Worm Farm: Recycling the Worm Way
Believe it or not one of the most efficient ways of recycling your food waste is not through the help of large recycling machines but rather through the assistance of our small, long, and disgusting wrigglers. Yup, as always nature has provided us with a great solution to garbage problems that we created in the first place. Establishing a worm farm is great for the environment in so many ways.
The first benefit you’ll get from worm farming is composting. Compost what? Composting is a process where you convert food and other biodegradable wastes or materials into a soil like substance called compost. In worm farming, you allow the worms to eat the food wastes. And as that food goes in, so should they come out. The worm poops are called castings and that my friends are what you’re aiming at. You gather the castings from your farm and use that soil like substance as fertilizers for your plants.
Some enterprising individuals have marketed these worm castings since their effectiveness as fertilizers are quite known. It is said that flowers will bloom even before its season when worm castings have been used. Vegetable growers will tell you that the harvested vegetables are a lot crisper and even taste better all because of the fertilizer they used which came from the worm farmer across town.
And even the worms themselves are being sold in farms, pet shops, bait shops, and even online. You see worm farming can be scaled down small enough for ordinary people living in even a small house or apartment. That’s one of the beauties of worm farming. You don’t need a large area of space if you decide to start your own farm at home.
For a home scale level of worm farming all you will need is a container that preferably is around several inches deep. You have to place some moist paper, leaves or cardboards to form a layer before you put the worms in. Adding in some soil or compost on it may be a good thing as well. You then place your worms and food. Feeding the worms is rather easy. Basically any food scraps would do. However, avoid putting in meat, poultry, and citrus related fruits in the container. The meat will only generate this awful smell which is bad, especially if your worm farm is inside the house. Maggots from the meat can also appear which is kind of gross. Citrus fruits on the other hand are too acidic for the worms.
Feeding your worms your food waste and some other biodegradable is an effective way of managing your trash. You will have less garbage to worry about and you’re doing your part for the environment. The worms will give you in return a rich hefty serving of castings which you can use for your own plants. So if you’re going to have a worm farm, it would be better to start taking care of plants as well if you don’t have any now. The enriched soil will go to waste if you just throw it away.
The good thing of using the worm castings or vermicompost is that it does not destroy the soil unlike the chemical fertilizers available in the market today. Although the effects of chemical fertilizers are immediately noticeable, the effects on the soil in the long run are devastating. Vermicompost increases the quality of the soil.
Having a worm farm is quite an interesting project which helps you recycle food wastes into rich organic fertilizers. You can begin a home project which you can manage to become a large undertaking that can supply either live worms and/or vermicompost to a waiting market.
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