- Vermicompost – Simply speaking
- Vermicompost is earthworm excrement, called castings,
- which can improve biological, chemical, and physical properties of the soil.
- The chemical secretions in the earthworm’s digestive tract help break down soil and organic matter,
- so the castings contain more nutrients that are immediately available to plants.
Vermicompost – Benefits @ Large
- Soil – Improvement
- Plant growth – Enhancement
- Economic – Impact
- Environment – Contributions
Vermicompost – Improvement on Soil Quality
- Soil
- Improves soil aeration
- Enriches soil with micro-organisms (adds enzymessuch as phosphatase and cellulase)
- Microbial activity in worm castings is 10 to 20 times higher than in the soil and organic matter that the worm ingests
- Attracts deep-burrowing earthworms already present in the soil
- Improves water holding capacity
Vermicompost – Enhanced Plant Growth
- Plant growth
- Enhances germination, plant growth, and crop yield
- Improves root growth and structure
- Enriches soil with micro-organisms (adding plant hormonessuch as auxins and gibberellic acid)
Vermicompost – Impact on Economic Conditions
- Economic
- Biowastes conversion reduces waste flow to landfills
- Elimination of biowastes from the waste stream reduces contamination of other recyclables collected in a single bin (a common problem in communities practicing Single-stream recycling)
- Creates low-skill jobs at local level
- Low capital investment and relatively simple technologies make vermicomposting practical for less-developed agricultural regions
Vermicompost – Contributions to Environment Improvement
- Environmental
- Helps to close the “metabolic gap” through recycling waste on-site
- Large systems often use temperature control and mechanized harvesting, however other equipment is relatively simple and does not wear out quickly[citation needed]
- Production reduces greenhouse gasemissions such as methane and nitric oxide (produced in landfills or incinerators when not composted).
Vermicomposting….its a task of worms
