Worm compost

davmabz · « **on:** December 30, 2009, 23:36 »

Hi everybody

Do any of you learned people know anything about worm compost, I heard it very good, so whats your experiences of it?

Happy new year!

Trillium · « **Reply #1 on:** December 30, 2009, 23:48 »

Worm compost is literally the 'castings' (manure) of worms, and is a very rich concentrated form. Use sparingly to side dress toms and sweet peppers, or use to top newly seeded veg. You can also blend some into your potting mix in place of any kind of fertilizer, again, sparingly.

peanut · « **Reply #2 on:** December 31, 2009, 12:05 »

we have a wormery and use the worm tea, diluted for our tomatoes and chillis.

Every year, we empty out and mix the compost itself into the garden or take some down the plot. Ours is very rich as we put our chicken dropping in there too.

Rubellite · « **Reply #3 on:** December 31, 2009, 16:00 »

At my last house I had about 4 worm bins on the go - wonderful stuff!
Well worth doing but I wouldn't site by the back door as I did the first one. The worm "tea" has a very peculiar and lingering smell

New shoot · « **Reply #4 on:** December 31, 2009, 17:07 »

Quote from: Rubellite on December 31, 2009, 16:00

At my last house I had about 4 worm bins on the go - wonderful stuff!
Well worth doing but I wouldn't site by the back door as I did the first one. The worm "tea" has a very peculiar and lingering smell

You're not kidding

Good stuff though and although you don't get vast amounts of compost out of a worm bin, it is amazingly rich and goes a long way when diluted with normal compost as trillium says.

JohnB47 · « **Reply #5 on:** December 31, 2009, 22:47 »

I have had a wormery for around three years and this past summer I thought I'd try feedng my tomatoes, grown on the patio at my home, exclusively on the diluted worm juice.

All seemed to be going well, with a fair bit of fruit setting, then some of the blossoms started falling off. I've never had that happen before. I perservered for a week, then stopped using the juice and started feeding with a proprietary tomato feed. Within a week the change was evident. A further week and the plants were becoming deeper green and loads more blossom was appearing. Still later and the plants were romping away and I eventually had a good crop. I had obviously been starving the poor things. Looking back, I should have fed one growbag with juice and the other with tomato feed. That way I would have noticed the poor growth of the juice fed plants.

By contrast, I used the juice on some old bedraggled rhubarb that I uncovered on my new allotment, which had been left dormant for 3-4 years. That seemed to work, although I also sprinkled some chicken manure over them, so it's not conclusive.

From my experience, I'm not sure what this juice is actually good for. I certainly will not be using it to feed my tomatoes next year.

Does anyone have any hard evidence of the worth of this juice?

Cheers.

CapeTown-dude · « **Reply #6 on:** April 28, 2012, 17:11 »

This is one of the most common causes of confusion with regard to worm farming/vermiculture. The liquid that collects in the bottom tray of the stack-able worm farms often referred to as worm wee or pee is actually leachate/moisture that drains down from the rotting vegetables, etc. above. It is not really what you want when considering using liquid fertilizer from your farm. What you should be doing is brewing the worm castings in a bucket of water with the help of an air pump for 24 hours on average. Adding de-sulphured molasses and seaweed or fish emulsion will make your actively aerated compost tea (AACT) will increase the amount of nutrients hence making it more potent.

But back to leachate (worm wee). It is really nowhere near as good as AACT and if it smells bad you could end up doing serious harm to your plants. A rotten odour is a sign that the liquid has run out of oxygen and that anaerobic bacteria have taken over. There is also a good chance that it contains toxic compounds similar to alcohol which will kill some plants.

Matt31 · « **Reply #7 on:** April 28, 2012, 18:58 »

My personal opinion is for the amount that a wormory produces versus the effot and time to produce it is not worth it.

Having said that it all depends how much time and effort you dont mind putting into looking after them etc etc

But if you or anyone else thinks it is worth it then thats good for you and I wish you every success with it. Just not for me i'm afraid!!

However it is good stuff when you can produce enough of it.

My advice - try it and see what you think of it.

Matt

CapeTown-dude · « **Reply #8 on:** April 29, 2012, 02:34 »

My main joy in worm farming is that I know I'm breeding millions upon millions of beneficial bacteria. These and the fungi are definitely worth it alone. I garden in harmony with nature as much as possible and you seriously can't beat worm castings for this. In my worm farm I have springtails and mites and no doubt all sorts of other creepy crawlies in there. I believe that they all contribute to a healthy soil and therefore will continue to encourage their existence.

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Worm compost

davmabz

Worm compost

Trillium

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peanut

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Rubellite

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New shoot

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JohnB47

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CapeTown-dude

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Matt31

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CapeTown-dude

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