SIA “GreenPIK LAT” offers gardeners, farmers, and entrepreneurs an technology of utilisation of different types of organic waste by using compost earthworms “Staratel” of elite manufacturing line; these earthworms have been cultivated in a laboratory by the professor A. Igonin by crossing individuals of two populations (the native Russian and the Kirghiz one) of the California red earthworm Eisenia foetida.
Cultivation of the earthworm “Staratel” in closed premises takes place whole year. Their main feature is that they are suited for fast and qualitative processing of different organic waste of agriculture and manufacturing origin (animal and fowl manure, plant waste, sediments from water treatment plants, waste from food processing plants) to vermicompost — a highly efficient organic fertiliser, usage of which improves the agrochemical properties of agricultural production, increases its quality, and maximise the harvest.
Distinct features of the earthworms “Staratel”:
- Works within broader temperature diapason from +8° to +29°С;
- Continue to lay cocoons, even if the temperature is +8° to +10°С;
- Are noticeable of their lasting presence in the substrate. One earthworm of type “Staratel” gives 1500 descendants and 100 kg of vermicompost per year. Out of 1 tonne of compost, average 600 kg of vermicompost are produced and 10–15 kg of new earthworms cultivate;
- Increased resistance to insects and diseases.
But the most important distinction is that earthworms “Staratel” relatively easy shift from one kind of food to another; they have been adapted to various nutrition substrates — manure (cows, horses, etc.) waste from food, sewage water sediments, last year’s leaves, paper, etc. Earthworms “Staratel” have high vital capacity and productivity in the conditions of highdensity living per unit of substrate amount.
- Earthworms live form 4 to 16 years, according to different sources. As shown by practice, compost earthworms do not suffer from illnesses and they are not subject to epidemics. They can die only due to wrong cultivation technology.
- Preparation of substrate (food) to compost earthworms is one of the key stages of vermitechnology. The general wellbeing, intensity of reproduction and biomass production, number of and parameters of the quality of coprolites of the population of earthworms depend on the components and secondary components of the substrate, as well as other factors.
- The cultivation of the earthworms “Staratel” and production of vermicompost in line with the “GreenPIK” technology is performed on the base of compost of cattle manure.
- The substrate is very important to earthworms for two reasons: it is both the place of living, and the food, thanks to which all the lifesupporting processes of earthworms are ensured.
- Unlike the common earthworms, compost earthworms are suited for living in crumbly soil. Hard soil would be an invincible obstacle. Moreover, crumbliness of the substrate ensures good aeration by creating optimum conditions for breathing of the earthworms.
