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Since his return from the vermiculture conference in North Carolina in November, Christophe, our soil biology wizard, has been busy developing our vermiculture
program to further enhance our soil fertility in the orchard. My long awaited afternoon with Christophe finally came, and I finally got the lowdown on our worms.
The impetus for creating our own vermiculture system is multi-faceted. Vermicompost will greatly diversify the microbial life in our soil. Because compost must be heated up to 160 F to kill off pathogens and weed seeds, the microbial life in the compost is limited to the populations that can survive under high temperatures. The ideal temperature for a vermicompost system is between 75-80F and different populations of microbial life thrive under these cooler temperatures. By adding vermicompost to our traditional compost, we will be diversifying microbial life in our soil. We embrace diversity in both human and soil interactions!
Worms are also unique in that they produce humic acid, a complex mixture of many different acids, which are essential to healthy soil, and that is typically purchased as an organic amendment. In addition, they are big producers of phytohormones or plant hormones, which play a big role in stimulating plant growth and development.
Unlike traditional compost systems, we can continuously feed the worms fruit scraps that come from our farm kitchen. With our traditional compost, once a pile is at a certain stage, we can’t add any more fruit to it because it will slow down the
decomposition process and impede us from harvesting it.
In our constant quest to recycle all of the organic materials we have on the farm back into organic matter to feed the trees, we are also feeding the worms your
Decommissioned CSA boxes! Worms like cardboard and the wood chipper for our traditional compost system does not. When you return a box that looks like it may be on its last legs, you can now imagine it heading off to the worms to feast upon.
Stay tuned next week for the Hows of our vermiculture program. We’ll introduce you to our Wig Wam and Crocodile Bed!
