Worm castings

[Mike83]

Hi I'm looking to go completely organic I was looking to use worm casting any thoughts.

And would just keep top dressings it up very few weeks with the worm casting 

[green_machine]

Not too sure I understand what you mean, do you want to use just worm castings as your only fertilizer? This won't be enough by itself, most people generally use living soil with other amendments. However, if you were thinking about using it in addition to other things just as a general plant boost it is a good idea. I set up my own worm bin to recycle my growing waste and I have loved the ewc I produce. I generally use them as a tea and give them to my plants weekly, however, I do also feed my plants using the intense organix nutes.

 

atb

greenie

[Mike83]

Thanks

Edited April 20, 2021 by Mike83

[MindSoup]

1 hour ago, green_machine said:

Not too sure I understand what you mean, do you want to use just worm castings as your only fertilizer? This won't be enough by itself, most people generally use living soil with other amendments. However, if you were thinking about using it in addition to other things just as a general plant boost it is a good idea. I set up my own worm bin to recycle my growing waste and I have loved the ewc I produce. I generally use them as a tea and give them to my plants weekly, however, I do also feed my plants using the intense organix nutes.

 

atb

greenie

 

So if WCs aren't enough, how do all the wild plants manage to grow? You definitely don't need any bottled nutrients at all to grow banging ganja IME. Sure add a few extras (kelp,neem cake, rock dust etc) but as a main source or nutrition WCs are absolutely fine. Living soil is worm castings (among other things) its just being made in the pot instead of a worm farm. A lot of those "organic" liquid feeds aren't really true organics either. 

 

Ecothrive life cycle is a brilliant all round additive that works brilliantly along side WCs. But you can just read the ingredient list and make your own similar dry fertiliser mix. 

Edited April 20, 2021 by MindSoup

[green_machine]

@mindsoup

 

Gonna disagree with you there mate. While I agree that bottled nutes are not essential, I think you will find plants growing in just worm casting will struggle. Even in living soil, you are relying on many other things to give your plants nutrition; cover crops, top dressings etc....

 

As I said in m original post, I think either you go down the living soil route and use worm castings as part of other amendments or they can be used as a supplement to bottled nutes. If used on its own without any other inputs you will struggle to meet the nutritional needs of your plants.

 

atb

greenie

[MindSoup]

In living soil the top dress and chopped down cover becomes worm castings. You do obviously get a bit of nitrogen from fixers and microbes etc as well but not a huge amount. So other than the trace elements added and stuff like mollases, its pretty much is just WCs.  Or am I missing something ?

Edited April 20, 2021 by MindSoup

[Mike83]

I was going to mix worm casting with plant magic soil but don't know if it is any good or what I need to give it though the whole process  

[MindSoup]

8 minutes ago, Mike83 said:

I was going to mix worm casting with plant magic soil but don't know if it is any good or what I need to give it though the whole process  

 

 Its all depends how you want to do it TBH mate, many ways to string a cat as they say, but WCs and life cycle are a good simple all round solution that will see you through to the end with a few top dresses. You can even buy ready made "super soil" like soil king big rootz or eco thrive soil, but the more you DIY the less it will cost you. If you want a concise up to date guide on indoor organic Cannabis growing I'd  recommend the build a soil channels on youchube. They're doing a really amazing series at the moment. Future Cannabis project and green flower also have a wealth of useful info, albeit not in as easy a format to digest as the BAS guys. 

Edited April 20, 2021 by MindSoup

[Thai Stick]

Can you grow from start to finish using just worm castings?
Sure.
Will it be an amazing plant?

Definitely not.

 

But, saying that.

It depends.

 

I make my own worm castings and over the past year have been experimenting with different food for the worms to achieve different NPK ratios.

 

I have 4 seperate bins.

 

1 i feed the worms Elephant shit

1 i feed the worms Buffalo shit

1 i feed the worm Bananas

1 i feed all the mixture of all the vegetable and fruit scraps from my kitchen

 

My theory is that the elephants have a diverse diet, consisting of plenty of fruit so the worm castings NPK should be pretty balanced

The buffalo's are eating only grass and other green things so the worm castings should be higher on the nitrogen side.

Feeding the worms only bananas the NPK should be heavy on the PK side of things

The mixture of kitchen scraps should produce me a well balanced worm casting mix.

 

That's the theory anyway, test results unclear yet as all the chilli plants i test on look outstanding.

 

I know that with Bat guano, depending on the species of bat and their diet will give you a different NPK value of guano.
Bats that eat bugs will be high in Nitrogen, whereas fruit bats provide a higher phosphorous and potassium value.

 

The living soil i have been making for my outdoor chilli's and other plants consists of many any different kinds of castings, guanos and shits.

One shit that rises above all from my experience so far, which as a sole ingredient in a simple mix (ie. shit+peat moss+perlite) that i have grown an amazing plant from start to finish with, is fish shit.
I harvest it out of an tilapia aquaponic setup from the filters and that stuff is like gold.
I have used that in a simple mix and as a tea and the results have been amazing.

 

 

 

[blackpoolbouncer]

If your worm castings are good and mixed source they should contain everything you need. 

 

Obviously you don't grow in straigh wc. But used as a fertiliser I dont see any reason why not.

 

I've been running some no till containers for 5 years. All they get fed is worm casting and compost.

 

Worms that are fed a poor diet wont be the best wc but my worm bin is essentially a balanced fertiliser maker due to the high quality inputs. 

 

Not gonna be lacking in anything if its good

[Funk P]

1 hour ago, blackpoolbouncer said:

If your worm castings are good and mixed source they should contain everything you need. 

 

Obviously you don't grow in straigh wc. But used as a fertiliser I dont see any reason why not.

 

I've been running some no till containers for 5 years. All they get fed is worm casting and compost.

 

Worms that are fed a poor diet wont be the best wc but my worm bin is essentially a balanced fertiliser maker due to the high quality inputs. 

 

Not gonna be lacking in anything if its good

 

This^

 

On top of this it's a very broad question but at the same time specific, what I mean by this is that there are levels to everything, some people can give you advice on worm castings but they might not even know if the castings they are using are even sifted properly, what goes into the feed etc. The same goes for compost, compost is actually so complicated. There is a massive difference between home compost (If done correctly) to store bought & then on top of this an even bigger difference between standard home compost to dialled in home compost (I'm wank at making good compost btw). What I do know is from reading a couple case studies which were about bokashi that involved tests with castings & compost as comparisions is that castings peaked the most at the start then towards the end dropped quicker than compost which was the overall winner when it came to longevity of nutrient supply, bokashi was very high in N aparently throughout, compost was more broad & the same with castings I believe. At the end of the day just look into it a bit more, castings are amazing, good compost is amazing & some additions on top of this won't do you any harm at all. I'm a fan of nettle teas & mealworm frass.

Edited April 21, 2021 by Funk P

[Funk P]

Just to add in that case study Bokashi came out on top apparently... The second castings then compost. Compost was quite stable throughout though. Sorry for the waffle, I love this shit & am learning...

[MindSoup]

I've literally just pulled the trigger on some bokashi bins, good way to cut landfill and grow fat buds/tasty veg.

[Funk P]

Just now, MindSoup said:

I've literally just pulled the trigger on some bokashi bins, good way to cut landfill and grow fat buds/tasty veg.

 

I tried Bokashi 3 times & buried it, it never 'dissapeared' after 2 weeks which aparently it is meant to but this was in winter... & as far as I know microbes become a hell of a lot more dormant in the winter... Even now though the bokashi'd material hasn't decomposed, aparently its a good way to speed up the regular composting process just don't do what I did the first time around & chuck everything & anything in there. I had a green mould problem to start of with & also unless you know how to make your own EM-1 properly just buy the bottled stuff to start off with.

 

What I did notice when I buried the Bokashi is a bigger population of worms in the area than before but that's expected when burying any sort of organic matter whether Bokashi'd or not I guess... Or I could be wrong.

[Mike83]

What about using living soil and is there something I would use to top dress it to keep it going sorry not been doing to for long