Worm Castings or Vermicast – Natures Fertilizer
If you have a worm farm, you have Vermicaste, and access to one of the best natural fertilizers and soil conditioners available. Its not only a great fertilizer it can also be used as a compost activator, in potting mix, as an assistant for seed germination as well as a soil conditioner.
Best described as a plant growth stimulant you can use it straight from the worm farm or use it as a foliar spray or liquid fertilizer by making ‘Vermicaste Tea’.
Why is Vermicaste so effective ?
Most fertilisers work best with a soil temperature of around 20C and are usually applied in spring. However vermicaste (worm castings collected from worm farms) is different and can be used year round, it contains a range of naturally occurring microbes that are beneficial both soil and plant health and works all year round.
Worm castings used as a fertilizer are said to improve seed germination promote plant growth and help make phosphates more available to plants. Vermicaste can be applied directly to the soil surrounding the plants or used as a foliar spray.
Vermicaste can be removed from the worm farms and made into a slurry, the bottom layers of the worm farm are where vermicaste is removed from the worm farm.
How to use Worm Castings as a fertisiler.
We mix about a cup full of Vermicast with water in a bucket, add some liquid seaweed of fish fertiliser and mix well, allow to settle or strain (to remove the larger particles), dilute with water at 1-4 and pour into a sprayer and you are ready to spray.
You can also use a handful of Vermicaste around plants to help deter snails and slugs. Trials are being carried out that use a Vermicaste Tea as a spray to control Cherry Slugs. And at the time of writing the results are positive.
You can make stronger solutions using more worm castings if you wish. We have yet to read any exact formulas for using vermicast, however a very interesting video made by Bob Chalmers form Paradise Distributors is on U TUBE Vermicast Video
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