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I'm working on making worm castings for a nutrient additive to a possible soil (miracle gro) or soiless (coco coir) medium.
Just wondering if anyone has used home made worm castings, and whether or not the castings need to be pasteurized to kill worm eggs, or if perhaps the relatively few worm eggs that will eventually hatch into hundreds of worms will be beneficial to my plants.
-------------------- "We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness" - Thich Nhat Hanh
No kit. I bought a couple large tubs, 16.5" deep, and drilled 3/8" holes in the sides and 1/2" holes on the bottom for air exchange and drainage. Soaked 1" torn strips of newspaper in water and "rung out" of excess water and placed loosely in the tubs and a couple handfuls of dirt and/or sand on top for some grit to digest. up to 1 lb. of worms per square foot of surface area and leave them alone for 5-7 days in order to bed into the bottom of the bin. If its moist enough they shouldn't try to escape out the holes, but leave a light above it for the first several hours because the worms avoid the sunlight - this will keep them in the confines of the compost box.
After a week begin feeding at 1/2 lb. of fruit and veggie scraps per square foot of worm bedding, increasing gradually as population increases. Worms eat everything Plantae: lettuce goes the fastest, followed by fruit rinds (mostly melons and berries, citrus added sparingly), coffee grounds and tea bags (staple removed) with the bag, newspaper, all veggie scraps, cardboard, wood.
2-3 months later you got four times the worm population you started with and your bins will be turning over a high yield of purely organic compost with natural fertilizer. Add directly to the soil (even as a top soil) to root feed your plants. Stuff it into an old sock and steep it in hot water for 24+ hours to make a leaf-feeding tea.
-------------------- "We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness" - Thich Nhat Hanh
Quote: icanfeeltherain said: No kit. I bought a couple large tubs, 16.5" deep, and drilled 3/8" holes in the sides and 1/2" holes on the bottom for air exchange and drainage. Soaked 1" torn strips of newspaper in water and "rung out" of excess water and placed loosely in the tubs and a couple handfuls of dirt and/or sand on top for some grit to digest. up to 1 lb. of worms per square foot of surface area and leave them alone for 5-7 days in order to bed into the bottom of the bin. If its moist enough they shouldn't try to escape out the holes, but leave a light above it for the first several hours because the worms avoid the sunlight - this will keep them in the confines of the compost box.
After a week begin feeding at 1/2 lb. of fruit and veggie scraps per square foot of worm bedding, increasing gradually as population increases. Worms eat everything Plantae: lettuce goes the fastest, followed by fruit rinds (mostly melons and berries, citrus added sparingly), coffee grounds and tea bags (staple removed) with the bag, newspaper, all veggie scraps, cardboard, wood.
2-3 months later you got four times the worm population you started with and your bins will be turning over a high yield of purely organic compost with natural fertilizer. Add directly to the soil (even as a top soil) to root feed your plants. Stuff it into an old sock and steep it in hot water for 24+ hours to make a leaf-feeding tea.
Good stuff. What do you do with all those worms once you have all your natural fertilizer?
when there's enough worm castings in the compost bin to collect move all contents of the bin to one side and replace void area with new bedding and buried food (always bury at least three inches deep to avoid attracting fruit flies). Worms will migrate over to the opposite side after they finish with the older material. remaining worms and worm eggs can be sifted out of the final product with a 1/8" screen, a colander, or whatever's handy. Happy vermicomposting!
-------------------- "We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness" - Thich Nhat Hanh
I`ve been meaning to do this, I just havent found a good price for the worms. I wanted to put a small bin under my kitchen sink next to the trashcan. The major benefit of castings I think is the micro organisms living in the worms stomach that break down and un-lock nutrients in the soil and produce fulvic acids that act as chelates in nutrient absorption. I`m guessing boiling would kill some of these micro-organisms,,,maybe they`ll piss themselves to death (like boiling maggots) and saturate the tea with chelates.
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