Wiggle Worm works well because worm castings in general work fantastic and are a necessary part of our top shelf organic soils. The point that is trying to be Madrid that there are MUCH better options out there - much better. Look at it this way - you make a really nice meal and to compliment it properly you really don't want a sippy cup of chocolate milk or a juice box, you want a glass of wine. Any wine will do just fine of course but to really, really do this up right a Chateau Lafite Rothschild would do a better job. Any worm castings will work great because worm castings work great but there is a major difference between fresh, viable living vermicompost and a 3 year old plastic bag that has been sitting on a pallet in the parking lot of a hydro store. J
-I'm probably gonna have to use WW until I create my own for re amending.....do you have any experience with BushDoctor Microbrew as an inoculation to spice up the possible lack luster diversity in the WW? I also have some KangaRoots I could use as well....or I can ship a bag of Roots Organic or VermiWorm brand castings as they look to be waaayyy better than the WW and make some teas out of it to add to the Hurd....I just want to know if I can spice these up at all?....I do now have high quality compost source...just not EWC.
Don't order Roots castings, if you think WW is bad, the Roots was the worst castings I have ever found. If you are in Indiana your WW should be provided by a local worm farm there, and they do a good job. I used them for several years with good results. Nothing will compare to your own custom castings, but just because they are WW does not mean all providers sell bad EWC, If money is no object ship your castings from your favorite supplier, but be aware you will pay double. Start your own bins if you are serious about this, but get started with what you can source easily. Experience is the best teacher. PW
cannot vouch for them as being a fine wine, they were shipped so who knows how long its been sitting around.. its really too bad for me, the way everyone looks at me like im crazy when i ask if they sell earth worm castings around here..
"do you have any experience with BushDoctor Microbrew" Microbes in a bottle is laughable at best IMO. You say you've got good compost to mix with your WW castings - I'd go with that and call it a day. Don't waste your money on bottled organics. J
If this site still had rep... Wonderful advice PW; I had the same experience with Roots castings when I first started, not very high quality castings, at all.
I had come across this but would run me $25 per 5 gallon bucket. I need 5cuft of compost and not sure if there's a way to correlate cuft to 5gallon buckets....I do wish to reuse and build this soil over time with my own compost so if this is worth it's weight in gold I would pony up the cash...I hate to cut any corners as I've been doing this a while but just now trying pure organics don't want to waste my time or money...
Think it's worth it? He is the only one I've found with real vermicompost for sale near me..I had previously passed because of the price but now I'm finding my other Option to be sub par so if it's really a big difference I'll fork up the loot as I will make my own in the future...I can look at it as a future investment
I'd contact them and see what they feed their worms, other than coffee grounds. Ask them a little about their production methods. What's cool is that they sell by volume as opposed to weight (you get the short end of the stick if the castings are still really moist). If it's a variegated diet, I'd go for it. The price is reasonable for quality vermicompost. Especially considering that fact that you are eliminating shipping costs. Who knows, maybe you'll get the "good guy" discount for purchasing in volume...
You need 5cf of compost, yes? That doesn't necessarily mean 5cf of vermicompost/EWC. I mean, the 5cf is for your humic portion of the mix? I'm thinking of the 75/25% ratio of compost/vermicompost. A couple of 5 gal buckets would be plenty. Unless I am totally off the rails here and missed something. SIDE NOTE: 5 gallon buckets and CF. 1 1/2 buckets is ~1cf (7 1/2 gal), 3 full buckets is 2 cf and is more accurate than eyeballing the 1/2 bucket. Plus, my wheelbarrow holds 2cf nicely, the that's the amount I usually mix at once. Wet
I think he's trying to cover his bases, in a humic soil component sense. He's seems to be finding local options for both compost and EWC, but hasn't made a decision yet as to how much of what to use. That about right, b'frog? And I'm still diggin' the 75/25% humic mix thang...
I'm needing 7cuft of humic portion of my soil....was thinking I could do 5 cuft compost and 2 cuft EWC. I am going to have to use wiggle worm but after some digging my source is actually a pretty legit farm so I'm feeling better about it..I've almost got this thing locked down... The compost guys web page looks to be what I'm looking for..looks like a hippie but I've got my rock dust on it's way so just tie up this compost deal and I'm in like Flynn! I am gonna see what the guy feeds them but he looks like the real deal...the other place was a bulk yard mulch place that used pretty much anything they could get their hands on....GCO kicks ass!!! So many ppl with great advise and knowledge trying to help others....def my kind of place!!
Wet----in your post u said compost/vermicompost as my humic portion...am I wrong in thinking vermicompost and EWC are different? I was thinkin the 75/25 ratio was compost(vermicompost)/EWC.....so I would be using 5cuft vermicompost and 2 cuft castings as my humic portion, will this work?
You might want another opinion on this. Technically, vermicompost and EWC are 2 different things. *I* use the terms interchangeably, since it is basically how well the worm poop is sifted. *Compost* is something else again, like a compost pile. For "me", it would be 75% thermal or 'compost pile' compost/25% vermicompost/castings. Is this making any sense at all? I'm not doing a decent job at all splaining this. Wet
Unfortunately that does make sense I was thinking I had this this licked...back to the drawing board I suppose...i was thinking thermal compost and vermicompost were just two different means to an end...now I see that vermicompost is more related to EWC....the whole point this humic content is just for microbial content right? So maybe I use a bit of this vermi compost, and the rest with this manure/peat mix that the garden center has...like 75manure mix/25 vermicompost? Sorry if I'm being bothersome! This just seems to perplex me like no other...