If you'd love to have and produce some organic compost fast, then you better try vermicomposting. Worm composting can be efficiently done at home. It can either be made indoors (you can do some composting with worms under the kitchen sink or inside your garage or basement) or outdoors (by a nice shade in your garden, just as long as the worm bin isn't hit by direct sunlight). Do make sure that they're always kept in places where there's room temperature. Extreme temperatures such as wintry conditions can also post harmful to your compost pals.
Now compared to their other worm cousin, the nightcrawler worms, red wigglers (also known in their scientific name of Eisenia Foetida) are actually the most favored when it comes to vermiculture. Not only are they more efficient and more faster in their composting jobs (they help reduce the typical composting time of 240 days to just a month's time), they are also surface dwellers. This only means that they don't burrow as much, and are typically fine with cramped-up spaces. They won't mind being with a bunch of worms, all squirming together in one bin (unlike nightcrawler worms).
When vermicomposting, also make sure that you have the following essentials to keep your red wigglers alive, happy and thriving; and these are ventilation, bedding, and organic scraps for food. If you have a Rubbermaid tub that has a lid on it, (or anything similar to that that you can recycle and use into a make-shift composter), use this as an improvised composting bin. Make sure that the container is dark enough since worms can be very sensitive to bright lights. Now, ventilation is a necessity so make sure to drill holes near the top surface. Drill holes under the bin as well to make way for proper drainage of excess water inside the bin.
Other than ventilation, the bedding (can be composed of some soil, newspaper or cardboard shreds, crushed egg shells and coffee ground) is important as well. You should know that red wiggler worms have slimy and moist skin; and they rely on this to be able to breathe. So it's a necessity to keep the bedding materials damp but not soaking wet, so that these worms may be able to live comfortably. Take note that when the bedding is left dry, then the worms can get smothered by this. Now if it happens to be drenched with water, then you can potentially drown all the worms in the bin. So try to achieve a bedding that is like of a wrung-out sponge. This will keep things balanced.
And just like any other living thing, red worms also rely on food to grow and develop as well. So if you want to produce nothing but nutrient-rich and high-quality vermicompost (castings from worms can be instantly used as an organic fertilizer for your plants and soil) out of your worms, then you better feed them nothing but organic stuff. You can feed them kitchen scraps (scraps from vegetables, fruits, bread, newspaper strips, egg shells, coffee grounds, tea bags) and garden wastes (days old plant-eating animal manure, dried leaves, flowers, grass clippings, some soil). Also take note that vermicomposting worms cannot be fed with human or pet manure. Also don't feed your red wigglers stuff that aren't biodegradable, or things that have dairy, meat, oily stuff in them.
| Price : $50.00
