Worm castings and generic dirt...

M

melaninTonic

Member
Hey so...

I'm not a noooob when it comes to grows, at least not a complete one.
But I haven't given much attention to soil, and only cursory attention to nutes. I had a good run with Biobizz nutes for my last few grows.

But now we're starting down a sustainable living path, and we've got a good worm composting bin going: never thought I'd get so much satisfaction out of ... farming worms. I'm inordinately proud of their castings, and, well my question is: how much better can you do beyond just mixing these worm castings in with the dirt from the field next door, and some perlite? Is it worth the extra trouble to add other things? The field dirt doesn't look like much (it's dirt LOL), but we live on an arid island so that's what I've got to work with locally. A bit further from our home there is a red clayish soil... thoughts on that welcome too.

We live by the sea, so I could harvest some seaweed myself if that's worth adding in... If so, should I dry it and crumble it in, or maybe feed it to the worms and get the nutes from the castings? (Don't know if the worms would like the extra salt though)...

I'm sure some of you are very beholden to your recipes so I'll ask everyone to just be as objective as they can manage. I'd like to keep things as simple as possible, cos with all the veggies and mushrooms we are getting into growing (without really wanting to be full time farmers), SIMPLE IS GOOD.
 
M

melaninTonic

Member
mudballs said:
There's a difference between dirt and soil....(dodges thrown beercan)
So you just gotta turn that dirt into soil. Its probably high clay and sand...turn it into a loam...that's my hint. Until you get compost piles with high turnover ur gonna struggle do that, but it's doable.
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Hey!
So I take it "worm castings + dirt != soil". What's missing is that organic material from decomposing vegetative matter (as opposed to worm-digested matter)? I suppose this will just be more motivation to get our compost piles going ASAP. Until then, we'll see what grows from the concoction I've been able to make!

Thanks a lot for the insights.
M
 
Friendly_Grower

Friendly_Grower

Well-Known Member
Has access to fresh seaweed.

From the Great Search god Google search.

In vermicomposting, worms are placed in a bin with bedding and food scraps. The scraps can be leftovers, coffee grounds, dead plants, seaweed, and inedibles. The bin will not get hot enough to kill pathogens, so only certain animal manures can be used. The worms eat microorganisms and small pieces of scraps.Jan 26, 2018
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I'm sitting on top of a lot of shredded cardboard and thinking maybe it would be a good for me to learn vermiculture.

I don't know how worms would handle the salt on Seaweed but I would wash the seaweed first. Excess salts in soil can be bad for salt intolerant plants. I'm guessing Cannabis is a normal plant in that way. Salts build ups are bad I would think.

Got Goats? Goat poop might feed them and you are on an island or even better Worms LOVE Rabbit Manure and they make a great stew! Rabbits themselves that is.
Just got to get past them screaming like a baby when you cut their throats. Not that I would know that babies do that when someone cuts their throat. That's for the record there.

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M

melaninTonic

Member
Friendly_Grower said:
Has access to fresh seaweed.

From the Great Search god Google search.



I'm sitting on top of a lot of shredded cardboard and thinking maybe it would be a good for me to learn vermiculture.

I don't know how worms would handle the salt on Seaweed but I would wash the seaweed first. Excess salts in soil can be bad for salt intolerant plants. I'm guessing Cannabis is a normal plant in that way. Salts build ups are bad I would think.

Got Goats? Goat poop might feed them and you are on an island or even better Worms LOVE Rabbit Manure and they make a great stew! Rabbits themselves that is.
Just got to get past them screaming like a baby when you cut their throats. Not that I would know that babies do that when someone cuts their throat. That's for the record there.

View attachment 5120013
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The thing about the sea weed here is it isn't your lovely luscious kelp variety seaweed. It's sort of like long strands of moss growing off rocks like hair. I wonder if that has the same good stuff kelp has...

Ahem! Yup, well we haven't gotten around to slaughtering the local rabbits, but I'm happy to let you know there are some... and well, once the whole vegetable production thing is feeling under control we might look at that as a fall back plan for protein. Lots of fish available here so we hadn't included the rabbits in our food plan, but always good to have plans A, B, C, D and E. We don't eat much animal protein to begin with so I think we'll be sweet.

The rabbit poop got me thinking though: maybe I could find their favourite poop-meet, and scoop away. Seriously though, I think they just hop around and poop fairly randomly so unless we catch and domesticate some rabbits, harvesting their bum pellets in meaningful quantities might be a lot of work!

Goats though. More bang for your poop scoop... If you see reports of a perv being arrested for stalking goats and stealing their poop, there's a chance it was me.

So turns out they sell a pretty good compost here with sheep and horse manure in it but they've managed to make the mix so it doesn't really smell. It's inexpensive, and I've mixed that in with worm castings, perlite and coco. It's doing the trick as a light mix, with Bio Grow and Bio Bloom used as well. Next time around, I'd like to try it without the added nutes, with a lower proportion of coco, and maybe top dressing with extra worm-castings 2-3 times during the grow to replenish. I'd love to do without the nutes to simplify the whole process.

Thanks for the input!
 
Friendly_Grower

Friendly_Grower

Well-Known Member
I get the vision of Robinson Crusoe weed.

From a small Island comes King-Kong Cola!

The people ask how did he do it? They see him harvesting his own Coconut husks, harvesting sea weed and chasing goats and rabbits around with a bucket and yet after all the laughter had faded he walked into the village with a 30 pound Cola over his shoulder and there was much rejoicing.
 
Friendly_Grower

Friendly_Grower

Well-Known Member
Do you guys know the story of Native Americans burying a fish under a corn plant?

Maybe the same sort of thing could help there? Minus the animals coming along and digging it up.
 
Jjgrow420

Jjgrow420

Well-Known Member
I used to bury fish and fish scraps under all my outdoor plants. It works.
White suckers, perch, coho, Chinook, rainbows, crappie, walleye
The key is to freeze them. Then don't let the juice or the fish touch anything but the inside of the hole otherwise the animals will come.
Also bury it deep, but not too deep
 
Kayaganja

Kayaganja

Well-Known Member
Friendly_Grower said:
Ah but this is an Island Gilligan used to live on.
UPS doesn't deliver.
They must forage in the wilds of the Island to gather the necessary for the smoke of the gods!

Say @melaninTonic are you lucky enough to have a local "Landrace?"
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Shortcut , watch video, skip cleaning the fish since it’s fertilizer
, if don’t have a big yard just buy .
 
Friendly_Grower

Friendly_Grower

Well-Known Member
So, HEY!

Back to Worms and Vermicomposting.

Anyone doing it?
I have a root cellar that stays about 58 F year round. 14.8 C was the temperature this morning when I checked.
I was thinking that now that I have some of those blue storage tubs free after moving that I might use two and make a vermicomposting system.

Anyone do this? How does it work for you?
 
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