Vermicomposting: compost made by worms

The vermicomposting technique consist in using the end-product of organic matter produced by some earthworms, to create an compost worm aerator for the soil, the vermicomposting does not produce heat and besides making compost we can use the worms we breed to aerate the Garden soil. When trying to reach a compost pile of high quality, we can even use these technique after we have an already made compost pile.
Things we need to make Vermicompost:

• Bin
• Bedding
• Worms
• Organic Material

Worm Bins or Tumblers

Vermicomposting bins must be solid, opaque (because worms don't like direc sunlight), it must be closed to avoid leaking certain smells and keep away the flies and other undesirable insects. Besides, the bottom should have draining and ventilating holes. In case the vermicomposting bin is left outside, it's advisable to treat the bin surface with special paint and and the inner side of the vermicomposting bin could be treated with wax. To maintain the perfect aerobical conditions the horizontal bin extension is much more important than the depth.
The relation between size and organic matter should be: 1 square meter per 10 pounds of kitchen waste added. For the vermicomposting process to be eficient enough we need 3 pounds of worms per 10 pounds of organic material in the compost pile. If the amount of worms is little compared to the amount of orgnaic material, the vermicompost will produce undesirable smells, until the worms reproduce.

Bedding in Vermicomposting Bins

Bedding is the living medium for worms and also the place where they obtain part of their food. Bedding provides the earthworms an aerobical medium capable of maintaining humidity.
Between the materials that we can use are: newspapers, aged animal manure (vegetarian animals), saw, straws, dried leaves. We must never use glossy paper because it contains toxic materials.

What kind of worms to use to make Vermicomposting

Genus Name: Eisenia
Species Name: Fetida
These worms are better known as: red wiggler, manure worm, tiger worm etc.

Worm Feeding

These worms only feed on kitchen waste, they are not able to compost Garden waste, because the temperature produced by these king of organic matter would kill them.
Between the regularly used material for feeding the worms are: fruit , fruit peels, bread, eggshells, coffee grounds. Never add to many acid fruit peels,

Vermicomposting worms Care and maintenance

The red wigglers are more comfortable in a dark medium, humid and with moderate temperature.

• Red wigglers don't like light, that is why the vermicomposting bins must be tapped.
• The medium must be humid but not wet, we must bear in mind that worms are aerobical beings, that is why water should not be present.
• Worms tolerate temperatures between 55 to 70 degress farenheit. (13 and 25 ° celcius)
  

Harvesting the vermicompost

The vermicompost contains worm excrement, and little amounts of organic decomposed material, and partially decomposed material. In order to obtain a vermicompost with higer amount of worm waste, the vermicomposting bin could be left alone for a while, but this technique is risky, because the worms could died in the absense of food and the toxicity produced by their own excrements.
There are several methods to separate the vermicompost:
The first method is setting apart the bedding material until covering half the vermicomposting bin., a division must be put as we lay more bedding with food in the other side. After a while we can expose the other side to direct light so the worms go deeper and we can extract the vermicompost ready to use.

Compost Recipe: the organic materials mixture

When making a compost pile , the deposited remnants must always be mixed. There shouldn't be a layer separation between fresh materials or dry materials, in order for the compost pile to age properly, all the elements must be mixed. The compost pile doesn't have to be turned in a daily basis, but only when a considerable amount of organic material is added, for example grass clippings, autumn leaves or dry, straw-type material.
Now, if we want to build compost to it's highest quality the compost recipe and compost ingredients should be as follows:

• Three parts of fresh organic material, higher in "green" nitrogen content (kitchen organic waste, fresh green plant residues, grass clippings, fresh green leaves, fruit trimmings, vegetarian animal manure)
• One part of materials, rich in "brown" carbon content (dry leaves, straw, wood chips, cardboards, etc.)
  

In case we deposit little amount of organic material to our compost pile every day, mixing the compost once a week it's ok.

Never add non-vegetarian manure to the pile (like pet waste or human waste). Hope this compost recipe is useful to you and your soil , I will be adding more articles in the next days.

You may want to read the following introductory articles to know a little bit more about home compost:
Organic compost
Homenade compost

Organic Compost - Organic Waste Recycling through composting

Organic compost constitutes an organic waste treatment method that, besides recycling matter that otherwise woul pollute water streams and lands, can give our kitchen garden the lost organic matter through years of intensive activity, closing this way, nature's life cycle.
Composting is an oxidative process that takes place in anaerobian conditions over a group of solid organic materials through the action of several and varied microorganisms. This decomposition of organic compost requires certain air, humidity, temperature and ph conditions that favour the microorganisms work. As a result of these decomposition processes takes place mineralization of part of this organic matter and the stabilization of the remmants, obtaining what is called organic compost (stabilized organic matter similar to humus), and also C02 and water.
The use of organic compost as a soil amendment, constitutes much more than a simple fertilization, because is not only adding nutrients and organic matter, the compost improves the structure and soil properties, acting over water retention properties, draining, soil airing, or nutrient retention so it is available for the plants.
Besides, it is an incentive for the existence of microorganisms that do their own recycling work.

Homenade Organic Compost

Even though industrial composting can carry certain risks due to the presence of toxic substances, if we make organic compost at home, we can choose our own compost materials. We must choose waste remmants of natural precedence, that cannot be polluted with toxic substance. Ususally we will use plant based material, from grass clippings and pruned trees and shrubs, as well as organic waste from our kitchen (potato shavings, carrot tops, etc). The use of animal excrement, can be beneficious for a high quality organic compost made at home, but could also be dangerous, due to the presence of patogen microorganisms, that cannot be eliminated if we not control accurately the organic compost process and we don't keep temperature above 65 º centigrades for a long enough period of time.


Besides, the excesive use of plant based material that is still very new, fish remmants, meat or other matter rich in proteins, will yield a putrefaction process instead, that we must always aoid.
In case we have enouh ground to fertilize in our garden, it is convenient to make our own organic compost piles. If the enviromental conditions are not good to let the compost piles outside, we have several compost bins or compost trumblers made of
many different materials and sizes that can help us keep our organic compost pile in optimal conditions so the compost pile it' ready to use, causing you little inconvenience.

Compost - The "green" option for your garden

Chemical Fertilizers intensive use is nowadays, one of the main sources of pollution in water streams and lands. Even though its efectiveness is very high, we shouldn't forget that nature can provide us with natural fertilizers coming from the life cycle itself. This is the case of compost, an ecological alternative for your garden or kitchen garden.
Organic waste is also polluting, specially when its disposal is not under control, that is why we must consider this a useful resource and recicable.
It makes sense take advantage of the...of grafting, rotten fruits or vegetables making fertilizer with these, thanks to the land's natural cycle, that transforms in....the dead organic matter.

Making Compost

Compost is the result of organic waste decomposition.
Traditionally, all the vegetable rests from the kitchen garden were disposed in some kind of bin, then were heavily sprayed with water and finally covered, letting oxygen make its work until the organic waste became humus, in rich organic matter for the soil.
We must always mix the organic matter, we don't have to make different layers for fresh organic materials and for other material. That doesn't mean we have to remove the compost in a daily basis, but only when disposing a large amount of organic matter, for example when we have grass or dead leaves.
Making organic compost is a natural way of fertilizing the ground. Something very curious about this is that the natural decomposition process produces a nice smell, remenbering us the woods.
When trying to make a good compost, it will always be up to the amount and variety of plant rests, but as a general rule we should since we start to deposit the organic matter until we pick up compost, we will have to wait between 3 or 4 months. And in case we are looking for mature compost we must wait two more months. We can tell wheter the compost is in its early stage or mature because of the amount or organic matter that still keeps its shape, in its final stage, all this will be gone.

Normally we should water the compost so it stays wet and we help the organic matter decompose. Optionally we could add a compost biological accelerator to reduce the waiting time from 4 to 2 months.
We can find in the market the so called compost bins, tumblers specially designed to produce organic compost. If we use a compost trumbler, it's advisable to use the accelerator when we fill the compost trumbler to its maximum capacity.

Garden Compost

The advantage of compost containers is that we don't have to worry about spraying with water, as long as it is exposed to the directly to sunlight. Something we must never do is watering with large amounts of water.
We don't have to add extra soil to the compost, this would obstacle the oxigen circulation inside the compost container. We are just trying to obtain is 100% organic compost, not a mix of soil and compost.
The traditional way of composting, used the very same ground as a container, putting extra layers of soil above so the animals were not attracted there.
The compost containers also run with the advantage of not needing electricity to work. They do not require any maintenance and are specially designed and built to stay outside.

Once the compost pile is ready

We now need a sieve to separate the thin compost from the rest organic parts that may remain. Once sieved the only thing we have to do is choose the soil in which we want to put the compost.