Black Gold - Worm Farming 101: A Practical Guide to the Essentials of Vermiculture & Vermicomposting for Beginners

I found this book interesting as I wanted to start an indoor worm bin (It covers both indoor and outdoor). This book helped me realize that worm farming whether indoor or outdoor takes a little more than throwing some dirty, water, scraps, and worms in a bin to do it's thing. This book is easy to read, simply explained, and provides you a lot of information you need to start and keep a healthy happy farm/bin.

In this guide to worm farming for beginners, author Pat Blackburn covers everything you need to know about vermicomposting, from setting up the perfect worm bin to harvesting worm castings (worm poop, for newbies). It’s comprehensive and packed with information such as how worms breathe and what kind of environment they prefer, which later enables the reader to understand why moisture is so important to their existence.Over the course of 15 chapters, Blackburn takes you from the biology and anatomy of worms to optimizing their living environment so they can “live their best lives”. This phrase appears frequently throughout the book and supports the author’s constant focus on caring for your worms. DIY options are given throughout, showing that anyone can set up and maintain a worm farm without breaking the bank. Blackburn also often mentions the business aspect of worm farming to emphasize the point that with its multiple benefits, it’s a win-win-win situation for you, the worms, and the environment.Worm Farming 101 is informative (I discovered that coconut and other oils are used for protecting wood bins!) but can get repetitive at times, especially in “Troubleshooting Issues” (chapter 11). It needs a little more proofreading and some pictures would be useful, especially in “How to Build a Worm Bin” (chapter 5). Without any visuals, the reader is stuck having to piece together a rough idea of what a bin looks like. In terms of organization, I thought “Worm Bedding 101” (chapter 8) could have appeared earlier, like around “The Basics of Worm Bins” (chapter 4), and better explanations of the screen light and cylinder spinning harvesting methods in chapter 12 would have been nice.Otherwise, it’s an easy read: the language is unemotional and simple to the point of even sounding conversational; it often feels like the author is reading your mind at that very minute. You get a real sense of the author’s engagement with worm farming.I definitely recommend this book if you want a basic understanding of how to successfully create a worm farm regardless of your income or knowledge level. You will gain new respect for the wigglers you might see on a random trip to the mailbox and appreciate that they make up a vital part of the ecosystem beneath your feet.

Very informativeI learned a lotThis book was very helpfulSeveral miss spellings but over all I learned what I needed to

This is a helpful book if you want to learn about vermicompost. I wish there had been pictures or drawings of the different bins and setups. It does help you in understanding what to feed or not to feed your worms. It also tells you how to keep them cool or warm in various weather. Overall it's a good beginner book but I need something with a bit more details.

Reading this interesting and educational book has been very useful to me, I am starting to raise red worms to produce compost feeding them with my kitchen waste, and I am learning great things to improve my practice of vermicompost,It starts from the historical and biological about the worms, I learn the different species and how to recognize them, their characteristics, how to take care of them by giving them the right foods and keeping them healthy and productive, also that there are vegetables that can damage them such as onions, garlic, peppers, potatoes,This is very important to know because one inadvertently can give them harmful food, it also teaches us to build the most convenient house according to the climate or if it is for indoors or outdoors. The fertilizers that solid and liquid worms generate, chemical composition and use for our vegetable and flower garden in general.How to manage this as a productive venture and profitable business, take care of worms from possible natural predators, this book is a constant reference for those of us who want to have a more natural and sustainable life taking advantage of organic waste and planting it at home and on the farm. students in schools, ecological communities, I love this because it is useful and inspiring.

Well, I can honestly say I didn't know the difference between vermiculture and vermicomposting until I read this guide. You may ask, why would I need to know? I did the same. But after differentiating between the two and realizing how much we could all utilize vermicomposting to help build better gardens and fertilize the soil. This book is simple and each term is fully defined to better understand the process of raising worms and using them to create a thriving environment in no time. Grab a copy. you won't be disappointed.

This book would make even those who are the most turned-off by the mere presence and thought of worms inspired by another method of environmental consciousness and sustainability. The author also shows extensive yet easy-to-read knowledge of how worms could truly be utilized in giving back to the earth.

Has good info for starting out. I think reading widely on a subject is a good way of balancing divergent views

Great to learn thw basic considerations for successful worm farming. Now I ordered the worm farm and feel confident to start experimenting with vermiculture. Still a lover of reading book in hand.

I purchased the hardback book after reading the reviews and the description.What I received was a poorly authored, badly laid out and poorly published hardback book that looked as it had been lifted straight from Kindle with no understanding of how the content should be laid out professionally as a book.All this made it difficult and unpleasant to read, which was very disappointing considering the reviews and cost of the paper book.I strongly recommend people do not buy the hardback book.

Very usefull and easy to read for anyone looking to become a worm breeder. I would recomand reading this book.