Yelm Earthworm & Castings Farm has a research and development team dedicated to analyzing the science of vermiculture.

As reported by an abundant amount of media sources world wide, each day brings forth new instruction and insight into the industry. The knowledge obtained is consequent of many educators in the field.

New uses for worm castings are being discovered every day! To date, vermiculture has been immediately responsible for providing healthy benefits to the environment, humans and even pets! Believe it; the products that have sprung from vermiculture enhance food products, improve the diets for our cherished pets and have the capability to possibly prevent cancer in some cases!

The research and development team at Yelm Earthworm & Castings Farm is persistently testing, experimenting and striving innovative theories and potential primary uses that will replace the man-made chemical world as we know it!

The Yelm Earthworm & Castings Farm team is relentlessly inspecting new findings along with results from their own theories and experiments. They strive to recover new uses for duel markets on a continuous basis!

Yelm Earthworm & Castings Farm wants breeders to take abundant advantage of this stimulating resource. The team's technical and systematic minds are available for questions or concerns regarding worm breeding. They offer solutions, knowledge and years of experience!

Vermicomposting

Yard and food waste make up a major component of solid waste in most municipalities throughout the United States. Although much of this organic waste can be recycled in the backyard using traditional aerobic backyard composting techniques, these techniques are not appropriate for apartment dwellers and are often inconvenient, particularly during bad weather in the winter.

Vermicomposting, or composting with earthworms, is an excellent technique for recycling food waste in the apartment as well as composting yard wastes in the backyard. Worm bins located near a hot water heater in the garage during the winter will save many a trip through the snow to the backyard compost bin. Letting worms recycle your food waste also saves your back, because you don’t have to turn over the compost to keep it aerated.

Types of Earthworms

The most common types of earthworms used for vermicomposting are brandling worms (Eisenia foetida) and redworms or red wigglers (Lumbricus rubellus). Often found in aged manure piles, they generally have alternating red and buff-colored stripes. They are not to be confused with the common garden or field earthworm (Allolobophora caliginosa and other species).

Although the garden earthworm occasionally feeds on the bottom of a compost pile, they prefer ordinary soil. An acre of land can have as many as 500,000 earthworms, which can recycle as much as 5 tons of soil or more per year.

Redworms and brandling worms, however, prefer the compost or manure environment. Passing through the gut of the earthworm, recycled organic wastes are excreted as castings, or worm manure, an organic material rich in nutrients that looks like fine-textured soil.

What is Vermicompost?

Vermicompost contains not only worm castings, but also bedding materials and organic wastes at various stages of decomposition. It also contains worms at various stages of development and other microorganisms associated with the composting processing.

Earthworm castings in the home garden often contain 5 to 11 times more nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium as the surrounding soil. Secretions in the intestinal tracts of earthworms, along with soil passing through the earthworms, make nutrients more concentrated and available for plant uptake, including micronutrients.

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