Nobody seems to understand my love affair with worms. It all started when I bought 1 kilo of the worms for vermiculture during an agri fair in Bohol. I had tried composting and being type A, didn't have the patience to wait until I could use the compost. I'm sure I did something wrong because my compost stank.
My first kilo of worms suffered in my care. My helper Sandra started shrieking one day. I rushed out to see her frantically trying to shovel my worms back into my big banga. Apparently, they were trying to run for their lives. They must've known I didn't know what I was doing.
I thought they were hungry. I instructed Sandra to feed them with all the fish innards from the employees' meal from Amorita. Ooops, that didn't go so well either. I thought that the white worms were the babies of the red african vermi worms. They weren't. And soon, ants crawled all over. My worms were dead. I killed them in just 2 days.
I am not one to accept defeat so easily. I bought a kilo again and read as much as I could on the internet. Turns out, fish innards do not belong in the vermi bin. Now where did I get that idea? Plus I can only put equivalent weight of the worms... meaning 1 kg worms = 1 kg vegetable and fruit peelings per day. Got it.
My second batch of worms fared very well. Would you believe I now have more than 10 sacks in Bohol?
We also have a big terracotta jar full of vermi worms where we get the castings for our vegetable garden at home. We put all of our vegetable and fruit trimmings in it as well as some leaves and grass we sweep from the garden. I just take time to have a bowl ready when I cook so I drop all the fruit and vegetable odds and ends in there.
It just takes some time and convincing for new helpers to get the hang of it. But vermiculture is so easy I wonder why more people aren't getting into it.
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