Worm Farming
Worms are very powerful regenerators of soil, because they transform rotting organic matter into food for more many more organisms, promoting microbial life & aerating soil + making nutrients available for plants. They also make very high quality food for chickens & fish. Here are some ingenious ways of multiplying them more rapidly and how to cooperate with them in making more sustainable systems.
Also see the Worm page,
and the Spanish page in this e-book.
How to make a Worm Tower
Leonnie Shanahan explains how to build your own Worm Tower and keep your garden fertilised with worm castings the natural way.
More info: www.ecofilms.com.au
Digestion
There is a digestion system in an earthworm.
The process of nutrition begins in the mouth, where food is sucked in by a muscular pharynx.
From there, food goes down the esophagus through peristalsis (visceral muscle contractions.)
After this, the food is stored in the crop, which retains food and has the ability to expand.
From there, food goes into the gizzard where sand and muscular contractions churn the food and increase the surface area.
From there, food enters the intestine which has the ability to absorb food, then food exits through the anus.
A rectum is unnecessary because an earthworm is in a moist environment and thus does not require water reclamation.
How to make a CHEAP worm farm
Learn how to very simply, make a worm farm for a few dollars which will supply your garden with a richer fertiliser than anything you can buy. It's so easy to do that your kids (7 years or older) can get involved - video by celebrity gardener Jerry Coleby-Williams.
Multi-Function Paths as Worm-Farms
How to build a worm farm in the pathways of your greenhouse or garden
Free Range Worm Farming
at 4million / acre ... this cattle farmer in Tasmania says he has 5 billion workers ...
Permaculture in cool climates is one of the Global Gardener series by with Bill Mollison
And the Industrial Version
Large-scale worm casting production.