Step by Step guide on Vermicomposting process
Don`t throw away edible leftovers like peels. 50% of the municipal garbage is leftover/discarded food put into plastic bags. It falls into the gutter and starts smelling. It brings rats to the area. Cows, dogs, crows, monkeys die eating the combination of vegetable and fruit waste and plastic, glass, wooden, metal, rubber, Don`t throw away dry leaves or burn them and then buy cattle dung from dairies or packed dry manure which turns out to be drainage soil .If you want to grow vegetables or flowers in pots for balconies, or find the best manure in the world for your grass, these discards will come in handy. They will also save all the little insects, bring butterflies around the house and make your plants bigger and smelling/tasting wonderful.
How can you convert the garbage at our home to useful manure in a small place? Start a Vermiculture composting project. Vermicomposting is the process of using worms and micro-organisms to turn kitchen waste into black, earthy-smelling, nutrient-rich humus. Worms work twenty-four hours a day. 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 excretes worm castings. This compost is the best thing for any soil. It is perfect for potting soil and stimulates root development in plants. Vermi-compost contains nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, sulphur and magnesium. Sounds good enough to eat!
The composting process can take as little as one month but it depends upon the techniques used.. The materials used are all waste from your home such as cut grass eaves, hedge cuttings, food scraps like vegetable waste, fruit peelings, crushed egg shells, coconut jute, paper waste and other water soakable waste.
This is what you should do:
1. Choose a place: Worms need to breathe; they should be kept away from the light as they need a dark and moist environment. The temperature inside the bin should not cross 32 degree centigrade or be less than 12 to 15 degree Centigrade. While worms love moisture, keep your bin away from a place where it could flood. This bin should be kept in cool, shady places like under the wash basin in the kitchen, garage, basement, and a shady corner of the balcony or garden.
2. Before deciding on your bin size, weigh your household food waste for one week
3. When deciding what size container to purchases use the rule of thumb: one pound of worms will eat about 1 pound of food every two days and 1 square foot of bin surface area will hold about 1 pound of worms. The bin does not have to be deep (6 to 8 inches, max) because the worms will be in the top 3 to 4 inches.
4. You can make a rectangular/square box out of wood, tin or plastic. You can get an old crate. Or an opaque plastic tub. Recommended size of the bin is 12" length x 10"Width x 10"Height. When making a bin, length and width is more important than height of the bin. One square foot of surface area is required for approximately ½ Kg of food waste to be composted per week. Many people choose to have several small bins as opposed to one heavier, large bin. Small bins are easy to tuck under tables, below kitchen sinks or verandahs.
5. Make small holes all over the tub to provide air to the worms. Drill holes at the bottom to avoid water accumulating at the bottom of the bin. Put a tray with sand at the bottom. Or raise the bin on bricks or wooden blocks, and place a tray underneath to capture excess liquid which can be used as liquid plant fertilizer.
6. If the bin is indoors, a sheet of dark plastic or burlap sacking placed loosely on top is sufficient as a cover. For outdoor bins, a solid lid is preferable, to keep out scavengers and rain
7. Now prepare the bed for the worms. Two thirds of the bin should be filled with bedding like shredded cardboard, newspaper, moss or dry leaves which can soak water. Soak the bedding with water in another container. Before putting the bedding in, squeeze the water out from the bedding as much as possible. The bedding should feel like a well-wrung washcloth. Spread it in the bin. Mix in a little soil, sawdust or broken eggshells to provide grit. If the bed smells sour it`s too wet. Your bedding needs to remain moist. If it is drying out, use a fine mist and dampen the bedding again.
8. The amount of worms you put in the bin all depends on how much garbage you`ll be adding to its each week. Red worms are available at nurseries or at the State Horticulture Department. You need about a ½ Kg of worms for every ½ Kg of kitchen waste per week. Worms double their populations every 90 days, if they have adequate food and moisture
9. Allow the worms to settle down for a week before you add food. You can feed any cellulose food like sawdust, leaves, paper, and cardboard apart from your kitchen waste. Do not pour oil from your pan or animal feces, Worms won`t eat meat or bones. What worms like are vegetable, fruits, cereal leftovers, peels, seeds, eggshells, crusts, tealeaves, coffee grounds. If your bin smells, you are adding too many unacceptable foods. Remove them the smaller you chop the material the quicker it is eaten. Make sure to cover the waste with the bedding
10. Before feeding check the moisture level in the bin. If you find excess water, use paper to soak it. If you find the bed dry, spray water on the bedding.
11. It will take time for bacteria to form and your bin can quickly become very smelly if you add too much food, too fast. In the beginning, add a very small amount of gritty material and a small amount of vegetable matter. Don`t worry about the worms starving because they will be eating bedding as well. You can gradually increase the amount of food as the bin becomes established.
Depending on how fast the worms work you can take out the castings once in 2 months. The worms should be separated from the casting without hurting them. Always use gloves.
These are different ways to take the fertilizer out:
a. Shine a bright light into the bin. The worms will move to the lower layers of the bin. Remove the top layer of casting. Each time you remove some bedding, the worms will be exposed to the light and they will keep migrating down to the bottom of the bin. Pick out any wigglers or worm eggs (small, opaque cocoons) and return them to the bin. Refill the bin with fresh layers of moist bedding and food.
b. Move everything in the bin to one side of the bin slowly. Clean the other side of the bin. Shift the partially decomposed materials into the other side. Place food on the top. Cover the food with freshly soaken paper strips. Close the lid and leave it for few days. Worms will move to the new lot of food bedding. Remove the old casting from the bin.
c. The easiest method to separating the worms from the compost, stop watering two to three days before emptying the beds. This will force about 80% of the worms to the bottom of the bed. The rest of the worms can be removed by hand.
d. Three weeks before you want to harvest the vermicompost put a 1/8 to 1/4 inch screen over the bedding. Put the new scraps of food on top of the screen. After about three weeks there should be a couple of inches of food, vermicompost, and worms on top of the screen. Lift the screen out of the bin along with its contents. Dump the rest of the bin on a piece of plastic, add new bedding to the bin and put the contents that were on top of the screen into the bin. Look through the contents on the plastic sheet for the few worms that might remain and put them back into the bin.
Repeat the process. Don`t mix fresh cow manure into your bedding. This will heat up the bedding and cook your worms. You may notice other creatures besides red worms. Most of these are helpful because they help breakdown the materials
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