Can't I Just Use Garden Worms in My Worm Farm?

By Joe Serpico

If you're interested in vermicomposting, typically referred to as worm farming, you may have noticed that there are a lot of worms living in your garden soil. If so, I can't blame you for wondering why you couldn't just use them in a worm farm and save the cost of buying special worms, as recommended by most experts.

Actually, you can use common garden worms in a worm farm, but you may not want to. After all, the whole reason for having a worm farm is in order to get that finished compost product, known as castings or vermicast. Any readers not familiar with the worm farming process may be surprised to learn that these castings are actually worm excrement - but it's an odorless 'earth-like' product that makes a great fertilizer or soil amendment. Anyway, It's true that you'll save money initially with the garden worms, but you'll pay a penalty when it comes to the amount of castings that they produce.

You see, most worms normally found in garden soil normally live quite a bit deeper in the soil than the preferred composting type. These garden worms prefer the nutrients found deep in the soil, so that's why they like to habitate there. They don't adapt real well to being enclosed in a worm farm, and since they don't normally eat the type of waste material you'll be feeding them, they will process much less of it than the worms typically used for vermicomposting. Basically, what you'll have is a poorly perfoming system, which sort of defeats the whole idea of worm farming, which is to make the composting process much more efficient.

The type of worms preferred for worm farming like to live near the surface of the soil where they can reach the food they favor, such as leaf litter or other plant debris. The most popular of these preferred worms is called the red wiggler, or sometimes just the redworm.

These types of worms are usually available for less than twenty dollars a pound. Normally, you'll only need a pound or two to get started, and should never have to add any more, as they will multiply dramatically in a well-run farm. If you don't have a supplier near you, just do an internet search for 'worm farm supplies' in your state or geographical area.

When you purchase worms like this, you remove any question about whether or not they're suited for the task, since they've been raised under the very conditions you'll be asking them to live in, which should allow them to be prolific composters. And that's what worm farming is all about!

If you want to read more about how to get started with worm farming, and learn about things such as worm farm designs, head on over to Joe's site at http://www.wormfarmguide.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joe_Serpico