By ANNE LENOX BARLOW, Cornell Co-op Extension
I love the idea of composting my yard and kitchen scraps.
Between composting and recycling, the amount of trash my family produces is drastically reduced. In addition, composting creates a wonderful soil amendment that provides plants with essential elements, holds moisture and promotes proper soil aeration. What could be better than that?
My answer — vermiculture, which, simply defined, is raising earthworms. All earthworms consume decomposing plant matter. In other words, they eat our garbage. I like using them as a way to dispose of my kitchen scraps for more than just the novelty, though.
FAST EATERS
Earthworms process waste materials at a much faster rate than even the most well maintained compost pile. One pound of composting worms can process a half pound of food scraps every day! Like compost, their waste material, or castings, is a rich soil amendment. Worms can live in your basement, laundry room or even in your kitchen, making access to your composting area easy. In addition, they continue to eat your scraps and produce compost all winter long.
But before you dig up some worms from your garden and bring them inside, here are some guidelines that will make vermiculture more rewarding. The first is locating the correct type of worm.
There are approximately 1,800 species of earthworms on this planet that fall into five different scientific groups. Only a few types interest the vermiculturist. Some that are commercially produced are nightcrawlers, field worms, red worms and manure worms.
Nightcrawlers — large earthworms found in fields and lawns — are popular with fisherman but are slow to reproduce and require special production. So they are not a great choice for worm composting.
Nor is the field worm, (also known as the garden worm), which is not a prolific breeder. This type is also produced for fishermen.
Red worms and manure worms are the worms most often produced for home composting. They are prolific breeders, eat (for their size) large amounts of organic material, live at the surface of the soil/organic material and are easy to maintain.
GENTLE HANDLING
To keep composting worms, often referred to as red wrigglers, simply get a container such as a 15-gallon plastic bin. Drill holes in the side for ventilation and bed with moist shredded newspaper, coconut coir, shredded leaves or peat moss. Keep the container in a dark location with a temperature between 55 and 80 degrees. Add worms and continue to add food as it is consumed.
Handle the worms gently; they are easily crushed. Remember to keep them moist because they breathe through their skin. Also keep them out of the sun as it dries them out and kills them. As the worms eat their food and bedding, push them and their casting to one side. Add new bedding and start feeding them on that side of the bin. Over time, they will migrate over to the new bedding and you can add their castings to your houseplants and gardens.
To learn more about composting with worms, contact your local extension office for more information. Besides being an efficient way to process your kitchen scraps, having a container of worms in your house is a great conversation piece.
Anne Lenox Barlow is the horticulture educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension in Clinton County. Office phone numbers: Clinton County 561-7450, Essex County 962-4810, Franklin County 483-7403. E-mail questions to: askMG@cornell.edu.
