Worms Play Important Role In Maintaining Nutrient-rich Soil

Earthworms are useful recyclers that create nutrients for soil from leftover kitchen scraps. Malama Learning Center at Kapolei High School will offer a Nov. 22 workshop on the topic. Photo courtesy Malama Learning Center.

Halloween has come and gone, but slimy worms are here to stay — thankfully.

They play an important role in cultivating healthy soil for gardening as they consume leftover food scraps from people’s kitchens.

Malama Learning Center invites the community to learn more about vermi-culture (the farming of earthworms) and vermicomposting (the process in which the worms convert organic material into fertilizer) Nov. 22 as part of its Without Walls program.

The worm composting workshop will run from 9 a.m. to noon that day in Portable 1 at Kapolei High School.

Leftover food can be fed to earthworms as fuel for vermicomposting, rather than being thrown in the trash and wasted.

The worms convert the kitchen scraps into a hummus-like product that many gardeners call “black gold.”

Sponsored by Hawaiian Electric Company, the workshop will share how to care for the worms, what to feed them and how to harvest them.

Attendees can take home a mini-starter worm bin to launch their vermicom-posting and vermiculture projects at home.

Registration is required online at malamalearningcenter.org.

Cost per person is $15, and families of up to three pay $40.