In Situ Vermicompost System

By:  Rico Zook

This is a vermicompost design with an urban application in mind. The idea being to get the benefit of vermicompost while also having the worms service a planter box that produces food. In ranging throughout the soil of the planter box the worms will be moving some of the nutrients from the compost out into the soil. In this it is likely that there will be no need to add compost or nutrients to the planter box, thus reducing your work. And, the plants in the box should be quite healthy and productive due to this importation of nutrients via the worms. Vermicompost is said to be up to 20 times more potent than regular compost. I suspect part of this is in the amount of micro-organisms associated with it, and that the nutrients are in a much more assimilable form. 

 Generally there is resistance to doing a vermicompost system in a urban setting due to worries of smell, and thus the attraction of vermin. This is a legitimate concern in crowded housing and general having a healthy environment. However, if one has and maintains a properly functioning system smells will be minimal to nonexistent. With this there will be little to no attraction pulling in any vermin. 

 I have not built nor worked with a system like this. Fundamentally there is no reason this will not work. People have done what is referred to as worm tractors, where a bottomless container is put into the garden. This acts as a vermicompost bin that the worms roam in and out of. This keeps them in proximity to the production plants where they import nutrients from the added food scraps in the container. 

 I do not know if anyone has done a design like this before; however, I would not be surprised if they had. The unknown for me with the design I present here is the fall through. I did this in hopes of removing the need to harvest the compost from the bin, thus making this almost maintenance free. Any production system we design and wish to maintain at optimum production levels will have some form and frequency of maintenance. The question is the amount of work necessary to maintain this optimum level. 

 SYSTEM DETAILS

As this is a fall through design it promotes the need to have this lower area enclosed to protect the compost from drying and losing nutrients, as well as keeping the general area looking nice. In the drawing I have holes in this lower enclosure. I now think it best not to have these to further protect the vermicompost. If this fall through does not work, or for other reasons you decide you need to clean out the compost box, simply let it dry out and the worms will stay in the soil, thus making it easy and quick to clean or harvest the finished compost. 

This design shows two compost containers, however, you can scale this to whatever number and size you want, from one to multiple boxes. The important thing will be to have an appropriate ratio of soil area per vermicompost box. This will not be a precise ratio and likely has a fair bit of leeway with it. The important thing is not to have too much soil area to box ratio, thus limiting the benefit to the plants from nutrient importation. If this is the case then you’ll have to add nutrients yourself. If the planter box is too small, low soil area to box ratio, then you’ll lose production potential and likely have to harvest the worms themselves sooner as there will be less room for a larger population. 

The lid should fit tight so odors do not escape and rats cannot open up. With a properly functioning vermicompost system odors will naturally be minimal to nonexistent. However rats do like to eat worms so you must protect it from these. With minimal to no odor rats will not be so attracted anyway. 

Please note the solar orientation. This is critical in terms of planting pattern and solar access for all the plants in the box. As with all Permaculture cropping work towards complexity, both in plant varieties as well as structuring the planting pattern in three dimensions. 

 The biggest challenge I see to this system is its actual construction. I have a strong preference for systems that are easy to construct as they are usually easier to manage and more economically accessible to more people. This in situ fall through system will require a bit of skill to build, as well as some money for the materials. This in itself might promote the alternative of an accumulation variety of bin rather than a fall through type as it will be much easier to construct.

In this accumulation bin system the bottom of the bin either opens on to the soil of the planter, or is solid. Either of these types would still have some holes in the sides to allow better and multi-level access for the worms. 

SYSTEM VARIATIONS 

VERMIWASH

It would be possible to have a vermiwash system rather than a straight composting one. This is where you get a liquid vermicompost solution rather than the compost itself. At one point you will need to dry out the bin and remove the accumulated compost. It will still be great to use in your garden, it will just not be as nutrient rich and strong as unwashed vermicompost. 

To make this vermiwash system the bottom of the vermicompost bin needs to be solid and have a drain or spigot. Inside the bottom of the bin would be gravel (3 – 5 cm), on top of which would be pea gravel. On top of the pea gravel would be some landscape fabric, also know as weed barrier. 

Old jute, burlap, or hessian bags could also be used, though these will eventually decompose, perhaps necessitating its replacement if compost starts to fall to the bottom. The idea is to have a reservoir at the bottom to collect the wash and keep the above compost getting too saturated, as well as making it easy to drain the wash out.

There will be the need to wait awhile when you first start this system so the compost can build up some. You’ll also need to assess the extraction rate that fits the worms’ compost production rate.

ALTERNATING BINS

If you choose to have the bins not have a screen at the bottom, e.g. the accumulation bin variety, you can utilize an alternating bin process if the planter has more than one worm bin. In this you would add scrap to one bin only until you decided to shift to filling another bin in the same planter. This switch could happen due to you wanting to harvest finished vermicompost from the first bin, or perhaps your production rate of materials for the bins necessitates an alternating pattern of bin additions, be it every other day or shifting once every few days. If you have more than one planter bed with vermi-bins you could also use this system. 

Overall I think this alternating process likely the best even if you are doing a fall through style. 

IN THE GARDEN

This accumulation vermin-bin system can also be used out in your regular kitchen garden, as well as any other plant production system. We could well call this a worm cultivator (referring to both soil and worm cultivation), and will be of great benefit in annual or perennial systems, as well as in sunken, ground level or raised beds. If anyone builds and works with this I would love to hear about it, as well as receiving some photos.

Mineral Springs, Jungle Gardens and Permaculture

Rico Zook

www.i-permaculture.org 

Mineral Spring’s local name Dabai Pani, translated as medicine water, refers to a now lost spring with reported healing powers. Originally one of Darjeeling’s first tea estates, it was abandoned at the time of independence. When this happened the estate workers started occupying the land and farming. Slowly some tea bushes were removed for annual production, while some perennials of value, such as Orange trees and Broomstick, were added. Other plants from the surrounding forest naturally migrated in and were left due to their functional value as fodder, timber, medicine and the like. In this way, without any conscious design, a diverse and functional Food Forest, which easily and flawlessly blends into the natural forest, came into existence. 

In Permaculture a Food Forest, also known as a Jungle Garden in the tropics, is a created agricultural production system modeled after a natural forest or jungle. While predominately inhabited with perennial plants species, self-seeding annuals and patches used for annual production are often included. In this it is a complex 3-dimensional system with 7 layers. These layers are: Upper and Lower tree canopy, Bush, Herbaceous, Groundcover, Rhizome or Root, and Vertical (vining). In the tropics there is often an additional higher canopy layer creating 3 layers of trees, thus 8 layers in total and a different name. There are many examples of Jungle Gardens in different parts of India. Some of these have been created consciously with the concept of a Food Forest in mind. Others, like Mineral Springs, happened as a natural outgrowth of a farmer’s experimentations and awareness of natural processes. 

A mature Jungle Garden provides not only multiple crops and harvests (food, fuel, fodder, timber, craft material, human and animal medicines, etc.) it also does many services needed by a farm. The nutrient cycle is in full function as the plants drop all there organics, as well as the addition of manures from birds and many other animals living in the Jungle Garden. This supports a strong healthy living soil that is the foundation of productivity. Pests are minimal due to high bio-diversity, as well as the natural predation of other insects, birds, lizards, spiders, frogs and the like. The addition of water is low to nonexistent as a forest is both highly efficient at water harvesting and infiltration, as well as helping to maintain a high water table. Thus any work involved with a Jungle Garden is more about management rather than working to make things grow. In conventional industrial farming one has to till the soil, plant, add fertilizer, weed, and water in order to create a harvest. With a mature Jungle Garden almost all work is about light management (for solar access to the lower layers) via pruning and harvesting. All prunings are themselves harvests providing fuel, fodder, timber or organics for support of annual production. A Jungle Garden is likely the most productive and prosperous land-based agricultural production system created. 

In 1973 with the intervention of National Service Scheme, St. Joseph’s College, North Point and Hayden Hall Institute (all of Darjeeling) a dairy union was established in Mineral Spring, which also supported medical and adult education programs. The dairy union ceased to function once Hayden Hall withdrew in the mid-80s with the onset of the Gorkhaland Agitation for statehood. In 1996 with the support of DLR Prerna, a Darjeeling based NGO, the people of Mineral Spring initiated the Mineral Spring Sanjukta Vikas Sanstha (MSSVS, United Development Organization) with milk as its first product. This organization is a functional farmer’s cooperative that has expanded into other crops, as well as having other benefits for the village communities encompassed in its area. Of significance is that all the farms in the organization have been certified as organic under a single certificate. This means if one farm violates the organic standards every farm loses certification. This arrangement not only makes the certification affordable to the local farmers, the peer pressure to maintain the organic standards is by far the most effective compliance structure. 

Other economic crops currently grown by these farmers include oranges, broomstick (for soft broom), ginger, turmeric and tea. The tea has become particularly important as it is starting to develop an international reputation for superior quality. A tie up between MSSVS and Tea Promoters India (TPI, a corporate body) enables TPI to process and market MSSVS tea in the international market, as an exclusive, small farmer co-operative, certified organic fair trade labeled tea. In addition to the bi-annual bonus payment for each family, a portion of the fair-trade dividend goes into a fund to be utilized for community projects that are democratically selected by MSSVS. 

Today Mineral Spring, comprising 14 villages of over 460 contiguous farms, is a living example of how a strong functional agricultural base leads to prosperity. It is important to understand that prosperity is not about economic income, as so many today seem to think. To prosper means to flourish physically, to grow strong and healthy. This is what a healthy and strong agricultural base provides a community. In Mineral Spring the Jungle Garden provides for most of the communities needs, from building materials, to fuel, to craft materials, to medicines and for most of its food. It also provides a secure economic base from a diversity of market crops. And all of it organically grown. The cooperative framework the farmers have adopted further strengthens this prosperity, and is starting to extend past its original agricultural focus into address other issues facing the community currently.

PERMACULTURE AND AMPBOTAY
Currently Ampbotay village in Mineral Spring and DLR Prerna host an annual Permaculture Deign Certification (PDC) course. People attend this course from the Darjeeling Hills, India and Internationally. Participants stay in the home of a local farmer's family to be woken with a cup of morning chai, hand picked, dried, and brewed from the family’s tea bushes, to start the day. They walk to the classroom through the fully mature verdant and abundant Jungle Garden. It is usually harvest time for the orange crop, which adds a colourful tint to the walk. Darjeeling sits thousands of feet above this village, glistening in the morning sun as it nestles on the opposite ridgeline. The peacefulness is accented with birds singing and getting about on their day’s business. Our classroom is open sided so we are outside almost all day. The high Himalayas are seen down the valley, with Mt. Kungenjuga, third tallest peak in the world, standing above them all. The very special aspect of this course is that foreigners, Indians, Darjeeling locals, and villagers meet and interact on an equitable basis, an experience uncommon with most courses and travel. Evenings are often shared with the host family exchanging stories and experiences over another cup of tea or tungba, the local fermented millet beer. Friendships have been formed that continue well past this course. 

This year marks the Tenth (10^th) annual PDC, the longest running course of this type in India, and Asia as a whole. When the first Permaculture Design course was held here 8 years ago (the first two were at an organic farm outside kalimpong) the question was what did it have to offer an already prosperous community. The answer, as all good permaculture answers should be, was multi-fold. There was resource management beyond the agricultural, including better water management techniques. The introduction of some appropriate technologies to reduce fuel consumption and promote value added products. As part of the PDC course student design teams create a permaculture design based on a real life situation. Past courses have created designs for the Community Centre and an undeveloped piece of land. Currently each team is paired with a local farmer to help an already prosperous farm become more deeply regenerative. This can include integrating an aquaculture system, broadscale and structural water harvesting, greywater and blackwater systems, as well as more diverse kitchen gardens and herbal plantings around the house. Most importantly, this process acts as a learning opportunity for the farmer, thus very gently and directly helping them gain deeper understandings into permaculture and regenerative systems design. This is a very empowering process with long-term benefits. This is further compounded through the many permaculture based farmer trainings that Prerna has held in Ampobtay. Like the PDC participants, visiting participant farmers stay with local farmer families allowing for both the visiting farmers to see living permaculture examples, as well as the host farmer to directly share their personal knowledge, and that gained through their PDC interactions. 

The outcomes from this and the PDC is the community’s sense of self-value has risen. They have come to understand how they fit into the national as well as the global picture. They know that they have more then just great tea and citrus to offer the country and world. They are a living example of how a vibrant diverse organic agricultural base, when coupled with supportive community structures, lead directly to both a strong community and a healthy environment. It is a model that our world needs today.

Auroville

I am currently in Auroville on the southeast coast of India.  A cyclone came through on 28^th of December and caused extensive damage to the jungle. The story of Auroville is an interesting one and ongoing. You can go to one of their web sites to get more of this story if you wish. (http://www.auroville.org/) Part of what they have done, and are doing, is the restoration of the native jungle, known as the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest (TDEF). It is a very restricted ecosystem much like the redwoods are in North America, occupying only a few hundred kilometers along the southwest coast of India. I am currently staying and working at Pitchandikulam Forest (www.pitchandikulamforest.org ), an amazing place created and run by Joss Brooks and Anita. They are dong great work all over south India with restoring bio-diversity and educating children to become aware of and engaged stewards of their natural world. Pitchandikulam Forest is their home and base in Auroville for doing their work. It is both a nursery for the many species of this ecosystem, as well as an education center for all who are interested. This cyclone did excessive damage to this site, causing many large and small trees to fall over. In the accompanying photos you’ll see that while a decent part of the jungle survived a lot of the upper canopy trees did not. There are a lot of these large trees leaning on other smaller trees that need to be dropped. These are referred to as widow makers for a good reason. The work now is to clean up all this fallen timber and to start the replanting of native species. I’ll be here for another week before traveling to Vrindhavan. In Vrindhavan, a couple of my Indian students and I will be doing a garden design for an ashram.