The Power of Worms

by Bud Green

Red worms (commonly called red wigglers) and brown-nose worms can be used to compost food scraps and paper. Worm compost bins have been called organic garbage disposals. The worms live in paper bedding into which kitchen scraps are placed. They eat both the paper and the kitchen scraps and excrete worm castings. Castings are far more potent than compost made from a backyard pile. There are more nutrients in castings, and they are in a form that makes them even more readily available to vegetation.

People often question why this process doesn't smell. It is actually the rotting portions of decaying food that stink. In worm composting, the worms eat the rotting portion. The fresh portion is then exposed to the air and begins to rot. The worms eat it as it rots. As long as you don't put in too much food for the worms, they will eat the food as it rots. Therefore, there is no rotting food left to create an odor. (If your bin smells, you are providing the wrong kinds of food or too much food.)

Acceptable foods are: fruit rinds, cores and peels, grains, vegetative matter, egg shells, coffee grounds and filters, tea leaves and bags. They like materials high in cellulose such as sawdust, leaves, paper and cardboard. I have read that they like breads, but mine won't touch bread.

Unacceptable foods are: Oils, cat and dog feces, meat, cheese, butter, animal products, fish, paper with colored inks. Materials will be eaten faster if you chop food wastes first.

Worm castings can go straight onto the garden or pot plants. If they are covered with mulch, their moisture and nutrient content will be conserved.

An excellent liquid fertilizer can be made from (vermicast tea) worm castings by adding water until the moisture looks like weak tea. African violets and other plants that like being fed from the roots love this mixture.

Many municipalities prefer that food wastes NOT be composted in the backyard compost pile. This restriction helps with issues of pests and odors. A popular way to compost food wastes and small amounts of paper is a worm compost bin. Vermicast, or worm poo, as it is sometimes described, contains millions and millions of beneficial microbes. Beneficial, that is to the soil and to the plants and crops that