Worm Composting Videos Kids – Tutorials, or How to Make Vermicompost
This is the time to get your kids interested in green living; while they are still young enough to find it fun and fascinating.
I have yet to find any kids that didn’t think worms were an interesting subject.
I have put 3 worm composting videos kids will enjoy below, maybe you would leave a comment below to let us know what they thought of them.
Students learning about vermicomposting
By Red58bill (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
First video:
Vermicomposting for kids
Mrs. Rice shows kids how to create a worm habitat out of a plastic tub.
Kids learning about habitats and life cycles can see how worms live, eat, and multiply. Keeping worms for fertilizer is called vermicomposting – so kids will learn about that and the benefits of their own worm farm.
Second Video:
How to Build Cheap DIY Worm Bin by Kids
In this video you will see how 2 small children build their 2nd worm bins using Rubbermaid containers with little help and instruction from dad.
Third Video:
Homeschool – Worm Compost
Below I have taken an extract from Wikipedia so that we all know (grownups included) exactly what, worm composting/vermicomposting is and what it is used for.
Now, when you are asked those difficult questions, you will know the answers or at least in what direction to point your kids in.
Vermicompost is the product or process of composting using various worms, usually red wigglers, white worms, and earthworms to create a heterogeneous mixture of decomposing vegetable or food waste, bedding materials, and vermicast.
Vermicast, also called worm castings, worm humus or worm manure, is the end-product of the breakdown of organic matter by an earthworm.
These castings have been shown to contain reduced levels of contaminants and a higher saturation of nutrients than do organic materials before vermicomposting.
Containing water-soluble nutrients, vermicompost is an excellent, nutrient-rich organic fertilizer and soil conditioner.
This process of producing vermicompost is called vermicomposting.
As a fertilizer:
Vermicompost can be mixed directly into the soil, or seeped in water and made into a worm tea by mixing some vermicompost in water, bubbling in oxygen with a small air pump, and steeping for a number of hours or days.The microbial activity of the compost is greater if it is aerated during this period.
The resulting liquid is used as a fertilizer or sprayed on the plants.
The dark brown waste liquid, or leachate, that drains into the bottom of some vermicomposting systems as water-rich foods break down, is best applied back to the bin when added moisture is needed due to the possibility of phytotoxin content and organic acids that may be toxic to plants.
The pH, nutrient, and microbial content of these fertilizers varies upon the inputs fed to worms.
Pulverized limestone, or calcium carbonate can be added to the system to raise the pH.Benefits of worm composting/vermicomposting.
Soil
- Improves its physical structure
- Enriches soil with micro-organisms (adding enzymes such as phosphatase and cellulase)
- Microbial activity in worm castings is 10 to 20 times higher than in the soil and organic matter that the worm ingests
- Attracts deep-burrowing earthworms already present in the soil
- Improves water holding capacity
Plant growth
- Enhances germination, plant growth, and crop yield
- Improves root growth and structure
- Enriches soil with micro-organisms (adding plant hormones such as auxins and gibberellic acid)
Economic
- Biowastes conversion reduces waste flow to landfills
- Elimination of biowastes from the waste stream reduces contamination of other recyclables collected in a single bin (a common problem in communities practicing single-stream recycling)
- Creates low-skill jobs at local level
- Low capital investment and relatively simple technologies make vermicomposting practical for less-developed agricultural regions
Environmental
- Helps to close the “metabolic gap” through recycling waste on-site
- Large systems often use temperature control and mechanized harvesting, however other equipment is relatively simple and does not wear out quickly
- Production reduces greenhouse gas emissions such as methane and nitric oxide (produced in landfills or incinerators when not composted or through methane harvest)
More at.. Wikipedia
I hope you have found ‘worm composting videos kids – Tutorials‘ of use in enlightening your children to the possibilities of making our world more sustainable, please share your thoughts by leaving a comment below, many thanks.
