Vermicomposting (Worm Composting)

Vermicomposting(Worm Composting)

Why?

Go GreenWorms help the environment by eating our food scraps and other plant based material. This saves our landfills.

GO GREENWorm castings make excellent natural fertilizer.

Go Green Worm tea is another natural fertilizer and disease control agent.

Go GreenWorms are Mother Nature’s core aerators.

Go GreenWorms provide bait for recreational fishing.

Our Visit with Ron Crum • Local worm expert• Community lecturer on worm composting• Guest educator at local schools• Soon to be an author of a children’s book • Provider of worms, compost and bins

• Located on Forge Road, about 300 yards past the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service annex

• Phone: 757 291-6675

Ron’s Outdoor Worm Homes

Ron’s Indoor Bins

Ron Extracting Worm Castings

Ron’s Homemade Bins

Our Bins

What We Learned1. Worm compost and worm tea are more useful and easier to

make than we thought.2. Red wigglers are most commonly used for vermicomposting.3. European night crawlers are growing in popularity as a

composting agent.4. European night crawlers are hardier and can be released into

the garden.5. Favorite worm foods: melons, bananas, pumpkins, grits,

newspaper, canned vegetarian beans.6. Enough worm castings for the garden can take from three to six

months to form. Be patient.

What We Learned (cont.)7. A double bin construction makes it easy to make worm tea.8. Formula for making worm tea: 1 part worm liquid to 10 parts

water, and add 2 Tbsp. molasses.9. Castings can be used sparingly around individual plants to be

effective.10. Worms won’t eat seeds.11. Each worm lays an egg every few weeks. Each egg contains

as many as 20 baby worms. 12. We found some inconsistencies in information.