Homegrown Tomatoes

Posts Tagged ‘worm composting’

Worm composting is a way to generate worm castings. Why do you want to add worm castings to your tomatoes? Because they organically feed both the plants and the soil.

What Exactly is Worm Composting?

Worm composting is also known as vermicomposting, it’s a somewhat unusual way to recycle your kitchen scraps.

Basically, the worms eat the scraps, and after they have digested it, excrete the “leftovers”. These leftovers are called castings and they are a superb soil conditioner and plant fertilizer. Worms are amazing; they can eat almost their own body weight a day. Naturally you won’t have just a few worms; 500 is a good number to start with. More if you generate a lot of kitchen scraps every day.

Where Can You Vermicompost?

Worm composting can be done anywhere where the temperature is moderate and the bin isn’t in direct sunlight (in warm climates). You don’t want to cook your worms!

The best termperature for your hard-working worms is between 55 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. You don’t want the bin temperature to go below 50 or over 88 degrees Fahrenheit. This may mean you need to put the bin inside your home in a spare corner. Not to worry, once your worms have settled in and started munching, there is no smell, providing you haven’t overloaded the tray with scraps.

Getting Started with Worm Composting

To get started with worm composting, you’ll need some trays, bedding and (naturally) worms. Red wrigglers are the best worms for vermicomposting. To get some of these hard-working worms, you can try a local bait shop. No bait shop nearby? You can order them online, to be shipped to you.

Check with a gardening center to see if they have worm composting trays. If they don’t, you can easily order them online. You’ll want at least a 3-tray system, with 4 or 5 trays even better.

The worm bedding can be anything organic, like coir, shredded newspaper (black and white only; no color printing), sawdust, hay, dried leaves — anything to mimic the worm’s natural environment. The bedding should be very slightly moist, but not soggy or wet.

Add the kitchen scraps (shredded or chopped a bit so they are easier for the worms to eat) and let the worms have at it!

Here’s a neat article on worm composting to explain all the ins and outs of this novel way to compost.

You might have an organic garden shop near to you that carries worm composting supplies; if you do — great! Get your trays, worms and bedding and you’re all set.

If you don’t have anywhere locally to get your worms or supplies, check out some ideas below.

Here’s to your composting success!

What is compost, anyway?  You have heard the term, and you know it’s good for plants, but why?  This post will take a look at just what is composting, and why you want to do it (or at least use it).

What is Compost – Really?

The definition of compost, according to Wikipedia is, “aerobically decomposed remnants of organic matter”.  The nice how-to article at Gardener’s Supply describes compost as, “Organic matter is transformed into compost through the work of microorganisms, soil fauna, enzymes and fungi.”

So in other words, composting recycles kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, leaves, grass clippings, etc. into something often called “brown gold” because of its value to your garden.  It looks like rich soil, and smells slightly sweet and earthy.

Compost Uses

Compost’s biggest value is being used as a soil amendment.  When compost is mixed in with regular garden soil, it adds beneficial bacteria and fungi, along with nitrogen and other nutrients.

Compost helps to lighten heavy soils and enrich sandy soils.  Earthworms love it, as do plants of all kinds — including tomatoes, naturally!  Compost is a natural fertilizer, adding nitrogen and trace elements to your garden.

Compost Sources

You can create your own compost, or you can buy it.  The purchased compost I like the best is composted cow manure, as it’s the closest to homemade (at least where I live).

However, unless you have a very small garden, buying enough compost to truly enrich your soil could get quite expensive.  That where creating your own compost can come in awfully handy.

Compost is Recycling

One of the nice things is that compost is recycling.  Organic items you’d normally throw in the trash become stuff that gardener’s dreams are made of.   This includes paper products, kitchen scraps (except meat and fats), grass clippings, leaves, pine needles, weeds (as long as they are not blooming), manure, etc.  All of these eventually turn into glorious compost!

How to Compost

I’ll be writing several more posts on composting, such as vermicomposting (using worms), urban composting, using bins, compost tumblers and the like.  So stay tuned, and as I get the articles written, I’ll come back and put in links to those pages.