The raw material for the process is principally cow manure, with small amounts of goat and sheep manure added.

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1 WHO ARE WE? MY NAME IS PEDRO TEQUILA THANK YOU FOR INVITING US TO SPEAK Our company is called Gro-Green. We are dedicated to helping you help your green, growing things your plants, flowers, trees, and lawns. We sell natural, organic fertilizer that is produced in a so-called Worm Farm on the south side of the lake. We do NOT own that facility. We buy their products and resell them. The fertilizers that we sell are both Earth-Friendly, and Pet-Friendly. We publish a monthly newsletter about Green Matters in the Lakeside area. If you are not yet receiving it, there are some copies of it being passed around and a clipboard where you can add your to our list. OVERVIEW OF AN INTERVIEW WITH BOB BRADSHAW OF WORKINGWORMS, LLC First of all, it is Not A Worm Farm. We don t sell worms. What we sell is a very rich form of natural, organic fertilizer that is made by the worms. In other words, the worms are not our product they are our workers. The raw material for the process is principally cow manure, with small amounts of goat and sheep manure added. The production process is completely natural and organic. We do not add chemicals or fillers to the manure. We do change it physically by grinding it, and obviously by the worms digesting it but we do not add anything except water. DEFINITION OF TWO RELEVANT TERMS FROM WIKIPEDIA ON THE INTERNET Compost Organic matter that has been decomposed and recycled as a fertilizer and soil amendment. Compost is a key ingredient in organic farming. Vermicompost Compost created by earthworms. Containing water-soluble nutrients, vermicompost is a nutrient-rich organic fertilizer and soil conditioner in a form that is relatively easy for plants to absorb.

2 PREPARATION PHASE Q. What is the first thing you do to the manure after it is unloaded? A. When the manure first arrives, we clean it. We pick out the bits of foreign matter. We have some control over most of our manure providers. They are small farmers and we pay them in cash for each truckload. They like that. We do not use manure from commercial feed lots. This is because the likelihood of using chemicals in the cattle feed is higher in feedlots than it is in small-scale cowherds. Q. What is the next step in the process? A. Reducing the temperature of the manure by turning it over once or twice each day Q. Do you turn the manure piles every day? A. The new manure is hot because there are physical and biological breakdown processes going on. It is not uncommon to see steam rising from the rows if the ambient temperature is cool enough. When the manure initially arrives, we turn it at least once and sometimes twice a day. The goal is to reduce the temperature to the point where the manure is no longer warm to the touch. That process takes About two weeks.

3 PRODUCTION PHASE WHERE THE WORMS CHANGE MANURE INTO COMPOST OR HUMUS Q. What do the beds look like? A. They are long concrete runways with room for worm beds on both sides and a perforated, plastic pipe running down a trough in the center Both sides of the worm bed are sloped toward the center. In addition, the entire concrete structure is slightly sloped downhill. There are plastic crates sometimes stacked one atop the other. The crates have perforated sides and open tops. The worms are concentrated in the bottom crate. The material in the bottom crate is finished Humus the end product of the facility The worms eat their way upward and eventually end up in the top crate because that s where the fresh manure is added. Looking Straight Ahead

4 Looking Left Looking Right Q. About how often do you water the wormbeds? A. Enough to keep them damp to the touch once a day in the wet season, more often in the dry season Q. What are the main factors that control the process? A. Temperature, moisture, and light Worms like to be warm. They prefer temperatures in the range of degrees F. Nature takes care of that down here. Worms like to be moist. We monitor the dampness of the beds to insure that it is always moist, but not flooded. Worms do not like direct light. We use a woven cloth to shield the wormbeds from direct sunlight. The cloth is perforated to allow just the right amount of light to penetrate it.

5 THE DANCE OF THE WORM CRATES Start with an empty crate Add 3-5 inches of dried manure Add lots of worms to the crate Add another 3-5 inches of dried manure The worms will eat their way up in the manure, leaving their castings behind When the worms get to the top of the soil in the crate, add another 3-5 of dried manure Repeat this process until the crate is full of manure/worms/humus and has a slight hump This process normally takes about a month At this point, most of the worms are in the top part of the mixture in the crate. Below those worms is finished compost. Take an empty crate and stack it on top of the manure/worms/humus crate The worms are all in the lower crate Working Worms in the plastic crates Add 3-5 inches of dried manure to the top crate Once again, the worms eat their way up into the top crate. They want manure, not their own castings. As they move upward, add more and more layers of manure until the top crate is full of worms and manure There are very few worms in the bottom crate. It is now 100% humus or compost Take off the top crate Move out the bottom crate. This crates virtually no worms no manure. It is 100% compost Dump the black, wet, large chunks of compost in long rows to dry Take what used to be the top crate and place it on the concrete. It is now the bottom crate. Add a new, empty crate containing a layer of manure is added as the top crate Repeat the process over and over and over again

6 DRYING OUT THE HARVESTED COMPOST/HUMUS Q. What happens to the harvest compost/humus? A. Once the solid humus is taken out of the crates It is spread out to dry. Initially it is black, wet, large chunks. Black, wet, chunks of humus The large chunks are broken up by hand Once it is dry, it is run it through a grinder; sometimes two or three times The Grinder The end product should be granular; but not powdery Q. How do you know when the harvested humus is done? A, When the consistency of the humus is ready for grinding. When the humus is first dumped out of the worm crates, it is in large wet chunks. We manually break down the chunks, dry it and then grind it. The granular fertilizer is called Humus or Compost. It is also called Worm Castings. Compost created by worms is widely regarded as the richest form of compost available.

7 PREPARING THE DRY COMPOST FOR SALE The road leading to the Weigh and Fill building Once the compost is dry, it is packaged in bags and the bags are sewn shut Filling a bag by hand Note the balance-beam scale on the far left The bags come in three sizes - 10 kilos 20 kilos and 40 kilos

8 The loading dock This is a large-scale operation each bag is 88 pounds Note We think of the solid fertilizer as time-release fertilizer. It has to dissolve in water in order to work its way into a plant s roots.

9 LIQUID COMPOST OR WORM TEA Q. Where does the liquid humus come from? A. It is created by the same natural, organic process as the humus The wormbeds are kept moist primarily using water. Both sides of the worm bed are sloped toward the center. In addition, the entire concrete structure is slightly sloped downhill. Between the two sides of the wormbeds, there is a perforated PVC pipe that runs length of the beds. When we water the worms, the liquid passes through the solid material into this pipe, and runs down the pipe into an underground holding tank. Liquid Fertilizer coming out of the central PVC pipe Arturo recirculating the worm tea

10 We have experimented with pumping the liquid from the holding tank and using it instead of water to keep the worms moist. The end result is liquid compost that is even more nutritionally concentrated. The photo below shows Arturo moistening the worm beds with the liquid compost. Watering down the worms with Liquid Fertilizer From the first underground holding tank, the liquid is pumped into above-ground tanks. The liquid is then put into containers. Some of these are truck-size containers of 1,000 liters or more. For home use, it is normally packaged in 20-liter plastic tubs. For home use, Gro-Green sells liquid fertilizer in sizes ranging from 1 liter to 10 liters. Gro-Green s 10-, 5-, and 1-liter bottles of liquid fertilizer The liquid fertilizer is also available in a 2-liter bottle and a 20-liter The solid fertilizer is available in 1-kilo, 10-kilo, 20-kilo, and 40-kilo bags.

11 WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SOLID FERTILIZER AND THE LIQUID FERTILIZER? As mentioned earlier, the solid fertilizer has to break down or dissolve in order to provide nutrients to the plants. It releases its nutrients over time. The liquid fertilizer provides nutrients to the plants almost immediately because the nutrients are already in liquid form and can be assimilated into the plants instantly. OVERALL PROCESS DURATION Q. If you were a single piece of chunk of manure, about how long would it be from the time you got dumped out of the farmer's truck until the time you got packaged into a bag as Humus/Compost? A. Three months, mas o menos. USING THE HUMUS/COMPOST Solid Mix it about 30/70 with good soil, and perhaps a mineral source like hal/perlite. It is not intended to replace soil, but to augment its nutritional value to plants Liquid For the initial application to plants or trees, scratch the soil at the base of the item. Add the solid first and then pour the liquid fertilizer over it to get it into the soil. For subsequent applications or if you are not using solid we recommend that you pour or spray the liquid directly onto the plant, tree, or lawn. Spray the trunk/stem, the branches, and the leaves. Because it is natural and organic, you cannot burn your plants or trees using these two fertilizers. Gro-Green s Starter Pack Everything you need to get started

12 FINAL WORDS FROM THE INTERNET Almost everyone who is interested in gardening is aware of the fact that vermicompost comprises one of the best natural fertilizers for plants... If and when it is possible, use vericompost for your garden. It will be great for the health of all the plants grown therein. Gro-Green Contact information We have a table at the Monday Market at Hole-in-one We have a table at the Chapala Farmers Market in West Ajijic pedro@gro-gro-green.org