Worms have long been considered gold for commercial growers as well as garden enthusiast for decades. A recent dilema in Florida is how to defend against the Asian citrus psyllid, which have impacted about 70% of the citrus trees. The insect spreads a disease called citrus greening or Huanglongbing. The question is to use spray chemicals to defend against the psyllid or use organic vermicompost.
“The earthworm’s digestive process, it turns out, “is a really nice incubator for microorganisms,” said Norman Q. Arancon, an assistant professor of horticulture at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. And these microbes, which multiply rapidly when they are excreted, alter the ecosystem of the soil. Some make nitrogen more available to plant roots, accounting for the increased growth. The high diversity and numbers of microbes outperform those in the soil that cause disease.By contrast, Dr. Arancon said, soil that has been heavily exposed to synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides lacks microbial richness and diversity, qualities that can be restored naturally by adding the microbes from worms,”according to an article in the New York Times.
Worm compost is coming to the rescue. Enriching the soil with a worm compost tea has shown positive results.
“Tests by Norman Arancon of the University of Hawaii suggest that application of worm compost showed significant and repeatable suppression of pythium, verticillium wilt, rhizoctonia solani, powdery mildew, plant parasitic nematodes, cabbage white caterpillars, cucumber beetles, tomato hornworms, mealy bugs, aphids and two-spotted spider mites’ damage to a broad range of edible crops.”
“Vermicompost research papers produced at Ohio State University show that plants grown in soil mixed with different proportions of Vermicompost sustained lower plant damage from insects than those where Vermicompost was not applied,” said Yasmin Cardoza, an entomologist and soil arthropod ecologist at North Carolina State in Morrisville, NC.
Orlando, Florida based Vermitechnology has the capability of replacing harmful chemical fertilizers in farms and residential gardens across the World. It has the potential of producing 40% more crops than those produced with synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, while being about 75% less expensive.
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