Vermicompost as primary compost source?

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TheBeardedBudzman

Well-Known Member
DonTesla said:
Awesome story my man..
Are your worms eating the equivalent to their body weight daily roughly !?
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I’m not entirely sure dude. I don’t weigh anything. I just kinda dump it all on top and cover it up with some carbon. They eat it all, really fast. I chop everything up really good probably more than necessary.

The thing is, the bin fills so fast. They tear right thru any waste I put in there. They lay across the top of he bed like a blanket and they never go any deeper than an inch. Whatever I put in, they eat, and the bin fills before I can even let it sit.

So I separate the worms and castings, toss the castings into a pile and the shit steams like mad for a couple days.
 
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TheBeardedBudzman

Well-Known Member
I am considering making their bedding really shallow, like only an inch or two of damp peat, just enough for them to all hide in.

20lbs of worms is 2” deep of JUST worms with no dirt, along the bottom of a 55gallon drum, halved lengthwise.

Thinking it’ll be SO MUCH easier to deal with if I keep it real shallow and feed them every day or two and harvest the entire bin of castings shallow. It would be far less work to scrape back 4” of castings daily than wrestling a big huge fucking full half barrel weekly. Just gotta let them sit and steam a while
 
ANC

ANC

Well-Known Member
There are nice videos about some of the basics on youtube.
The carbon from biochar for instance, goes deeper and deeper into the soil for about the first 300 days. Just in time for the next fire season... nature is very clever... Plants out there isn't growing in cow poop.
 
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TheBeardedBudzman

Well-Known Member
Wetdog said:
Your intended mix leaves me less than impressed mainly because over the years I've tried similar with less than stellar results.

I've only been doing organics for ~10 years, but have been growing "stuff" and using the same basic mix for over 45 years. Haven't made every mistake there is to make but sure have made a bunch over the years and still manage to find new ones. LOL

My basic mix now is roughly
40% peat moss
40% aeration (perlite)
20% humus (10% vermicompost, 10% pine bark fines) I use no "thermal" compost at all.

I'm unable to make my own compost (disabled), and avoid using anything I don't make from scratch, so, no bagged compost.

The vermicompost gets varied somewhat because I have 6 bins ranging from a few months old to well over a year, so I have actual 'vermicompost' to nearly pure EWC to choose from. The pure EWC is so dense even using 10% is kinda pushing it.

Your 20% pumice simply is not going to give you adequate aeration. I would really suggest closer to 40% aeration using perlite till you see how all this works together. These LOS mixes get very dense over time and not enough aeration is a root cause of many problems and many that look like something else entirely. Get it right first with the perlite and then experiment with the pumice. I'm from SoFl and can tell you that pumice is really spendy down there, especially compared to perlite.

Anyway, HTH

Wet
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Just wanna thank you again, Wet. After even this short time, going back and rereading the things you’ve told me has been invaluable. Thank you.
 
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TheBeardedBudzman

Well-Known Member
dannyboy602 said:
Plus rep for going organic. I'm a little jealous that you have access to those resources.
I think what you're asking is can you rely on castings as your nitrogen source and the answer is yes. But and in my experience you need to be careful bc Cannabis is sensitive to an overly rich soil. 50% by volume is too much imo but given that castings are well composted I don't think it'll burn but I don't know. I've never used that much. The thing is though it's overkill. You won't get bigger, better, best. There's only so much good stuff the plant can handle after that its a waste. Furthermore Cannabis is adapted to growing in fertile well drained soil with little organic matter. Look at where the landrace strains grow. Look at where the species has adapted itself.

My organic mix is roughly as follows:
Peat/lite base. Promix is good or a substitute. I make my base from peat and add the perlite. I like the larger sizes of perlite rather than the small particles.
I use composted manure from home depot.
About 20 lbs castings, rock dust or azomite, greensand, rock phosphate and hort grade charcoal. The charcoal gives the nutrients a surface to cling to and it also has other benefits as well.
I stopped using meals like blood and bone bc I don't cook my soil. I use it fresh and never get burn or claw anymore. Blood and bone are excellent sources of N but a little goes a long way.

Over time you'll learn what works best for you but going Organic is a great first step. Your soil will literally be alive. The plants will have everything they need for your entire cycle. Nothing to add but water. No flush will be necessary. Remember though that any added fertilizer will hurt the microbes so don't use it. You won't need it anyway.
I'm always up for helping guys out and I've walked many guys through their first grow so don't hesitate to ask.
Download a book titled Teaming with Microbes. Its a good read for any soil grower and will give you a better understanding on the dynamics of soil. After reading Teaming with Microbes you'll never want to grow any other way. Good luck.
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You’re the man- thank you so much.

I’ve got my recipe. Going 40-40-20 peat perlite WC. 9 ingredients for the soil.
 
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TheBeardedBudzman

Well-Known Member
Thai_Lights said:
Your castings steam?
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I’m correcting what I have going on today. Yes my castings steam. Because of the amount of worms, everything gets eaten and broken down so quickly, too quickly. People let their bins sit for months before harvesting, but that’s cuz it takes months to make everything look broken down. These are too fresh and they steam. I’ve gotta leave it in large piles and turn it a while

I am going to break this system down actually, into multiple 2-bin systems with far less worms in each bin. That way I can leave worms in the bins longer... either that or I need to build a bed for them outside and give the bed 6 months.

On the farm, when we harvest the worms from the bed and dump’em into the harvester/sorter, they’re run thru a big tunnel-like machine, a sifter with 1/4” screen or so. The fine stuff that collects underneath is the BEST, but the huge pile of stuff STEAMS like a motherfucker. Just needs time. Of course that specific pile doesn’t sit and steam, it gets returned to any beds that were “picked”
 
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iMavrick92

Member
TheBeardedBudzman said:
And while Youre all here looking ;) if I’m going to build a ”super soil” but I’m not really buying into Subcools recipe, would you call it a good base at 50% compost, 25% peat and 25% perlite(or pumice or lava rock)? Thoughts on biochar?

And again, can all 50% of compost be worm castings if variety of materials fed to worms? If not, what percentage of my compost can be worm castings?

Thank You all so much.

-Beard
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From my experience it has been 50% base (peat) and 40% humus is the most you would want to go for a mix
 
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