Vermicomposting creates high-quality organic soil building compost called castings, and those castings can be mixed into potting soil, added directly to the soil or it can be brewed into a compost tea to unleash a slew of beneficial microbes that help our garden explode in growth and health. 

In the summer of 2019, while growing hemp I had applied a shovel-full of worm castings in the season when the plants were full-size bushes, just before flowering. What was so amazing about this application of worm casting was where I applied an inch or two of worm casting the roots shot up into this nutrient. I was amazed at how quickly the roots shot up into the worm castings. This is why we call it black gold, its powerful stuff that plants love. Taken one step further it can also create an amazing garden tea full of beneficial microbes that we can feed onto our houseplants and garden.

The benefits of worm castings range from readily available nutrients to our plants, soil building qualities such as aeration and drainage of soils, as well as suppression of disease and pests. A study by Arancon et al 2007, showed that almost all their soil mixes containing vermicompost were able to suppress aphids, mealy bugs, and spider mites (2).

Vermiculture has been gaining popularity and now with the coronavirus pandemic, interest in vermiculture has skyrocketed. There are reports of Cities receiving an increase in garbage from residential units. Does this mean we are looking at all this extra garbage we don’t usually notice during the week, while we are away from the home and tossing our waste in works communal waste cans? But now being stuck at home we are wondering how we can turn that old bag of spinach into rich food for our house plants?

Well, if that is true. Good news!

Vermiculture is a small-scale solution to composting that can be done in any small apartment (or large-scale operation). Vermicomposting is such a simple, rewarding, and affordable way to produce rich organic plant food from your waste. It’s actually probably the easiest livestock to raise and can be done almost anywhere and in the end, we are left with rich casting or simply worm poop.

How does it work? Well….

Worms eat the waste; the worms gut bacteria and mucus break down that food waste and the worm poops it out as castings. The end product is nutrient ready nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and lots of other available micronutrients plants need.

To get started, first we need to make sure we are getting the right worms. As much as we love garden worms tunneling around in our gardens, they are not the powerhouse of vermicomposting systems. Who you want, and can easily order are Tiger worms.

Red wigglers or Tiger worms (Eisenia fetida) are a group of epigeal worms that are pros at eating up compost. In fact Epigeal means “above soil,’’ so these guys have this large apatite and thrive in systems out of the soil. this is what makes them so good at composting in our homes.

The indoor systems work by creating a home for the worms that has bedding and enough room to add scraps from the kitchen. The size will depend on the number of scraps you will produce and the available space where you are. Vermiculture systems can be homemade to suit your needs or purchased in varying sizes for those in an apartment, small scale organic farm systems, to large composting operations able to produce tons of castings.

5-gallon tubs would be the smallest size you would probably want to go, and 30 gallons will be your upper limit. Keep in mind that you may need to lift or move the tub full of worms and food.

Again, Things you will need.

• Bedding, either coco coir, shredded leaves, shredded newspaper,
•  A tub or commercial system.
• The worms. Eisenia fetida or common name, the red wiggler or tiger worm.
•  A cool shady place, they are Happiest around 55 degrees Fahrenheit and above 90 they are in a danger zone.

You can order your worms right away. That’s kind of step one. Without the worms this is going to be impossible. Once you have your worms and the system you are going to be housing them in, you got to start feeding them. And now, worms can eat their body weight a day I’ve heard, but we don’t want to add food too fast. So, start light, don’t go crazy the first feeding. If you have a pound of worms try adding ½ pound in the first feeding. If you do go crazy and add too much feed right away a few bad things can happen.

The first can be that the food begins to rot and build up heat in the compost system, which is what we do not want. The worms will be using their energy to find a safe and cool place to be, usually around the edges. So be safe and start slow with the kitchen scraps. Your end goal should be learning how much your worms are going through in a week and giving them a fresh bit of scraps every 5 to 7 days. You’re not going to starve your worms overnight.

The second problem that we often run into is too much moisture in our system. Worms breathe through their skin, so having the right moisture level will be important to worm health. We want to keep the bins just above 50% moister. This is where you squeeze it and you get some drips of water out of it. If you pick up some of the material in the worm-bed and it's dripping wet, it’s too wet. To fix this add a bit more bedding material mentioned above.

One last problem we can run into is an acidic environment, so use caution when adding highly acidic foods such as citrus peels to your system. In fact, we are almost safer just avoiding citrus. Keep it to other fruits and veggies. And be aware of how much water can be released by the scraps we add. Some scraps such as pumpkin and really ooze out some liquid and turn our system into a mucky mess, so always accommodate additional coco coir or newspaper/cardboard shreddings.

Once you get your system going it's going to take a couple of months to get enough casings to use. And how much to use depends on your preference and how much you have available.

One study found that vermicompost can represent 30% to 50% of soil volume before they no longer positively affect plant growth (1). This is great because Vermicompost can be used anywhere, as a top dressing for house plants or field crops as well-brewed into a compost tea.

When made into compost tea, this stuff is powerful. By brewing the tea, and creating an aerobatic environment we are creating a whole slew of nutrients and beneficial bacteria that supercharge your soil and plants' ability to ward off disease. A study by pane et all, 2003, showed that the use of compost tea helped reduce disease among tomato plants (3).

I will be discussing compost teas in a later post so stay tuned if you looking for some tips and ideas.

But for now, this all simply means, the more vermicompost you make the better, it's almost hard to overuse this organic matter, and it's so easy to put together and succeed.

Refrences used in this post

(1) Blouin, M., Barrere, J., Meyer, N. et al. Vermicompost significantly affects plant growth. A meta-analysis. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 39, 34 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-019-0579-x

(2) Suppression of two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae), mealy bug (Pseudococcus sp) and aphid (Myzus persicae) populations and damage by vermicomposts

(3) teas showed high biological control ability, both in vitro and in vivo, against three tomato pathogens: Alternaria alternata, Botrytis cinerea and Pyrenochaeta lycopersici.(Pane et all, aug 2020)