Moist is good for the microbes. As is dark.

Thanks Sounds good to me
Any idea what the room temp storage is on such a product?
Appreciating any advice
cd

Moist with access to air.

If it is finished any bucket or bag will do. It is soil now it does need air but not all that much. A loose lid will be fine.

Curt :-)

I think you are asking how long you can store the castings. I did not answer at first, because I'm not personally knowledgeable, but I have read that castings can be saved for up to a year, as long as they are not exposed to UV light.

I used the ball test on mine and have stored it for up to 3 months in a bucket with a loose lid. Squeeze the compost into a ball and poke it with a finger if it breaks into chunks rather easy the you should be able to store it. if it stays in a ball and just dents with your finger then it is too wet. If it will not make a ball then it is dry, this is O.K.and probably the best of all. I hope this makes sense to you. I just remembered I had some fairly dry sifted castings that I stored in the porch in a 2 gallon plastic bucket with no lid. I used it for 6 months this winter and it kept just like a bucket of soil. Keep on worming.

Curt ~~ :-)

Thank you all! It is still a little early to put things in the garden that aren't already established.This was my primary concern with storage of the product. This is good advice and so appreciated. I ask DH and DS to look at my worms a couple of times a week just so they can appreciate the worms working and thriving in their environment.I am hooked (no worm pun intended).

I usually leave the castings from last Fall, in the bin, which I believe helps keep the worms insulated during the winter months.(my bin is in an unheated shed) Then, sometime in March or early April, I harvest the batch for use in the Springtime planting. I keep the casting in a plastic container with a loose lid. Whenever I start using it, there's always some worms that might have hatched, or I missed. So the stuff is continually being processed, and being in the plastic seems to keep ti somewhat moist.

Worm castings will keep indefinetly if stored out of excess heat and aren't allowed to dry out. Avoid rain runoff and sunlight.

Here is a link that might be useful: Worm Castings as Fertilizer

I have 11 Raised garden beds and a week ago I put a 3 gallon bucket of worm castings into each box and Im already seeing a big difference in my veggies I water everyday and keep the soil nice and moist my question is should I add somemore worm ust worms into my beds or will the castings produce more hatchlings by themselves cause when I put the worm castings into my boxes I found quite a few live worms inside the dirt...What else do I need to do??Im brand new to all of this and I want to get as much info as I possibly can??

Thx
Deborah in Sarasota Fl

I have been keeping castings in a 5gal bucket in my garage with a lid but the bucket has holes drilled in the sides. The castings remain moist.

I do wonder if completely dry castings will do much for a garden. Any commercial casting samples I have gotten were always dry and I wasnt impressed with the result when used. But my own castings have proven well when used.

If it is finished any bucket or bag will do. It is soil now it does need air but not all that much. A loose lid will be fine.
Curt :-)

I gotta disagree with the above Curt comment.

No vermi-compost is ever...nor should it be..."finished" if finished means all the biology of the "dirt" is gone. The purpose of VC is to improve the condition of dirt NOT in a vermicomposting system that really is poorer soil than it will be after the VC is introduced to it. If active VC is integrated with soils and plant containers, the VC is just being relocated.

If we were wormin' just to play with worms and/or make landscape filler, I would be doing something more constructive.....like trying to keep up all the ways vermicomposting sometimes morphs into "earth-moving" endeavors....or garbage disposal alternatives.

As for storage limits, etc, the best place for it is in flowerbeds, and on lawns, and raised garden beds so it can continue working its magic. I only store it for short periods and when it's so cold outside I don't wanna go out to mess with it. (Like now)

Chuckiebtoo