In many communities across the Nation Vermicomposting has become the norm. Here locally the City of Oakland has developed and implemented a program which supports and encourages vermicomposting to reduce food waste. Reduce waste, create nutritious organic compost and be earth friendly at the same time!

Worms eat food scraps, which become compost as they pass through the worm’s body. Compost exits the worm through its’ tail end. This compost can then be used to grow plants. To understand why vermicompost is good for plants, remember that the worms are eating nutrient-rich fruit and vegetable scraps, and turning them into nutrient-rich compost.

For one pound per day of food waste, you’ll need two pounds of worms (roughly 2,000). If you are unable to get this many worms at the start, reduce the amount of food waste until the population increases. And the population will increase. Redworms mature sexually in 60-90 days and can then produce cocoons which take 21 days to hatch baby worms. Once they start breeding they can deposit two to three cocoons per week with two baby worms in each cocoon. The limits on their reproduction include availability of food and room to move and breed. So worm populations don’t usually exceed the size of the container.

We have a working composter here at the nursery, we harvest one gallon of effluent weekly which in turn becomes four gallons of rich organic fertilizer. We add a small amount of organic liquid fertilizer such as Fox Farm’s Big Bloom to our effluent and with a hose end sprayer fertilize the entire nursery.

The advantage to our composter is that it is hand free plus, odor is kept at a minimum allowing it to be used successfully inside. Stop by and say hi to our worms!

Yamasaki Nursery carries the latest and state of the art worm composter. Call us for more info.