ORGANIC GARDEN丨2017 VOLUNTEER TRAINING V

Volunteer Xia Jiwei’s Training Notes on Earthworm Farm:

Earthworms are the best producers of vegetable fertilizer. They turn rotten food residue into natural mixed fertilize–the wormcast. The method we use to make earthworm farm is as follow.

First, we need a lidded plastic box, a net box, several earthworms (10 to 20), some newspapers, some fruit peels, a scissor and some water. Then we tear the newspapers into strips. Soak the strips and wring the water out. Lay these strips flat and fluffy at the bottom of the net box to create a breeding bed for the earthworms. The height of the bed should be half of the net box. Next, make a layer of fruit and vegetable peels, or leaves, stems and flowers of other plants. But make sure that we cut them small enough. Lastly, we put the earthworms and dirt into the box.

The earthworms prefer an environment with 12.7 ℃ to 25℃. We should also keep the humidity level of the breeding bed at 60%-80%. If the environment is not suitable for the earthworms, they would either flee to some other places or die. On the contrary, if the environment is suitable, we could even see the birth of new earthworms (white little earthworms).