Worm composting or vermiculture is the way of composting using worms in the compost to decompose the organic waste material. Worms eat this organic food scrap and it turns into compost as it passes through their body. Having worms in the compost in a healthy state is an indication that your compost is doing well. Also, worms do speed up the overall process of composting to some extent.
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Also, Worm Composting is not very hard to do. You can do it in your garden or if you don’t have a garden, you can do it on your balcony also. All you need is the following 3 things:
- Some kitchen organic waste,
- A place or a box where you can put it, and
- Worms
Once you have these three things in place, all you have to do is wait for a few weeks till the worms create the organic waste into vermicompost.
However it’s not that easy to do worm composting, you need to take proper care of the environment and compost area to make sure that worms remain healthy and are working fine on the organic material.
How to prepare the bin for composting?
To prepare a bin for worm composting, you should know what kind of environment worms like.
Worms preferred Environment:
- Earthworms are majorly present in rainforests. They like moist environments and fresh water. But make sure that your compost is not waterlogged, it’s not good for worms and compost.
- Use newspaper stripes or browns to prepare the base of the compost as it helps retain required moisture making it friendly for the worms.
- Keep the compost in a warm place, not too hot or too cold. Just a little warm. Somewhere between 55 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit will be the ideal temperature for worms.
What material to use in Worm Composting?
We suggest you use raw kitchen waste like fruits and vegetable leftovers. Chopping down the leftovers for the worms can work on a larger surface area which ultimately decreases the time of composting.
Do not use meat or cooked or dairy products as they are a little hard and time taking to decompose. Also, cooked food contains oils and other greasy material which is hard to decompose. Also meat and dairy can also attract harmful pests for your good worms. So it’ll be better if you really avoid adding them.
How do you know if the worm compost is ready?
After 3-4 months of composting, check if your worms in the compost are looking healthy and the compost isn’t smelling bad. If you see dark brown earthy soil-looking material at the lower part of the compost. Then that is what you should be looking for, the compost prepared by your worms.
If you’re only using kitchen raw scrap of fruits and vegetables and you have totally favourable conditions for your worms, it should take less than a month for the worms to convert the waste into compost.
Using Worm Compost
Mix with the Soil
Using worm compost is easy. You can mix it with your soil and you are good to go. You can plant any plant in worm compost mixed with soil.
Pour at the top of the plant
You can put a handful of Worm Compost on the top of your plant’s soil every 3-4 weeks so that with time it dissolves with the soil and the plants will get the required nutrients.
Use Worm Compost Tea
Mix 3-4 spoons of Worm Compost in the water and keep it for 5-6 hours to prepare Compost Tea. Then sprinkle it over your plants so they get the nutrients.
What to do with the Dead Worms
Worms are 85-90% made up of water so when a worm dies, it’ll just mix with the compost to be a part of it and will eventually provide nutrients for the plants.
