VERMICOMPOST -- MAKE IT YOURSELF IN YOUR HOME
An exhibition of plants called Vriksha Mahotsav (i.e. Plant Festival) was organized at Dr. C. D. Deshmukh Garden in Mulund (East) for three days, from 18th to 21st December 2003. The Tree Authority and Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai organized this exhibition in co-operation with Mumbai Nurserymen's Association. Many varieties of plants, seeds, horticultural implements and decorative supplements were put up on the stalls by private nurseries for display and sale.
A workshop on converting household organic waste into a kind of manure called vermicompost was also conducted on Sunday 21st December 2003 morning in the same exhibition. The details of session are narrated below for the benefit of readers interested in vermicompost.
Vermicompost is a kind of manure generated by earthworms after digesting organic solid waste matter in the surrounding. It consists of nutritious matter required by plants for their healthy growth. All persons can produce this vermicompost in their homes & gardens on small scale and in the farms on large scale. Even commercial producers are also doing their business of producing and selling such vermicompost in the market.
IMPORTANT PRECAUTIONS AND NOTES :--
Earthworms are the living bodies immensely helpful and useful to the mankind. Like all other living bodies, they also need adequate air to breathe, good food to eat, some moisture and warmness to flourish. Mr. Singh described this fact as the ATM for earthworms. The letter A stands for air, T stands for proper temperature and M stands for moisture. He informed of failure of many projects of producing vermicompost due to violation of these conditions and hence non-availability of any one or more of these three essential inputs.
You will wonder as to what is the good food for earthworms. All types of vegetarian waste that is generated in our homes constitute good food for earthworms. This is called organic waste matter. Such organic waste is mostly generated while separating the useful bulk of fruits from their roots & skins (peeling off) and separating the inner portion of vegetables from their outer layers or roots. However, cooked food, any items containing oil and spices and hot items like chilly are fatal for the earthworms. The dry leaves fallen down from trees and other similar substances are also good food for these earthworms.
But you need to take care that any matter which generates excess acidity must be neutralized before feeding to earthworms. Non-vegetarian waste is not desirable. But powder of bones, fish skeleton and outer peeled off covers of eggs may be fed in small quantity only. Majority of the food must comprise vegetarian waste only.
Any other matter like plastic, paper, pieces of cloth & thread, metallic or glass containers etc. are called non-organic waste. You must segregate these substances, without fail, from the matter to be fed to earthworms.
Warmness is needed for healthy growth of earthworms. Again, direct sunlight or excessive heat will cause harm to earthworms.
Some moisture is also needed. But excessive water will drive out air and subsequently suffocate the earthworms. Too little water will keep the waste matter dry and keep the earthworms thirsty.
OPERATING STEPS :--
Take an old bucket of water that is now out of use. It could be of plastic or metal also. Leave its lower portion upto four to six inches height intact and make a mesh of holes on its upper round portion. You can make these holes by using a heated iron rod or a drilling machine.
Keep this perforated bucket in a trough. This will help you keep the surrounding clean.
Add a layer of small pieces of bricks, upto one inch in height, at the bottom of this bucket. Add some water on this layer to keep it wet.
Add another layer of sand or soft soil, upto one inch in height, on the top of the first layer of bricks in this bucket. Add some water on this layer to keep it wet.
Now add the third layer of powder of dry cow dung, upto one inch in height, on the top of the second layer of sand in this bucket. Add some water on this layer to keep it wet. The cow dung provides aerobic bacteria needed for the process of generating vermicompost.
Now add the first layer of organic waste that you have separated and collected in your home. But ensure that you cut large chunks of the waste matter into small pieces, before adding to bucket. Sprinkle some water to keep it moist.
Now leave some fully grown earthworms (approximately 500 nos.) on this layer of organic waste in the bucket.
After this, go on adding the organic waste matter on daily basis, which you separate and gather in your home. Ensure that you cut large chunks of the waste matter into small pieces, before adding to bucket. Sprinkle some water on it to keep it moist. Ensure that it always remains moist.
MORE NOTES :--
Let the bucket fill to its top level. Always keep that bucket in shadow. You may keep it in a small corner of your home also. It will take nearly five to six months for the earthworms to digest all that organic waste and convert into manure. During this period, earthworms reproduce in the bucket and their number goes on increasing, if you maintained all the conditions properly. You get approximately 10 % manure by weight from the organic waste matter that you fed to earthworms. Rest of the portion decomposes and vanishes in the process.
The perforations on the round wall of bucket let fresh air enter inside the mass of waste matter and facilitate easy breathing by earthworms. Since the bottom portion of bucket is not perforated, it helps hold water at the bottom of bucket and prevents it from draining down. Remember that, if you are out of home for a week, earthworms use the water stored in these three bottom-most layers of brick, sand & cow dung. However, one or two holes may be needed to let excess water (if any) drain down out of bucket.
DISPOSING OFF :--
You get blackish soil in the bucket after earthworms fully digest the organic waste. This blackish soil itself is the useful vermicompost. You can insert your hand in the bucket, displace some of the waste matter and verify completion of the process. It will not hurt your hand in any way. Take care that earthworms do not get hurt during this exercise. After completion of the process, you need to take this vermicompost out of bucket and dispose it off as natural manure for plants in gardens.
But you should separate the earthworms from the manure. To ensure that, stop sprinkling of water in the bucket for about ten days. Due to this, earthworms will find the upper layers deficient in water and move towards lower three layers and stay there. After that, take out the manure from middle portion of the bucket. Remember that the upper portion of bucket contains half digested waste matter. You should leave it in the bucket only. After that, you can continue to add organic waste matter to half empty bucket, as done earlier.
IMPORTANT TIPS :--
You can use the vermicompost so produced, in your own gardens or give it to your friends or neighbours or any other persons or sell it to whomsoever you wish.
Segregation of organic and non-organic waste is a must for this project to succeed.
You need to buy or collect some cow dung in the beginning to prepare the bed of aerobic bacteria that work as catalyst. After taking out some manure from the bucket, you may perhaps need to replenish the cow dung by adding its more powder again.
You also need to buy some earthworms in the beginning to initiate this process.
You can donate or sell to others, the excess number of earthworms born after their natural reproduction in the bucket.
You need to choose the size of bucket depending on the quantity of input waste matter available in your home. If required, you can collect such organic waste matter from your neighbours also. Alternately, you may give the organic waste matter from your home to your neighbours.
For large scale production, don't dig pits below the ground level. Earthworms do not get adequate air for breathing when you accumulate organic waste in such pits. Sunch projects have failed in the past. Instead of that, build a tank above the ground level and ensure that you keep holes on walls on all sides of the tank. There should not be direct sunlight on this tank. All other things work as explained earlier.
You don't smell any stink or unpleasant odour from the bucket or the vermicompost.
You can spread this information to other persons for the benefit of all, including yourself. This will help all of us maintain clean surrounding in your area.
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This page is last updated on 2004-02-13, 22-00 hours (Indian time)
