Earthworm farm / Earthworm farming.
Earthworm farms/ earthworm farming.
There are lots of types of worms for lots of types of jobs. When your planning to use the worms for composting your vegetable scraps etc its probably best to choose “composting worms”. These specific breeds of worms are chosen for composting because of there ferocious appetites and there enjoyment for staying in the top layers of soil. Composting worms occupy a different ecological niche, living near the surface where there are high concentrations of organic matter, such as on pastures or in leaf mould, or under compost piles.
Now, if your talking about “earthworm farming” then that’s a different kettle of tea all together. Earthworm farming differs from composting worm farming in the following ways:
- Earthworms and composting worms like a different kind of diet.
- Due to the incapacity of the compost-raised worm to absorb sustenance from a soil wich is lacking humus (decayed animal matter), any transfer of it to an ordinary soil will prove lethal. Likewise, any endeavour to relocate an earth worm to a compost pile will result in fatalities.
- Anatomically, the compost worm, is almost one-third in size smaller than an earth worm. But being of the same family, its clitellum, head band, and segments are indistinguishable, except that they are more accentuated.
- In habits, earthworms burrows deeper into the soil in search of sustenance, whereas, the compost worm generally doesn’t burrow deeper the 8 – 12 inches. This is because the compost worm is a feeder on decaying organic matter, which is seldom found deeper than 12 inches it, so, it remains within that depth.
So , if your deciding to create a “composting worm farm” than maybe you should choose to purchase composting worms instead of earthworms. Red wigglers are generally sold in most hardware stores and are easy to raise and look after.
For more information on how easy it is to create a worm farm check out my new book “Worm Farming for Beginners”
It has everything you need to know about starting your own composting worm farm!
Happy Worm farming!