Man holding worms and worm castings in his hands

Vermicomposting Benefits (11 Brilliant Advantages Of Vermicompost In Your Garden In 2023!)

G’day Green Thumbs,

Looking for Vermicomposting benefits? There are SO MANY advantages to vermicompost in your garden. You can utilize green waste, produce organic fertilizer AND add essential nutrients to your fruit and veggie garden super powering your plants. 

Vermicompost is rich in essential nutrients like phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium. It is a great addition to any backyard garden and is beneficial in encouraging healthy plant growth and fantastic harvests!

You’ve come to the right place. We are a little vermicomposting obsessed over here and our kids love the whole process of worm-farming / vermicomposting. After some expert tips and information to tip you over the edge into vermicomposting for your garden?

From beginners tips on how to get started, to harvesting vermicompost and utilizing worm wee or worm tea. We’ve got you covered.

Let’s dive in!

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Major vermicompositing benefits include healthy soil like this man is holding.

1) Reduce Food Waste

One of the key benefits to vermicomposting is reducing food waste that would otherwise go to land-fill. You can add most kitchen scraps to your worm farm and your worms will effectively break it down and turn it into powerful organic fertilizer. 

Worms like most food scraps, this is what is safe to put in your worm bin.

  • Vegetable Waste 
  • Non citrus fruit waste (sometimes a little citrus slips in, because…kids!) 
  • Egg shells – Best to bake and crush but for small amounts don’t worry. (We don’t)
  • Coffee Grounds and tea bags
  • Cardboard, paper, paper towel and cardboard
  • Tree leaves are fine in moderation
  • Garden Waste especially herb stalks etc
  • Pasta, rice and other grains

2) Vermicompost Is A Natural, Organic Fertilizer

Worms digest biodegradable matter and through their digestive process produce castings rich in humus, micronutrients, phosphorus, potassium and other soil microbes. 

These nutrient rich castings (basically worm poop) aid in plant health, growth and crop yield.

It is a naturally occurring by-product of worm-farming and given its density of nutrients it is sometimes referred to as black gold! It is moist and earthy and you really only need a very small amount to add beneficial microbes to your soil.

It can be turned over with compost, soil and manure. It can be added to potted plants or seedlings or even just scattered on the surface of your garden beds. It is a versatile natural and organic fertilizer.

When growing fruits and vegetables in your backyard for your family you don’t want to have to use chemical fertilizers. 

Why wouldn’t you use a naturally occurring fertiziler and feed your family organic, home grown fruit and vegetables.

3) Superpower Your Plants With Fast Acting Growth Hormones 

Who doesn’t want to superpower their plants? The maximum amount of growth hormones can be produced in the vermicomposting process. There’s no doubt that the addition of vermicast improves plant vigor.

The combination of worm-farming with naturally occurring microbiomes in the soil will super power plant growth. In this study it was found that vermicompost contained important phytohormones. 

If you want to prove it to yourself, plant a seedling in normal soil in a small container and then another of the same seed with 20% vermicast added. Watch the magic! 

This is also a great idea to easily show kids the benefits to adding vermicast to their seedlings.

4) Vermicompost Is A Natural Pesticide

The application of vermicompost to soil in your garden will naturally repel common pests such as aphids, spider mites, white flies and more. This is because the addition of vermicast helps the production of a certain enzyme in the soil called chitinase. 

Chitin is one of the main substances found in the exo-skeleton of many insects. Chitin is degraded by chitinase upon exposure through soil or digestion. So even if a bug feeds off leaves or a stem of a plant grown with the addition of vermicast it will likely die. 

active red wigglers with baby worms visible

5) Not Stinky! Vermicompost Advantage Is It’s Odorless

A healthy worm-farm will produce virtually odorless Vermicast. It will be a rich, dark-brown color, moist to touch and NOT STINKY! It may smell slightly earthy but not offensive at all.

If your worm-farm is stinky, it needs some help. It’s likely that the PH balance is out or you are adding too much food too quickly and the worms can’t break it down quick enough. These are all easy fixes! See more common worm farm problems solved here.

6) A Vermicompost Benefit Is It Balances Soil PH

The application of Vermicast or vermicompost to garden soil will improve soil PH. This is because healthy vermicompost is generally PH neutral. 

Vermicast is organic matter that has become a nutrient rich soil through the process of worms breaking down the matter via their digestive system. It will help balance acidic soils by neutralizing the PH level.

7) Vermicompost Aerates Soil And Reduces Soil Erosion

Worms do the work for you when it comes to aerating your Vermicompost. Simply the act of them burrowing through the soil aerates it. It does not need turning like normal compost does. 

Vermicompost is also Humus rich, humus is sponge-like and therefore helps to aerate your soil. 

The vermicast in your compost also helps bind your soil together including different substances like clay and sand. This can help prevent soil erosion in your garden bed.

8) A Big Vermicomposting Advantage Is It Retains Moisture In Soil

It does. Being rich in humus, the sponge-like substance we mentioned earlier means that vermicompost really helps in increasing the water holding capacity of your soil. 

This is super important in our Australian summers and really helps to lock in moisture and nutrients to your garden. 

For best results, apply vermicompost to your garden bed and mulch over the top to really give your seedlings their best start to life or your established garden the supercharge they need for an epic yield.

long red wiggler making its way into the earth amongst violas

9) Slow-Release Of Nutrients Is A Vermicomposting Advantage

Well, this is true of any compost really. Vermicompost offers slow-release of nutrients into the soil. This is great as it means one initial application gives beneficial nutrients and enzymes to your garden for months and months.

This is especially true of vermicompost as worms will continue to breed and add ongoing nutrients to your soil as well as aiding in aeration and moisture retention.

10) Vermicompost Improves Soil Fertility

It sure does, Vermicompost improves soil fertility by

  • Improving soil aeration
  • Increasing porosity 
  • Balancing PH levels

All of these reasons plus everything we’ve detailed above work together to supercharge your plants and increase yields. This is a very valuable vermicomposting benefit.

small handful of productive worms taken from worm farm

11) Constant Supply And Easy To Collect

Worm-farming has an initial set up cost and a small amount of ongoing effort however it gives you a steady supply of vermicast and worm wee.

This is a powerful resource that will really help your garden flourish. In addition you’ll reduce food waste going to landfill which is an important social issue to address. 

We find it a fantastic introduction to permaculture practice that our kids can actively be involved in. 

Children can feed the worms kitchen scraps, help to collect and spread the vermicompost and turn the tap on to get the worm wee!

Giving children ownership over helping to care for a living creature and maintain an ever-changing composting environment teaches them skills for life.

child pointing at worms on a piece of jarrah firewood.

FAQ’s

What Are The Disadvantages To VermiCompost?

Worm farming takes a small amount of effort and cost to establish. Given that you are taking care of living creatures there is also effort in maintaining your worm farms and vermicomposting, collecting vermicast and worm wee. It’s important to ensure your worms are not too hot and dry out. Your worm farm should stay moist and earthy. 

There are really no other disadvantages! It’s a relatively cheap and easy process with great rewards.

Can Vermicompost Burn Plants?

No, Vermi compost will be PH neutral. So you won’t get the burns on plants that you can sometimes get with other compost. However, compost really only burns plants when it’s applied incorrectly. 

Plant burns can happen when compost is too acidic or too hot, generally as a result of not breaking down enough. 

Vermicompost is the result of worms breaking down organic matter and digesting it leaving worm castings or vermicast in the soil. So it’s really impossible for it to burn plants as it’s the end result of the process of decomposition and digestion.

Vermicompost Vs Normal Compost, What’s Better?

The great debate huh! You can read more on that here. But to put it simply, both. If you utilize both in your backyard garden you’ll have a constant supply of organic compost with essential nutrients that will prime your soil for great yields.

healthy collection of red wiggler worms at varying stages of development.

So there you have it folks!

11 advantages of Vermicomposting in your garden! There are many benefits to vermicomposting and it is a rewarding process. 

Vermicomposting allows you to give back to your garden with green waste that is turned into black gold! Vermicompost is nutrient dense, loaded with microbiomes and enzymes that will give power to your plants!

It’s a feel-good undertaking as you’re addressing the social issue of food-waste and waste management, avoiding chemical fertilizers and introducing permaculture practices to your family and neighborhood.

You can worm-farm and vermicompost inside, on a balcony, in a small backyard or on a large, commercial scale! What’s there to lose? 

So, Let’s Get Digging!