Vermacomposters

Vermacomposters

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
I'm in an organically inclined restaurant and see a sign promoting urban worms. Next thing I'm deep in a cellar talking with manager Dave Roberts in front of a huge bin full of worms and garbage. The original motivation for the urban worm is to help eliminate waste that would end up in landfills. In particular, comepostable food scraps from our prep room like kale stems and lettuce buds, tomatoes, melons, shredded paper. In here we have about 60 pounds of worms consuming comepostable material and turning it into smaller bits of comepostable material and they also add beneficial microorganisms to the soil. The stomach of worms house a nitrogen fixing bacteria. Many plants take nitrogen out of the soil and other plants add nitrogen. Well it is not the plant itself that adds nitrogen, it is the nitrogen fixing bacteria that are associated with those plants that actually puts the nitrogen back in. Worms and worm castings promote those beneficial bacteria and that is why worm castings are so preferable to other types of organic fertilizer. How much output is there from the worm on a daily basis? The worms can consume their body weight on a daily basis and the output is about equal to that. Vermacom poster's can get $350 per cubic yard."
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