Composting with Worms

As explained to a 5yr old by AI

Information Overload

Information is off the map isn’t it?

Even before Artificial Intelligence (AI) there was more information than one could read in a dozen lifetimes.

Now AI is well and truly with us, we’ll need to be more discerning than ever.

Actionable Information

Information that is actionable has to be the key to preventing us being swamped and losing ourselves in the noise.

If you’re like me and like to blend in, it might be the time to allow a more concretised shape to form - more filters of what you will and won’t read.

Actively moving towards the things and ideas you want to take action on.

With that in mind, I asked AI to explain worm composting as if I were a five year old…

Worms used for composting are special worms called red wiggler worms. They help turn food scraps and other organic matter into compost, which is like really good soil that helps plants grow.

These worms start off as tiny eggs in a cocoon. After a few weeks, the eggs hatch and little baby worms come out. They eat their eggshells and start to eat the compost too.

As they grow, they become big adult worms that are about as long as a crayon. They have a special job to do because they can lay eggs and make more baby worms.

The worms make little cocoons that look like tiny lemons, and inside each cocoon there can be lots of baby worms. When the baby worms hatch, they are tiny and have to grow up before they can lay eggs of their own.

That's the life cycle of these special worms. They are really helpful for making compost and helping plants grow!

AI ‘Worm drawn by a five year old’

Not bad AI not bad at all.

A good overview without being saturated with information I don’t need.

Still, if you’re wanting to get started with your own wormery, there’s not a lot of actionable steps with this information.

I guess we want more than this 5yr old take!

Let’s be more specific and ask AI to tell us about the life cycle of worms used for composting in the United Kingdom…

The type of worm most commonly used for composting in the UK is the red wiggler worm (Eisenia fetida). These worms are also known as tiger worms or brandling worms. Here is a general overview of their life cycle:

Egg stage: Red wiggler worms lay their eggs in capsules called cocoons. Each cocoon can contain between 1 and 20 eggs. The eggs are small (about 1.5 mm in diameter) and are initially white or yellow, but turn reddish-brown as they mature. The eggs hatch in about 2-3 weeks, depending on temperature and moisture conditions.

Juvenile stage: When the eggs hatch, tiny worms emerge. These worms are only a few millimeters long and are not yet sexually mature. They eat their eggshells and then begin feeding on organic matter in the compost.

Adult stage: Red wiggler worms reach sexual maturity in about 2-3 months. At this point, they are about 5 cm long and have a distinctive reddish-brown color. They have a lifespan of about 1-2 years, but can reproduce for most of their adult life. They are hermaphrodites, which means they have both male and female reproductive organs. When two worms mate, they exchange sperm and both lay eggs.

Reproduction: As mentioned, red wiggler worms lay their eggs in cocoons. The cocoons are roughly the size of a matchstick head and are lemon-shaped. Each cocoon contains multiple embryos, which will hatch into juvenile worms. Under optimal conditions (such as in a compost bin with plenty of food and moisture), a single red wiggler worm can lay several cocoons per week, each containing anywhere from 1 to 20 embryos.

Overall, the life cycle of red wiggler worms is relatively short and can be completed in just a few months. This means that they can quickly multiply and help break down organic matter in compost bins, making them an ideal choice for composting in the UK.

Lovely. Now we have some actionable information!

• If you haven’t got into worm composting, but want to, thanks to AI, you now know the type of worm you need; Eisenia fetida

• If you’ve been worm composting for awhile and wondering what those tiny yellow balls are in your worm bin you now know that white or yellow, 1.5mm, lemon shaped balls are worm eggs. Hopefully common sense would suggest you do your best to not disturb them.

• In 2-3wks those lemon eggs will be gone and tiny worms only a few millimetres long will be visible instead.

• In just 2-3months these tiny worms will be hatching their own eggs

• They live for 1-2yrs and can reproduce for most of that time.

• A single red wiggler worm can lay several cocoons per week, each containing anywhere from 1 to 20 embryos.

So, I think it’s clear, compost worms breed at breakneck pace!

Whilst it might be optimal to start with a few lbs in weight of worms to establish a healthy wormery right from the get-go, in reality they’re going to get up to decent numbers in a short space of time.

Let’s see if AI agrees…

As a general rule of thumb, it is recommended to start with 1 pound (approximately 450 grams) of worms per square foot

Maybe AI can help me out with the worse case scenario… 1 worm.

Assuming that you have a suitable habitat for the worm to thrive and reproduce, it can take anywhere from 3-6 months to produce 450g of worms from just one worm.

So there we have it.

Some information about the life cycle of the humble composting worm.

And we shouldn’t worry too much about how many worms to start our worm husbandry (I started with about half a pound of worms if anyone was asking)

I began the artie by suggesting we had too much information at our fingertips and now with AI it’s hard to know where this information is going to take us.

It’s early days but I think there’s a healthy balance to be struck, so long as we use our heart space to question what our next actionable steps are.

And then take action. Don’t live in the infinite space of never choosing a direction to go down.

To live in that action space is to live from our heart centre.

From that heart space orientation we can use our minds secondary in order to frame questions.

Then we have tools like AI to get the answers we need. Answers previously only available to academics and researchers.

As always I’d be happy to answer your compost related questions (which I’ll defer to AI 🤣) and wondering what you guys make of this new era?