Earthworms are a gardener’s best friend and behind the scenes, are providing food, nutrients and beneficial microorganisms, to help plants grow healthy. Worm castings are high in nutrients, and have many benefits associated when adding to a potting mix. In this article, we break down all you need to know about worm castings, why use worm castings as fertilizer and much more.
What are worm castings?
Worm castings are basically what the earthworms excrete after eating organic matter. Think about it as they are recycling organic matter into nutrients and food for the garden, that’s great, isn’t it? Worm castings are rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and other trace elements. As if this were not enough, they also contain millions of micro-organisms and bacteria that are beneficial to plants!
Worm Delight, our worm manure product, is ready to add to your potting mix. Also, works great as top dressing during the lifecycle of the plant.
When you’re picking ready-to-use worm manure, there are some sensorial characteristics that will tell you about the quality of the product. The color of superior quality worm castings will be black, with a soft texture and have an earthy sweet aroma.
In the case of our Worm Delight, you will notice all of this, but also, sometimes comes with a surprise. Our worm manure is super fresh that sometimes you can find alive earthworms inside! You can think that this is gross, but it’s great! It’s like you we’re buying milk and the gift you the cow.
Having earthworms in your substrate have a lot of benefit that we’re going to suitcase.
The benefits of earthworms and worm castings for your gardening
● Worms create air pockets and tiny tunnels as they crawl.
● Slow release organic nutrients are deposited back to the soil.
● Beneficial bacteria and microorganisms are produced by the worm.
● Worm castings is a superb nutrient.
● Top quality store bought soil can have earthworms inside.
So, can I do worm compost in my house? What food do the worms eat?
Earthworms are found naturally growing in our gardens and crawling through our lawns, but you can also start your own worm bin at home. You will need to provide green food waste scraps such as fruits and vegetables and provide enough water to keep the worm bin moist but not dripping wet. Eisenia foetida and Lumbricus rubellus are the two most common worms used in vermicomposting.
It’s important to keep in mind that worm humus production is a process that requires time and patience. It may take several months or even years before a significant amount of humus is produced. In addition, the quality of the humus and its organic matter and nutrient content can vary. The conditions to which the worms are subjected, the type of material we give them to degrade, and other factors can alter the quality of the worm compost.
If you simply want to enjoy the benefits without having to look after your own worms, take a look at worm humus bags such as Worm Delight.
Adding worm castings as an organic amendment
True soil growers will recycle their organic growing medium after every harvest and make sure they input the right amendments prior to planting new seeds. By mixing worm castings to your current potting mix soil, you will significantly boost the nutrition level, and provide the soil food web with lots of carbon rich organic food to break down. A great tip is to mix Worm Delight and a bit of new substrate, like Janeco-Light-Mix, to refresh your older soil. Not only will this keep your soil thriving, but it will also help to recover the physical properties of the substrate.
Using worm castings as fertilizer
There are two ways to feed plants with worm manure:
Mixing it with your substrate – You want to make this before start using the substrate. This way, the organic matter present thanks to the addition of the worm castings will start degrading and forming plant-available compounds. After a few days, the substrate will have increased its micro life and the nutrient content.
Top dressing – This means to scatter a layer on the top of the soil. It can be done once every so often, as a regular amendment until the harvest date. Top dressing is an excellent way to keep supplying a balance of micro and macro nutrients to the plants, as well as inoculating the soil with beneficial microorganisms.
Our conclusion
There are many benefits from using worm manure in your garden, ranging from nutrients, beneficial microorganisms produced in the worm’s stomach, and improving soil quality and aeration. Worm bins are an excellent way of composting food scraps and allowing you to grow healthy plants. If this is simply not for you, using ready-to-use solutions as Worm Delight, will bring you the benefits without the perks.
Worm manure will help you to grow top quality crops and keep the soil food web thriving, doesn’t it sounds like the perfect thing?
