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LIVE WORMS POSTED AUSTRALIA WIDE Complete with easy step by step instructions on how to set up a low cost, easy maintenance worm farm. With tips on how to make best use of the resultant worm fertilizer. We always have millions of healthy plump Red Wriggler Composting worms, ready and eager to convert your household organic scraps into sweet smelling, rich, dark, crumbly castings. One of the best all round plant fertilizers and soil improvers |
ORGANIC FARMING SYSTEMS CONSULTANCY Mel Edwards has been an organic farming pioneer in Australia. He began commercial scale organic fruit and vegetable production in 1972 on his property on the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia. He developed a highly productive and low input cost system that has consistenly supplied top quality certified organic produce to markets in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. Mel now offers on-farm consultancy, based in South Australia, to assist farmers and producers to convert to organic certification. He can also help to lower chemical input costs, as well as improve crop health and productivity. Email him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information |
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MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR WORM CASTS
After you have enjoyed seeing your worms multiply and turn organic waste into lovely soft, sweet smelling crumbly castings, you’ll want to spread the potential benefits to their maximum. Castings are teeming with beneficial living micro-organisms, which generally do NOT like to be dried out and crisped in the sun, so always mix your castings into the top 50-75 mm of moist topsoil.
Use them in the soil before planting seedlings or seeds. How much? Well how much do you have? You cannot use too much, except in a seedling tray when 20% is recommended to ensure sufficient drainage for emerging seedlings. Practically, to stretch the coverage, a shovelful scattered over half a square metre will be highly beneficial. For heavy feeder crops, I would recommend a similar amount of pelletised chook manure pellets to complete all the plants’ nutrient boost needs. You can vary the proportions, i.e. if your worms have made lots of castings, use them at a shovel plus per square metre, and you will not need much else.
There is another way to spread the beneficial organisms in the castings. Worm casts are very immiscible in water, i.e. they go into a fine slurry/suspension in the water; much more easily than ordinary compost.
You can put about two-litres of casts in a 20-litre bucket of water. Use a stick, preferably with a 30mm plus wide-face to stir the mix. Keep stirring in one direction till a vortex develops in the liquid, and then hold your stirrer firm in the bucket to completely break up the vortex spiral you’ve created. Repeat the process, going in the opposite direction. Continue to stir in opposite directions for a few minutes until you create a hollow vortex in the swirl. Your “brew” is now activated enough to stimulate the microbial soup that is inherent in the castings, to multiply and establish in your garden. Your brew can even be poured undiluted onto ferns: it will not harm any plants.
In practice, I recommend using this liquid at about half strength and just water it in over the top of your favourite plants’ foliage. What does not get absorbed by the stomata in the leaves will be appreciated via the roots in the soil.
Note: To attain the peak benefit of liquid castings, you really need to use a heater and vigorous aeration pump and disperser to brew a ‘tea’ high in oxygen concentration for up to 24 hours. This is the real brewing process of ‘compost tea’. For now, enjoy seeing your plants thank you with vigorous healthy growth!
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