I’ve been taught about compost my whole life. When I was a boy, my dad had a big garden, and I remember the compost pile that he used to keep. We would toss in food scraps, leaves and grass clippings. They would slowly decompose over time, and we would dig up the compost underneath to fertilize the garden. I knew worms liked to eat stuff in the compost pile, too, but it wasn’t until about seven years ago that I discovered there’s an entire business that focuses on a type of compost derived from worm casting (poop). It is called vermicompost.
Vermicompost is a great product, and it has a wide variety of applications. It can be used as a soil amendment that provides valuable nutrients and other components for plant growth. It can also be suspended in bubbling water to create a product called vermicompost tea, or “worm tea”. Worm tea can be diluted and used as a foliar spray to help protect plants from certain pests and diseases, and it can be injected into the ground to assist lawns with root growth.
The secret to vermicompost’s success is microbiology. Fungus, bacteria, nematodes and other microorganisms thrive in vermicompost, and they play a vital role in breaking down minerals and nutrients in the ground that are not yet plant available into components that plants can easily absorb through their roots.
If you have a garden or house plants, and you would like to add something to the soil to help increase the health and vitality of your plants, then vermicompost is a great choice. You can find many vendors online or in certain stores in your local area. It could either be called vermicompost or simply worm castings. However, I prefer the more hands-on approach. Maintaining a small worm bin of your own can be a really satisfying experience. It is interesting to watch the worms process food scraps into vermicompost over a period of time. Not to mention, you can cut down on waste going to landfills by feeding the worms your table scraps, and you can save money by producing vermicompost on your own as opposed to buying it.
I could go on and on about how to start and maintain a worm bin, different problems you could experience and how to mitigate them, and much more. However, there is a wealth of resources online from articles to YouTube videos, and if you are interested in the topic, I highly encourage you to look it up and learn more about it. The vermicomposting community is a very friendly and diverse place. I hope you find it as fascinating and fun as I do.
