[justalilrowdy]

This is my journey.. When I opened GK back in 08 i was experiencing issues with my usually healthy plants.. powdery mildew and slow growth. I would pop new seeds with terrible results. I was at my wits end and after a year or so of seeing everything looking awful I heard about the root aphid epidemic in the California clone industry. Flying, crawling root eating, plant devastating critters that were next to impossible to get rid of. Some people posted on icmag that they just threw out all their plants and actually moved out of their house to a new location to grow they were so difficult to get rid of!!! I fought them with pathogens (the killers of our bee populations) and chemical cures that only stressed my plants more and the root aphids thrived on.. loving the chemical "cures" that were suppose to work. The pesticide industry has to love these buggers cause they make a fortune off poor foolish people like me trying anything to get rid of the root aphids. Then a huge discovery came to light. The root aphids were coming with the potting soil. I was screwed before I even started. I could look at the concrete floor and see tiny white colored crawlers everywhere.
For some unexplainable reason I woke up one day last August and I thought "no more." I am done buying fertilizer and chemicals for my plants. I will sterilize and recycle my soil and start a worm bin to use the castings for fertilizer. I was just done with the grow store hype.
I went to walmart and bought a couple of containers with lids to make my bins and started on a new road. I tracked down my worms.. 2 lbs and by the time a month had passed I could start to feed the fresh castings to my sad assed looking plants. In two days they were turning greener and bugs had stopped flying in the air... within a week the powder mildew was gone and the plants had started to grow again. Today we searched the soil. Inspected our plants that were infested and not a trace of a root aphid to be found. No crawlers on the concrete floor anywhere.. I am sold on the organic no chemical way to grow. Chemicals keep the soil out of balance and issues prevail... even the chemical nutes. The chemicals feed the root aphids and weaken your plant so other issues can take over and thrive. Something so simple to resolve all those problems. I wasn't thinking worm castings would resolve my root aphid problems but amazingly it was the solution with visible results in a few days. We aren't going to compete with nature with our "chemical cures" we are simply lining the pockets of some environmentally destructive industrial giant like monsanto and destroying our plants and our planet to make them fat.
Mother nature always knows best! I am a believer!
Sign up for the worm casting workshop at the co-op and change to a natural way to grow.

[DRorganic]

I have been using a home worm farm since 02 and i leave them outside all year round and they have thrived in cold and heat. i do not use the castings in my mix i use the worm casings in my bat guano tea. and boy it does produce a head on my teas.and you can see the results in very healthy plants. i use the castings outdoors on my vegetables and berry bushes and roses and they taste sweet.

[pearlemae]

I would imagine that getting a pallet of EWC a month would require a fairly large worm operation. Theres about 75 or so 20 QT bags on a pallet, I worked for years in garden centers and stacked a lot of bags. To get 75 bags of 20 qts each is going to take a lot of worms for the home grower. Not to mention feeding the worms could become a full time job by itself.

[justalilrowdy]

Yea totally... if you are a large commercial grower you need a commercial sized worm operation to feed it.

[Payaso]

Is the co-op a source for worms as well as information?

Plants grown organically just seem healthier and taste better too!

Plants are like humans, put too many chemicals in them and they get out of balance and become susceptible to new disease on top of whatever endemic condition they started with. Plants in balance with their environment are naturally going to be more resistant to disease, of course!

[Purple Buddha]

Originally Posted by justalilrowdy

This is my journey.. When I opened GK back in 08 i was experiencing issues with my usually healthy plants.. powdery mildew and slow growth. I would pop new seeds with terrible results. I was at my wits end and after a year or so of seeing everything looking awful I heard about the root aphid epidemic in the California clone industry. Flying, crawling root eating, plant devastating critters that were next to impossible to get rid of. Some people posted on icmag that they just threw out all their plants and actually moved out of their house to a new location to grow they were so difficult to get rid of!!! I fought them with pathogens (the killers of our bee populations) and chemical cures that only stressed my plants more and the root aphids thrived on.. loving the chemical "cures" that were suppose to work. The pesticide industry has to love these buggers cause they make a fortune off poor foolish people like me trying anything to get rid of the root aphids. Then a huge discovery came to light. The root aphids were coming with the potting soil. I was screwed before I even started. I could look at the concrete floor and see tiny white colored crawlers everywhere.
For some unexplainable reason I woke up one day last August and I thought "no more." I am done buying fertilizer and chemicals for my plants. I will sterilize and recycle my soil and start a worm bin to use the castings for fertilizer. I was just done with the grow store hype.
I went to walmart and bought a couple of containers with lids to make my bins and started on a new road. I tracked down my worms.. 2 lbs and by the time a month had passed I could start to feed the fresh castings to my sad assed looking plants. In two days they were turning greener and bugs had stopped flying in the air... within a week the powder mildew was gone and the plants had started to grow again. Today we searched the soil. Inspected our plants that were infested and not a trace of a root aphid to be found. No crawlers on the concrete floor anywhere.. I am sold on the organic no chemical way to grow. Chemicals keep the soil out of balance and issues prevail... even the chemical nutes. The chemicals feed the root aphids and weaken your plant so other issues can take over and thrive. Something so simple to resolve all those problems. I wasn't thinking worm castings would resolve my root aphid problems but amazingly it was the solution with visible results in a few days. We aren't going to compete with nature with our "chemical cures" we are simply lining the pockets of some environmentally destructive industrial giant like monsanto and destroying our plants and our planet to make them fat.
Mother nature always knows best! I am a believer!
Sign up for the worm casting workshop at the co-op and change to a natural way to grow.

Interesting read...

[justalilrowdy]

Raising your own worms is gratifying and puts you in touch with how things in nature work. We have so screwed up our soils and planet thinking we will make a better product than nature and that is just not going to happen. Nature has its balance which we have so screwed with as well but if we take a step back nature teaches us. Set up a worm bin and make tea from the castings if you don't have a large operation. Forget all those chemical nutes and so called cures for all the issues the grow store chemicals create. Your plants will love you for it.

[Madjag]

I love Agrowinn'a rock dust (steinmehl or "stonemeal") and their 99% pure, OMRI-Rated organic worm castings.

Most worm castings are "worm compost" or "Vermipost" and have a significant amount of leftover material from the original source, usually composted materials. While I love compost too I make my own blend of that separately.

I like to use worm castings with seaweed, rock dust, and myco. These worm castings take far less to do an equal area for coverage compared to most because their is only 1% or so of the original composted material and literally no sand or dirt.

The Agrowinn rock dust is so fine you'd better wear a mask when applying it. I have used it for two years now in my vegetable garden with amazing results. It is one of my compost worms favorite foods, easily digestable and full of trace minerals in great balance. Slow release compared to conventional fertilizers but much better for "growing soil".

Call 888.794.3674 and ask for George Spoerri, the Swiss-born owner and head genius. If you are near San Diego he's located in Encinitas nearby:

From the Agrowinn website: www.FertilizerOnline.com

[justalilrowdy]

Fresh pure worm castings are best in imho.. You can dial in your castings according to what you feed your worms. I don't use many commercial products and don't feed any commercial worm food to my worms.