Worm castings
Worm composting is the natural process of recycling food into rich, organic soil known as vermicast. This is also known as worm castings and fantastic for soil enhancement. When you consider the soil left behind by worms that have been composting in an indoor worm bin, you have what is known as vermicompost. This is tiny organic bits of decomposed food, worm castings, and bedding. Gardens and indoor plants love this. Consider worm castings as a natural fertilizer for plants. It’s a soil conditioner that helps your favorite plants get valuable nutrients.
If you have your own worm bins, you don’t need to purchase worm castings from a store. You can grow your own by feeding worms and letting them turn your leftovers and plant waste into worm castings.
For indoor worm bins, Red Wigglers (red worms or Eisenia, foetida) are the main work horses. They can eat up to half their weight per day and therefore produce a constant flow of worm castings. Red worms double in number about every 90 days, so it doesn’t take long to turn a bin of these worms into a great source of worm castings.
Easily produce worm castings
If you have an indoor worm bin, with red worms, you can easily produce a constant stream of worm castings. You feed the worms left over veggies and fruit and they will do the work and turn it into valuable worm castings. No need to do any heavy lifting or digging like you would in an outdoor composting bin to get to the worm castings. Just remove the bottom bin from the others, pour it onto some plastic sheeting, and sort out any remaining worms. The rest of the remaining material should be the worm castings! (If you do see other larger, semi-composted material, add it back into the active bin for the worms. They will finish it the second time.)
How to use worm castings
Consider the worm castings as a soil enhancer or conditioner. During spring, I place a few handfuls of the worm castings around my flowers and work it into the soil an inch or two. I let rain do the rest. For trees, I like to do the same thing. I lay down about an inch of it for several feet around my trees. I work it in a little, but let the April rain massage the worm castings in deeper.
Using worm castings in a garden is even easier. I till the garden a first time, then toss out handfuls of the worm casting (stored during the winter thanks to my indoor worm bins!) and then till it a second time. I like knowing that the worm castings are getting really mixed into the soil…not just poured on the top. I spread it fairly liberally here…I prefer using this to store bought chemicals. The fewer chemicals in my food, the better.
I have several containers for tomatoes and pepper bushes. I cover the top with a fine layer of the rich organic worm castings and use a hand spade to dig it about 3 inches into the soil. I do the same for my indoor herb garden.
Lawns love this enhanced soil, too. I have to admit though, this is where I am the most stingy. I give it liberally to my plants, trees, gardens, and bushes…but find I use it less willingly on grass. Maybe if my worms go into hyper-drive one winter, but until then, I reserve the worm castings for more beautiful plants and things that I intend to eat. Certainly, though, if you have an area of lawn that needs to be replanted, worm castings is sure to help!
I don’t believe there is an exact science to using worm castings. Because it’s 100% organic material -- recycling at it’s best! – I don’t think there is a wrong way to use the material. If you’re curious to see the results, dig worm castings into half of your plants and watch the difference over the summer!