“Houston, we have a problem.”
Take at look at the photo below. On the right are Painted Tongue seeds planted with the fancy organic potting soil and worm castings at a ratio of 3:1. On the left are the same seeds planted in the organic potting soil only. They didn’t come up at all. Other seeds that did come up sat there, stunted, refusing to grow.
Now, common sense would have indicated that I do a soil test before I started planting, but I thought “Hey, this is fancy organic potting soil and it should make the plants grow really well.” Grrrrr….
So after the fact, I did have my kiddos run a soil test
Organic potting soil:
The pH is around 6.5 (slightly acidic), the phosphorus (P, blue) is “sufficient”, the potash (K, orange) is “adequate”, but the nitrogen (N, pink)is completely depleted – nada, zip, zilch! No wonder things wouldn’t grow.
Whitetail Organics Worm Castings:
The pH is around 7 (neutral), the phosphorus (P, blue) is “sufficient”, the potash (K, orange) is “depleted”, and the nitrogen (N, pink) is off the charts – high surplus. So to get a full range of the basic nutrients in my potting soil, I should have probably mixed in some greensand
Next season I either mix my own potting soil from scratch, starting with garden soil, which will mean planning ahead since my garden is usually very frozen when I want to start seedlings, or at the very least I test my seed starting mix before I start planting seeds in it. Luckily I amended most of my seed flats with the worm castings, but still, it was pretty aggravating to spend extra money on what I thought was a better product, only to have to produce very poorly.
Right now I’m in the process of finishing spring planting in the garden (late, I know, but sometimes things don’t go as planned). I’ve been harvesting herbs and greens of various sorts, and the things that have been planted thus far seem to be doing well. Temps have been a little up and down, but we keep getting rain at pretty regular intervals, and it hasn’t been super cold (except right around Mother’s Day – it snowed 
). The dehydrator is full of chamomile and there are massive amounts of catnip hung in the basement to dry. I’ve been busting my butt trying to finish planting, so I hope you’ll bear with me as my posting schedule is likely to be quite erratic.
10 Responses to “Why Use Worm Castings?”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
How do you read those gauges?
Also, where do you get worm castings from?
GREAT post Laurie!!! Have you heard of Brix? Now to test your veggies to see how they measure up. Take a look at Brix and buy an inexpensive Fractometer. (great for the boys) My strawberries measured 11.25 which is good but not great. So next year I have something to shoot for…over 13!!! I'm planning to spray my plants with raw milk this year! Yep, raw milk has calcium plus other nutrients that the foliage will suck in and feed the plant. Who'da thunk???
My planting schedule was like yours is! I'm just a few states to the south, but I was way late this year. My mom just told me her beans have blossoms (she's in one zone over from me) and my beans just came up! I've decided to count it all as an experiment, seeing how late I can successfully plant. So beans should take…what? 60 days to maturity? I don't think the end of July/beginning of August is that late to begin harvesting beans. What's up with wanting it all in June? My winter lettuce is done, my spinach has slowed down and finally so have I.
Glenn, here's the full skinny on how the test kit works: http://www.biconet.com/testing/infosheets/rapitestSoilTestKit.pdf
For the pH test, you put in soil to the fill line, add a tablet and filtered water, shake well, and wait for the soil to settle. Then you try to match the color on the sidebar. As you can see, it's not a precise measurement, but you get a range so you can tell if something is really off. For the other tests, you dissolve some of your soil in water, let it settle, and then test the water.
My nephew farms the worms over in Dallas, WI (west side of the state)and markets the worms and castings around the area. He dropped off some by us when he was delivering a large load to this side of the state. Click on "Whitetail Organics Worm Castings" text in the post to go to his website. He's been working hard to make the business a success, along with his wife and two little boys.
Diane, I have heard of the Brix scale and have been considering getting a refractometer to check out our melons and tomatoes, along with some of my homebrews. While a high brix is nice for the sweetness, I think sometimes the complexity of flavor more than compensates for a "simply sweet" product. I'll bet your strawberries were delicious.
I've heard of milk fed pumpkins before, so milk fed strawberries makes sense. I can't find a convenient source for raw milk for me, let alone my plants, so that one's not an option right now.
My biggest concern with the late planting is an early frost. That happens and I'm skunked. I try to produce most of our fruits and veggies, so having at least a bit of the crop earlier is welcome. I haven't had a good cucumber or tomato since last fall.
My "garden" (I use that term loosely) is a mess. We have such cold weather until mid-June, and my seedlings are barely making it through. They need to be transplanted, but we have lots of potential freezes ahead. Next year I'm getting one of those little greenhouses.
Can't wait to add my worm castings, though! They are almost ready!
Great post Laurie……..I'm laughing over this not about the post at all but because my garden could be used to start plants. We've got so many worms in the garden, it's almost unreal how rich it is with worms. Its funny to look back on the row as your roto tilling to see all the worms crawling in the wake of the tiller!!!
Pamela – I know what you mean about worms. It makes me so happy when I turn over a fork full of dirt and it is just teeming with life. I hate running the tiller because I feel so bad about those that get caught in the tines. We generally till very little though, only at the start of the season. Mostly I mulch to keep down weeds. They say that if you make your own potting mix out of healthy garden soil it inoculates your seedlings with your particular batch of microbes, which may help give them a headstart with they are transplanted.
Diane, where did you find a cheap refractometer? I've been thinking about getting one?
I am definitely passing this post along to hubby. We also had problems with the fancy organic potting soil, and now I know why that might've been.
[...] is discussed in more detail in the comments of this post.) You may want to do a quick soil test on your potting mix before you start, as many on the market are lacking in key nutrients and/or [...]
[...] A basic home soil test kit can be found online or at most hardware stores for around $10, or you can contact your local cooperative extension office. “The Cooperative Extension System is a nationwide, non-credit educational network. … These offices are staffed by one or more experts who provide useful, practical, and research-based information to agricultural producers, small business owners, youth, consumers, and others in rural areas and communities of all sizes.” See more about using a soil test kit in this post. [...]