WORM COMPOSTING

My wife & I like gardening. I would like to improve on my composting and would like to know if anybody is using worms. Is it as good as what you read ? Thanks

I do a LOT of composting, but have only dabbled in vermiculture.

The strong point that I can see is that you can do it indoors in the winter, it's sort of fun to see them multiply, and the castings are pretty good material (maybe not as magic as reported, but good).

The downsides- possible fruit fly infestations to deal with, more moisture control is required, it is slower to finish than a good batch hot composting, and you have a harder time composting some stuff that you might do outdoors (I compost whole woodchucks, meat, cheese, etc in hot compost- it's not a problem).

I'm into regular composting, not worm composting. It is amazing how much veg and fruit matter does not go into the trash every week. There are several sites out there for worms though. I don't want to hijack this thread, but does anyone know how to jumpstart a composter this time of year? It is pretty frozen, but crumbly. I definetly need more carbons in there, too much nitrogen right now. I'm running out of room in there.

It is a great thing to teach my kids about composting and recycling, as they are the future. More people need to open their eyes and be part of the green movement, not necessarily to be tree huggers(no intended disrespect here please), but to just learn to take better care of this planet and leave a smaller footprint.

Sorry, not gonna happen this time of year.
You could try insulating compost with hay bales in the future but its still going to be slow going in the winter.

Gotcha, I will keep piling it in and add dead leaves in the spring when I aerate it.

On the other hand, I have wondered if year round composting could happen if you made a bin using that currogated greenhouse plastic?? Maybe bogydave will show up and tell us how the Alaskans do it....

My compost pile is never frozen in the middle and the worms are alive in there somewhere as they are very active in the spring. You can use the red wigglers in your outside compost pile for sure. I throw earthworms in mine...

I have a worm composter in my classroom and right now my kid is also running a vermicompsting science fair project. It's a wormy life.


fyi all species of earth worms are non-native and scientists are beginning to understand that some species do more harm than good when released.


http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=invasive-earthworms-denude-forests

Yes, I read that they were non native a few years ago and was shocked. How the heck did they become so widespread?