Golden Tree
Well-known member
Your own
Anyone else concerned about castings containing too much K? My recent soil tests showed too much K. I was well above the ideal range so I haven't been using my castings much. I use 7 gal soil fabric filled w 5 gals of soil, pots are loaded w worms.
With my next soil test I'm also going to get the castings analyzed.
my fav commercial castings are agrowinn been using them for at least 5 years and they filled my containers with worms meaning they don't sterilize them never any pests
very happy with the product but I am working on my now
I know some of my friends swear by locals producing vermiculture but hey are in farming areas, I am not
https://www.fertilizeronline.com/wormcast.php
Quality Assurance:
- Lab Tested: 99% Pure Organic Worm-Castings
- Not produced with yard waste, landfill waste or compost
- Not made with Horse, Cow or any grazing animal manure
- Guaranteed Weedseed free
- Organic Material Review Institute “OMRI” listed
- Indoor manufactured and fed a controlled quality diet
- The worms Diet includes high quality mineral rock dust
- Free of E-Coli and Salmonella
- Contains natural soil microbes
- Guaranteed the Highest Standard for Worm-Castings
Thanks. I don't think I've ever seen that one up here.
I'll check around and see if any of the gardening stores in the Interior or around Anchorage have expanded the brands they carry.
Wellllll.... I don't have time, energy, space, or weather, for an indoor or outdoor worm farm..
Soooo, I called Fairtrade Organic Gardens in Los Anchorage today, as I was running errands in town, and besides the high-end castings at $60/cubic ft (if I heard him correctly), which is OUT of the question at this point in time, they had the 'Wiggle Worm' organic castings that many places in the interior and Los Anchorage all have.
I guess Wonder Worm may be the best of both worlds, for a seemingly high-quality casting that is a bit more then the Wiggle Worm in cost, but no where near the caviar of castings at $60/cu. ft.
The fact that they're -carrying- Wiggle Worm tells me that it's probably 'OK.' He was unfamiliar with the 'Wonder Worm,' which has been my chosen label.
Thanks everyone for your input.
Hmmm....I wonder if you heard them right, that is expensive. Though maybe there's a big cost to shipping stuff up to Anchorage? I would just use your own.
Wish I had space and time for an indoor worm bed/box, but the production would be insufficient unless it were of fairly decent size, outdoors is too cold in the winter time here (I'm a ways north of Los Anchorage), and from experience brewing bat shit teas, as well as limited experiences with worms, there's the whole keeping everything covered with nylon bug screening, in order to not have fungus gnats as the every day house-guest buzzing around my head during every aspect of the indoor day's efforts.
Fairtrade Organics -did- offer the larger bagged Wiggle Worm at about the low end of average pricing for Alaska ($25/bag), saying they "take care of their regulars" when I told him the average price was $26, but I'd had some places extend discounts to me, as low as $20.
The pricing on the elite castings ($60/cu ft.) was pretty accurate, though my ears are not beyond error, and I was driving at the time of the call. but I'd wager a nice fatty that I heard him correctly.
Some of the increased cost up here is caused by freight over-head. but some of it is the average market when shops know they have a captive audience, too. They know what most of us pay to have anything sent by USPS or third-party private carrier, and they know that unless we're already down there, and bringing up a truck or trailer, we're not driving to Seattle, etc. for a garden run.
"And so it goes...."
In thorough fairness, I should've added that Jay (at Fairtrade Organic) was personable, stated he was in the shop 7 days/week, available for chats about issues and organic growing, and had a number of other products to discuss.
One of the 'dings' they received in their reviews on-line had to do with pushing products, but at the same time, 1.) They're in business and they sell stuff as a big part of that business, and 2.) If he's really knowledgeable, and knows of something that will help folks out, then there's a fine line between being pushy, and letting folks know that they might benefit from a product or method..
I'm not above hearing about advantages from products I'm not familiar with a time or two, so none of that left me with any negative sentiment.
I'll be popping into their store to visit Jay and Co. the next time I'm in the Big City, which has been less and less often this past season or two.
I'm not saying it's the case here, but sometimes you get what you pay for. Not all castings are equal. What I like to know when evaluating castings is the following:
1. Does it look like little tiny balls? That's the actual poop. In all fairness, Microbeman would say to call it vermicompost as it's not 100% castings. Depending on the species of earthworm, the balls can be bigger or smaller. Figures the Africans are the biggest.
2. What was the bedding used and what were the worms fed? Is it consistent batch to batch?
3. Do they have any soil tests or nutrient analysis? Any microscopy they can show me displaying the organisms in the vermicompost?