The Gentleman Vermiculturist

Bedding is so important for your worms. It's where they hang out when they're not eating. Or they're eating their bedding. It provides a safe place for them to hide if the conditions in your worm farm are less than favourable. So what do you put in the bin for your worms to live in? The following list is not exhaustive, but it's a good place to start. Regardless of what is used for bedding, it should always be prepared. Typically this means soaking it in water for (about) twenty-four hours before putting it on the farm and then leaving the bedding for a couple of days to settle down. If you can add a bit of bedding from another farm, it will kickstart the microbe population. Leaves collected and kept dry.  For new worm beds, soak the leaves in non-chlorinated water for a few hours then pour off the excess water. Dried leaves are both eaten by the worms and decompose naturally. This also serves as a pest guard when adding food. And they add a fresh, forest flo...

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not. Every evening I read my daughter to her sleep. One of the books that we read is Dr Seuss' amazing environmental manifesto, the Lorax . Little Miss Four will often fall asleep before the story is finished. I will usually read on to finish it. Today I was assembling some raised garden beds from upcycled palettes. And as usual, my mind was wandering and I narrowly missed my thumb more than once. I started to think about that quote from the Lorax, Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It's not. The word that really jumped out at me was "Unless". And I started to think about the ABC series, the War on Waste, and some of the hideous waste and pollution that happens everywhere. Other things, like the damage to the soil we grow food in from constant chemical fertilizers, have only just become obvious to me. You could easily lapse...

Common knowledge says that there are certain foods you should not feed to a worm farm. By searching around, we know that bread, meat products, onions, pineapple and other things are really bad for our squirms. Or are they? Worms have been eating organic material for a few years now, so it’s reasonable to say that they can probably eat all the things that we shouldn’t put in. However, the experiment is massively interesting to see played out. There’s a group of people on Facebook called Experimental Worm Fun . Their credo is: We have all heard you can and can’t or should and shouldn’t, as it applies to worm composting. One of our goals is to put those supposed limits to the test. Another of our goals is to share the testing and the results with anyone. One of the members has been experimenting with feeding onions to her worm bin. Lilia has been trying to safely compost the onions with worms. The Experimental Onion Bin Lilia is not only running the experiment, but she’s...

Our soils are rapidly degrading. The levels of organic matter decrease year after year and we are supplementing it with harmful fertilizers instead of using natural solutions, like worms, to rejuvenate the soil. The worm’s castings are the most amazing natural soil amendments. Organic waste sent to landfill is covered over and rots in the ground. In the ground it does not get enough oxygen and turns anaerobic. The leachate produced leaks into the local ecosystem where it can cause all sorts of damage. They are an excellent tool for teaching kids about recycling organic waste and the environment. What kid DOESN’T love getting dirty and playing with worms? Nutrients, including minerals and trace elements, consumed by the worms are reduced to their most usable form. The castings have a neutral pH of 7.0. The worms are actually refining the organic materials it consumes. Worm castings make the soil more absorbent, making moisture more consistently available to plants and preventing so...

This is the big question that keeps coming up in forums, on Reddit and various Facebook groups.  What do I do with the run-off from my worm bin?  Isn't that the Worm Tea that we've all heard so much about?  Do worms actually wee?  Many people believe that the runoff is the worm tea that we've all heard about. This is incorrect and can be dangerous! To start with, worms have neither kidneys or a bladder, so it's not worm pee. The runoff in the reservoir is moisture that has collected and drained through the worm bin. Leachate is the result of the decomposition of the organic waste that's fed to your worms. It may contain phytotoxins (that can harm plants AND humans) and are created by bacteria that aid the decomposition process. This waste liquid is being released from the cell structure of the organic waste as it decomposes. Don't worry!  Every worm bin has a mix of good and bad microbes and as long as the good outnumber the bad, everything is okay. ...

WHAT IS VERMICULTURE? Worms have been around for a really, really, really long time. There is a belief that they have stunted evolution as they have attained evolutionary perfection for the task that they perform. They help to improve water and airflow into the soil and break down organic matter in the ground. Behind them, they leave a trail of superfood that plants can use to grow. Their poop is commonly referred to as worm castings and is a very valuable type of fertilizer. Vermiculture or vermicomposting is the use of worms to create compost. The worms will consume any organic matter in their way, including decomposing vegetable or food waste and bedding materials. The end result is then known as worm castings, worm humus or worm manure. I think poop works fine. Although, as a gentleman vermiculturist, worm castings are more acceptable. The worm castings contain water-soluble nutrients and is an excellent, nutrient-rich organic fertilizer and soil conditioner. Vermicomposting ...