Vermiculture

Learn about vermiculture and its benefits. Vermiculture has been practiced by many cultures for centuries and remains an important part of Indigenous and traditional agricultural practices. In the United States, it became popular in the 1970s as part of the emerging organic food and gardening movement. It has become integral to permaculture and regenerative agricultural practices. By vermicomposting at home, you can process all organic waste and create a powerful fertilizer for your garden or houseplants (see Compost Nexus for more information). Elements include:

• Types of worms. The best worms for composting vary depending on climate and geography. The species most commonly used are Eisenia fetida, also known as red wiggler, and Lumbricus rubellis, a red earthworm native to Europe.
• Processing waste. Vermicomposting can process all organic waste—food waste and animal manure. There is also increasing interest in processing plant waste. Studies show that hazardous wastes can be processed through vermicomposting as well.
• Multiplying soil nutrients. When organic waste passes through the gut of a worm, nutrients are converted to forms that are easily available for plants and are rich in vitamins, growth hormones, and enzymes.
• Restoring soil microbes. Vermicompost increases the microbe content and diversity and optimizes the fungi-bacteria ratio in soil and compost. It rebuilds soil fungus, bacteria, and enzymes, which further break down organic matter, making it ready for plant uptake.
• Storing soil carbon. Some studies suggest that vermicompost allows soils to store more carbon.
• Reducing pollution. Vermicompost increases plant tolerance to metal contamination and can play a role in the restoration of sites contaminated by mining activity. It can help with processing animal manure avoiding soil and water pollution.

Set up a worm bin at home. You can process your food and paper waste and make compost for your house and garden plants. To get started:

• Repurpose old bins, buckets, or a bathtub. Alternatively, you may build your own worm bin using plans and instructions from experts. You can find a basic introduction here and instructions on how to get started here and here.
• If you want a ready-to-go worm bin, many companies and worm farms sell worm bins, worm bags, worm huts, worm cafés, worm hotels, and accessories. Use wetted shredded paper as bedding and cardboard or a cloth as a cover. Consider purchasing the first set of worms from a farm nearby. See Key Players below for worm farms.
• The worms eat a wide variety of organic materials: paper, coffee grounds, fruit and vegetable waste, grains, and ground yard wastes. Citrus, meat, and bones should not be used. It is important not to overfeed the bin, as that will cause waste to rot and attract insects.
• Depending on the setup, you can harvest vermicompost every few months. Some setups have a drainage mechanism, which will keep the worm bin from being too wet and allow you to harvest worm leachate, a by-product of decomposing cells. It can be added to the garden soil.
• You can join a social media group of regional worm enthusiasts. They exchange tips, answer questions, and share equipment and worms, like this very large global group and this UK-based group.

Start or join a community vermiculture project. Community projects can not only recycle food waste into healthy soil additives but also be designed to build local capacity for food production, nutrition, education, and regenerative farming:

• This worm cooperative in Hawaii is jointly collecting data on outputs and impact.
• This community garden starting a worm farm in Tasmania, Australia, is creating connections among people in the time of the pandemic.
• This community garden in Eugene, Oregon, collects food waste from restaurants for their midscale worm bins.

Learn about the potential of worms for agriculture. There are many benefits to incorporating vermicompost on your farm:

• Increasing plant health and growth while reducing the use of chemicals. The hormones and enzymes that vermicompost add to the soil can promote plant growth. The improved soil increases crop productivity and quality, eliminating the need for synthetic chemical fertilizers. This study found that the fruit of jalapeño peppers grown in substrate mixed 1:1 with vermicompost were larger and of higher quality than those of the plants grown without it.
• Fewer pesticides. Vermicompost helps suppress plant diseases, allowing a decrease in the use of pesticides.
• Reducing agriculture inputs. Soil structure can be improved with vermicompost, raising water infiltration rates and reducing water use. The application of vermicompost mimics some of the biological processes of natural pastures, where worms decompose manure of grazing animal herds passing through.

Supply a vermiculture project in the area with your farm's manure or other organic farming by-products. If you are unable to invest in vermiculture yourself, consider supplying organic waste to a nearby farm or community vermiculture project.

• Coyne Dairy Farm in New York State partners with Worm Power, a large-scale worm composting facility, by supplying its cow manure.

Integrate vermiculture into your farm operation. Use vermicompost and worm leachate to regenerate your soils and improve plant growth and health.

• A midscale vermiculture operation can process organic waste that is available in excess on your farm.
• Vermicompost and worm tea helped Apricot Lane Farm restore the depleted soil of their land.
• Earthworms have successfully been employed to bioremediate pesticide-contaminated soils.
• Refer to this comprehensive guide for on-farm vermiculture.
• Read this fact sheet about the potential for integrating vermicomposting into dairy farming to address the challenges of managing manure.

Start a worm farm from scratch as a stand-alone business. You can scale operations quickly with low up-front investment.

• Vermiculture farms can serve as a low-entry opportunity for small farm and business entrepreneurs. Up-front cost is low, and the required technological know-how is minimal and easily accessible.
• Vermicompost retails for between two and twenty euros per liter in Europe (depending on the amount you purchase) and about seven dollars per gallon in the U.S.
• Methods for medium- to large-scale worm farming include beds, windrows, and large, shallow bins. Some farms have well-developed machinery for harvesting vermicompost and producing worm tea.
• Read here about when and how to harvest vermicompost, and here how worm tea is made.
• To sell castings and worm tea on any scale, your worm farm needs processes and products that are reliable and tested. Check out this overview of recommended standards. You also need to comply with state regulations for agricultural and/or composting facilities.
• Arizona Worm Farm engages in educational activities, taking bins to schools and businesses.
• Scale your operations by building partnerships with restaurants.
• Read this business plan from India for starting a worm company.
• Watch how West Mountain Organics is starting its larger-scale farm.
• Meet this red-worm farmer from the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, and read about this agricultural engineer’s operation in Rwanda.
• Worms Downunder helps with the design and setup of large-scale worm farms in Australia.
• This worm farmer in Pakistan explains how a vermiculture farm is operated (in Urdu).

Collect food waste and divert it to vermicomposting. Reduce food waste by engaging students in collection, composting, and vermicomposting.

• Pearl City High School in Hawaii diverted almost 100 percent of its cafeteria food waste in cooperation with Waikiki Worm Company.
• Laytonville School District in California saved water and fossil fuels while providing learning opportunities to its students.

Get involved in vermiculture as an educational activity. Use worm bins in classrooms and school gardens to show the benefits of healthy soils and demonstrate waste separation.

• North Carolina State University’s Cooperative Extension has been hosting the annual Vermiculture Conference since 2001. The office also provides extensive learning resources on vermicomposting. NCSU runs the Compost Learning Lab, a training site that features a 30 x 40-foot worm barn, including a 40-square-foot continuous-flow-through raised bed. Read more here.
• This article from the UAE provides an easy guide for educational vermicomposting in a school setting.
• This link has resources and curricula for classroom vermiculture.

Start or support a community vermiculture project. Arrange to donate kitchen waste, coffee grounds, paper, and cardboard to a local worm facility. Restaurants and coffee shops can provide food waste and coffee grounds and create a community around their business. See Key Players below for a selection of farms.

• This Ohio project reduced food waste in cooperation with restaurants.
• Learn from this worm-composting business’s experience with restaurant partnerships.
• Find out how worms are put to work at the Dog Poo Worm farming initiative in Scarborough, South Africa.

Start a company-based vermiculture operation. If your business generates food waste—restaurant, grocery store, hotel, food processor, nursing home, wholesale food business, farmers’ market, shopping mall, or resort—and there is no composting facility nearby, vermiculture can reduce the cost of waste collection and produce compost for your outdoor areas.

• Access basic information about vermiculture for businesses here.
• Study best practices for on-site vermiculture systems for the commercial and industrial sectors.
• Learn how to set up a worm bin at your office here.
• A restaurant in Albuquerque, New Mexico, set up a backyard worm composting system for its food waste.
• This restaurant in Boise began on-site vermicomposting in 2010.

Vermicompost: A Living Soil Amendment by AllisonLHJack (9 mins.)

Rearing Earthworms for Profit - Vermiculture |Part 1| by FarmKenya (13 mins.)

Rearing Earthworms for Profit - Vermiculture |Part 2| by FarmKenya (16 mins.)

A Youth Graduate Making a Fortune from Black Gold - Vermiculture and Organic Farming by FarmKenya (24 mins.)

Apricot Lane Farms' Journey From Arid Wasteland to Biodiverse Paradise l SuperSoul Sunday by OWN (5 mins.)

Mid to Large-Scale Vermicomposting Around the World - Rhonda Sherman by FSC Biodiversity (20 mins.)

Vermiculture Chapters and Articles from Science Direct

The Business and Biology of Raising Composting Worms by Duncan Carver 

Vermicomposting—Composting with Worms by Cal Recycle 

Red Worm Composting: WAY Too Much Fun With Worms! Blog

"Can Soil Microbes Slow Climate Change?" by Jogn J. Berger / Scientific American

How to Create and Maintain an Indoor Worm Composting Bin by the EPA

Kitchen Organic Waste as Material for Vermiculture and Source of Nutrients for Vermicompost Plants by Kostecka et al. / Journal of Ecological Engineering

Review: Vermicompost, Its Importance and Benefit in Agriculture by Marit Olle / Journal of Agricultural Science

How to Start a Worm Farm by Lisa Price / Small Business Trends

The Worm Farmer’s Handbook: Mid- to Large-Scale Vermicomposting for Farms, Businesses, Municipalities, Schools, and Institutions by Rhonda Sherman / Chelsea Green Publishing

Vermiculture Technology: Earthworms, Organic Wastes, and Environmental Management edited by Clive A. Edwards et al. / Routledge

Vermicomposting Toilets, a simple, proven, low tech and open source approach for ecofriendly human waste disposal.

Worms Eat My Garbage: How to Set Up and Maintain a Worm Composting System by Mary Allephof / Flower Press

Management of Municipal Solid Wastes and Production of Liquid Biofertilizer Through Vermic Activity of Epigeic Earthworm Eisenia fetida by Mishra et al. / International Journal of Recycling of Organic Waste in Agriculture

Vermiculture Technology: Reviving the Dreams of Sir Charles Darwin for Scientific Use of Earthworms in Sustainable Development Programs by Rajiv K. Sinha / Technology and Investment

Vermiculture: A Viable Solution for Sustainable Agriculture by Heather Staggs / Murray State University

An Overview: Organic Waste Management by Earthworm by Visuvasam Motcha Rakkini / Journal of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science

Vermicompost Business Plan - In India by AgriFarming

Bioremediation of Pesticide-Contaminated Soils by Using Earthworms in by Juan C. Sanchez-Hernandez / Bioremediation of Agricultural Soils 

A Hot Pile of Garbage! by Nobody listens to Paula Poundstone (90 mins.)

Rhonda Sherman, Vermicomposting Expert and Author of The Worm Farmer's Handbook by Sustainable Nation Podcast (40 mins.)

Waste, Worms and Windows: Domingo Morales’ Quest to Make Compost Cool by How to Save a Planet Podcast (34 mins.)