Prevent this unnecessary waste from ending up in landfills. generates more than 34 million tons of food waste each year (EPA 2011).

Worms will reduce your waste production by reusing food scraps and recycling nutrients.

Vermicomposting encompasses all three R’s: reducing, reusing, and recycling.

Lessen crusting and other physical damages common to soils in arid climates.Increase moisture and nutrient retention in your soil.Produce useable compost year round, faster than alternative methods.Vermicompost has more nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, copper, zinc, and iron than farmyard manure.Products of your vermicompost can be used horticulturally for the benefit of houseplants and gardens. Make your own nutrient-packed organic fertilizers for free purchasing similar nutrient-rich fertilizer costs an average of $50 per 10 pound bag.Avoid “tipping fees” for green waste implemented by many landfill diversion sites.Implementing the three R’s (reducing, reusing, and recycling) into your lifestyle through vermicomposting benefits you financially! Yeates GW (1976) Earthworm population of a pasture spray-irrigated with dairy shed effluent.Avoid fruit flies by covering food scraps with a few inches of bedding and/or freeze food scraps before adding them to your vermicompost bin. Martin NA (1986) Earthworm biomass: Influence of gut content and formaldehyde preservation on live-to-dry weight ratios of three common species of pasture lumbricidae.

Ma WC, Brussard L, Ridder JA (1990) Long-term effects of nitrogenous fertilizers on grassland earthworms (Oligochaeta: lumbricidae): Their relation to soil acidification. Lee KE (1985) Earthworms: Their ecology and relationships with soils and land use. Lal R, De Vleeschauwer D (1982) Influence of tillage methods and fertilizer application on chemical properties of worm casting in a tropical soils. Chapman and Hall, LondonĮdwards CA, Lofty JR (1982) Nitrogenous fertilizers and earthworm populations in agricultural soils. Michigan Beach Leaf Press, Kalamazoo, Mich, vol 1, pp 61–85Įdwards CA, Lofty JR (1977) Biology of earthworms. In: Proceedings of Workshop on the Role of Earthworms in the Stabilization of Organic Residues. Blackwell Scientific Publications, OxfordĮdwards CA (1981) Earthworms, soil fertility and plant growth. Allen SE (1974) Chemical analysis of ecological materials.

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