The Worms Crawl In, The Worms Crawl Out

Worms have many benefits they:

• They till the soil. Using a roto Tiller can actually compact the soil down. The earth worm burrows are easily followed by root systems. Worm castings are found to be very high in nitrogen fixing bateria.



• They fertilize crops.



• They eat leftovers that would normally be thrown to waste. Worms work 24/7 breaking down raw materials. Speeding up the composting process.



• They improve soil structure.



• They improve water absorbtion.



• They condition the soil.



• They help regulate the ph.



• They increase the amount of benefical bateria.

Worms in the garden are also a great hands on distraction for your kids giving you time to weed and prune.

Soil is made up of to things: Rock particals and humus (humus is broken down organic matter). there are may grades or types of soil: loamy, clay sand just to name a couple.

Worm castings are close to neutral (around 7 ph) no matter what kind of soil the worm ate. Worm castings have calcium carbonate which helps keep the castings neutralized.

Worm casting are food for benefical microorganisms. casting contain thousands of enzymes, bacteria and small remnants of plant and animal matter that are not completely digested. This provides food for bateria already present and addes new bateria as well. These bateria release Potassium, phosphorus, calcium, iron, and magneisum ready for immediate use by the plants.

The mucus in the worm casting bonds to the nutreints found in worm castings giving them a time release effect.

Some earthworms will eat half of thier body weight in a day. When you recyle your lawn (leave the grass clippings were they fall) worms will come eat the clippings and deposit castings on the lawn fertilizing your lawn for you.

worms that youw ould want to attract are:

• Night crawlers: only used for outside composting they do not like being distubed. They have 6 foot long burrows.



• Red worms: Very good composters they even like light. They are normally found in animal pastures and compost piles.



• Red Wigglers: great for composting. can eat its own body weight everyday. They can double its numbers in 90 days.

A worm bin is a contained compost pile. worm bins can be made out of all kind of materials like: wood, metal, styrofoam, or plastic but they must be able to hold moisture and provide dark for the worms.

When building your compost bin you will need to know how big you need to make it. You do this by first gathering up the amount of waste you will be providing in a week. You will weigh the waste and make your worm bin 1 square foot of surface area for every pound of waste. Taking an average of serveral week would be more accurate as no home produces teh same amount of waste every week. so 1 pound is a 1 ft tall x 1 foot wide x 1 foot long. http://shop.simplyhydro.com/Wormtopia-Sunleaves_p_1783.html

Plastic for compost bins are only good when used inside a controlled environment. Plastic is not a good insulator. They cannot breath so holes must be drilled into the sides (not the bottom because you want to be able to collect the composted tea that will drain to the bottom). Whenmaking a plastic bin you want to drill 4-5 holes in the sides i inch in diameter. toward the bottom of the conrtainer you can drill a whole and install a spigot for easy removal of composted tea. Line the holes you drilled is shade cloth to prevent compost from spilling out of the holes. You are now ready to fill your bin with bedding and worms.

This worm house is probably one of the least expensive ways to build a worm house. Get a plastic nursery tray without holes and a few of them with holes. For teh bottom tray you use the tray without holes (this tray collect the tea). use blocks in the corners of the tray to support the next tray up. you then fill it with an inch or two of bedding, food, and worms. when the worms are almost to the top of the tray you will add another tray.

How many worms do you need? Worms on average each half of their body weight in one day. So if you have 1 lb. If you generate 1/2 lbs garbage a day you need 1 lb worms. Blend scraps in a blender so worms can faster absorb and digest it. Worm catsings on average are 5 times richer then most fertile soil and loaded with microorganisms. The best way to harvest your worm castings is to move bedding and worms to one side of the box every 2 to 3 months and fill other side with new bedding this will make them move to new bedding allowing you to harvest castings.