Red Worm Composting

Red Worms

Today is Red Worm Composting Set-Up Day! 

Since we won't be getting the goats or chickens until this summers growing season is over we have decided it might be fun to get a "worm farm" going!  Vermicomposting is an excellent way to reduce food waste, produce organic fertilizer, and enrich garden bed soil naturally by eliminating dangerous chemical fertilizers.  

We already had some Rubbermaid tubs that were not being used so today I'm going to follow the instructions in the video below and we'll see what happens.  I will post pictures later!  :-)

Did you know?

There are over seven thousand species of earthworms; however, one species in particular is well suited for indoor composting: Eisenia fetida, also called red wiggler worm. 

Some fun worm facts:

• Worms do not have eyes; they have cells in the front part of their bodies that can detect light. 
• Worms do not have teeth; they grind up food by using the grit in their gizzard. 
• Worms living in an indoor worm bin (Eisenia fetida) can eat half their body weight in food scraps every day! 
• Worms have both male and female reproductive organs but still need another worm to reproduce. 
• Eiseniafetidahave5“heart-like”organscalledaorticarches. 
• Eisenia fetida start reproducing when they are about 2 months old. 
• One mature worm can produce about 100 worms in a year. 
• Worms live up to one year. 
• Worms“breathe”throughtheirskin,soitisveryimportanttokeepthemandtheirenvironmentmoist, but not sopping wet as they can drown if it’s too wet. 
• If you hold a worm long enough, you will likely see a yellow secretion on your hand, called coelomic fluid. 
• Coelomic fluid is thought to be a defense mechanism against predators as the liquid can smell bad. This bad smell is thought to be the basis of their name fetida or foetida which is the Latin scientific term used for many foul-smelling species. 
• Coelomic fluid is also a way for worms to remoisten their bodies when conditions are dry.