoon or cup to scoop out castings
Put in your watering can = tea
Top dress potted plants
Add to vegetable garden
Create tea bag and soak in water
Amend old potting soil
Applications in the garden
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Make sure worms have something to eat
(Tidy gardens = less food for worms)
Avoid tilling, instead work soil with a digging fork
Mulch, Mulch, Mulch!!
Leave roots in soil at end of season
Add organic matter at least 4 times per year
Avoid plastic and landscape fabric
Maintain soil moisture
“Without the work of this humble creature, who knows nothing of the
benefits he confers upon mankind, agriculture, as we know it, would be
very difficult, if not wholly impossible” Charles Darwin
Case Study: Ruch silty loam?
What happened?
Organic Matter is KEY!
Other Questions?
• Can I put kitty litter in my worm bin?
• Can magazine pages go in the worm bin?
• Should I put paper napkins in my bin?
• Can I dig up worms from my yard and put them in a worm
bin?
• What sense can I use to easily trouble shoot my worm bin?
• What do I add on top to food scraps in the bin?
• How do I encourage worms in my garden?
Resources
• Worms Eat My Garbage
– Mary Appelhof
• The Worm Book
– Loren Nancarrow
• www.worms.com
• www.compostguy.com
• www.vermiculture.ca
May the Worms be with you!
• For more information or to purchase worms
• Worm sales benefit the Land Steward program
• $20 per pound
Please call or email the
Land Steward Coordinator
[email protected]
*541-776-7371 x226
Living On Your Land
1-day educational conference
th
Saturday, April 5 2014
For more information email [email protected]