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How to: Setting up a Vermicompost Pit

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Below are the steps to set up a vermicompost unit at home/ in school. These are the steps we followed at Fr. Agnel's, under the instruction and guidance of Elijah De Souza. Step 1 Choose an existing pit/ dig a new pit or buy a vermicompost bag. If you're digging a pit or using an existing one, make sure that the bottom of the pit is covered. This is to ensure that the earthworms will not escape into the ground. We used a large piece of old flex for this purpose. Step 2 Cover the base with coconut shells, placed face-down. This creates air pockets for the earthworms to breed.  Step 3 Make a mixture with cow dung slurry and dried leaves, and place it over the coconut shells Step 4 Cover this layer with a thick later of dried leaves (around 1ft)  Step 5 Add a layer of the cow dung slurry on top Step 6 Repeat steps 4 & 5 until the pit is full. You can even continue layering until the pit is heaped. But make sure that the last layer is the cow dung slurry.  Step 7 Cover th...
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Vermicomposting Session 3

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For today, we had to complete the rest of our vermicompost layers. We picked up from where we left off last week, which was the cow dung slurry layer. So we started today with collecting dried leaves.  Then we added them to the cow dung layer from last week.  Next, we added another layer of the cow dung slurry. This will be the last layer. When making vermicompost, it's important to keep in mind that the last layer should be cow dung. This is so that it's easy for the earthworms to burrow into it. Also, make sure to keep your pit moist. It shouldn't dry out at any cost. For today, this was our last layer. We didn't add the earthworms this time because cow dung tends to be very hot when it's fresh. Sometimes even too hot to put your arm in. So the earthworms might die. Instead, we covered the pits with jute sacks. We will come back next week to add the earthworms. The jute sacks are used to prevent rodents from digging into the cow dung and eating the worms.  Our nex...
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Vermicomposting Session 2

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This week, we decided that the vermicompost pit was more suited to another location. This pit had a mud base. As mentioned in my previous blog, the vermicompost pit has to have a solid base. Since this one did not, we had to search for something we could use that would prevent the worms from burrowing into the soil. And the best, most convenient answer? Plastic!  Repurposed, of course.  So we went on a hunt for any old flex we could find around the school. Sure enough, we found a huge sheet just near the school building. So we folded it in half and added it to the base of our pit.    Our next step was to transfer the coconut shells ('sonna' in Konkani) from the old pit to the new one. So we took our cement bags and collected the shells...    ..and then placed them face-down in the new pit. This is the base layer of the pit. The next layer is a mixture of dried leaves and cow dung slurry. To start, we collected dried leaves from the schoolyard, and placed th...
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Vermicomposting: Session 1

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This Tuesday's session was the first eco club class after the mid term exams. In keeping with our circularity and growing theme, we started vermicomposting with the students. The sessions will be facilitated by Elijah De Souza, a young agriculturist from Anjuna.  This week, Vishal started with an introduction to nutrient cycling, which was followed by a brief talk by Elijah about the process of vermicomposting - materials used, earthworms involved, uses of the finished product.  We did a dive into the worms' 'Holiday Home' as Elijah calls it, to have a look at some of the worms that would be doing the job of breaking down our dried leaves and cow dung.  This ‘Holiday Home’ is a box of treats for the worms - vegetable waste, cardboard, mud and some vermicompost. These particular earthworms are used due to their ability to eat their weight in food, which means a much higher yield of vermicompost. They're characterised by a groove running along their bodies, and are co...
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Reorganising

Sometimes it's important to take a step back to gauge where you're at and where you want to be. This week, we started with just that. We spent time with Fr. Pio and the students planning how we could all collaborate and have a fixed goal for the next few months before summer vacations. There are a few projects that Fr. Pio is keen on taking up for the school, and they align with what we want to do. So there's going to be a few very interesting things coming up!
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Intro to Waste and Planting

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We spent this week's session going over the different types of waste, what we can use and what we can make compost with. We discussed the different kinds of waste generated by the school, and how we could use them. After the discussion, we spent some time helping Fr. Pio (the principal) to plant some vegetable seeds - carrot, lettuce, brussel sprouts, raddish, etc. Step 1: We mixed cocopeat with some soil Step 2: We added some water to make it soft Step 3: Planting seeds
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The Mangrove Life - Session 5 (Project Presentation)

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Today’s session was all about our inquiries and projects. To reiterate, our inquiry questions were: Can mangrove plants be grown in garden soil?  What is the relation between salinity and growth in mangrove plants? For our first inquiry question - can mangrove plants be grown in garden soil, we found that they can. Salinity is not necessary to the growth of the plant. For our second question - what is the relationship between salinity and growth in mangrove plants, we found that we would need more time for the plants to grow enough for us to give an answer. Then, we presented our projects: Mangrove Adaptations (ppt)     And our second project, a film voiced by Mario and Constancio from Std. 9 Mangroves and Climate Resilience (stills from the film)     This marked the end of our very informative journey with The Mangrove Life Programme with Pikiji Learning, Australia and The Pomegranate Workshop.
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