Being all this gets confusing for many allow me to try and explain in plain English. The earth under our feet is teaming with life, the “richer” the soil, the more beneficial life usually contained within. To give you an idea, in one cup of soil there can be literally billions of live microorganisms contained therein. However, poorer quality soils can also be teaming with life, just not the ones we want or our plants.

Each microbe has a purpose in life which becomes an entangled web by which one benefit another by giving a free ride to another to greener pastures… protects your plants from harmful microbes… or which finds another a delicious treat…

When dealing with soil and worm castings there are two categories of microbes we need be concerned with, aerobic, the good guys and anaerobic, the bad guys. Now some of you know I have written about worm castings as well touched on aerobic versus anaerobic before, however now I am going to explain in more detail as well as back it up by other renowned experts.

The reason this was so important to bring back up and to elaborate on is the fact each year around this time through the fall I have folks contact me stating they have either generated worm castings themselves or moreover purchased worm castings in the past and neither the worm castings nor worm tea showed any benefits. So I figured here was a good time to show why some worm castings are so beneficial while others do not produce results.

First, the definition of aerobic: requires oxygen to survive.

To further this:

“…anaerobic conditions foster pathogenic bacteria and worse, kill off beneficial aerobic bacteria… Some anaerobic bacteria produce alcohols that are toxic to plant life and to other bacteria. These anaerobic bacteria can be avoided when gardening by controlling the conditions that allow them to multiply; poor soil texture, lack of pore space, standing water and compacted soil.” Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web By Jeff Lowenfels & Wayne Lewis, Forward by Elaine Ingham

Anyone not familiar with the authors who are highly respected adding to the fact that Elaine Ingham is one of the leading authorities on soil and well respected when it comes to earthworms, now you know!

Now being the above statement has to do with soil management the same principles apply to worm castings. After all, worm castings help create not only beneficial soil underground to approximately 6 inches in depth but also are one of the main components to generating the top soil which resides on the surface to a depth of approximately 1/8 of an inch.

For instance, “standing water and compacted soil” is one reason Organic Worm Farm has refused to offer worm farms with the spigot on the bottom. Once you overload your worm bin with water you are in essence compacting your worm bedding material and generating standing water, which in this case is leachate, full of anaerobic microbes which come out of the spigot. The manufacturers and those promoting these types of worm farms state it is worm tea, which could not be further from the truth.

Worm tea on the other hand is a delicate process by which you aerate good “aerobic” worm castings in a mixture of non-chlorinated water along with some other additives over a period of 24 to 48 hours at 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit, hence exploding the beneficial aerobic microbe count exponentially.

To picture another with readymade worm farms offering a spigot you are creating swamp mud which is anaerobic and a known disease causing environment in humans and animals. Step in it and your shoe gets stuck due to the vacuum created since the air cannot penetrate which would allow you to pull your shoe out freely. If your shoe sank in sand at the beach, you could easily pull your shoe back out since it is surrounded by free flowing air. However go towards the water’s edge and get your shoe stuck in the sand and once again it becomes difficult to pull out.

Worm castings when generated and stored correctly retain millions of aerobic microbes. In order for one to generate the best quality worm castings temperature comes into play since certain microbes you want to survive in the worm bin are active at ranges from 70 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  A reasonable temperature range to raise worms and produce premium worm castings is 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

Think about his for a moment. During the main growing seasons throughout a majority of the world the ambient temperature ranges from 70 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit and is when microbes are most active in your garden areas.

Here on our worm farm we maintain a controlled environment throughout the year maintaining a constant temperature of 78 degree.

A worm bin with bedding material which is not packed down should maintain a 30% moisture level at all times throughout the bed. If the same bedding material were packed the reading on a soil moisture meter would read approximately 70%. It is similar to soaking some paper in a bucket of water. Pick it up gently and squeeze and some water will run off. Allow it to lay in the palm of your hand then and it appears to be drier than if you were to squeeze firmly releasing additional water.

Issues also arrive when storing vermicast. When they are generated at 78 degrees Fahrenheit then stored outside during the winter at 20 degrees, many of the beneficial microbes are killed off since they cannot survive at these temperatures. Vermicast needs to be kept aerated, moistened at 30% moisture and stored in the ideal temperature range they were created in order to maintain maximum benefits.

Another issue of worm castings being stored outside is the fact that airborne contaminants come into play, i.e. unwanted seeds which will flourish in your garden.

When you go to buy worm castings and they are sold in sealed plastic bags or containers, no oxygen can penetrate. This renders the worm castings either useless or harmful allowing malicious anaerobic microbes to take over.

For example let’s assume you go to a local county fair and one of your kids wins a goldfish, which by the way is aerobic. You take your prize home in a sealed plastic bag half filled with water and the other half filled with air, place it on a shelf and forget about it. The goldfish will be fine for several days, however by the end of the week it will be belly up and you will have some explaining to do to the kids!

This is why Organic Worm Farm offers worm castings which have been stored correctly and shipped in breathable bags.

Another issue with buying worm castings is the fact that many are produced from waste such as vegetable scraps which include seeds. Being the worm bins cannot be heated as ordinary compost bin without frying the worms, these seeds can sprout within and around your potted plants, vegetable and flower gardens… This is why we have worked and tried to perfect the 14 Day Worm Castings process where one does not use vegetable scraps, manure or any other items which could end up contaminating the worm castings, hence eliminating sprouting of unwanted seeds around your prized possession.

Bruce

I also needed a way to grow some barley grain quickly each week for one of the worms we raise. I tried using soil which did alright however I went to plan “B” shortly thereafter realizing I needed a quick turnaround growing the barley to 6 inches tall. I did some reading on hydroponics however the startup costs were a bit high, especially for the amount of space which would be required for the tanks, pump equipment… for the amount of grain I needed to grow. I then decided to try growing the barley grain directly in well watered worm castings. The results were staggering to say the least.

I used the granular type of worm castings which are produced on the Organic Worm Farm. This enabled a type of blend between traditional planting and hydroponics since there was some water held between the worm casting granular. I use some starter trays with clear lids to help maintain the moisture until they grow tall enough in approximately 4 days time.

The seeds began to germinate in two days. After just three days most all the seed had germinated. Within the next four days, the barley grain had grown to about six inches tall.

The pictures below show the grain just 7 days after planting the seeds.

The next shows the extensive root growth taking place in the seedlings, something worm castings are known for.

Now back to the tomato experiment.

As for the tomato plants, these results are also amazing as they were all planted in the same soil with the exception of the addition of worm castings to some. They all receive the same amount of sunlight, water… in the garden.

To date not only are the tomato plants in the worm castings taller as well as bushier but they are also producing more tomatoes than the plants without the worm castings.

The benefits of worm castings are clearly noted here as well as how to produce more vegetables, flowers… per each plant.

The pictures below display the actual differences. Notice the wire tie for the plants and how the one without worm castings (first picture) only rises to the third wire while the one with worm castings rises to the fourth wire, 6 inches higher.

To produce these type of worm castings we use, be sure to visit 14 Day Worm Castings for more information and take advantage of the Father’s Day Special Promotion!