Saturday, March 25, 2006

Worm Bin Composting | Why are castings the best soil amendment?

Worm Bin Composting Why are castings the best soil amendment?

VERMI-CAST is a 100% organic fertilizer, and is completely safe to all plants, animals, humans and our environment in any concentration. It is the richest natural fertilizer known to humans. Plant growth trials at Ohio State University have shown that as little as 5% (by volume) produces “unique and remarkable plant growth responses.” The recommended rate is 10-20%. Unlike animal dung and artificial fertilizer it is absorbed easily and immediately by plants and will not burn . It also enhances the ability of your soil to retain water and even inhibits bacterial and fungal diseases. It will improve soil structure and aeration dramatically. It consists of thousands of durable torpedo-shaped pellets that resist compaction, creating a spongy quality to the material.


VERMI-CAST has not been sterilized and therefore contains a highly active biological mixture of bacteria, enzymes, and microbes. This material stays active for a long period of time. The microbial life in the castings are much better at transforming nutrients into forms readily available to plants than those you find in conventional compost- because the microbes in compost are thermophilic- so the microbial spectrum is quite different and much more beneficial in castings. This is all according to Dr. Clive Edwards, the world’s leading authority on vermicomposting.
The real value of Vermi-Cast lies in the soil structure, water holding capacity, the retention, drainage, pathogen control, and control of damaging fungi and bacterial life in the soil. The worm castings actually contain more bacteria than are found in the worm gut or in the organic matter the worm consumes. Microbiological activity is promoted in the soil, which is very beneficial for the environment your plants are growing in.
Vermi-Cast helps replenish biological diversity in the soil. According to George Hahn of California Vermiculture, “castings provide the biological engines of the soil.” They are the best source for a complete soil food web. A soil food web consists of thousands of biological species. With them you have a healthy soil. The result of this food web is a healthy cycling of soil nutrients.

Worm bin composting - why are castings the best soil amendment? They are simply put, nature's answer to replenishing the soil.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

WORM BIN COMPOSTING|What are castings used for?

Worm Bin Composting - What are castings used for?


Because of its nutrients, bacteria, humus, and soil building qualities, VERMI-CAST can be used in every application imaginable in the garden, greenhouse, and potted plants. Use it when planting trees, shrubs, flowers, and vegetables. Use it as a top dressing to feed plants already in a pot or in the ground. VERMI-CAST will never burn, so you don't have to worry about using too much. However, you get maximum growth improvement somewhere in the lower levels of concentration, 5-20%, not with 100%.

Worm bin composting - what are castings used for? Absolutely any time you want to add quality soil amendment to any plant whether it be in a pot, container, or in the ground.

Happy worming.

Christy
http://motherearthsfarm.com
Where good things come from for the body and soil.
Subscribe to my new newsletter - "Worms In My Garden." Go to my website now. Request my free Worm Bin Composting Mini-Course.

Sunday, March 05, 2006

WORM BIN COMPOSTING|What are castings?






Worm Bin Composting - What are castings?



I call my castings Vermi-Cast.

What is Vermi-Cast?
We all know the advantages of having earthworms in our gardens. We are thrilled to see these little creatures doing their thing in our soil, and even relocate them when we find them so they will be where they will do us the most good. But did you know that there are more than 3000 species of earthworms, and of those only 6 species are important for improving our soil.
VERMI-CAST is the end product of the hardest worker of them all in worm bin composting – Eisenia fetida, also known as the “red wriggler”, “manure worm”, and “compost worm”. These earthworms produce castings or worm manure, which is the best fertilizer on Earth. It is extremely versatile as it works as a plant food, soil conditioner, and microbial activity enhancer for virtually any type of plant that grows.
VERMI-CAST is a worm bin composting end product unique to VermiCulture Northwest in that it is 95 – 98% pure castings. Most of your other worm bin composting products are a pulverized mixture of castings and partially decomposed organic matter. VERMI-CAST is processed through a fine screen to filter out the excess compost, leaving a very fine, moist product full of nutrition and beneficial bacteria that will produce amazing results in your garden, greenhouse and potted plants.
Worm bin composting - what is castings? Simply the best soil amendment you can use in any application.
Learn more about worm bin composting and how it's a perfect partner in your organic gardening by subscribing to my new newsletter, "WORMS IN MY GARDEN." More information to follow about this.
Happy worming and successful gardening,
Christy

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Worm Bin Composting|An Organic Choice

Worm Bin Composting - An organic choice for your garden.


We have known for hundreds of years that earthworms are the best way to improve plant growth and increase yield. Earthworm castings are a wonder product of Nature and will outperform any other organic product or chemical product available.

Let's talk about what plants need, and how worm bin composting can create a product that will meet those needs.


Plants need certain nutrients in fairly large quantities for them to be healthy. These include: Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen (which they get from air and water in photosynthesis); nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, magnesium and calcium (which they are meant to get from the nutritious soil); iron, zinc, copper, manganese, boron, and molybdenum are among the other trace elements that are vital to a plants well being and growth, if in smaller quantities.

Soil which is rich in composted material - like leaves, manure, and straw...and tilled in cover crops like buckwheat, hairy vetch, rye, etc. will have these nutrients in abundance. Add a high-quality vermicompost rich in beneficial bacteria and you have what's necessary to release from your soil exactly what the plant needs when the plant needs it.

Artificial fertilizers bypass the soil-living creatures which are vital to the natural chain of organic soil conditioning and plant fertility, moving straight to the root of the plant. They supply a limited range of plant foods, which dissolve quickly in soil, so they are all available at once. This means that plants can take up too much of one nutrient (such as nitrogen which leads to sappy growth, making the plant more prone to pests and diseases), and not enough of another (plants fed with too much potassium, for example, get magnesium deficiency and turn yellow). What the plant does not use is then often washed out of the soil, wasting resources and polluting the environment. Artificial fertilizers don’t contain all the nutrients required for healthy plant growth, meaning the soil is depleted of these nutrients if not replaced.

So get out there and start layering on some organic material, plan your next cover crop, and get started worm bin composting. It's the answer to successful gardening.

Worm Bin Composting - An organic choice for your garden.

Wormnwomn (that's me, Christy)
Mother Earth's Farm
http://wormbincomposting.blogspot.com