So you just brought home your top quality (meaning NH Worm Works) worm castings and worm tea. Now What?
How To Use Worm Castings
Unlike synthetic fertilizers, you don't have to worry about burning sensitive seedlings and negative effects on your soil. Depending on where you source it, compost is of widely varying quality and may have stuff in there you just don't want. With high-quality castings, you don't have to worry about any of that!
1. Seed Starting Mix: get your plants off to their best start from day one
We use a soil blocker for many of our starts, so our seed starting mix needs to hold together well. We don't find store bought mix particularly helpful, so we make our own. Here our recipe:
If you don't use a soil blocker, you are most likely going to use a lighter mix, like this one. In that case I would use approximately 3 quarts of worm castings to 16 quarts of seed starting mix, or between 15-20% by volume
2. Potting Soil: blend your castings into your potting mix
Same idea as above. Add your NH Worm Works castings in your potting mix in a ratio of 1:5. Most of the product you buy online or in a big box store does not have all that much life to it. You also want to purchase a mix without chemical fertilizers, which might be a temporary fix to get your plants to grow, but are not good for long term soil health. This is one of the main reasons we starting using vermicompost in our gardens.
3. Top Dressing: fertilize your existing plants with worm castings
Top or side dressing is simply scattering a handful of casting around the base of your already growing plant - no mixing required! It is important that if the plants are small that you scratch the castings into the surface of the ground, as they can be destroyed by UV light. As the plant gets watered the nutrients filter down into the soil and roots to feed the plant.
How To Apply Worm Tea
Worm Casting Tea is rich with good biology, but it can go anerobic (bad) if it is not used within 2 or 3 days, as any "bad" bacteria can start to overwhelm the good stuff. If it smells bad, don't use it! Worm Tea can be used safely full strength, but our recommendation is to dilute 1 part tea to 10 parts water. A 32 ounce bottle will produce 2.5 gallons of dilute solution. You can apply in the following ways
1. Apply to the Root Zone
The simplest way to apply is to dilute your tea and use it as a "soak" around the root zone of your plants using a watering can. You'll want to pay attention to your watering regimen (always important) as the microorganism needs water to survive and repopulate.
2. Foliar Coverage
Using worm tea as a foliar spray allows microbes to adhere to the plants and can ward off pathogens and disease naturally. You'll want to cover at least 70% of the plant and leaves, top and bottom. Here at the farm we use foliar sprays both inside our greenhouse and low tunnels, as well as outside, applying every 2 weeks. A hand held pump sprayer works great!
3. Seed Soaking
You can also use worm tea to soak your seeds and bulbs before planting, inoculating them with good biology before they even get into the ground, aiding in germination and root development. Even a 20-30 minute soak is highly beneficial.
