By AMY MUNCY
Advanced Master Gardener 

WARSAW — Vermicomposting is using specifically, worms to compost kitchen scraps. This is probably the best way of composting kitchen wastes. Adding small amounts of wet kitchen scraps to a large compost pile in the garden day by day can disrupt the decomposition process so that the compost is never really done. That is why I always try to keep two heaps going outside.  So one pile gets finished. However with vermicomposting, adding small amounts of kitchen scraps to a worm bin works just fine.

Many gardeners use vermicomposting systems for all their garden and kitchen wastes. Many more use both types of composting. While thousands of households without gardens use neat and unobtrusive worm boxes indoors to compost their kitchen scraps (as well as newspapers and cardboard boxes).

There-in reducing their garbage by up to a third. Thus providing their own organic soil for potted plants, container gardens on lawns, on balconies and on roofs to grow their own healthy food.

Having the bins set up in the manner shown, benefits abound all the way around.

You have the “tea” for watering your house and garden plants. This beneficial soil is coveted by gardeners.  You are also helping our environment by reducing landfill waste.

You need worms to fish with, don’t you?

Let’s not forget the fishermen. You could even sell the worms as bait when they reproduce the way they do.

That process will be explained later on.

Vermicompost is mostly worm casts (poop) with some decayed organic matter. In the best of conditions, worms can eat at least their own weight of organic matter in a day and then some. In fact it seems they don’t actually eat it.

They consume it, sure enough, but what they get their nourishment from all the micro-organisms that are really eating the organic matter.

Yet, here is a mystery — their casts contain eight times as many micro-organisms as their feed! And these are the micro-organisms that best favour healthy plant growth. The casts don’t contain any disease pathogens because pathogenic bacteria are reliably killed in the worms’ gut. This is one of the great benefits of vermicomposting.

The casts are rich in humic acids, which conditions the soil, have a perfect pH balance, and contain plant growth factors similar to those found in seaweed.  Worm casts also have five times more nitrogen, seven times more phosphorus, and 11 times more potassium than ordinary soil.  These are the main minerals needed for plant growth. However, the large numbers of beneficial soil micro-organisms in worm casts have as much to do with it.

There’s nothing better to put in your garden.

Amy Muncy was born in Wabash County and lived there for close to 40 years. Muncy grew up in the country, has always enjoyed gardening and mowing the lawn. She has been gardening since a small girl. She moved to Kosciusko County in 2000. She is a master gardener intern at this point, but will be a full master gardener before long.