Vermicompost

Agricultural Uses

Vermicompost is the compost produced by earthworms through the digestion and discharge of refuse and other organic wastes. Earthworms (unlike cutworms, maggots and wireworms) eat dead organic matter. The ingested organic matter and fine-textured soil excreted as small granular aggregates provide abundant and readily available plant nutrients. Live earthworms aerate the soil and increase the potassium and phosphorus content in the soil. Earthworms multiply easily in a moist, warm and well-aerated soil with a pH between 5.0 and 8.4, containing organic matter with a low salt and high calcium concentration.
In vermicomposting, the worms used are Lwnbn'cus rubellus and similar species. Earthworms are commercially raised (vermiculture) and multiplied in shallow wooden boxes provided with drainage holes. Compost pits measuring approximately 3 x 4 x 1 m, are filled with organic residues, such as straw, animal manure, green wastes and leaves. Earthworms from a wooden box are emptied on compost pits, where they help to decompose the organic residues. When compost is ready for use, the upper layers of the digested organic matter (the vermicompost) is collected for use or sale , and the earthworms are removed to another pit or to wooden boxes, for the process to continue.
Earthworms can break organic wastes into peat-like materials rich in nutrients, with good water-holding capacity and porosity. The maximum waste turnover takes 2 to 4 weeks under controlled conditions of water and temperature. A ready-to-use vermicompost is commercially marketed in different sized bags.