Copyright © Urban Farms Organic, Inc., 2011 | Products by UFO are made in Canada
Scientific rationale
UFO's motivation is to make safe organic fertilizer readily available to all.
Why Vermicasting?
Vermicasting is aerobic and does not produce odours as in anaerobic processes. In vermicasting earthworms burrow and aerate the soil. Waste passes through their gut where fungi is consumed and moist bacteria that would have existed in the aerated material, dies from lack of oxygen in the gut. The organic material passing through is ground and partly mineralized. The results is a granular material egested by earthworms. It consists of release granules with a mud casing and an organic core that releases plant nutrients gradually. Given the right feed composition, and at the right feed to earthworm and earthworms to air ratio, Vermicasting can have 1 week turnover rate and produce high quality fertilizer.
Why dry waste and extract liquid fertilizer from it?
Composting and vermicasting mineralize immobilized nutrients, but some plant nutrients are already in the mineral form in plants, and only need a simple mechanism, such as steeping in hot water, to be released. Both are useful for creating new soil, but are not necessary to extract fertilizer from food scraps. Also composting takes about 45 days, and requires aeration. Vermicasting takes 22 days at the correct earthworm density. A mechanism to release mineral nutrients from plants takes minutes, hours at most. On this premise, UFO develops ways to rapidly extract instant liquid fertilizer, which can be added to the plant routinely. A side-product is also pre-digested solids that can (optionally) be further transformed to vermicast (earthworm casts). UFO's offers vermi apps and designs vermicasting system that process solid waste at a relatively high rate.
Why not synthetic fertilizer?
Recycling is one advantage of using organic fertilizer, but another is the resulting plant quality. Synthetic (NPK) fertilizers result in quantity over quality, since they cause plants to produce more structural carbohydrates and less nutritious compounds, in order to grow and compete for light. This affects the plant's taste and health value. NPK salts also inhibit soil microbes that aerate the soil and supply plant roots with oxygen. Recycled kitchen waste, which is free, can be used instead to produce Quality Low Input Food at home.
Research Papers
Efficiency of organic farming; a 21 years study
Protein Content of organic produce
Synthetic vs. Organic fertilizers
Innovative Technologies for organic farming (by UFO's founder)
Resources
OMAFRA factsheet on Vermicasting (by UFO's)
In Innovative Science: Why Organic Urban Farming? (by UFO's)
Engineering as applied to organic farming (by UFO's)
Resources
