Earthworm Farm Field Trip
Some of the members of The Tropical Fruit Club of Central Florida, recently took a field trip to Ted Vickers Farms to see where and how he raises his organic earthworms.
The field trip was very informative. Ted raises two types of earthworms, Red Wigglers, Eisenia foetida and European Red, Eisenia hortensis. Eisenia hortensis grows to twice the size of Red Wigglers, up to seven inches. They are an excellent worm for composting and fishing.
In one pound of mature worms, you will find approximately 800 red worms and 300-400 Europeans.
We were told that a worm, will eat it’s weight in organic matter everyday, and that fifteen pounds of worms will consume one ton of organic waste in thirty days. Ted said, that worms have a twenty year lifespan. A large worm will decrease in size, when food & moisture are scarce, and will grow again, when food and moisture are more readily available.
Red and European worms are both manure worms, and need composted manure in their diet. They especially love rabbit manure, but cow and horse manure are sufficient. I would think, adding small amount of shredded alfalfa to the bedding material would be enjoyed by the worms. Although, too much alfalfa may heat up in the worm bin, as it decomposes.
Ed raises his worms in a fifty/fifty mix of composted manure and peat. There is no foul smell, because the manure has been composted. Composting heats the manure, killing bad bacteria. If you do not have access to manure to compost, store sold manure such as Black Kow will work.
Ed said worms do not really like Camphor leaves or heart of pine chips, because of the resin.
To live and breed, a worm needs; moisture, darkness and food.
A worms digestive tract runs the length of its body and is called the alimentary canal. Both Red and European worms will eat kitchen scraps, which they will compost organic matter, ten times faster then an ordinary compost pile would.
When adding kitchen scraps to your worm bin, chop them very small, to start the decomposition faster. You can also boil scraps to soften and break down the food, so the worms will consume the food sooner.
USDA tests have shown that after working soil, earthworm castings contain eight times the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as it originally had.
Earthworms are hermaphrodites. They posses both male and female reproductive organs. Temperature and soil moisture are both factors that affect when worms will reproduce.
When mating two worms will lock tightly together and secrete a large amount of mucus. The mucus is secreted by the light colored bands all worms have. Ted said when a worm develops this band, it has reached sexual maturity. This band is called the clitellum. Each worm leaves it’s own sperm on the other worm. The clitellum when fertilized, becomes a donut, eventually the “donut” will be slid off the body and becomes an egg sac.
Egg capsules are able to survive the extremes that the parent worm cannot, such as dryness and extreme temperatures. Egg capsules contain 2-20 worms, with eight being the average.
Large European worms are capable of producing an egg sac every three weeks.
Hatched worms resemble white thread, and range from 1/16 to ¼ inch long. Newly hatched worms grow fast and reach sexual maturity at ninety days.
Ted Vickers may be reached at 407.748.5188. As of September 2014, his price for Red Worms is $15/pound and $16/pound for European. He also sells the fifty/fifty manure peat mixture & beautiful, deep black worm castings, screened or unscreened, at very reasonable prices. Ted is very passionate about worms, a trip to his farm will leave you very informed, confident and excited about raising earthworms.
