![]() ![]() Even in a flaccid leaf, that may cause cellular damage that won't show up for a long time. “Red worms (wigglers or Eisenia foetida) are hardy, easy to handle and best for composting.There are several things wrong in that video, starting with bending the leaves. “Night crawlers tend to be solitary and won’t reproduce in bins,” Benoy said. Worm composting can be fun and easy, but it’s not simply a matter of digging up a few garden-variety night crawlers from your backyard, she said. “One pound of worms can easily handle three pounds of waste per week,” Benoy said. ![]() Add 500 grams (one pound) or more of hungry worms (that’s about 1,000 earthworms) and you’re in business. All you need is a well-ventilated container and some moistened bedding - usually shredded newspaper, computer paper or corrugated cardboard that can double as food. You can buy the product commercially or do it yourself. ![]() Worm castings contain five times the available nitrogen, seven times as much potash and one-and-a-half times more calcium than typical topsoil. Set them up for housekeeping in homemade tubs or specially made bins and you have the structure for a “wormery,” where the creatures will turn table scraps into a highly enriched organic soil amendment while expanding their population many times over. ![]() “It takes a bit more management, but the returns are greater.”Įarthworms spend most of their time reproducing, eating and excreting, which is where their “vermicastings,” or manure, comes in. “Vermiculture is a step up from working with the standard compost pile,” said Dorothy Benoy, who with her husband, Al, owns the Happy D Ranch Worm Farm at Visalia, Calif. Here’s a promising get-rich-quick scheme for gardeners: It’s called vermiculture, or worm composting, and along with supersizing crop yields, it cuts water bills, conditions soils and repels troublesome insects. ![]()
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