Worm castings

[Funk P]

2 hours ago, Mike83 said:

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 

 

Dalefoot wool compost double strength can be a good top dressing with worm castings, meal worm frass mixed in. Grab some fish meal for some extra N, I would rather get comfrey tea, look into a company called cultivated comfrey or make your own. Get a bubbler & feed compost teas. Don't go over the top though frass plus the double strength dale foot plus comfrey can get quite hot & high in N... When it comes to making your own living soil I would hold off if I was in your postion for now, get a feel for it, all those ammendments & making the tea should be more than enough for now, you can just get some decent living soil from ecothrive I think... I haven't used it so people might be able to tell you a bit more about it.

Edited April 21, 2021 by Funk P

[Pepe Ramon]

Is anyone here putting their Bokashi into worm bins? I have just filled my first container and, instead of burying it in my bed, I was considering getting a worm farm to complete the composting process. I understand there may be an issue with the acidity of the Bokashi, what should I add to it, to balance the ph, before adding it to a worm farm?  

[Ronnie Hotdogs]

@Maesteg Cannabis Club I'm deciding what to do with the bokashi atm. Could add some lime to balance it for the worm bin? Might just have to experiment and see what happens.. I'll make a new topic and tag you if I do

[MindSoup]

11 hours ago, Mike83 said:

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 

 

Yes all kinds of option. Watch that build a soil series mate, literally everything you need to know. 

[MindSoup]

1 hour ago, Maesteg Cannabis Club said:

Is anyone here putting their Bokashi into worm bins? I have just filled my first container and, instead of burying it in my bed, I was considering getting a worm farm to complete the composting process. I understand there may be an issue with the acidity of the Bokashi, what should I add to it, to balance the ph, before adding it to a worm farm?  

 

 

I had that same question myself a fee weeks back  Its my understanding that bokashi is quite a good thing to do to prepare worm farm additives as it stops the worm farm getting too smelly, not quite sure on recommended quantities/ratios of bokashi to non bokashi though. 

 

@Ronnie Hotdogs tag me also. 

Edited April 22, 2021 by MindSoup

[ukbudz]

I just stick bokashi straight in my no till mixes, never noticed any negatives. Last mix was 500 grams into 200 litres of mountain organics mix. 

 

Never tried it in the worm bin. As for living soil/no till there's plenty of info on the forum, there's a fair few of us running no till in diary's.

 

Have a read of that, it's a long one but full of cracking info. 

[Funk P]

4 hours ago, Maesteg Cannabis Club said:

Is anyone here putting their Bokashi into worm bins? I have just filled my first container and, instead of burying it in my bed, I was considering getting a worm farm to complete the composting process. I understand there may be an issue with the acidity of the Bokashi, what should I add to it, to balance the ph, before adding it to a worm farm?  

 

I've heard from multiple people that worms fucking love bokashi, I don't know how they combat the PH issue though...

[Pepe Ramon]

On 4/22/2021 at 10:32 AM, ukbudz said:

I just stick bokashi straight in my no till mixes, never noticed any negatives. Last mix was 500 grams into 200 litres of mountain organics mix. 

 

Never tried it in the worm bin. As for living soil/no till there's plenty of info on the forum, there's a fair few of us running no till in diary's.

 

Have a read of that, it's a long one but full of cracking info. 

 

Cheers dude, I've read that thread, it was the reason I started down this road. Great stuff.  

[Pepe Ramon]

On 4/22/2021 at 8:58 AM, Ronnie Hotdogs said:

@Maesteg Cannabis Club I'm deciding what to do with the bokashi atm. Could add some lime to balance it for the worm bin? Might just have to experiment and see what happens.. I'll make a new topic and tag you if I do

 

Cheers dude, I look forward to reading your new thread.  

[Funk P]

I want to go back on something I said the other day on this post about the sifting of castings. Unless its a complete & utter bodge job & the castings are no where near done the sifting process is no where near as important as I have made out, it is still important but the reason I say this is because today I looked at 2 samples of my own castings & a commercial supplier of castings here in the UK. The commercial castings are sieved to a high standard & look beautiful... Under a microscope however they are so much more biologically dead than home castings its fucking unreal.

 

@blackpoolbouncer @MindSoup @Mike83 @green_machine

Edited April 24, 2021 by Funk P

[blackpoolbouncer]

@Funk P I dont even think its that they are sifted in commercial stuff. Just that they arenfed a well basic diet of mostly cardboard I reckon. 

 

Fwiw. I never riddle my wc. Its all fine crumb anyway. 

Before mine went in a strict diet I used to get the odd seed from out of pumpkins and stuff but generally good to go. 

If its not totally wc generally whatever is left wont break down anytime soon so take note and maybe not add it again. 

For example. Waste of time putting corn cobs in the bin. The cores will still be in the bin a year later.

 

 

My worms just get fed alpacca poop and partially decomposed leafmold. Makes for a happier bin than food scraps and far more productive. Plus comes out like velvet.

[Funk P]

Just now, blackpoolbouncer said:

@Funk P I dont even think its that they are sifted in commercial stuff. Just that they arenfed a well basic diet of mostly cardboard I reckon. 

 

Fwiw. I never riddle my wc. Its all fine crumb anyway. 

Before mine went in a strict diet I used to get the odd seed from out of pumpkins and stuff but generally good to go. 

If its not totally wc generally whatever is left wont break down anytime soon so take note and maybe not add it again. 

For example. Waste of time putting corn cobs in the bin. The cores will still be in the bin a year later.

 

 

My worms just get fed alpacca poop and partially decomposed leafmold. Makes for a happier bin than food scraps and far more productive. Plus comes out like velvet.

 

I agree, I only give my worms leaf mulch, some fattening food & a springle of calcium + sand if needed, I guess your right to be honest I've always sifted anyways even if I guess I don't really need too . It seems like comomon practice in the worm farm industry so I've just copied it, espicially the ones I looked at under the microscope they said on the bag they sift it & fuck me did there aren't even cocoons in there.

 

Now that I think about it on a commercial scale they sift it due to not always harvesting the castings from a completly finished pile... Which tends not to be the case when your doing it at home unless its on a big scale.

Edited April 24, 2021 by Funk P

[Funk P]

EDIT: I know some small micro worm farms sift primarily to collect the cocoons, so that's most likely why the commercial bag I got was finely sifted, anyways the bag was still pretty dead.. I try my best to keep all my cocoons. Its a pain in the ass but hey.

Edited April 24, 2021 by Funk P

[green_machine]

As a lot of people have said my problem with the commercially available EWC is down to the nutritional content, while they are better than nothing, the only way to get the best quality EWC's are to keep your own worms.

 

Even doing this, especially on a smaller scale, it can be difficult to ensure your worms are getting enough of a balanced diet to take a crop to harvest, at least in my own experience.

 

My worms are fed primarily the trimmings from my cannabis plants, they also get a mixture of banana's and some pumpkin I don't like to include too many vegetable and fruit products as the worm bin is kept indoors and I worry about the smell. All of these are hot composted for a little while before being added to the worm bin. I also give the worms an occasional feed of oats and add some paper to stop things from getting too damp and the occasional sprinkle of rock dust to help the worms digestion. I give the bin the occasional watering with a seaweed solution and if the pH is ever getting too low I add some wood ash to bring it back up.

 

Even with all of this, I don't think my ewc would really give my plants a balanced diet from start to finish so I use these as a soil amendment and also give my plants a weekly ACT. I should point out that I do this on a relatively small scale so I doubt I would be able to produce enough ewc for my 6 plants for a grow.

 

The riddle question is an interesting one as I have been thinking about this recently, I don't riddle my ewc as it comes out with a lovely texture, however, I have been wondering if it is worth doing this to remove the cocoons before using the castings. I grow in small pots of only 4L, and although I am fine with having worms in my pots I think they are probably too small to support them and I see the occasional worm sneaking about on the floor outside the drobe. Seeing as I haven't added any worms to my pots the only place I can think they have come from is cocoons in the ewc I have used. I had hoped by sifting I could stop this from happening.

 

greenie

 

 

[Funk P]

I read a case study on castings in India, at the end of the study they tested a variety of different castings & the castings fed predominetly with food scraps contributed the least.. Castings fed with just horse manure contributed the most N,P,K, Ca & Mg while food waste & paper pulp contributed the least. C/N ratio was the least in vegetable scraps & pulp as well, horse manure was the highest. Fe & Mg were the higest in Cow manure, horse was the lowest in fe & veggy & fruit scraps the lowest in Mg. Highest value of Zn was in Veggy & fruit scraps. Heavy metal contents in vermicompost were lower than traditional compost.

 

The quality of composts depends on several factors... Type of substrate (organic residues), aeration, humidity, pH, temperature, and the earthworm species used during vermicomposting. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate specific characteristics, such as composition and abundance of microorganisms, organic C, total N, P and K content, humic acids and enzymatic activities, in order to know the dynamics of vermicomposting. Humic acids enhance nutrient uptake by the plants by increasing the permeability of root cell membrane, stimulating root growth, increasing proliferation of root-hairs. 

 

Note: This was all taken from a case study.

 

 

Edited April 26, 2021 by Funk P