Fodder Production and Grassland Management

HARVESTING OF VERMICOMPOST

• The harvesting of vermicompost involves the manual separation of worms from the castings. For this purpose, the contents of the containers are dumped on the ground in the form of a mound and allowed to stand for a few hours.
• Most of the worms move to the bottom of the mound to avoid light. The worms collect at the bottom in the form of a ball. At this stage, the vermicompost is removed to get the worms. The worms are collected for new culture beds.
• The vermicompost collected is dried, passed through a 3 mm sieve to recover the cocoons, young worms, and unconsumed organic material.
• The cocoons and young worms are used for seeding the new culture beds. The vermicompost recovered is rich in macro-nutrients, microbes such as actinomycetes and nitrogen fixers, and is used as a manure.