What is vermiculture. method of culturing earth worms and Techniques for vermicomposting .

 VERMICULTURE

Vermiculture is worm cultivation or cultivating worms for selling them either to fishermen or to compost makers. Vermicomposting is the process of creating compost using earthworms. Earthworms eat decomposing organic debris as they tunnel through the soil, excreting castings that are nutrient-rich and full of good microorganisms—there are around 20 times as many in worm castings than in regular soil. These helpful organisms not only help the plants get the nutrients they need, but they also prevent infections from growing, keeping the plants healthy.

Red worms are the most popular worms used in vermiculture (Eisenia foetida, Eisenia andrei, and Lumbricus rubellus). These worms can be grown indoors in boxes at temperatures between 20 and 30 °C. Warmer conditions are suited for other worms like Perionyx excavatus and Eudrillius eugieneare.

Vermiculture medium

The primary ingredients for cultivating earthworms include crop leftovers, dry leaves, and animal dung, as well as sawdust, coir waste, paddy husk, slurry from biogas plants, chicken waste, and vegetable wastes. To prevent flooding from heavy rain and direct sunlight, earth worm culture should be carried out in a covered area.

Containers for vermiculture

Earthworms can be cultured in brick-lined pits, plastic tubs, wooden boxes, clay pots, or any other suitable containers. The optimal measurements are 1 m x 1 m x 0.3 m, although they can be altered to fit the amount of garbage and convenience. However, the pit's depth shouldn't exceed 45 cm. A pile of organic debris on bare ground in a shaded place can also be used occasionally for cultivating.

Method Of Culturing Earthworm's

1) In shaded places, choose a container or dig a pit that is the right size.

2) Create a wormibed of 10 cm height at the bottom of the pit or container using scraps of coir, rice husk, sugar cane refuse, old papers, etc. and cover it with dirt. Sprinkle enough water over the bed to achieve a relative humidity of 40–45%.

3) Combine any other organic material, such as cow manure, biogas plant sludge, or organic waste, and sprinkle it over the bed. Keep this combination in a dark, dry place for two weeks to allow for half digestion. During this time, the substrate will be heated and the temperature will rise to 50 to 55 °C. Incorporate neem cake at a rate of 5–10%. Neem cake inhibits dangerous bacteria and has a positive impact on worm growth.

4) Spread worms across the bed at a rate of 500 worms for every 100 kg of organic material once the organic feeding material has cooled down to about 30°C.

5) Cover the bed with jute cloth, straw or similar material to provide shade and protection to the worms. To maintain the moisture content at 45–50% and the temperature between 20–30°C, water must be sprinkled over this cover. The raw material's pH shouldn't be higher than 6.5-7.

The worms actively consume organic debris and produce casting piles close to the surface. Composting will be completed in roughly 60 days.

6) Remove the vermicompost and lay it out in a mound in the sun on a plastic sheet to separate the worms from the compost. All of the worms will descend to the bottom of the pile in roughly two hours. The worms at the bottom can be carefully gathered and used for additional vermicomposting while the compost at the top can be taken and spread out over fields.

FOR FARMERS: VERMICOMPOSTING TECHNIQUE

• By excavating trenches that are 3.0 m long, 1.0 m broad, and 1.0 m deep, vermicomposting is accomplished.
• Broken earthen pots or bricks are scattered at the bottom of the pits to allow for proper drainage.
• A bed of rice husk or dry leaves is laid over the layer of bricks, which is followed by a layer of soil that is 2.5 cm deep.
• Then, a layer of roughly three inches thick cattle dung and other organic wastes are strewn over the bed. For around two weeks, 
• This organic material is given a chance to partially breakdown before the temperature rises to roughly 50°C.
• Once this incubation period is over and the temperature has dropped to around 30°C, worms can be added. The pit is then filled with about 500 earthworms, and a layer of paddy straw is added on top of them. To shield the worms from sunlight and predators, water should be sprayed and the pit should be covered with coconut fibers, paddy straw, or dried leaves.
• Every three or four days, new layers of organic waste can be put on top of this material and covered with soil and paddy husk.
• When the earthworms have consumed all of the food in the lower strata, they will proceed to the upper layer.
• All types of organic waste can be added to the pit in layers of about 5 cm, covered with dirt until the material reaches the top of the pit.
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• When the pit is full, husk and a layer of soil should be added, and it should be kept for 30 to 60 days so that compost can fully form.
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• In order to collect the compost, the top layer should be exposed to sunshine in order to drive the earthworms further into the compost.
• Worms gathered at the bottom can be used to seed fresh vermicomposting pits.
• Regarding nutrients and other ingredients that encourage plant growth, vermicomposting is considerably superior than other composts in terms of quality.

Cattle urine can be used to wet organic wastes during the initial composting stage before the inclusion of worms to improve the production of vermicomposting utilising worms like Eisenia foetida, Lumbricus rubellus, and Eudrilus eugeniae. This straightforward method can produce vermicomposting with a greater Nitrogen content. Additionally, using cattle urine has been discovered to make worms more active and allow vermicomposting to be gathered as least 10 days earlier.

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