Below is an easy to make organic matter soil recipe, which is superb for planting which is generally an all around soil recipe. This organic matter recipe will give you an enriched soil that will assist in ensuring your flowers bloom more flowers and larger harvest of vegetables and fruits.

50% Peat Moss

Sphagnum moss or sedge is partially decomposed aiding in making compost. Great to add to your mix as it is free from weeds and disease organisms as well as its ability to aid in air and water retention.  Peat moss is an acidic product which can be reduced via addition of lime.

30% Compost

Consist of decomposed and partially decomposed organic matter.  Compost can consist of many different components from grass clippings, leaves… to vegetable scraps… If making your own compost be sure it is PH neutral. Compost also assists in water retention as well as provides nutrients for microorganisms which release nutrients to you plants. Worm Composting is the fastest way to compost and maintain a neutral PH every time.

10% Coarse Sand

Assists in retaining air and water within the soil mix. Be sure to use builders or contractors grade sand which is coarser than play sand and works better.  Usually this can be found in the mortar section of your local building supply store.

10% Worm Castings

Worm castings, not to be confused with vermicompost which is compost with some worm castings included. Worm castings also help in water retention but also contain millions of microorganisms which act as a soil activator. This will help produce and release important nutrients to your plants. You can locate worm castings online.

¼ Cup Bone Meal per 5 Gallon Mix

Bone Meal a number of good nutrients for your plants and is a slow release so as not to harm your plants or plant root systems. Phosphates which promote root growth by enabling the sugars made within the leaves to be transported to the root system. Calcium which is lost during the fall when plants lose their leaves… help to cement cell walls together. Lack of new shoots and weak stems are signs of calcium deficiency. Bone Meal is also a low in nitrogen content meaning it will not burn your plants, convert potential flowers into leaves, hence ruining your flowering display.

1/8 Cup Agricultural Lime per 5 Gallon Mix

Lime helps to reduce the acid in soil levels. Being the Peat Moss is acidic; the lime will help neutralize your soil mix. In the event you wish to use a more acidic soil for tomatoes, azalea bushes… you can omit the lime to this mixture.

Now that you have all your ingredients, I usually grind up the Lime to a powder like substance. This enables better mixing but is not necessary.

Mix the dry Peat Moss, Coarse Sand, Bone Meal and Lime if utilizing the latter. Be sure to mix well.

Next, add the Worm Castings. Once thoroughly mixed add your Compost and mix thoroughly again.

Using a good organic matter soil will ensure you reap the benefits of your labor next spring!

Bruce Galle

The Worm Expert

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I have plenty of straw mulch around my squash and zucchini plants as to retain moisture in the ground as the root systems of these plants do draw a lot of moisture.

I began to wonder if I had a root fungus as there was no evident signs top side of a problem. We had quite a bit of rain the other week with heavy down pours as well as slower soaking rains due to afternoon and some morning thunderstorms about every day last week.

As a solution I tried mixing some more worm tea, extra strength earlier this week, about 5 ounces of worm castings to four gallons of water. I then went outside the other evening and sprayed my plants at a rate of four parts water, 1 part worm tea.

Yesterday I noticed my plants were not wilting quite as harshly as they had been earlier this week.

This morning, to my amazement, I went to the garden to do some picking and glanced over at my squash and zucchini plants only to see the healthiest looking plants ever. For the first time this week, not only are the plants sitting upright, but the leaves have an inverted look to them as they should in the morning and evening hours.

As for the little guy with only three leaves left, I am happy to report he is not as bald as he is now sprouting a total of five leaves

Now whether there was a fungus issue or other problem, it is amazing to see what adding beneficial microbes to the soil can and will do for your plants.

For more on worm tea products, visit Organic Worm Farm.

Good Luck in Your Gardening Adventures,

Bruce

Both of the following plants are summer squash and were planted at the same time.  Keep in mind, I only did a comparison between summer squash plants in our garden, however worm tea results can be expected on all plants, even cut flowers in a vase will last longer!

The photo below is a plant that was planted as a seed with 5% worm castings added to the potting mix. Since then I have only planted in the garden and watered when needed.

Here pictured below is the summer squash I originally posted with the amazing root system at 6 days. It was planted as a seed with the same procedure as above. I have watered with a worm tea I made from worm castings twice in the past two weeks. This photo below was taken 14 days after my original photo showing the six day old seedling

Next week I will be adding concentrated worm tea from here as well as worm tea bags in different sizes. If you are interested in ordering in advance, feel free to leave a comment below, filling in your email (will not be displayed online) and I will get back with you with sizes and prices on both.

As far as my experiment with seeds with varying amounts of worm castings, we had a wash out, literally. I left the plants on my covered porch; however driving rains ruined this test. I will be restarting this test shortly… so stay tuned.

Bruce

Anyway thought some of you would appreciate the photo as I did the best I could while holding the plant in one hand and taking a photo with the other

I will post more on my comparison with different amounts of worm castings as the seeds germinate…

Bruce

In the below experiment photo, I used worm castings. These were obtained from my worm bins using a 1/8″ screen to sort the castings form the vermicompost mix. The difference between worm castings and vermicompost is that vermicompost is a composition of decomposed material mixed with worm castings. Either is super beneficial for plants which I plan to prove with my worm casting garden experiment.

I took five different types of seeds, Black Beauty Egg Plant, Cantaloupe, Cherry Tomatoes, Big Boy Tomatoes and Roma Tomatoes and planted each in a variation from 0%, 10%, 50% and 100% worm castings mixed with plain composted humus made from yard waste. The photo below displays my method of madness As the experiment continues over the following weeks I will update here on the site. Be sure to bookmark this site so as you can keep abreast of the latest updates.

Keep in mind this is not a controlled experiment which would separate each of the plants to prevent cross contamination from one another. However, for my needs this will be accurate enough to show the difference not only in the plant growth, but we will display root growth once the plants have evolved enough to be transplanted directly to the garden.

Stay Tuned….