Let's look at the worm... our worker
bee. Earthworms have been around a very long time and can survive in extreme
climates. Conventional wisdom has it the earthworms originated in Europe and
came over to North America on boats with the early settlers and then migrated
across the country to the west. That's a long crawl. The earthworms are
found in all parts of the planet except extreme deserts and subarctic zones.
There are over 7000 varieties of earthworms and they come in a variety of sizes
from a quarter-inch to several feet long. They can live up to 15 years and
their young begin to reproduce at just a few months old. There are a couple
different kinds of worms that will adequately work in your vermicomposter, but
the 'Red Wriggler' reigns supreme. It processes vast amounts of food,
replicates quickly, is a crushing hyperactive machine and is actually the
quintessential composting workhorse.
Most earthworms like to burrow deep
into the dark and quiet, but the wriggler likes to burrow and scamper about in
the very top layers. The other bonus is they are bred to do just this- be
incarcerated in a dark, soggy box and be okay with it. Earthworms will jump
ship at first chance. The Wriggler, not so much.
A bit about how they eat. They have
a rather primitive or rudimentary digestive tract. They have no teeth and very
few digestive fluids, they depend on bacteria and fungi, stinky molds and other
nastiness to predigest their food. Worms can survive on any organic matter
including starches and paper (junk mail) but get this- they need microorganisms,
nematoads and protozoa (sounds like a law firm) to break down the fiber.
When the food becomes small enough, the worm sucks the particle into it's
mouth. Sand particles and particulate along with strong contracting muscles, grind and breakdown
the food even more. Finally digestion occurs in the intestines of the worm,
this is where the microbes mentioned above work. These microbes are
what really digest the food and turn it into rich worm castings. Here's a
bonus... In a scant 3 months, the wrigglers can be expected to double in
numbers. The worms lay eggs and are incubated to cocoons. I saw some of
these tiny, newborn worms last week- seemed pretty happy to be here. All in
all, we're in a month and a half and everything looks good and on schedule
for our first harvest in a couple weeks.
Kelley Murphy the author, owns a
media production business in the healthcare vertical market, and is a new
e-commerce business owner of gottabgreen.com, promoting and selling a
responsible lifestyle and eco-friendly green products online. Looking to rid
the world of plastic, follow his blogs and shop GottaBGreen.com for the Best Selling Green Products.
To see the WormFarm 360 GO HERE: For
more info and where to purchase your own Worm Farm, shop http://gottabgreen.com
and go to Grow/Compost or click on:
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