Worm Castings?
 

A guy gave me half of a bag of worm castings today. He sells worm castings and wanted me to side dress my pepper plants with the castings. He said his pepper plants grow better with worm castings than anything else. I will side dress my plants with the castings and I am wondering how the castings would work for germinating seeds and growing the seedlings? Comments appreciated,

I'm pretty sure worm castings are the best. I've not used them, but the more worms in the soil, the better. And worm composting leaves you with worm castings.

I'm getting ready to harvest some compost from a pile with about four years of organics added to it. I'm hoping to find some really large earth worms in it. After I feed my garden, I may go worm fishing.

Leave enough behind for your garden! And the robins.:D

I mixed about a cup of worm casting in the bottom of 4 planting holes and the next 4 didn't get the castings. Everything else was identical. Let's see if it made a noticeable improvement.

There is a business about 2 miles from me that manufactures and sells worm casting on a large scale. One of the garden shops sell 30# containers for $30 from this business.

Easiest and most efficient way to get worm castings is to get a lot of worms to take up residence in your garden. Add cottonseed meal to your soil when you prepare it for each season and if there are any worms in the area they will take up residence there. Another helpful thing is to mulch heavily as the worms like the soil to be more moist and cool. Heavy use of dry chemical fertilizers will run them off. I guess they are just too caustic for the worms.

Bill

For seedlings I mix:

1 part peat
1 part worm castings
1 part perlite

Also worm castings make a great compost tea. One cup of castings per 4 gallons water in a five gallon bucket of water bubbled for 24-48 hours. Magical elixer! You can cut it with water to use for a spray or just water it right in.

Edit;

Use an old sock to hold the castings while they brew in the bubbler.

I tend to do most thing's in my garden with bare hands. If someone tells me to use one or two cups full of something, I interpret that to mean one or two large hands full.


I side dressed alll my pepper plants today with worm castings which seemed to have no odor. I then washed my hands a couple of times with soap and water because I knew I was handling worm poop. Later in the day, I noticed my right hand smelled like I had been cleaning a sewer pipe with my bare hand. After a couple more hand washings and scrubs with a stiff brush, my hand smells like a field of roses. I suppose I will use a cup in the future.

[QUOTE=DonDuck;734873]I tend to do most thing's in my garden with bare hands. If someone tells me to use one or two cups full of something, I interpret that to mean one or two large hands full.


I side dressed alll my pepper plants today with worm castings which seemed to have no odor. I then washed my hands a couple of times with soap and water because I knew I was handling worm poop. Later in the day, I noticed my right hand smelled like I had been cleaning a sewer pipe with my bare hand. After a couple more hand washings and scrubs with a stiff brush, my hand smells like a field of roses. I suppose I will use a cup in the future.[/QUOTE]

I use my hand too, I just figure 2 handfuls is about 1 cup. After using the worm castings, I didn't notice a smell. But my right hand is now twice the size of my left and has a beautiful color.:lol:

:lol::lol::lol:

:panic:[QUOTE=SteveP;734875]I use my hand too, I just figure 2 handfuls is about 1 cup. After using the worm castings, I didn't notice a smell. But my right hand is now twice the size of my left and has a beautiful color.:lol:[/QUOTE]


:))

I would never be without worm castings in the spring. I buy 2 30 lb bags every spring and they last through the summer. First I add 1-2 tsp when I transfer any seedlings to cups and mix it in well. I use a couple of tablespoons in the hole of the Earthbox, ground or straw bale for the final planting out of tomatoes. I keep reading that a little goes a long way!
My tomatoes seem to thrive on the fertilizer.
I live the casting because they don’t burn or smell bad and the plants love Them.