Store Bought Worm Castings

[legaleyes13]

Okay, so I used homemade, very fresh worm castings for my soil mix. It took a lot of time and energy to get those castings and had to source some from local farmers and that took a good bit of money... But, I was more than willing to do that for my soil mix.

However, I'm not so sure I'm willing to do all of that for my tea brewing. Are store bought castings good enough for an ACT brew, or should I stick with super high quality stuff? The way I see it, the reason fresh castings are better than store bought castings is because there are much more microbes living in the fresh castings, but it doesn't really matter much if the point of brewing a tea is to rapidly multiply the microbes in the castings that you put into the brew.

 

[Seamaiden]

You know what people are going to say, right? Guess what I use. Store-bought. Because I don't have someone local to me to buy castings from (that I've been able to find) and in my world something is better than nothing.

 

[Bulldog11]

Home made all the way, truly a huge difference. I am going to copy and paste what I wrote in another thread about how I do my castings, which is perfect for teas.

I have several different worm piles and bins. I have a worm bin 360 that I keep house scraps in, and the main purpose here is farming worms. Not the castings. That is how I replenish my large piles. My large piles, I like to buy a yard (or several yards) of top quality compost. I am lucky, near me I can pick up some great diestel compost for 60-80$ a yard. I place that in my 200 - 400 gallon smart pots and inoculate the compost with basalt, other minerals and sometimes some kelp or alfalfa in small amounts. Then I take my worms from my 360 and place them into the new pot, keep the moisture levels where they need to be, and 3-12 months later you end up with some fantastic castings. The advantage to using a nice compost as a base is even if the worms don't work 100% of the pile, the compost is still good to go. I just top dressed my garden with 2" of these castings after about 4-6 months of sitting, and the castings were top quality. The humus on my hands was dark and plentiful. I don't bother sifting because the compost base is quality, and the worms are great for the beds. I just make sure not to empty the smart pot 100%, and top it off with fresh inoculated compost. That way the remaining worms in the old, mostly harvested castings will repopulate the new compost.

The quality of castings this produces is worth 500$ a yard, easy. I have found this is the easiest way to farm quality castings that doesn't need sifting.


I wrote that for somebody else, but for tea's there is no easier way. If you buy quality compost to start with, even if your worms haven't worked the material much, the original compost is still great for teas. As time passes, the quality compost turns into top quality EWC. All you have to do is keep proper moisture levels. Makes the best teas you can buy. You can start with just a 1.5 cubic foot bag of quality compost, and a 45 gallon smart pot if the whole yardage thing is throwing you off.

 

[nazarbattu]

@Bulldog11
If you don't mind me asking, is there such thing as too many red wigglers in containers, when container gardening?



+1 for fresh castings

naz

 

[crazy4worms]

Okay, so I used homemade, very fresh worm castings for my soil mix. It took a lot of time and energy to get those castings and had to source some from local farmers and that took a good bit of money... But, I was more than willing to do that for my soil mix.

However, I'm not so sure I'm willing to do all of that for my tea brewing. Are store bought castings good enough for an ACT brew, or should I stick with super high quality stuff? The way I see it, the reason fresh castings are better than store bought castings is because there are much more microbes living in the fresh castings, but it doesn't really matter much if the point of brewing a tea is to rapidly multiply the microbes in the castings that you put into the brew.

 

[crazy4worms]

Definitely local castings which are not finely sifted; they will have a greater diversity of microbes which is what you want in your tea.

 

[cloudyhelads]

I’d be more likely to use the local top shelf for teas and top dress with the bagged stuff.

 

[crazy4worms]

Agree, use top-shelf for teas. I would suggest using fewer high quality castings and skip the cheap ones. Add some compost which will feed the microbes added in the quality castings.