The Advantages of Red Worm Composting
Red worm information is available in many places, but here are some of the most important points about their involvement in the composting process:
- Worms can reduce composting time from 240 days to 30 days.
- Healthy soil teems with microbes, and microbial activity in worm castings is 10-20 times higher than in the material they consume.
- The digestive process in worms makes the nutrients in their castings more readily available to plants.
- The mucus coating on castings provides for the "time release" of nutrients.
- Castings are rich in humus, which improves soil aggregation.
- Castings have 5 to 11 times more NPK than the surrounding soil.
Gardeners have long been involved in red worm composting, but organic farmers are now becoming involved with red worms on a much larger scale, making compost piles in long rows called "windrows.".
As mentioned earlier, healthy soil teems with microbes—as many as billions in one gram. Soil that has been subjected to chemical fertilizers and pesticides may have as few as only a hundred. The only way to increase microbial activity is to add more organic material to depleted soil. Vermicompost (the combination of worm castings and composting organic material) is much richer in microbial activity than regular compost. In addition, the shredding and digestive process of worms creates minute particles that existing microorganisms in the soil can readily eat. As a result, vermicompost actually increases the activity of existing microorganisms in the soil.
As organic production expands, vermicompost will be used more and more aggressively to enrich poor soil and to rehabilitate soil damaged by agricultural chemicals. The importance of this undertaking is now being discussed in classrooms around the country as a result of rising interest in the health of the environment. Click here for more on The Red Worm in Compost Education.