Worm Castings last how long.....???

Worm Castings Last how long ??


.....in your soil mixture, soilless build, standing along with perlite and vermiculite or used in a tea.....

Just how long will worm castings last....meaning feed the much needed and used "N".

What I use in a soil build of Foxfarm Ocean Forest Soil mix, Botanicare Ready Grow (moisture formula), Worm castings, Blood and Bone meals, Mexican and Jamaican Bat Guanos, Greensand plus, Sea Kelp (Ascophyllum Nodosum), Dolomite Lime, perlite and vermiculite.......all in proportion to a total quantity of 7 gallons of soil used in several small pots

.....just how long would the Worm Castings continue to feed the plants what they supply ??

they should give it a little boost for a very long time... dont know exactly how long tho... good luck...

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Originally Posted by Abattoir Dream

they should give it a little boost for a very long time... dont know exactly how long tho... good luck...

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Yea, I know that part....I've received the good ole yummies from Worm Castings for many a moons now. It's somehting that'll never leave my garden soil mixes.


...:::still looking for specific or approximate times ....if any one can guesstimate or knows...:rastasmoke:

Castings contain: 5 times the available nitrogen, 7 times the available potash and 1 1/2 times more calcium than that found in 15 cm of good top soil. Therefore, castings are supplied with available nutrients. The nutrients are also water soluble and immediately available to plant life. You will find that most potting soils have nutrient life of 2-5 days, where worm castings will last up to 6 times as long as other types of potting soils.


found this but it dont help that much well we know this if you make the tea it will dissolve faster into the plants system but how the the nutes will remain valuable i'm gonna find out.I'll be back

"Vermicompost outperforms any commercial fertilizer I know of." continues [Professor. Clive A.] Edwards, who began his earthworm research in his native England in the early 1970s before coming to Ohio State. "I think the key factor is microbial activity. Research that I and others have done shows that microbial activity in worm castings is 10 to 20 times higher than in the soil and organic matter that the worm ingests." Dr. Clive Edwards, in "Worldwide Progress in Vermicomposting" by Gene Logsdon in BioCycle October 1994, p. 63

Making a tea consists of mixing a few tablespoons of dry fertilizer into five gallons of water and oxygenating it for 24 hours using a small air pump or similar device. This method allows for substantial increases in microbial life and dilutes the fertilizer so that it can be used while watering or as a foliar spray.

sorry if you dont need this info i'm sure some1 who reads this thread might just thru up a couple of important ones but it seems that everywere i go they dont give you a nutrient life in days or weeks they just say vermicompost is long lasting or time releasing this sucks i'll keep my eyes open though sorry good luck

I've used worm poo twice now in the potting mix. Plants seem to like it, especially noticed on transplantings...no shock. it will last your entire grow.

i think of it more as an amendment to potting soil than food, because it's much lower in N than the plants will want and can take for regular feedings, so no need to worry about overkill with worm castings.

My potting mix is supersoil, perlite and wormcastings only. Drains well.

I appreciate the looks and replies. You guys are getting the same info I am while searching the web.....

I've used worm castings for a few years and the plants love it. Even the house plants love it. I'm sticking with the addition to my soil build and the use of teas as well.

I even think if used or added right before transplant and teas used right during the stretch assist the plants ability to not have -N problems. Then the mild feeding as you stated .....stays with it throughout the grow.

Don'tcha just love gardening. :jointsmile:

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Originally Posted by good ol daze

i think of it more as an amendment to potting soil than food, because it's much lower in N than the plants will want and can take for regular feedings, so no need to worry about overkill with worm castings.

My potting mix is supersoil, perlite and wormcastings only. Drains well.

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I see it as an amendment as well. My potting mix is Agway brand composted manure with humus, perlite, and worm castings. Good structure, drainage, and pH.

I grow in soil, and add worms (1 earthworm/dew worm + 3 red wigglers/trout worms per gallon) to my soil. It works wonders.

I also keep a worm bucket in the kitchen (it doesn't stink) (usually). Sort of like a mulch pile in a bucket. I flood this once a week to get 2L or so of strong worm tea. The rest of the week, I simply collect the drippings (usually between 20mL - 100mL) and mix it with my watering water.

To make a worm bucket, you'll need the same requirements as for a plant: dirt & drainage. I recommend a 5 gal bucket (with lid!) with drainage holes. Put 2" - 4" of dirt in it. Add worms. Add garbage. Water till it starts coming out. Tumble once a day. Flood once a week. And that's all!

I started with a dozen earthword & 2 dozen red wigglers, don't know how many are in there now. Then I simply threw in some garbage. All my vegetable garbage goes in there: executed male cannabis plants, potato peels, tea bags, coffee grounds, onion skins... ANYTHING vegetable. No meats or processed foods. Well, bugs when I clean the light fixtures.

When I flood it, I set the bucket inside another bucket, and simply pour in 2L of water at full force. No wimpy sprinkle, just whoosh. Then I pull the worm bucket out of the other bucket. Just like bubble bags for hash, but with worms. The catch bucket is full of brown liquid which the plants find so yummy! Be sure to check pH if acidic fruits are thrown in!

Here's some more info I've found on the topic......

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Originally Posted by A Gardener from another Forum

The nitrogen and such can take about 60 days to be fully released when the castings are in a soil mix.

I haven't heard anything about release rates for other mediums/conveyance methods but I have read that teas should be left to steep for 24 hours before application. The reason for that may be that worms coat their castings in polysaccharides and since those long chain carbohydrates are not soluable in water, they won't allow a great tea to be made right away.

A polysaccharide bond can be broken down by amylase<<<and there is a lot of that in urine. Urine also has a lot of nitrogen...

or you can just wait a while

Besides nitrogen, castings contain lots of other nutes. and they have growth hormones and vitamins. and they also act as good biocides against diseases and nematodes

There are some differences when it comes to exactly what nutes can be found in worm manure, just like there is for other manures. It can depend on the species of the worm and on what the worm ate.

here are some samples:

species of earthworm - Eisenia foetida
pH 7.40
Organic Carbon (%) 27.43
Total nitrogen (%) 0.60
Total phosphate (%) 1.34
Total potassium (%) 0.40
C: N ratio 45.70

species of earthworm - Perionyx excavatus
pH 7.00
Organic Carbon (%) 30.31
Total nitrogen (%) 0.66
Total phosphate (%) 1.93
Total potassium (%) 0.42
C: N ratio 45.90

red worm castings produced from dairy manure; there are some multiple results and these are from separate tests of the same farmyard
pH 6.3
EC (mmho/cm) 5.92
C:N ratio 14:1
Moisture 67%
Total N (TKN) 2.92% 3.21%
C: N ratio 45.70 45.90
Nitrate N (ppm) 630 420
Ammonium N (ppm) <37 35
Organic carbon (%) 40.2 49
Total P (%) 1.1 1.1
P2O5 (%) 0.187
Total K (%) 1.5
K2O (%) 0.434
Calcium (%) 3.1
Magnesium (%) 0.7
Sodium (%) 0.3
Iron (%) 0.3
Manganese (ppm) 295
Copper (ppm) 123
Zinc (ppm) 357
Boron (ppm) 75FYM

non-specified kind of worm
Nutrient - Percentage
Nitrogen 2
Phosphorus 1.2
Potassium 1
Sulphur 0.4
Calcium 1.5
Magnesium 0.4
Iron 0.7

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Good Plan Volker. What you have there is leachate, which is good...but....add a 1/4 cup unsulfered mollasses and airate with an aquaium pump and stone for 24 to 48 hours...This will explode the microbes ....now you have tea...make it as you need it cause it dont keep too good....plants will thank you.

Man my spelling sucks....but you get the idea...I raise my own worms for the castings...very easy and fun especially for young kids. Make your own super soil..let the worms compost your kelp meal too.

This is kind of off topic, but noticed on your posting Rasta that you claim perlite to be one of your organic soil ammendments, for the record perlite is not OMRI certified, and therefore is technically not considered "organic".

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Originally Posted by zigzach

This is kind of off topic, but noticed on your posting Rasta that you claim perlite to be one of your organic soil ammendments, for the record perlite is not OMRI certified, and therefore is technically not considered "organic".

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Oh man REALLY!! might want to think that one through.

hope this simplifies it ... Perlite is made from volcanic glass, obsidian, specifically ... NOT organic ... organic means it was a living organism ... Perlite is a mineral ... :smokin:

im confused, so you're saying if you grow your plants in soil with minerals your not considering it be organic?

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Originally Posted by ryguy241

im confused, so you're saying if you grow your plants in soil with minerals your not considering it be organic?

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not me, I didn't say that, at all :wtf: ... I said 'Perlite' is an inorganic material ... trust me, your plant won't know the difference :smokin:

Well, does anyone at what point something is termed organic?? For instance, worm castings and humus are organic material... theres organic fertilizers and organic pesticides and like you stated theres organic special potting blends...
And i beleive vermaculite is made from type of clay found in arid reagons. I guess my point is, organic substances also contain some of the same elements/nutrients that a minerals soil would.... so what is the difference between an all organic blend to a non-organic one, other then being composed of animal and plant residues. From what i am told, a perfect soil is 25% air 25% water space, 5-10 % organic matter, and 40-45% mineral.

Growing organically is giving me a headache. :D J/k but i really wanna stay organic, but it seems a bit harder than I thought.

idk about ya'll but i think that OMRI certified does not mean that you dont use "non organic" but naturally occurring minerals.. all of the letters in a fert are minerals. and no way can a living being create a mineral. they digest it and die.. therefor if you fed a cow perlite and he shat it out it would be "organic"... nope i dont think so. my mother is an organic botanist and she has taught in more than one local collage. she told me i wasnt cheating using soil additives as long as i wasnt mixing straight chemicals into my soil... if it dont kill the bacteria in the soil its not bad... and btw i think but cant confirm yet but perlite has living organisms in it i believe.. and or develops them in the porous holes and therefor is much better then vermiculite for organic growing..
-J"Stoned

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Originally Posted by zigzach

This is kind of off topic, but noticed on your posting Rasta that you claim perlite to be one of your organic soil ammendments, for the record perlite is not OMRI certified, and therefore is technically not considered "organic".

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I think you are confused. We don't distinguish between organic and inorganic for minerals. It's like saying that water isn't organic!

Technically, an organic compound is any compound that contains carbon. However, I think we're talking about a different meaning for the word "organic" when we refer to organic gardening.

Basically, the way I see it, for organic gardening you need to use natural fertilizers, growing mediums, etc. that aren't altered or created by man. Inorganic gardening (or using chemical fertilizers) would involved the use of man-made or supplemented materials. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong...

As far as the use of perlite, "disqualifying" the plant from being labeled as organic... that is just incorrect. Volcanic rock is a natural part of this world...