Research based data

I'd like to introduce a thread with references to vermicomposting research.

I think most of us do this for fun, to feed our gardens, or to live more lightly on the land. Some people vermicompost for a living- either for the compost or to raise and sell worms. As with most things, there is good solid information on the web and there are snake oil sellers. In the recent past (5-10 years) there was a huge scandal in the vermicomposting arena where people were told they could augment their retirement and even grow rich raising and selling worms. Many people lost their shirts investing their life savings in a buy-back scheme. Hopefully this thread will give us references to documented research to refer back to and to jump off from. We are all researchers in our own right as we experiment with what works and what doesn't. Our experience and experiments are no less valuable than those in universities, probably just less documented;-)



This message was edited Feb 1, 2008 7:00 AM

Here is a page of links I found with some info on nutrient value of castings etc. The bad news is that the page was last updated in '01 and all but the commercial links are dead. The page author did cite the references though so the original article could be found if we looked hard enough. That at least gives me confidence in the info presented.

Does anyone else have any similar (probably better) resources?

Maggie

This is an excellent idea, Maggie. Thanks for suggesting it.

Thanks doccat5,

When I re-read it it sounded kind of stuffy but thanks for hearing the spirit of what I was saying.

Maggie

This is a link to an explanation of the differences between earthworms by the Empress of Earthworms, the Doyenne of Dirt, Kelly Slocum. She has not been active lately on any forum I'm aware of. When she was, she was an awesome teacher.

Maggie

http://www.compost-bin.org/earthworm-species/