Harnessing the Earthworm
Monday, January 29th, 2007Today’s word is Vermiculture. ((vûr’mi-kul”chur), n)
This is not the society of students dedicated rice noodles, but, actually a practical - & grody - way to quickly create rich garden compost using worms.
Vermiculture, also called Vermicompost, has been an accepted practice since only the 1940s. It’s current reputation and usage is attributed to a British scientist named Sir Albert Howard, who having read Darwin’s The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms, started to study the results of using worms to create a more effective soil for agriculture. Howard - who is considered the forefather of modern organic farming - noticed that the application of chemical fertilizers & the near fanatical belief in animal and artificial manures was quickly killing off the worms. Maybe those worms underground were actually doing some good work.
Howard determined, “There is no better soil analyst than the lowly earthworm.”
So, to Harness the Earthworm through composting, the wikipedia article on Vermiculture notes:
- It improves the physical structure of the soil.
- It improves the biological properties of the soil (enrichment of micro-organisms, addition of growth hormones such as auxins and gibberellic acid, and addition of enzymes, such as phosphates, cellulase, etc.).
- It attracts deep-burrowing earthworms already present in the soil.
So, another gardening goal for this year is to create a successful worm composting system. Seattle Tilth not only offers the worms for sale, but also has a link to an easy how-to construction guide for a worm composting box.
Yup. Exciting, eh?