Vermicompost is earthworm manure. These castings are regarded as one of the best types of soil. People are now following a guide to make vermicompost at home because the worm casting can be used in vegetable or flower gardens or indoor plants. The nutrient content in earthworm castings depends on the foods that are given to the earthworms. These tiny soil engineers prefer to eat food wastes or manure. Using vermicompost in soils improves the physical, chemical and biological properties of soil, promoting plant growth and supplying them with essential nutrients. Worm’s guts accelerate the growth of beneficial bacterial and fungus to make the soil even better.

A guide to make vermicompost at home

In this post, we will discuss the simplest guide to make vermicompost at home. This guide is simple but yet effective. You will obtain nutrient-rich compost at the end.

Before starting, let’s see the things that are needed to make vermicompost at home –

• A worm bin
• Driller
• Papers
• Kitchen wastes, dried leaves, oil cake, sawdust, and so on
• Soil
• Water
• Healthy earthworms

Step – 1: Prepare the worm bin

You can easily buy worm bins in the market. There is no particular requirement about the size, but it’s suggested you take the size of 16 ft2 with a depth of 3 or 4 ft. After collecting the bin, the first thing that you must do is – drill holes so that water can’t stand inside the bin. This size will be a perfect one if you want to make vermicompost at home. Once the holes are made, you need to put the newspaper to cover the holes.

Step – 2: Prepare the wastes and soil

After preparing the worm bin, it is time to prepare the medium and earthworm’s foods. If you can cut the wastes into tiny pieces, it will be better. So, we will suggest you do that. After putting the newspaper in the bin, incorporate and mix the kitchen wastes, sawdust, dried leaves, fruit peels, and soil together. Mix all of these things together and moist it.

Be careful at this stage. You have to moisten it, not flood. Slowly add water and make sure all the sides are moist. To accelerate the activity, you can use half-decomposed cowdung and tea or coffee waste in the bin.

Step – 3: Use the earthworms

Your bin is ready, and the environment for the earthworms is also ready. Now, it is time to put the worms in the bin. It is better to use good and reputed species to produce vermicompost. Some of the reputed worm species are – nightcrawler, red wigglers, red worms, tiger worms, and so on. Nightcrawlers are regarded as the strongest and most effective earthworms to produce vermicompost.

Once the earthworms find their environment, they will be happy to live there. To make them happier, you should add kitchen wastes or fruit peels in the bin.

To make vermicompost at home, you can simply follow these steps. The end product will be black in color and smell earthy and will not contain any foul odor.

Some important points to remember

• Never use hot water in your bin.
• Don’t use fruits like pineapples, lemons, lime, orange, or others.
• Don’t throw random kitchen wastes like onions or garlic in the bin.
• Avoid dairy products, meat, or any foods that contain preservatives.