Why our castings?
Our worm castings are created on a boutique worm farm that utilizes only the highest quality inputs. These include manure, food scraps and a wide variety of grain/bran. This ensures our castings exceed the quality of all others, since 'you only get out what you put in'.
MOST IMPORTANTLY our worm castings are NOT screened for worms or eggs. This means you not only get worms in your castings, but you also get more worms over time, creating a higher quality soil structure and quality over time.
'Its truly amazing what takes place in the stomach of a worm'
What Are Worm Castings?
Worm Castings are a nutrient-rich compost that has been refined by worms to have a neutral pH and excellent water holding capacity. Humic substances within the Worm Castings act as chelating agents that enhance the availability of micronutrients to your plants, while the negative surface charge of organic materials within our Worm Castings provides additional cation exchange sites for the retention of nutrient cations.
In addition to this, the substrate maintains an active complex community of decomposer organisms which in addition to earthworms, may include enchytraeids (pot worms), nematodes, protozoans and countless microorganisms. Amongst the microcosm of microbes, include rock phosphate solubilizing actinomycete microbes (which are responsible for the petrichor smell when it rains).
Earthworm Castings have been shown to have a Mycorrhizal spore density upward of 4 times that of conventional NoTill field soil. As a result, the worm castings in your soil mix will cause the micro life in the container to act as vectors for viable Mycorrhizal fungi propagules to inoculate your plant roots with AMF.
How Do I Use Worm Castings?
For Top Dressing: You can't use too much! Distribute the desired amount of castings into the mulch layer.
As Compost: We recommend you use worm castings as ⅓ of your soil mix, with the remainder composed of ⅓ base and ⅓ aeration.
For Aerated Compost Tea: Add 1-2 cups of worm castings into an appropriate filter bag and suspend it in a solution of 10L water into which air is being bubbled (bubble air into water for up to two hours before adding the castings). Allow the tea to brew for 48 hours at 15-25 degrees celcius. Use within 6 hours of the brew finishing.
A Note On Casting Quality
Our Worm Castings have over 85% porosity and 70% water holding capacity, giving them an ideal bulk density, translating into both fantastic water penetration and retention in your soil mix.
The worms are fed a premium diet consisting of manure, food scraps, grain/bran as well as thermophilic compost, high-quality soil amendments and a mixture of green and brown waste so as to maintain an optimal C:N ratio and prevent Nitrogen Immobilization.
Worms that have not been fed a wholesome diet will produce castings with a low bulk density which can cause excessive aeration of the substrate and concomitantly a decline in water available to your plants.
Worms that have been digesting the same matter over and over will produce castings with a very high bulk density, which reduces porosity and air holding capacity, and should be avoided.
While the moisture content of vermicompost can be modified by adding water or drying, the capacity of a material to retain moisture remains largely constant, and it saves, in the long run, to buy high-quality castings initially!
This listing is for 25L of worm castings.
What's in the Box
- [1] x Organic Gardening Solutions Vermicompost / Worm Castings - 25L
