earthworm castings
What are earthworm castings? 
Castings are an organic amendment that can be very beneficial to your garden. It's a world of beneficial bacteria, enzymes, and nutrients that can help take your garden to the next level, whether you're an organic soil grower or growing in coco-based media.
Earthworm castings are simply the manure of a worm, most often the Red Wiggler worm. As the worm eats, its food passes through the worm's digestive system picking up beneficial bacteria and enzymes along the way.
Its use is very simple, you just have to put some on top of your media before watering, or if you make your own soil mix, mix them in your recipe, between 20-25%. It's a gentle fertilizer, so you don't have to worry about adding too much. Beyond just adding to soil, there are other ways to use this great product.
One trick to really amp up soil biology is to combine them with rock dust. When you mix them together, you will find that the earthworm castings become coated in rock dust, providing a perfect synergy of beneficial microbes, earthworm castings and trace elements to feed the bacteria provided by the rock dust. Also, if you're growing in live soil that has live worms, try adding kelp to your mix because it's one of the earthworm's favorite foods.
If you make your own compost teas to feed your plants, consider adding a few handfuls of earthworm castings to your brew. By using air stones, or even better water pumps, you can release the beneficial compounds from the molds into the tea, giving you the nutrients available to the plants while increasing the number of beneficial bacteria.
In addition to readily available nutrition and soil microbes, earthworm castings help improve plant health. An enzyme called Chitinase is excreted by the digestive system of worms. This compound breaks down chitin, the same substance that makes up the exoskeleton of the parasites we face. Boosting chitinase in your plant can even help repel insects!
Castings are an organic amendment that can be very beneficial to your garden. It's a world of beneficial bacteria, enzymes, and nutrients that can help take your garden to the next level, whether you're an organic soil grower or growing in coco-based media.
Earthworm castings are simply the manure of a worm, most often the Red Wiggler worm. As the worm eats, its food passes through the worm's digestive system picking up beneficial bacteria and enzymes along the way.
Its use is very simple, you just have to put some on top of your media before watering, or if you make your own soil mix, mix them in your recipe, between 20-25%. It's a gentle fertilizer, so you don't have to worry about adding too much. Beyond just adding to soil, there are other ways to use this great product.
One trick to really amp up soil biology is to combine them with rock dust. When you mix them together, you will find that the earthworm castings become coated in rock dust, providing a perfect synergy of beneficial microbes, earthworm castings and trace elements to feed the bacteria provided by the rock dust. Also, if you're growing in live soil that has live worms, try adding kelp to your mix because it's one of the earthworm's favorite foods.
If you make your own compost teas to feed your plants, consider adding a few handfuls of earthworm castings to your brew. By using air stones, or even better water pumps, you can release the beneficial compounds from the molds into the tea, giving you the nutrients available to the plants while increasing the number of beneficial bacteria.
In addition to readily available nutrition and soil microbes, earthworm castings help improve plant health. An enzyme called Chitinase is excreted by the digestive system of worms. This compound breaks down chitin, the same substance that makes up the exoskeleton of the parasites we face. Boosting chitinase in your plant can even help repel insects!
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