How wet are they? I just got some and they are just slightly moist. I keep them in a 5 gallon bucket out of the sun on my porch and use them to make teas all summer. No problems storing them, i just try to keep some moisture in them.

Ingrid, think of your garden as a place to raise "free-range earthworms" and they'll provide you with all the castings you could need, depositing it right where you need it without you having to dig it into the soil for your plants. Do you have a set time of year when you apply mulch? If so, consider gathering as much organic material as possible which isn't composted yet, spread it out, then cover it with mulch. If you buy a garbage can for it, you can collect a lot of coffee grounds from your local Starbucks and use that. If you don't already have some worms in your garden, buy some (like I mentioned before). As long as you keep them fed, you shouldn't have to buy them ever again -- the colony will keep growing. As I said before, I'd consider buying worm castings only for houseplants, and only because it isn't practical to keep earthworms alive in pots. It's just so much cheaper and easier to encourage a population of earthworms in the garden and let them deposit their castings on their own -- as well as keeping the soil aerated with their tunneling. :-) ~Christopher

Hey drgulley, I am also new to daylilies and interested in all things to help them grow and bloom better. If you Google vermicompost Wikipedia has a nice page on castings. It's odd the bag I saw said 1-0-0 since they also have 6-7 times the P and K of regular soil. I found it interesting that plant hormones - auxins and 'giberellic acid' (whatever that is) were specifically mentioned, as well as magnesium. No doubt they also have other trace minerals concentrated up somewhat. I've been reading everything on web, and came across how the big hybridizers use plant hormone BAP-10 to help plants multiply. Eh heh, that's about as far from my organic gardening leanings as you can get. Perhaps colchicine is further...but next on the list would be potting up fans to sit next to the core of a nuclear reactor. Hey....that's an idea....:D:D:D

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.