Tomato and Squash seeds

by Lynda
(Durban, South Africa)

Hi, I have a Worm Factory. with five bins, Every 5 weeks I take the bottom bin and use the castings in my garden. I find that the seeds from the tomatoes and squashes are sprouting all over the place, can I stop this or just be diligent in weeding!


Also I find the castings quite hard to mix in with the soil in my garden and if the bin is not used immediately and dries out the castings are very hard and clumpy, not at all friable as I expected it to be.

Lynda

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Dec 28, 2014
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starstarstarstarstar 		Clumpy Dry worm Castings
by: Pauly

Hi Lynda,

I believe You're getting seeds sprouting because you're using the castings immediately. Generally when the castings sit in the worm bin long enough they begin to sprout.

The only way to avoid this is to either remove the seeds before feeding or to heat up or blend the food before feeding to the worms.

Some people cook their food before feeding and this will definitely do the job. I feed my worms a lot of goat manure and to avoid seeds I soak the manure in very hot water and then let it cool before mixing it with carbon materials.

The texture of your worm castings can depend sometimes on what you feed your worms. Feeding them a proper mix of 20:1 Carbon to nitrogen ratio should give you a good consistency of castings.

However I'm more inclined to think that it is coming from the moisture content of your worm castings. The wetter it is the clumpier it can be. On the other hand, the dryer it is the clumpier it can be also.

I would suggest that when you harvest your castings to put it in a separate bin to dry out some. If it's too dry then you can simply spritz it with un-chlorinated water until it's the right consistency for you liking.

When to keep the worm castings from drying out just keep the lid on. A great container to store the cast in would be a regular plastic tote with holes in the top for ventilation.

As long as everything stays just moist then all your microbes will be thriving and ready to feed your plants. If you harvest your castings immediately then you may want to pick out as many cocoons as you can. You don't want to loose any babies unless you can afford to.

If your castings are drying out in the bottom trays then you might want to spritz them once in a while to get the moisture level up. For me, it's easier to harvest and store in a big bin.

I hope this steers you in the right direction Lynda,

~Pauly
Dec 28, 2014
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		vermicompost consistency
by: Arlene Montemarano

I always had a problem with muckyness or clumpyness until I got the Worm Inn. Now, as long as I keep adding water from time to time, my vermicompost is perfect in texture. The special fabric that is used seems to give it just the right amount of air. Large quantities of food just disappear, no smell, no problems.

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