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Best brand of Worm castings

hillbil

Active member
Nitron has good castings which I've used a long while. Black Gold is 80% castings, 20% peat moss and the price is right at Ace. In rural places, castings and guanos and such can be a hard find. Black Kow manure might be the next best thing.
 
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.
 
M

moose eater

I realize this is a somewhat outdated thread, but didn't want to reinvent the wheel.

I was wondering if the increased K in your castings was the result of one of the blends (worm gold?) referenced earlier, that incorporates rock dust and kelp?

I have some other questions I'll post in a separate reply to the thread as a whole.

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.
 
M

moose eater

Years ago I used Black Gold castings (back then they were referenced/labeled as 'castings', where as, after, I assume, being confronted with the % of impurities, over a decade ago they changed their label to say 'worm compost,' as it wasn't strictly castings, and I had noted that it appeared to be less richly black over time).

Where I am, in the more northern area of Interior Alaska, not withstanding trips to Anchorage (da' big city for us) a good ways to the south, the two primary, 'seemingly' of quality, brands of castings are 'wonder worm' (pretty proud of their stuff, and spendy) and 'wiggle worm' (already mentioned in this thread.

Shipping to Alaska, even for commercial outlets, whether using barge and container cars, or trucking, is a pricy thing for the final cost to the consumer, thus we often pay a fair bit more than many of the folks have referenced who live down in the lower-48. (i.e., I would LOVE to get fresh, clean, local castings for $10/bag).

We run a larger compost pit or two for our family's scraps, as well as refuse from the veggie garden, and I'm sure there's worms in there, as I find them (a bit surprisingly, for how far north we are) when we harvest spuds, in fairly decent numbers. But as a rule, I don't use any untreated compost from the bins any place other than in the veggies. The chance of importing disease worries me.

Soooo, any serious qualitative knowledge re. comparing 'wiggle worm' versus 'wonder worm'? (*The only place I can get wonder worm, my preferred castings, for something that doesn't make me pass out from sticker shock, is in Los Anchorage).
 

Weird

3rd-Eye Jedi
Veteran
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
 
M

moose eater

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.

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
 
C

cooterbrown420

I love organics alive worm castings. They offer a general mix and then a bloom specific mix.

general mix

Organics Alive Worm Castings are CDFA and CCOF certified organic and all natural. They provide an earth friendly option besides toxic and damaging chemical fertilizers and smelly organic manures.

Worm castings are a by-product of Red Wiggler Earthworms. Organics Alive Earthworms consume a pure vegan diet creating a casting that is 7-10 times more powerful than conventional compost. It is rich in NPK, micronutrients and beneficial soil micro-organisms. The high porosity, and water holding capability, greatly increases the moisture-retaining capacity of your garden, drastically reducing your water usage.

Organics Alive Earthworm Castings is abundant in nutrients. It is rich in humus, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, micro-nutrients, and beneficial soil micro-organisms. Studies showed that exchangeable potassium (K) was over 95% higher in Organics Alive Compost compared with conventional compost. There are also over 60% higher amounts of calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg). Organics Alive worm castings have very high porosity, aeration, and water holding capacity decreasing water usage and dependency. It contains plant-available nutrients and increases the stowing capacity of nutrients for longer period of time.

Unrivaled Results!!

Bloom mix

Organics Alive Worm Casting Bloom is a specific vegan topper or backfill made for fruiting and flowering trees and plants. We use a special diet fed to Red Wigglers to create Organics Alive Worm Castings.

We add our vegetable compost at a ratio of 70:1 C:N for balanced and optimal biological multiplication. The multi mineral additives were sourced for their purity, optimal CEC, and high levels of specific trace minerals to ensure optimal phosphorus, potassium and Calcium availability as well as focus on co- minerals and trace minerals to maximize absorption during pH and moisture shifts. Organics Alive Worm Castings Bloom focuses on the top 10cm of the soil horizon which has the most available Phosphorus. Adding the active and potent Organics Alive Worm Castings, increases the cycling of phosphorus from the roots to aboveground plant biomass. This cycle is constant with the proper
biology and will increase availability and absorption by your plants during flower stages of growth. Many factors attribute to your plants intake of Phosphorus and Potassium such as mineral balance, Biological balance, pH, and moisture. Worm Castings Bloom checks off all these factors and is apparent when used during planting or transition period of your plant cycle. Organics Alive Worm Castings Bloom will increase the health of your plants and trees to the end of its life cycle to produce high quality crops and increased yields.

• Add a 1⁄2 inch layer to your existing garden beds and around drip line of plants or mix at 15% in your soil or garden mix
 
M

moose eater

Thanks cooter. I typically put 15% to 20% in my soil mixes. Wonder Worm brand when I have it on-hand. I'm down to nothing but Wiggle Worm at the moment.

I've used the Worm Gold or what ever it is with the rock phosphate and kelp in it before, but prefer to mix my own nutes where other additions are involved, so I can have a more clear idea of what levels are going in.
 

KIS

Active member
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.

Check with jay at Fairtrade Organics. They can source good castings for you if they don't have in stock. He's been carrying all the soil amendments and such for the past year for growers. Good guy too.
 

Easy7

Active member
Veteran
Aribco has castings, compost with chitan and used to carry biochar.

Seems companies pop up over night.
 
M

moose eater

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.:tiphat:
 

KIS

Active member
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.:tiphat:

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. :)
 
M

moose eater

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...."

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. :)
 
M

moose eater

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.

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...."
 

KIS

Active member
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?
 
M

moose eater

I'd have to dig an empty bag of Wonder Worm (my preferred castings brand) out of the trash to remind myself of what it claims on the label.

Wiggle Worm claims an N-P-K array of 1-0-0, with an organic rating.

I wrote earlier that decades ago I used Black Gold, which were once labeled as earth worm castings, but later changed their label to earth worm compost, and the condition/appearance of the contents confirms this on inspection; I found it to be far less like castings over time.

Long time ago, when buying castings or bat guano, it wasn't uncommon to get visible live earthworms in the bags of castings in respectable numbers, and I've found tiny bat skulls in bat guano back then as well (I suspect the skulls were more an issue of slack quality control, rather than a gimmick toward certifying authenticity, but, in fact, they did just that; provided some degree of authenticity).

I've told folks for years now, that as much trouble as we have keeping food for humans clean of nonsense, despite the FDA, et al, imagine how much slack there can be in the gardening amendment market?

But $60/cu ft is past my current threshold for willingness to fork over the jing. I could afford it, but it isn't something I would likely do.

Who knows, though? Maybe I'll see a sample of the stuff, and change my mind..


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?
 

DocTim420

The Doctor is OUT and has moved on...
Ahhh, buying local is nice (part of that sustainable thing)...40lb bag of Agrowinn EWC (not compost) set me back a whopping $30 at OC Farm. Some say Agrowinnn (sourced from San Diego area) is too dry (about the consistency of used coffee grounds) but since it is packaged by weight (not volume)...I say it's all good. No reason to pay for moisture if it is not needed.
 
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