What is Compost Tea?
Organic gardeners all know compost is fantastic stuff. But now, there's
something even better and that's compost tea. If you start with a good
compost you'll have a versatile elixir for all your garden needs.
Compost tea helps prevent foliage diseases and at the same time increase
the nutrients to the plant and shutdown the toxins hurting the plants.
It will improve the taste/flavor of your vegetables. So why not give
this tea a try either by buying it or
brewing it yourself. You won't believe the results!
more
"Teaming With Microbes: A Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web"
Sometimes scientists can talk over the layman's head and not even
realize that the message is not being conveyed. This book is
written in a very understandable language, that even a simple worm
farmer like myself could understand and relate to. A must read for
anyone who wants to learn more about the life producing your food.
Smart gardeners understand that soil is alive and what
is in the soil is what supports plant life. Healthy soil is exploding
with life - beyond the worms and insects we can see with the naked eye -
there are a multitude of bacteria, fungi, and other microbial forms of
life vital to the soil food web that sustains healthy plant life.
Resorting to chemicals destroys this delicate balance and results in an
unhealthy situation for the soil, the plants, and the environment. You
can't destroy this balance and not have an affect on the people, the
children, family and friends. As gardeners, farmers, and inhabitants of
the Earth we have an obligation to the next generation to leave behind a
healthy soil. Venture beyond your current understanding that good soil
grows healthy plants and understand why...This book available now from
Amazon.com by clicking on the buy link.
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There are healthy, natural alternatives to chemicals. There are
fertilizers that help build a healthy soil environment for plants to
grow in, that leave a healthy environment for our children to grow in.
I have been worm farming for eight years and I am still
awed by the magic of worm composting. To watch the raw material
that is manure, newspaper, leaves, grass and food waste become the black
gold that gardeners dream of is inspiring, and every bit as exciting as
a seed emerging from the earth, a flower bursting into bloom, and that
small swollen stem end developing into a luscious fruit.
At first I thought because of the cold winters of my
northerly location I would not be able to grow worms. They like it
warm, I thought. And they do. But composting by it's very
nature produces heat. Thus by planning the workings of my bins to match
the season I actually have better results with my worms in the cooler
months of Spring and Fall and indeed even in winter, than I do in Summer
when the temperatures are really too hot for the worms to be happy.
After a winter of layering on the raw material mentioned above, the bed
has stayed warm enough for the inhabitants and they have left me with
the rich earth filled with castings and bacteria that a healthy soil
thrives on.
VERMI-CAST
We all know the advantages of having earthworms in our
gardens. We are thrilled to see these little creatures doing their thing
in our soil, and even relocate them when we find them so they will be
where they will do us the most good. But did you know that there are
more than 3000 species of earthworms and of those only 6 species are
important for improving our soil?
VERMI-CAST (product name of the castings produced at Vermi-Culture
Northwest) is the product of the hardest workers of them all - Eisenia
fetida, also known as the "red wiggler", "manure worm" and "compost
worm". These earthworms produce castings or worm manure, which is the
best fertilizer on Earth. It is extremely versatile as it works as a
plant food, soil conditioner and microbial activity enhancer for
virtually any type of plant that grows.
The quality of the cast produced by the worm is directly
related to what goes into the vermicomposting system. When quality goes
in, quality comes out. The worms at VermiCulture Northwest are fed a
variety of food stock and bedding material - food waste, garden waste,
worm feed, manure, newspaper, and leaves. Each material added to the
system has its own unique organism (s) that breaks down and consumes it.
Thus the finished product has a wide spectrum of beneficial organisms in
it.
What is VERMI-CAST used for?
Because of its nutrients, bacteria, humus, and soil
building qualities, VERMI-CAST can be used in every application
imaginable in the garden, greenhouse, and potted plants. Use it when
planting trees, shrubs, flowers, and vegetables. Use it as a top
dressing to feed plants already in a pot or in the ground. VERMI-CAST
will never burn, so you don't have to worry about using too much.
However, you get maximum growth improvement somewhere in the lower
levels of concentrations, 5-20%, not with 100%.
Why is it the best?
VERMI-CAST is a 100% organic fertilizer, and is
completely safe to all plants, animals, humans and our environment in
any concentration. It is the richest natural fertilizer know to humans.
Plant growth trials at Ohio State University have shown that as little
as 5% (by volume) produces "unique and remarkable plant growth
responses." The recommended rate is 10-20%. Unlike animal dung and
artificial fertilizer it is absorbed easily and immediately by plants
and will not burn. It also enhances the ability of your soil to retain
water and even inhibits bacterial and fungal diseases. It will improve
soil structure and aeration dramatically. It consists of thousands of
durable torpedo-shaped pellets that resist compaction, creating a spongy
quality to the material.
VERMI-CAST has not been sterilized and therefore
contains a highly active biological mixture of bacteria, enzymes, and
microbes. This material stays active for a long period of time. The
microbial life in the castings are much better at transforming nutrients
into forms readily available to plants than those you find in
conventional compost because the microbes in compost are thermophilic,
so the microbial spectrum is quite different and much more beneficial in
castings. This is all according to Dr. Clive Edwards, the world's
leading authority on vermi-composting.
The real value of VERMI-CAST lies in the soil structure,
water holding capacity, the retention, drainage, pathogen control and
control of damaging fungi and bacterial life in the soil. The worm
castings actually contain more bacteria than are found in the worm gut
or in the organic matter the worm consumes. Microbiological activity is
promoted in the soil, which is very beneficial for the environment your
plants are growing in.
VERMI-CAST helps replenish biological diversity in the
soil. According to George Hahn of California Vermiculture "castings
provide the biological engines of the soil". They are the best source
for a complete soil food web. A soil food web consists of thousands of
biological species. The result of this food web is a healthy cycling of
soil nutrients. With them you have a healthy soil.
VermiCulture Northwest not only produces
quality worm by products, but we can help you get started raising your
own Red worms. See
Worms & Housing for some ideas.
Worm Bin Composting Mini-Course
Packed with all the information that you
need
to be successful with your first worm bin.
We will never share,
rent, or sell your contact
information.
We hate spam too, and would never do
anything
to contribute to you ever receiving an
email
that you didn't want.
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Reference Information on the value of worm
castings:
- The science is not new. "Vermiconversion,"
or using earthworms to convert waste into soil additives, has been
done on a relatively small scale for sometime. "But nobody's
done it on a large commercial scale," says John Beerman, the general
manager of Canyon Recycling in San Diego. The soil additive is
marketed in the form of mulch, compost or Vermicompost, in bulk or
in bags. "We can't make enough earthworm castings to meet our
demand here," he says. The Orange County Register, Friday
March 1 1996. "Hard-working worms: Turning Green Horticulture
Waste into Greenbacks." John Barbour AP
- Analysis of earthworm casting
reveals that they are richer in plant nutrients than the soil, about
three times more calcium and several times more nitrogen, phosphorus
and potassium. (K. P. Barley, Advances in Agronomy, Vol. 13,
1961. p. 251)
- Redworm castings contain a high
percentage of humus. Humus helps soil particles form into
clusters, which create channels for the passage of air and improve
its capacity to hold water. Humic acid present in humus
provides binding sites for the plant nutrients but also releases
them to the plants upon demand. Humus is believed to aid in
the prevention of harmful plant pathogens, fungi, nematodes and
bacteria. Blueprint for a Successful Vermiculture Compost
System. Developed by Dan Holcombe and J. J. Longfellow 1995
- "Vermicompost outperforms any
commercial fertilizer I know of." continues [Professor Clive A.]
Edwards, who began his earthworm research in his native England in
the early 1970s before coming to Ohio State. "I think the key
factor is microbial activity. Research that I and others have
done shows that microbial activity in worm castings is 10 to 20
times higher than in the soil and organic matter that the worm
ingests." Dr. Clive Edwards, in "Worldwide Progress in
Vermicomposting" by Gene Logsdon in BioCycle October 1994, p. 63
Read more on the value of castings...
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email:
info@motherearthsfarm.com
