Composting & Worms
Home Worm Composting
Worms are fast. They take your kitchen waste and turn it into sweet-smelling compost in as little as two months. You no longer need to use synthetic fertilizers for your garden and flower beds because the compost provides the nutrition plants need. It also improves soil structure and adds beneficial microbes. Vermiculture, or worm composting, can be started in your kitchen or garage using worms and a few common ...
How to Make a Worm Compost Box
Vermicomposting --- feeding garbage to worms and collecting their waste to use in the garden --- is an effective and efficient way to turn food scraps, paper and yard trimmings into a rich soil enhancer. Apartment dwellers can compost with a worm box hidden under the sink. All you need for successful worm composting is a container, bedding material, organic food scraps, grit and a pound or so of hungry worms. (See ...
Large-Scale Worm Composting
Worm composting for a typical household usually involves a small storage tote or wooden bin with bedding and a couple of pounds of red wiggler worms, or Eisenia fetida. Large-scale worm composting requires a good stream of organic materials for the red wigglers to feed on. Thus, worm composting on a grand scale typically occurs either on farms that raise cattle, horses, sheep, poultry or rabbits to provide the ...
How to Compost Outdoors Without Worms
Vermicomposting, the practice of composting with worms, can be time-consuming, as you must feed the worms and maintain their living conditions throughout the year. Composting without worms is possible and is easiest if you can do it outdoors. Composting requires a contained area, either a section of yard for a compost pile or a compost bin. With this designated compost area and a few basic steps, you can create ...
More Articles on Composting & Worms
Using Worms to Make Compost
Known as vermicomposting, using worms to make compost is an environmentally friendly way to turn kitchen waste into a nutrient-rich material known as worm castings (see References 1 and 2). The process involves creating a worm bin in which redworms live. The worms consume organic items such as vegetable scraps then excrete it as castings. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 800 to 1,000 worms eat up to a half-pound of organic material each day (see References 2).
How to Compost With Worms Indoors
Vermicomposting isn't for the squeamish, and you've got to be brave to keep worms in your house. That said, a well-managed indoor worm bin is surprisingly sanitary, odor-free and productive. In one to four months, a healthy indoor worm bin will produce rich, nutritious castings that you can use as fertilizer for houseplants or garden beds. You can make your own bin or buy a commercial version, but it's up to you to take care of your worms so they can turn your kitchen scraps into fertile compost.
What to Put in a Worm Composter
Worm composting is a way to put food waste to good use by feeding it to about a thousand worms. To return the favor, the worms provide you with a batch of rich soil amendment every two months or so. The best part is that worm bins are so small -- requiring about a square foot per pound of waste -- that you can take advantage of this process where space is at a premium, even indoors. (See References 1)
How to Get Worms Into Your Compost
A healthy compost heap, the ultimate build-it-and-they-will-come setup for annelids, naturally attracts big, fat earthworms eager to munch on your mix of carbon- and nitrogen-rich materials. Their digestion turns it into vermicompost, which contains more minerals and nutrients than a commercial plant growth medium (see References 1, page 356).
How to Eliminate Spring Tails From Compost Worms
Worm composting, also called vermicomposting, is an indoor option for breaking down food scraps, paper and other organic materials. Even though your decomposing materials won't be exposed to outdoor elements, your worm compost bin may still carry microorganisms such as springtails. These insects are small, jumping mites that are beneficial to your compost bin (see References 1). They are harmless pests that will not damage your home or health; however, an overabundance of them indoors becomes a nuisance.
Can I Compost Chicken Poo If There Is Intestinal Worms in it?
A flock of backyard chickens not only provides fresh eggs for you and your family but also nutrition-rich manure for your vegetable garden. However, using that manure in the garden raises concerns of pathogen and parasite contamination. Properly composting and handling of chicken manure, especially poo that contains intestinal worms, eliminates the possibility of cross-contamination and the subsequent illnesses.
Banana Skins for Worm Composting
Worm composting, or vermicomposting as it's known in scientific circles, is a clean and convenient method for disposing of kitchen food waste. Outdoor composters can generate unpleasant odors and attract insects unless carefully managed. With a worm bin, worms do most of the work. As long as you don't give the worms more food than they can process, your bin should stay free of odors and flies. However, some foods can be problematic. Vegetables such as broccoli smell badly as they decompose, and banana skins can breed fruit flies (see Reference 1, page 69).
