Rhonda Sherman

• Extension Specialist at North Carolina State University

Of the 6000 earthworm species, most can be subdivided into litter (compost) dwelling species or soil-dwelling species. Litter-dwelling species are small, easily cultivated and of enormous use in processing organic materials, simultaneously producing a potential horticultural product (worm-worked material or vermicompost) and producing more earthwor...

Techniques and systems for processing food scraps, manure, yard debris, paper, and more. Turning waste into wealth sounds too good to be true, but many worm farmers are finding that vermicomposting is a reliable way to do just that. Vermicast—a biologically active, nutrient-rich mix of earthworm castings and decomposed organic matter—sells for $400...

Of the 6000 earthworm species, most can be subdivided into litter (compost)-dwelling species or soil-dwelling species. Litter-dwelling species are small, easily cultivated, and of enormous use in processing organic materials; they simultaneously produce a potential horticultural product (worm-worked material, or vermicompost) and also produce bioma...

Vermicompost made from separated swine waste solids (0, 10, or 20% by volume of soil) was applied to turnips in small field plots during four growing seasons to determine the effect on plant growth, runoff volume and nutrients in runoff. The effect of nitrogen fertilizer was controlled by supplementing half the plots with inorganic nitrogen to bala...

Although Darwin (1881) first drew attention to the great importance of earthworms in the decomposition of dead plants and the release of nutrients from them, it was necessary to wait more than a century until this was taken seriously as a field of scientific knowledge or even a real technology. Vermicomposting is a mesophilic biooxidative process i...

Raising Earthworms Successfully by Rhonda Sherman is available free on her website at this link: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/raising-earthworms-successfully

Four correctional facilities in the Carolinas (Caledonia, Brown Creek, and Sampson in North Carolina, and Broad River in South Carolina) are expanding projects with on-site composting and vermicomposting of organic residuals as they examine ways to reduce the amount of garbage they send to landfills. Several other North Carolina prisons are conside...