Whats the difference between compost & vermiculture?

[Samuel1988]

Evening all,

Apologies for my ignorance if I display it here but I am a little confused.

The product from my compost is vermiculture I believe - I was just wondering how I could get my composter to produce compost that resembles that bought from a garden centre?

I have 2 composters - one I am using to produce vermiculture using the worms and the other I hope to compost large amounts of plant waste to hopefully produce some compost. I can not use all the vermiculture to plant my plants in as I believe this may result in problems relating to dampness as it retains moisture well?

Once again apologies for any ignorance displayed - it would be most grateful if someone could set this straight for me

Samuel

[Two_Sheds]

I was just wondering how I could get my composter to produce compost that resembles that bought from a garden centre?

Yep, I know this one because I've just seen it ~ leave it for five years to mature (my friends filled their dalek 5 years ago and just left it)


Most of us can't wait that long, nor have the storage room. Forget trying to use it as potting compost, and use it as a mulch instead.

For potting compost, you need 2 year old leafmould

[rustylady]

Vermiculture is the name given to the process of using worms to process vegetable waste, not the casts they produce.

You say you have two bins - is one a wormery?

How are they different, how big are they, etc.

Worms will find their own way into any compost bin that is situated on earth.

To produce good compost you need to add browns (cardboard, paper, dry twiggy material) to a compost heap as well as plant and vegetable waste.

There are several good threads on the Vine about composting.

[Two_Sheds]

one I am using to produce vermiculture ... I can not use all the vermiculture to plant my plants in as I believe this may result in problems relating to dampness as it retains moisture well?

I've had a think, and I think I know what you mean.

You have a wormery? It produces lots of very wet sludgey stuff doesn't it? This can be mixed in with other ingredients (like leafmould) to make a potting compost. It would be a good idea to leave it for a while for the moisture to mostly evaporate before you try using it.


We have a wormery at school, but it's for novelty value really. I find the daleks much more useful, and they actually tend to have more worms in them than the wormery anyway. I think the wormery, being small, gets too hot for them

[Two_Sheds]

I am a little confused.

The product from my compost is vermiculture I believe

I think it's the Wiki definition that's confused you: I had a look, and it does say that vermiculture is the stuff that worms produce.

More usually, "Vermiculture, also called worm composting, is the process of raising earthworms"

[Samuel1988]

What I was trying to get at is the stuff that is coming out of my darlek seems to be just worm castes - I wish to make worm castes in one and more woody 'compost' in another.

Im confused - is worm castes the ONLY product from the composting process? As to say, if I had a wormery ('cold composting'?) and did not stir it up would this produce a different LOOKING/FEELING product to that of turning it and 'hot composting'?

Or is it simply putting in more woody materials to get a more free draining product?

The worm castes (I remember that this has been called vermiculture on some seed packets) retain moisture and (although I havent tried it) if I was to use it as material to pot up plants drainage would be poor?

I hope this makes sense but to summerise:

'Cold' composting/Use of worms/Not turning - produces worm castes (this considered compost?).

'Hot' composting/Turning the material - would produce a different material to the above (in terms of properties such as draininage)?

For one thing is sure is that I have confused myself even more

I just cant see using the worm castes for potting up (unless maybe mixing it with other material) and only for a mulch/digging into the ground.

Kind regards,

Samuel

[Samuel1988]

Or is the process of recycling nutrience a mixture of both & the proportion of each determined by the proportion of materials put in/the amount of turning done?

[rustylady]

Right Samuel, back to basics.

What are you putting in your Daleks, and how much of it?

The type and quality of compost produced is indeed governed by what is added to the heap.

A traditional wormery (vermiculture) is usually a much smaller container than a Dalek, and I believe the worms are fed on vegetable scraps, peelings etc, added in small quantities. I'm no expert because I've never had a wormery, but there are several sites on Google which can explain the process in detail.

A traditional compost heap on the other hand needs to be larger in order to contain the amount of material needed. The material added to this is a mixture of greens and browns. Greens being vegetable waste, grass clippings etc. Browns being materials rich in carbon (woody stem prunings, scrunched up newspaper, cardboard, etc. The greens and browns should be mixed well. Further material is added to the heap as it becomes available and will rot down in time to become compost.

No need to turn frequently, indeed if you do you will reduce the effectiveness of the composting process.

[Two_Sheds]

What I was trying to get at is the stuff that is coming out of my darlek seems to be just worm castes

I don't see how that could be. Do you have a good close-up photo?


Hot composting is done by thermophilic bacteria. They will colonise a heap for a short time only, and then the heap cools and other composters move in to continue the process.

I'm not sure why it's all worrying you so much. Maybe you like to worry ?

Anyway: this is a great read on all things composting. It explains it indepth, but in a clear understandable way