Every day, schools and businesses throw leftover food and table scraps into the garbage.
The garbage must be picked up ...
Classroom Vermicomposting
One of the hottest trends in environmental education is vermicomposting in classrooms. Kids love worms and find vermicomposting a fascinating way to learn about living things, soil fertility, and recycling. A natural next step is for students to move beyond the classroom and get involved with vermicomposting their school's cafeteria food scraps.
Getting Started
Vermicomposting cafeteria food scraps is similar to home and classroom vermicomposting-it's just on a larger scale. Before getting started, get approval from your local health department-they may have restrictions such as not using post-consumer food scraps. (See the sidebar on page two for information about pre- and post-consumer scraps.) Next you can gather your materials; you will need worms bins, bedding, water, worms, and food scraps.
Cinnabar School (Petaluma, California)
Students constructed eight wooden 3-foot by 3.5-foot worm bins and set them on top of pallets. The school generates about 30 to 40 pounds of food scraps each day for four days a week. Two bins of worms are fed each day (15 to 20 pounds of food per bin), so they go one week between feedings.
The students started with 5 pounds of worms in each bin with a variety of beddings, including horse manure, leaves, and wood shavings. They bury the food in a thin layer, because they found that food buried in one trough or lump could become anaerobic, giving off foul odors and heating up too much. Another discovery was that pizza crust should be soaked before it's added to the bin, because it gets moldy quickly.
Q&A:
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How do worms move?
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Do worms see or sense?
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Do worms like sun light?
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Do worms need water?
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What do worms eat?
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Vermiculture biotechnology and farm-scale vermicomposting. Bioagro
... L & T Enterprise Worm Ranch Lyle Dunham 119 North 8th, Humboldt, KS 66748 ...
www.bae.ncsu.edu/topic/vermicomposting/vermiculture/resource.html
A good bedding must be organic, absorbent and easy to work with. Magic® Worm Bedding is made from a special sphagnum peat moss base, an organic fibrous material which will hold up to twenty times it's own weight in moisture.
Color darkens worms so they are closer to natural fish food colors.The spongy, fluffy structure of Magic® Worm Bedding is maintained because it is made of millions of tiny fibers that also work to toughen and condition worms so they will live longer on the hook and catch more fish.
When the bedding becomes black, it is full of worm castings and needs to be replaced. Then you can use this natural humus as an excellent potting soil.
Free newsletter produced by experienced worm farmers and professionals in the vermiculture industry.
Includes discussion community.
www.wormfarmingsecrets.com/ - Cached - Similar pages
Inside our FREE worm composting newsletter you'll discover...
- Step-by-step instructions to build a low cost, highly productive worm farm or wormery to supply your garden with a year round supply of worm compost...
- Potential pests and threats to your earth worms. How to ensure the continued health of your worm farm or wormery for maximum productivity...
- How to ensure maximum yield of high quality worm castings and liquid fertilizer so you'll never be short of one of the most potent natural fertilizers nature has to offer...
- Techniques to easily measure and maintain the correct moisture levels of your worm farm or wormery to ensure your earth worms remain healthy...
- You'll be shown exactly what to feed and what not to feed your worms. In addition...
- Learn the commercial worm farming techniques used by professionals and receive guidance to turn your own worm farming skills into a profitable hobby or complete commercial business...
- And much more...
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