Vermiculture in Egypt: - FAO - Regional Office for the Near East and

2.3. The trial experience in Egypt
2.3. 1. Earthworm types used:
Four types of earthworms were brought to Egypt from Australia. from Australia:
Lumbriscus Rubellus (Red Worm), Eisenia Fetida (Tiger Worm), Perionyx Excavatus
(Indian Blue), and Eudrilus Eugeniae (African Night Crawler).
2.3.2. Bedding
Two types of vermiculture were used. The first was aiming at increasing the
population and known as breeding vermiculture. The other type is the growing system
aiming at converting organic matter into vermicompost.
Commercially available perforated plastic containers, generally used for harvesting
fruits and vegetables, each has the dimensions of 30cm wide, 50cm long and 20cm
height were used for the breeding system. The first 5cm from the bottom was lined by
a mixture of 2/3 shredded cardboard and 1/3 shredded newspaper, as bedding
material. The cardboard and newspaper were wetted in a bucket of water; and
allowing the excess water to run out before using. The next layer was 5cm of pH
neutral castings spread evenly, then 1-2kg/m² of adult worms was supplied. Every 1-2
days, 1-2kg of old manure was added. The surface was covered by 5cm shredded
newspaper to keep moisture.
The growing system was made of brick, with the dimensions 1m width, 0.5m height,
and 3m long, and 0.5m between beds. The bottom of the beds was insulated by 20cm
cement layer with a slight slope in order to facilitate collection of leachate (Photo
2.7).
The sequence of layers for the growing beds was the same as the breeding system
except that the base of the bed was 10cm of cardboard/newspaper moist mixture, and
the worms spread over the surface were the juvenile worms only.
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Photo 2.6.
Earthworms used in
Egypt
Source: Auther