Outside bulk worm castings for indoors?

Cocabam

Well-Known Member
I've been looking for bulk worm castings and found a local worm farm that sold them. The castings were stored outside their building in a pile and they filled up my truck for $60.

Since the Covid virus has everyone in lockdown I was unable to look at the product before they loaded it, since they wanted me to stay in my vehicle. When I got home with the truck load of castings I noticed they smell pretty ripe/pungent kinda like spoiled veggies, which is something I heard to look out for. It rained 2 days ago if that makes a difference.

The castings had live worms, small bugs that look like hypoaspis mites, pill bugs, a few golf ball sized chunks of moldy plant matter, and some microscopic little bugs with wings i can barely see that Jump around the surface. No gnats that I can see.

Is this suitable for an indoor Notill Bed in my 5x5 tent? I was planning on amending it with neem cake and foliar/soil drench of neem oil for IPM, and using coots recipe. I just got Hypoaspis Mites , yellow fly traps and predatory nematodes in the mail. I will be using a 150gal grassroots fabric bed and clover cover crop smothered with straw.

also, I feel that I should add that I already have another 4x4 tent going 2 months into veg in the same room that currently is pest free. This tent has 4 x 20gal pots, and I would like to keep it pest free.
 

loco41

Well-Known Member
I would definitely use it, but I'm no pro by any means. I started throwing a lot of my outdoor compost in my worm bin and just recently started two new bins with the same compost. I brought in a few different things with that compost, one of them being springtails which is what I'm assuming you are seeing "jump" around. I now have them in my pots since topdressing with the ewc. They seem to mind their own buisness, just are visibly present so I'm hoping they are doing some good. if nothing else, they aren't hurting anything. I like to think the more diversity the better in some way as long as they aren't attacking the plant.

Only suggestion would be to try and pull out as much of the unprocessed moldy plant matter for now. maybe start a small worm bin yourself with the live worms that were present, or just pick that out and leave it in a tote and let it break down a little further before working it into the soil.

Best of luck with it though and hopefully you can post some progress with it. I love reading about compost in all forms, probably the most intriguing thing to me when it comes to organics.
 

KootenayDIY

Well-Known Member
Keep it for the outdoor garden. Don’t bring that indoors to your tent. Using bugless odourless organic amendments are the way to go( which still lend a smell). Your environment in a 5x5 is too small to create a symbiotic living environment especially in your home. Best for a greenhouse not your living area. This is just myho
 

4ftRoots

Well-Known Member
And yes, use it for your bed. I brought in soil from the garden for my organic side. No issues, the critters are fine indoors. I would just use the clover, no need for straw.
 

JavaCo

Well-Known Member
Springtails are the little white bugs quite common in worm farms, no need to worry about them. For a living soil I would use it for sure, miles and the nematodes will keep pests at a minimum. You don't really need the glue traps as they can kill beneficials insects along with the bad. Best change I ever did growing was switch to living soil and let mother nature's beneficial insects take care of the pests.
 
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