Madison Courier, Madison, Indiana, on the Ohio River.
Thanks to worms, every day can be Earth Day. Every day a person can practice the ultimate recycling. Every day the vegetable scraps in the kitchen can be returned to the earth rather than rot in a landfill or take up space in a wastewater treatment plant.
Whether in a compost pile, a garden or a homemade compost bin, worms like to have a variety of foods, the right amount of water, no direct sunlight, and darkness. A little bit of dirt or sand to aid digestion, some used coffee grounds and a bit of paper - such as torn up newspaper - add more variety and comforts to their home.
In return, the worms help microbes break down what they've been given to eat. They aerate the compost when they crawl through it, which speeds composting, and leave behind their droppings, called castings, which add valuable nutrients to the compost.
Many compost piles naturally attract worms, but perhaps not enough for the amount of material to be composted, and when a compost pile is new it takes time to get a hungry bunch to show up. Worms can be purchased where bait is sold. The same worms that dangle from fishing hooks eat their way through a compost pile. As an extra benefit, worms can be plucked from the compost pile and used as bait.
Richard Sawyer of Sawyer Wholesale Bait Co. in Charlestown said customers buy worms for both purposes. Sawyers' family business has a retail store at 310 Market St., and the business is the wholesale supplier to retailers including in the Madison area.
When worms are bought for composting, he said, "most people use them in a leaf pile - grass and leaves, and they throw things like you put down the garbage disposal, leftover salad."
The salad should be without dressing on it, and vegetable trimmings that usually are put in the garbage or down the disposal such as celery leaves, outer lettuce leaves, carrot tops and similar kitchen discards, preferably uncooked, are perfect for worm food.
Sawyer sells a kind of worm called wigglers, which some people call drift worms. Wigglers in a cup - handy to take fishing - cost $2.50 for a cup of worms at Sawyer's in Charlestown. A square compost pile 3 feet on each side and 3 feet deep would need about 1,000 wigglers, he said. If neighbors went together for worms, they could buy a case of 5,000 worms for $300, or a half-case for $175.
Compost can be used as a soil conditioner or mulch indoors and out, on houseplants, garden vegetables, flower beds and lawns.
If compost with worms, called vermicompost, is made in a bin such as an old dresser drawer or wooden box, it will need to have drain holes in the bottom, and be set on bricks or boards so it can drain and so air can circulate. Plastic tubs or totes also can be used, but they tend to stay too wet if the drain holes are too few or too small. A container placed underneath the compost box or bin will catch the drainage, and it makes a good liquid fertilizer.
A compost pile doesn't need a cover if there is enough depth for the worms to seek darkness, but indoors a compost bin should have a cover such as burlap, loose enough to let air in but not so loose the worms will be able to go exploring.
There is some maintenance. The finished compost has to be removed regularly and used or stored in plastic bags. The worms have to be separated from the finished compost and given new materials to work on.
Separating the worms from the compost isn't as yucky as it might seem. Just stop putting in new material for about 10 days, pull aside the compost to be removed, clear a space for new grass, leaves, vegetables and paper, and watch the worms slide on over to the new chow spot.
Stragglers can be picked up with a stick for those too queasy to touch a worm, which doesn't bite and isn't poisonous, though it might give off a yellow liquid that is not urine and won't hurt anything.
When a compost pile or bin is new and worms are added, there's no need to worry about having the right number of males and females. All worms produce both eggs and sperm, so there is no male or female among them. When it's time to mate, they line up very close together and trade sperm. An egg pouch forms and baby worms emerge and start looking for something to eat.
People new to composting who don't want to chance using too little or too much vegetable matter and water can find a lot of information about composting online or at the library.
A compost pile doesn't have to have worms, but they hasten composting, add nutrients and aerate the dirt, and as long as they have food and water, they make every day Earth Day. Full Text Here
No comments:
Post a Comment