After about 2 to 3 months there should be a few inches of worm castings ready for harvesting. The brown, earthy-looking material at the bottom of your bin is finished compost that your worms have made for you.
As you remove the finished compost you will need to remove any worms that are remaining. Analysis of earthworm castings reveals that they are rich in iron, sulfur, calcium, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium NPK rating: 5. They are much richer in nutrients than bulk compost, therefore application rates are much lower. Chemical fertilizers are a one-shot wonder. I personally do not dry my worm castings out at all due to the fact that it loses a lot of its microbial life and the fresher it is, the more it will benefit your plants.
So I do not have much experience in this. However if this is what you want to do for storage or shipping then drying them out is preferred. In the cool of winter, they slow right down to glacial speed…a bit like us at work at 3pm. Even though it rains more in winter, the humidity in your compost bin or worm farm will drop.
Click to see full answer Likewise, people ask, does worm tea go bad? When it is added to organic material, the bacteria will reactivate. The addition of molasses helps to increase bacteria activity. EM1 has a shelf life for one year. So it seems there is potential for worm tea to be preserved. Additionally, how long can you store worm castings? Not easy to moisten castings without removing them from the bag.
Do not recommend for long -term storage. A month or two max. Worm tea provides them the nutrients they need and help the soil retain moisture.
How-to: ounces of worm tea per gallon of water. Apply once a week, more often if desired. After about 2 months rich, dark worm castings will be building up and worm juice will start to accumulate at the bottom of the worm farm. In terms of dilution , worm tea does not need to be diluted. They can be used as it is and the great thing is it doesn't burn plants! First of all, compost tea should not have an unpleasant odor; it should smell earthy and yeasty.
So, if your compost tea smells bad, there is a problem. You may also decide to add a number of other additives such as molasses, fish-based products, yeast, kelp or green plant tissues. Worm tea is ultimately the end result of steeping worm castings or vermicompost in water.
Worm tea is known mostly for its ability to boost microbiological activity in soil by adding bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes, and protozoa to the soil. Worm wee is continuously collected in the pan under your worm farm. Before giving it to plants, dilute it with water about to the colour of weak tea. Once a tray is full of broken down food and worm castings, it's time to harvest your soil fertiliser.
Worm castings are non-toxic, and while we don't recommend eating them, they will not cause harm to people or pets. Worm castings should never be frozen or stored in the freezer. I have an outdoor compost bin also.
When I harvest my worm castings I put into my outside bin and mix in. Thoughts and comments welcome. Have heaps of black magic soil piling up!! I heard that if worm compost is left it will dry to the consistency of concrete. I have my worm trays in the garage and when I needed to harvest compost and save it for a while I put it into a plastic bin with wet newspaper on top of it and sprayed with water each day to keep it viable.
I was able to use it after that. I also have a small bin in the garage with a bag of planting soil that each week I add coffee grinds and ground eggshells and use that when planting in the Spring as well. Maybe worm compost would dry like concrete if it started out as thick soupy mud, but if it starts out loose and aerated- it dries that way too.
Unfortunately, I found that out the hard way by leaving a bowl of prepped compost out in the sun. Your plastic bin method sounds like a nice way to hold and access as much as you need any time. I like that! Thanks for sharing! Great idea, Satindoll. I plan on copying it. Your bin of castings will surely have eggs and baby worms in it, thus the beginning of a new, maybe productive one with the addition of newspaper, coffee grinds, etc.
I have a worm bin but have never harvested the castings as I have pondered that removing the strugglers and using the compost, how do I not risk losing baby worms and indeed eggs? Thanks, Carly. If you add the worm casting to your garden or raised beds with babies and or eggs you will be adding the best thing to your garden beds, babies and eggs. The babies and eggs will grow and continue the cycle and what could be better than a garden full of worms making castings right in your garden and the worm bin will make more babies.
Vermiculture about worms will help farmers get nutrition to increase the quality of soil for producing goods on their farm. This is the perfect time of year to put attention to increasing the quality of garden soil. When I saw this blog, I have no idea what worm compost was.
Luckily as I read on this, I knew it somehow. Thank you for sharing your knowledge about it! I will now save this article on my gardening notes. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
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