Worms: Earth's Answer?

Overview

Objectives/Goals My project was to determine what materials were best for the worms and which were best for the soil. I believe that the pot with a combination of dirt, leaves, coffee, fruit, vegetables and eggshells will be best for the soil and for the worms. Methods/Materials Five flower pots with drain dishes were filled with top soil (no added fertilizers) leaving 2 inches at the top empty. The soil was tested first using a home soil testing kit and then dampened with 3/4 cup of water. One pot had only the dirt. For the other four, I added some leaves, coffee and twigs to one pot, one pot I added fruits and vegetables, another had only crushed eggshells and the last one had all the ingredients previously listed. Fifty worms were weighed and then added to each pot for a total of 250 worms. Every few days food and water were added as needed. After two months the soil was dumped out. The worms were counted and weighed and each soil was tested again. Results After the second experiment (the first time none of the worms survived after a month), the pot with the leaves, twigs and coffee had the most and heaviest worms. The pot with everything in it had the best soil results. Conclusions/Discussion The pot with the leaves, twigs and coffee had the best results because it is most similar to where red worms live in nature (the litter level). The everything pot is most like the traditional method of composting and therefore had the best soil results.

Competition history

• CSEF 2013 Environmental Engineering (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1006

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

• All Environmental Engineering projects
• CSEF Environmental Engineering projects
• Every CSEF 2013 project