Guide To Vermicomposting

Yard and food waste make up a major component of solid waste in most municipalities throughout the United States. Although much of this organic waste can be recycled in the backyard using traditional aerobic backyard composting techniques, these techniques are not appropriate for apartment dwellers and are often inconvenient, particularly during bad weather in the winter.1 Vermicomposting, or composting with earthworms, is an excellent technique for recycling food waste in the apartment as well as composting yard wastes in the backyard. Worm bins located near a hot water heater in the garage during the winter will save many a trip through the snow to the backyard compost bin. Letting worms recycle your food waste also saves your back, because you don’t have to turn over the compost to keep it aerated. TYPES OF EARTHWORM The most common types of earthworms used for vermicomposting are brandling worms (Eisenia foetida) and redworms or red wigglers (Lumbricus rubellus). Often found in aged manure piles, they generally have alternating red and buff-colored stripes. They are not to be confused with the common garden or field earthworm (Allolobophora caliginosa and other species). Although the garden earthworm occasionally feeds on the bottom of a compost pile, they prefer ordinary soil. An acre of land can have as many as 500,000 earthworms, which can recycle as much as 5 tons of soil or more per year. Redworms and brandling worms, however, prefer the compost or manure environment. Passing through the gut of the earthworm, recycled organic wastes are excreted as castings, or worm manure, an organic material rich in nutrients that looks like fine-textured soil.

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