Peter Bogdanov - Commercial Vermiculture: How to Build a Thriving Business in Redworms

Copyright 1996 by Peter Bogdanov

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

Published by: Petros Publishing Co.

Prescott Valley, Arizona

The publisher does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any party for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in Commercial Vermiculture: How To Build A Thriving Business in Redworms whether such errors or omission result from negligence, accident or any other cause.

Printed in the United States of America

Library in Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Commercial vermiculture: how to build a thriving business in redworms / by Peter Bogdanov.

p.cm.

ISBN 978-0-9657039-2-5

1. Earthworm culture. 2. Eisenia foetida. 3. Lumbricus rubellus. 4. Vermicomposting. I.Title.

SF597.E3 B64 1999

639'.75dc21

98-10717

CIP

Table of Contents

Chapters

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

_____1. Read Commercial Vermiculture completely

_____2. Read other books and magazines on the subject of vermiculture. Watch available videos/dvds on the subject. (see what information your library might have available.)

_____3. Determine the size operation you wish to have.

_____4. Determine the location for your worms.

_____5. Locate bedding and feedstock materials.

_____6. Obtain necessary tools

_____pitchfork

_____pH meter

_____compost thermometer

_____moisture meter

_____salt meter

_____cultivation tools

_____agricultural lime (calcium carbonate) and/or rock dust

_____Canadian sphagnum peat moss

_____burlap for covering beds

_____7. Obtain bedding material. Leach manure if that will be your source of bedding.

_____8. Build bins for container (in-vessel) system. Plywood, concrete, block etc. Design length and width for windrow system.

_____9. Prepare source for water (and electricity if desired). Garden hose or sprinkler/irrigations system.

_____10. Determine square footage of beds and order initial stock of worms for stocking at the rate of 1 lb per sq. ft of bed.

_____11. For feeding, follow instructions in Commercial Vermiculture.

_____12. Check temperature, moisture and pH often. Visual inspection of the condition of your worm beds will tell you what is happening.

_____13. Continue to feed worms, keeping the beds moist. Use less water and feedstock in winter, more food and water in spring, summer and fall.

_____14. Prepare more beds for your first harvest. Add fresh material for worms if your harvest is for castings only.

_____15. Prepare harvesting screen from " screen material.

_____16. Separate worms from castings. Screen castings for sale. Add of your worm inventory to new bed, keeping for the bed you just harvested. Add fresh bedding to the bed you've just harvested.

_____17. Conduct plant growth experiments with your castings. Obtain 3 to 6 of the same type of young plant and prepare different blends of potting soil for each. These plant growth experiments will serve as a demonstration of the value of castings.

_____18. Continue to feed worms. Plan for future growth and harvest. Determine when to sell worms and how often you will harvest (weekly? Rotation schedule of harvesting from different bins or windrows?)

_____19. Consider expanding your business with sales of other items besides worms and castings. Develop markets in your area and help other worm growers get started.

Introduction

This book was written in order to answer a simple question: Is there a way to make money raising earthworms? The answer is an unquestionable and emphatic Yes! And you will be shown, step-by-step, how to raise and market worms and other products as well.

Some may recall that raising worms for profit was popular several years ago. In fact, there was a "boom" period in raising worms during the 1970s, followed by a consequent "bust." The chief end-market then was principally bait, but those who got involved toward the end saw the industry "bottom out" and were left bitter and disappointed. There are still a number of those individuals around today who are quick to volunteer a healthy dose of skepticism when they find out someone is going to try to grow worms and make money.

Perhaps the biggest overall difference between this book and those that came out of the 'sixties and 'seventies is reflected in the fact that the marketplace has changed--no, a better term would be " has been revolutionized." Over the past twenty years there have been changing environmental needs, developments in worm technology and advances in worm research that have created new opportunities yet to be fully realized.

Today, there is a groundswell of interest in vermiculture just now forming with the benefits and repercussions yet some distance off. Here are three small indicators of growing "popular" interest in redworm:

1. A winter 1996 episode of the popular television program ER featured an exchange of information among the characters about growing worms for profit. The_Can-O-Worms product, while not mentioned, was said to have been displayed as a worm bin.

2. The February 12, 1996 issue of Newsweek carried a story under the Ecology heading entitled, "Kitchen Help: Wrigglers Under the Sink." (p. 76). The magazine claimed that "Worm composting, or vermiculture, is wriggling its way into the hearts of families and cities across the country. Gardeners have known about it for decades, but now committed recyclers and even local governments are turning wormward to make use of the organic material that accounts for 15 to 30 percent of all garbage."

3. The mega-wholesale-warehouse Price-Costco organization, in its April 1996 edition of its publication, The PriceCostco Connection, featured a full-page story on one of its members from Vancouver, B.C. Under the Home & Garden heading, the article entitled "As the Worm Turns," focused upon a woman who owns a business, the Worm Garden, that 6markets composting bins and red wigglers. As other writers on the subject, the author of this particular article blends observations of home vermicomposting with projections of reduced landfill waste: "In a composting bin, redworms can eat half their weight in food each day. That means worms in a modest-sized bin can convert 430 pounds of food scraps per year into usable fertilizer. That's equivalent to the weight of two newborn elephants that otherwise would end up in landfills." (Vol. 11, No. 4, p. 21)

The first two items listed above demonstrate the national coverage vermiculture has been given. The third item, albeit in a membership discount warehouse newsletter, reflects, in part, the international interest in vermiculture. (PriceCostco warehouses are found in So. Korea, Mexico, Canada, and the United Kingdom as well as throughout the United States.) Further indication of this worldwide interest may be seen on the Internet where Websites and vermi-forums are beginning to proliferate.

Local newspapers are similarly paying attention to news about growing worms. In Orange County, California, the Register newspaper provided extensive coverage to the Canyon Recycling vermicomposting facility in San Diego, California. In its Focus on Environment section of Friday, March 1, 1996, John Barbour of The Associated Press wrote, "Hard-Working Worms: Turning Green Horticulture Waste into Greenbacks." Describing the commercial recycling company in San Diego as "home to 75 million hungry earthworms," Barbour's article quotes John Beerman, General Manager of the facility: "In his conservative way, Beerman figures he feeds his 75,000 pounds of earthworms about 15 to 20 tons of green waste every day. 'And we harvest that much out every day. Now when we expand the herd (yes, herd), we want up to 100,000 tons'." This quantity will be needed to meet obligations to market the product--worm castings or "Vermigro"-- to 80 Home Base home and garden supply centers.