History
Redworms
Reproduction
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History
Vermicomposting is a composting technique achieved by placing kitchen
waste in a container of redworms that convert this material into
nutritious humus for plants. This black, rich soil they produce
is called worm castings. Vermes is the Latin term for worms.
Red worms have historically been known to produce excellent compost.
Cleopatra realized their value and declared them sacred in 50 BC.
A man named Marcus Cato, who was a Roman Statesman, recorded the
first use of vermicomposting more than 2,000 years ago. More
than one hundred years ago, Charles Darwin found that redworms
compost their own weight in organic matter in one day.
Redworms
Redworms are the most satisfactory worms for composting.
They are, also, called red wigglers, red hybrid, Tiger worm, Garlic
worm, Brandling worm, or manure worms. The Latin name for
these worms is Eisenia fetida. Red wigglers are rust brown
in color and have a membrane between each segment with no pigment.
On each segment are bands of yellow and dark red, which continue
down the length of the body. An adult redworm can grow up
to three inches long. They are considered shallow-dwellers
that live in the first top inches of soil.
Redworms
process large amounts of organic material in their natural habitats
of manure, compost piles or decaying leaves. They reproduce
very rapidly and are able to thrive in a wide range of temperatures,
acidity and moisture conditions. Red wigglers are hardy
worms that can tolerate being handled. Hot and sheet composting
do not produce as nutritious a plant food as methods that include
worms.
Ordinary
gray, earthworms found commonly in the garden will not produce
vermicompost. They don’t process large amounts of organic
material, don’t reproduce well in confinement, need a drier environment
than a worm bin provides, and can’t survive in a worm bin that
is constantly dug up which destroys their burrow system.
Redworm
Reproduction
Redworms reproduce very rapidly. A healthy, adult redworm
can produce an egg capsule every seven to ten days under optimum
conditions. In one year, a breeder can produce fifty capsules.
Capsules incubate in fourteen to twenty-one days and hatch up
to twenty baby worms per capsule. Babies mature to breeding
age in sixty days. Each breeder with its children and grandchildren
can hatch one thousand five hundred offspring per year.
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