
Step by Step guide to make your own Vermicompost
- Our Blog
- 05 Feb, 2020
You might feel overwhelmed by the amount of waste in your house and wondered over the possibility of making some use of it.
Composts are a great way to utilize waste from your kitchen, if you are living in an apartment traditional compost might look like work. With vermicompost, it’s easy to make compost anytime with minimal effort. It doesn’t take a lot of space, do not need a big garden or backyard to make this compost.
What is the big fuss?
Vermicompost is a process of using worms and waste in a way to create a better soil.
The worms like earthworms and the waste material are used to improve the quality of the soil. In simpler words, its worm excrement helps the soil to become more fertilized.
What will you need to start /Supplies?
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Two bins
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A drilling machine or something you can use to drill holes in the bin
- A screen or sheet of plastic
- Water
- Black soil
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Rock dirt
Step 1: Get a bin- You will need two bins one taller and one shorter. One will be inside and the other. The size can vary, you can choose any size depending on the amount of compost you want to create.
Step 2: Drill holes into the bin- drill around 10-15, 1-inch holes in the smaller bin so the water drains out in the other bin.
Step 3: Let's make a bed - Shred some paper for the bedding.
You can also use cardboard, unused printouts from printers, wood shavings, hand torn paper, dried decaying leaves, grass.
Worms are 75% water so you need to balance the moisture in the bin it cannot be too wet or too dry. You can do this by adding water thrice the size of the bedding.
Step 4: Let’s feed - Add some food, water, and dirt, black soil and now step away and wait for a while. You can add about anything scarps of vegetables, fruits, eggshells, coffee, tea bags, tea.
Things to avoid: Adding large chunks of meat and bones might give out a bad odor. You can add little scraps of it once in a while. Also keep anything that is non-biodegradable away like plastic, foil, glass, rubber, etc.
Also stay away from dairy products, citrus, any human or animal waste.
Watch which food breaks down in the compost and which takes long, vegetables like cabbage breaks down and which doesn’t and add accordingly.
Remember to add some water once in a while to the bedding.
Step 5: Bring the worm- Now you add the worms.
There are many earthworms, though the best is red wiggle. There are endless reasons why they’re good, they reproduce easily, can process organic material in large amounts and are available everywhere.
They are not expensive and are available all the time of the year look for fish or farmer’s market. You will be needing around 2 Kgs of worms online or from the supermarket.
Worm care: They don’t need regular care, it’s always better to leave them alone after creating a good environment for them to thrive. But do not forget to feed them every week.
After around a month you will see the compost turning darker and despite adding more food there will be fewer worms, you need to remove the usable compost and create fresh new bedding.
Separation - now you need to sort out the worms. After around 4 months or so you need to sort the worms out. It doesn’t have to be monotonous, you can bring friends over and start by spreading a clean sheet. Gather a light source such as a lamp, a dustbin or plastic garbage bag.
Spread the sheet put the entire contents on the sheet to make around 10 piles of it. Keep the light over it and you will see them gathering in the center. Now go relax for 10 minutes after that you will see worms disappearing into the mold.
Step 6: Nourish the bin- Keep adding water and food once every week.
Step 7: Use the product of your hard work- Now that it is ready
Once in a few months, your compost will be full of nutrients and ready to use. You can scrap the liquid from the lower container and use it to fertilize the soil in your garden.
Use it to sprinkle into the soil to increase its fertility.
Or put a handful in the soil where you will be planting a crop or plant and then cover it with more soil. Do not worry if the worms are still present in the soil they will only add more nitrogen to the soil.
Can be used for germinating seeds: Take equal amounts of soil and vermicompost. The active microbes can survive up to a year