Many Kona residents are vermicomposting as part of their recycling practices. They’re using worms to break down kitchen waste into a nutritious soil additive. If we truly want to fulfill our commitment to zero waste, getting more people into vermicomposting
Many Kona residents are vermicomposting as part of their recycling practices. They’re using worms to break down kitchen waste into a nutritious soil additive. If we truly want to fulfill our commitment to zero waste, getting more people into vermicomposting would definitely help.
Take a class or check online for information and videos on the topic. The University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources has two publications on vermicomposting, Small Scale Vermicomposting and Composting Worms for Hawaii,”available to download at ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs. The authoritative source book on the subject, published in 1982, is “Worms Eat My Garbage” by Mary Appelhof.
Vermicomposting is a sustainable practice that uses waste to produce a soil amendment that can improve the nutrition, texture and microbial activity in soil and keep plants healthy. Adding a worm bin to your current recycling practices accomplishes a lot with little effort.
A container that will hold the moist medium the worms will live in is all you need to start. You can make a wooden box about 24 inches square and 8 to 10 inches deep or use an old Styrofoam cooler. Use a container you can easily drill holes into the bottom for drainage and holes near the top for air circulation.
Put your bin on a tray to catch the valuable liquid runoff. This nutrition-packed “worm tea” can be diluted 1:1 to make a foliar spray or root drench for your plants.
Once you have a container and its catchment system in place you can add bedding for the worms. Shredded newspaper is ideal. Shredded coconut husks, called “coir,” or other shredded paper or wood products that hold moisture will also work. If you use newspaper, shred it in a paper shredder or tear it by hand into long, vertical strips. Gather enough material to fill your bin loosely and dampen the bedding. Do not get the material too wet. Seek a moisture level comparable to that of a wrung-out sponge.
Place the bin in a cool, shady spot and it’s ready for worms. Be sure to find the right worms for the job. Standard earthworms will not perform well. Special “garbage eating” worms are the right choice. These worms eat lots of waste, reproduce quickly and, as long as their home is comfortable, they stay put.
Two excellent vermicomposting worm species are available locally. California red wigglers, Eisenia foetida, are a good choice. They are available locally at worms-hawaii.com. Piper Selden at hawaiirainbowworms.com in Hilo sells India blues, Perionyx excavatus, which are equally effective. Several local gardeners stock worms as well. Call the UH helpline any Thursday between 9 a.m. and noon at 322-4892 to get contact information for them. Also, watch for local workshops where a starter bin and worms may be offered. Neither of the locally available vermicomposting worms burrow in the soil or are native to Hawaii. They should be confined to a bin to do their assigned task.
Once your worms are installed, you can begin feeding. Start small with about 1 cup of kitchen waste cut into small pieces. Once you see worms feeding around the scraps, you can add more. Be careful not to let the medium get too wet. Add more shredded bedding material if it becomes soggy.
Three words are important to remember in maintaining your bin: damp, dark and dinner. Worms prefer a damp environment. They prefer a dark place. A tight-fitting top for the bin is important to maintain darkness and to keep other critters out. Placing a rock on top can help achieve this goal.
Burying their preferred dinner items in the bedding is also important. You can include vegetable peelings, fruit cores, rotting salad greens, coffee and coffee filters, tea bags, burned biscuits, as well as your leftovers. Avoid adding meat or dairy products, however, because they may encourage other critters to visit.
Within a month, you should see an increase in your worm population and the bedding material will start to become vermicompost. In a few months, it will be ready to use on your plants. Separate out the worms and dress your plants with the vermicompost or use it to make compost tea.
Start exploring ways you might include worm composting in your waste reduction practices. It’s good for you, your plants and the planet.
Tropical
gardening helpline
Winnie asks: I have five coffee trees in my yard. I recently found coffee berry borer had infested some of my beans. I am thinking of pulling my trees out. What do you advise?
Answer: Although removing your trees would be a service to other coffee growers in your area, the pest seems to be everywhere, so tree removal may not be necessary.
If you do remove the trees, it is best to strip the cherries, red and green and in between, from the branches before you take the trees to the green waste. That way you will not spread the pest to that area. Put the cherries that are infested in a closed container with a little alcohol in the bottom to kill the borer. Then you can, in good conscience, dispose of the cherries.
If you decide not to remove the trees, you can help control the borer in your area by checking your trees weekly for infested cherries and removing them. Coffee growers are using a several pronged approach to deal with this pest. If you find the borer, you should join other coffee farmers by following these recommended control practices:
1. Remove all “raisins” at the end of the harvest season and keep all cherries off the ground.
2. Spray the fungus Beauvaria bassiana every month to six weeks after the trees have flowered, through harvest.
3. Set traps in open areas within and at the edge of coffee land to trap coffee berry borer.
Information on all these practices, as well as information about the recent coffee berry borer workshop can be found at the Kona Coffee Farmers Association’s website: konacoffeefarmers.org.
Email plant questions to konamg@ctahr.hawaii.edu for answers by certified master gardeners. Some questions will be chosen for inclusion in this column.
Diana Duff is a plant adviser, educator and consultant with an organic farm in Captain Cook.
