permaculture

["Steve Diver" <steved@ncatark.uark.edu>]

> Steve, does the brown nose wriggler, which sounds like a setup for a gag,
> tolerate tropical and/or subtropical conditions?


I'm not familiar with tropical tolerance of Brown Nose worm.  
 
However, Jay Mertz at Rabbit Hill Farm also works with the 
Perionyx excavatus worm which he says in "only" adapted to Far 
South conditions.  

[Next spring he will offer the Denverbena worm which is popular 
in Belgium]

Interestingly, Perionyx excavatus is one of the key worms used in 
vermicomposting in India.  

On my trip to India '96-'97 we went to Pune which is the 
Fertile Crescent of Worm Composting.  There are half a dozen 
organizations there specializing in vermiculture. 

INORA - Institute of Natural Organic Agriculture in Pune, a leading 
non-profit for organic agriculture in India, helped 400 farmers in 
1996 establish wormeries and planned to help 600 more in 1997.  The 
goal of the wormeries is production of vermicompost biofertilizers to 
enhance soil quality and productivity.  Soils in India are 
impoverished of organic matter due to neglect and dependence on 
chemical fertilizers.  The climate itself is harsh on soil organic 
matter, with hot dry conditions for several months each year.  
INORA views vermicompost as a low-tech soil improvement practice 
that is well adapted to small farms. 

They assist farmers in erecting wormeries, which are shade houses 
constructed of bamboo poles and thatch roofs 80 feet long and about 
30 feet wide. 

For bedding they use a mixture of 50% cow dung and 50% biomass such 
as grass and fodder.  The biomass comes from intentionally planted 
crops in under-utilized spaces such as fence rows and bunds.  The 
INORA advisors help farmers look at the non-cropland areas 
around the farm as productive spaces to acquire biomass as a source 
for worm bedding and bioconversion.  The farmers fill a wicker basket 
with 10 kg of the 50:50 mixture, and plop down two patties side by 
side.  This continues until a long row of double patties is formed. 
The worms are added atop the plops, and then covered with loose 
organic matter or previously made worm compost.  Thus a worm 
bed is established.  

The worms they use are African red worms and common red worms. 
After equilibrium is established, 95% of the population settles out 
as African red worms and 5% red worms; yet they keep using the red 
worms because they occupy an important ecological niche in the worm 
bed.  It takes about 3 months for the worms to work over the first 
bed, but only half this time in following cycles due to worm 
population buildup.

A pamphlet from INORA says they use the following worms:

Eisenia foetida
Perionyx excavatus
Eudrilus euginae

[Which species is African Red Worms....  Perionyx or Eudrilus?]

One other notable practice at INORA is the inoculation of the 
worm beds with 3-4 soil microbial inoculants 10-12 days
prior to harvest. These microbials include azotobacter and 
azospirillum (N-fixing microorganisms) along with phosphorus 
solublizing bacteria, to create a vermicompost biofertilizer.  This 
end product, the vermicompost biofertilizer, is applied at a rate of 
2 tons per acre.  

Two observations: 
*The integration of worm compost with microbial inoculants is an 
  advanced organic farming practice in India. 
*It is a remarkable achievement to make and apply 2 tons/acre 
  precious biofertilizer from organic wastes....   all prepared and 
  spread by hand with the aid of a bullock cart. 

Worm Digest ran a special issue on vermicomposting in India.

Steve Diver