Vermiculture

In my greenhouse, I have a worm composter that I made out of a plastic tub. To make the worm composter, one needs to drill holes in the bottom of the tub and in the lid cover. The holes in the bottom of the tub allow the excess liquid created by the decomposing vegetation to drain out. The excess liquid is known as worm tea.  One needs to place a tray under the tub to catch the liquid and keep the compost worms from crawling out the holes. Since my composter is in the greenhouse, I am not too worried about worm tea leaking out because the excess liquid will drain into the greenhouse soil floor. One can begin your vermiculture mixture with shredded newsprint that is moistened with water. The paper should be damp. The moist paper is simply plant cellulose that is high in carbon content. The compost worms will devour the newsprint into a light fluffy compost. When you add vegetative compost such as vegetable and fruit peelings, the compost will have a high content of potassium and phosphorus.  If there is too high a concentration of green material, the compost may begin to smell of rotting vegetation but with the right mixture of shredded paper , the carbon in the paper will counteract the odour of the vegetation so that there is absolutely no odour.  I have found that by adding a few handfuls of peat moss to the vermiculture mixture, will absorb the worm tea and counteract the smell created by the excess liquid.  I have been experimenting a worm composter tumbler to rotate the compost material.  In a square tub, one has to periodically turn the compost with a garden tool to aerate the material and spread the compost material so the compost worms will digest the composting material. Red wiggler compost worms can be purchased at any fishing store that sells red wiggler worms.  A pound of red wigglers sells for about $25 a pound. I started out with just a couple of dozen red wigglers and let them multiply.  Worm soil sells for about $15 a litre. I use a couple of tablespoons for my potted geraniums . The high phosphorus and potassium content of the compost stimulates flowers to produce blooms.  Nitrogen promotes vegetative green leafy growth.