have soil dirt in my vermicompost

by nitin
(new delhi, india)

I'm new in this... so i have read lot of articles on vermicomposting before starting... while doing that i learn that we should have bedding then the food and then cover it from above with some cardboard...

after collecting information i made the bedding with some cardbord, newspaper and shreds of woods

after that i have made a layer of soil on it ... added food then one more layer of cardboard and closed the container with the lid


my problem is that i now read somewhere that soil is not requide, infact no one put soil in compost


i tried to remove soil but worm have reached out everywhere
or cant dig the soil or i will hurt the worms
i even put the container out in sun hoping that worm will crawl down and i can extract the soil by its no use

even if i leave it like it is there will be same problem when container is full...


Note from BigTex Worms
Soil should not kill the worms, it could just introduce other bugs AND alter the PH of the bin. Check your PH levels and make sure it is in the neutral range which is what the worms prefer.
YOu did not say if you are using red wiggler worms or another breed. If you are using a native worm to india, the soil may be more than ok.
I have seen many worm farmers put soil in their bins with no ill effects. Again, ph is the biggest obstacle with soil.
Another reason, I do not use soil is because I do not like the final product, the castings become very fudgy and dense when you have a lot of soil in the bin.
If you believe the soil is a problem, you can top feed your worms and harvest them as they come to the top to feed, then place them in a new bin without soil in it. Or you can hand separate your worms from the bedding materials. This would be an extremely labor intensive process but would be necessary if the soil is causing your worms to die.
Just keep a very close eye on your bin over the next few days to make sure the worms are ok.
Liz
BigTex Worms