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Vermicomposting

Worm castings vs. worm compost?

12 years ago

I was in my local garden store the other day. They had bags of worm castings and listed them as a 1-0-0 fertilizer. I've been using my worm compost for a few years in my garden. It seems like the effect is way more significant than a 1-0-0 fertilizer could ever be. I compost all of my kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, egg shells etc. Are my bins only worm castings when I'm done or do I have a much different compost than they are selling?

Comments (2)

plumiebear
12 years ago
I'm very skeptical that anyone sells pure worm castings. I define a casting as a particle that has actually passed through the digestive tract of a worm. Vermicompost or worm compost is a much more accurate description of what is probably in the bag.

Your homegrown VC is probably different from stuff you buy for a number of reasons. I can't remember which forum this came from, but it was posted by: Kelly Slocum On: 2001-09-01.

"the feedstocks chosen for producing maximum worm biomass are not always those chosen to produce the best castings for a particular situation, no.

keep in mind that castings value is determined largely by the intended end use. if you want the castings to amend your soil for planting a fruit orchard, for instance, the castings you'd most want would be dominated by microscopic fungi, supported in castings produced by a feedstock with a high proportion of carbon material (leaves, wood, paper, cardboard, etc.). were you looking for castings with which to amend soil that will be growing annual flowers the product with the highest value to you would be dominated by bacteria. bacterial castings are produced with feedstocks higher in nitrogen (greenwastes, manures, etc.). castings that have the most generally diverse community of organisms possible are generated from feedstocks with a particular balance of carbon and nitrogen bearing materials.

now, studies show that, provided appropriate moisture and aeration are maintained, manure is the material that produces the greatest worm biomass. manure alone is not going to produce castings with the most diverse numbe of organisms, however, needed for a high qualtiy general purpose product."

Note the tacit implication that NPK is not what makes VC a valuable soil amendment. Search "soil food web" and you'll have plenty of reading material.

Cheers,
Andrew
craigode
12 years ago
My first worm bin effort is nearing completion of its first "cycle," ie. all the original bedding is mostly gone and unrecognizable and it pretty much "finished." I have periodically for the last 4 months fed them about 1 lb (probably a little less) of rotten cow manure. This near finished product still has some small pieces of leaves and paper (the original bedding) in it. Since it's not purely castings, I consider it to be vermicompost. This end product is very fluffy and light. WHen I stir it with my hands, it sticks very little to my fingers. There's probably 30 lbs of the stuff and I can't wait to put it to use, regardless of what it is called.
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75 bucks is insane for around me, but in you area it may be the going rate... It's all supply and demand... If it it that expensive, you are probably better off starting up you own worm bin... I would look around though, you can probably find other sources that are more cost effective... 2 buckets for $150 just seems REALLY inflated to me...
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You can brew worm tea but I have found a better method. It takes months to make worm castings. I have 5 worm bins made from Kitty litter buckets and 2 inside bins (rubbermaid containers). I have a lot of potted plants and hated tossing the spent potting soil (expensive) into the garden. I have 2 compost tumblers and when the exothermic reaction is done I add worms to speed up the process. All bins are raised and have collecting trays. The drippage is the best worm tea. I collect it daily using a turkey baster,bulb syringe, or toomey syringe if you have one. You can collect the tea long before the castings and pour it on your potted plants. I have a 5 foot cilantro that really loved it and have brought back many nutrient deficient plants. Recycling potting soil in worm bins really works too and the worms love them.
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Mike, much of the nutritional value comes from the microorganisms growing on the organic material. The tea making process washes away many of those microbes, but not all. If you throw that material back into an active worm bin, I'm sure the microbes will quickly grow and the worms will be attracted to ingest the particles again. Andrew
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If you want some pure worm castings try placing a piece of wet burlap on the surface of your worm bed media. Cover the wet burlap with a sheet of glass and then some black plastic sheeting...trash bag works fine. In a few days the underside of the glass sheet will be covered in 'pure' castings. To avoid a messy extraction process have several sheets of glass available for rotation. Let the castings dry and they can be easily removed with one of those worthless plastic auto window ice scrapers. Like Worms4Tracy comments I don't see any difference in the commercially sold worm castings than the 'spent media' (peat moss, coffee grounds, egg shells, and blended kitchen scraps) I remove from the tops of my indoor vermicompost bins. I have a difficult time understanding why folks go to such extremes to removed worm castings only to reincorporate them into potting mixes, worm teas, and to be used as a fertilizer. I have used the grated 'spent media' for a number of years exclusively as a germination mix and incorporated into potting mixes, and it works just fine.
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