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Best Worm Castings?


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I'm looking for the highest possible quality worm castings available on the market. Who has the happiest  worms in Aus that produces the finest casting with the highest possible microbial life?

 

I'm on a mission to build the finest soil possible here in Australia and I thought this would be a good starting point!

 

I have two small worm farms at home but it's not quite enough for want I'm after.

 

Thanks :)

 

 

 

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Haha im pretty much doing the same thing at the moment. Ive also got 2 Can-O-Worms worm farms but going to get a couple more going.

 

From what I can gather there are 4 main composting worms that we use in Australia. Red wigglers, Blue somethings and I think 2 different types of Tigers.

 

The main worm people use in farms are red wigglers and that is what you buy in Bunnings etc.

 

The best food to feed your worms is just a mixed diet of fruit and vegetable scraps I believe and they also love the trim from plants. Also add egg shells to balance the pH, or they sell some additive thing at Bunnings for worm farms and compost heaps.

 

You can make some cool worm farms out of foam eskys, wheelie bins, old fridges or bathtubs and probably a million other things.

 

I want to set up a couple of large worm farms and have all 4 types in them.

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best castings are home made , nothing better , because they will be full of the local benne's who they already know & speak each others language , backyard indigenous microorganism

 

Beware of feeding food with seeds , they will come up in the castings at some point in the bin or in your soil mix you make in the pot , fungal foods are also good to add , leaf mould , old roots even news paper 

egg shells are good , the conditioner at bunnings is basically dolomite , i use crushed oyster shells which i blend in a coffee grinder to make a powder , also a good limer in a soil mix (PH)

 

best castings are made by worm feeding almost finished compost from home , the worms aren't eating the food , they are eating the microorganisms on & in the food & in a compost bin there's billions to eat

 

some are starting worm farms in a geopot complete with aeration , continue filling the pot with food & aeration as it sinks & when full enough put a seedling in & continue top dressing as the plant grows

 

castings is a great 1/3 starting base mix + 1/3 aeration + 1/3 peat , then amend from there with things like neem meal/cake = npk+ & protection , kelp = npk+ & adds to plant health

could be casting or compost or 50/50 of both , keep in mind brought castings are allot more $$$$ than compost which = zero when made at home 

 

one place to look for castings , fishing worm producers , find out what they feed the worms B4 you buy remembering they are not interested in soil just the biggest fattest worms they can 

I've seen guys doing this feeding dried dog food & pig shit , the pig shit is prob cool depending on what he feeds his pigs , but don't know about dried dog food 

 

where are you located ? 

Edited by itchybromusic
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I am located in nth QLD around the whitsunday area. There isn't anything to chose from here to build soils. I am willing to pay $$$ for shipping top of the line products in. 

 

Interesting you bought up crushed oyster shells. I lived in BC for a few years mixing soils and we found that oyster shell flour was one of the best amendments in the soil. We could go to the local gardening store and buy a bag of it. I wonder if there is a market for it in Aus???

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yep there's a market , you can fine oyster shell grit for birds , but like most things here you have to find out what's in it , is it just oyster shell or ?????

oyster shell is pure calcium carbonate , very water soluble when you make a flour out of the oyster shell with a coffee grinder 

 

well made castings are hard to find here in oz unlike the US , making grain fed castings http://www.grainfedwormcasting.com/  

that some quality shit right there , just not here 

 

up your way do you have many biodynamic guys ? cos a well made biodynamic compost is the shit to make soil mixes out of 

remember i said the best casting come from almost finished compost , when you use the compost in your soil mix , who comes a looking ? worms

& you want them there at the start more so than there castings , they do allot more for you than just make readily available nutes for your plant such as 

aerating soil , in saying that worms in my new soil mix at the start won't make that much of a diff now but long term are fantastic , keep in mind i reuse soil & pots

chop the top off one & replant right beside it straight away , keep it alive cos the longer you do the better it gets to the point there will be no need for anything else

other than water only 

 

You know in the last emerald cup the top 17 or 18 entries ( not sure on exact numbers ) No 1 down all used this biodynamic compost in soil mixes http://malibucompost.com/

 

if i had access to biodynamic compost i would def use that in a soil mix & castings for top dressing 

most amendments are here already , unless you want a sub-cool million amendments soil , good luck with that !

but you just don't need all that , hardest to get in my soil mix was crab shell which i used in place of oyster shell

still limes the soil but adds chitin 

 

many ways to skin a cat / make a soil & you don't have to base your soil on poo , base it on max life , microbes grow plants , humans get in the way 

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I am located in nth QLD around the whitsunday area. There isn't anything to chose from here to build soils. I am willing to pay $$$ for shipping top of the line products in. 

 

Interesting you bought up crushed oyster shells. I lived in BC for a few years mixing soils and we found that oyster shell flour was one of the best amendments in the soil. We could go to the local gardening store and buy a bag of it. I wonder if there is a market for it in Aus???

If there's a Sugar Mill nearby (maybe Proserpine), they probably sell you as much mill-mud as you wanted. Not renowned for bulking out soil so much, but it is loaded with nitrogen, potash and other goodies. I've used it as a top dressing on the lawn the last couple of years and within that time, it's gone from bare dirt to the thickest turf I've ever cared for. I've also seen mullies grow in that alone and do very well (averaging 20-30oz a plant).

 

EDIT: Funnily enough, one comment in another forum suggests that a few worm farmers rate mill mud as the best thing they can get their hands on.

 

Google it, if you're interested.

Edited by Indycar
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If there's a Sugar Mill nearby (maybe Proserpine), they probably sell you as much mill-mud as you wanted. Not renowned for bulking out soil so much, but it is loaded with nitrogen, potash and other goodies. I've used it as a top dressing on the lawn the last couple of years and within that time, it's gone from bare dirt to the thickest turf I've ever cared for. I've also seen mullies grow in that alone and do very well (averaging 20-30oz a plant).

 

EDIT: Funnily enough, one comment in another forum suggests that a few worm farmers rate mill mud as the best thing they can get their hands on.

 

Google it, if you're interested.

 

never heard of it indy till then 

a quick read says it has lactobacillus bacteria in it , which is why worms would love it if that's correct 

 

but like any byproduct of any industry you'd wanna check it out well , in that quick

read they use calcium in the juicing process which ends up in the mud mill / dirt & ash

not a bad thing but which calcium do they use for that , if trying to stay organic you'd

wanna know , dose sound good though please don't get me wrong 

 

but like some silica products come from the steel industry as a byproduct ,

rather not have heavy metals in my pot thanks , not that there is but could be 

many labs tests sometimes don't show things that are to small to show up 

but once that item , might be ,  concentrated lets say , the items to small to

show up now shows up 

Edited by itchybromusic
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yep there's a market , you can fine oyster shell grit for birds , but like most things here you have to find out what's in it , is it just oyster shell or ?????

oyster shell is pure calcium carbonate , very water soluble when you make a flour out of the oyster shell with a coffee grinder 

 

well made castings are hard to find here in oz unlike the US , making grain fed castings http://www.grainfedwormcasting.com/  

that some quality shit right there , just not here 

 

up your way do you have many biodynamic guys ? cos a well made biodynamic compost is the shit to make soil mixes out of 

remember i said the best casting come from almost finished compost , when you use the compost in your soil mix , who comes a looking ? worms

& you want them there at the start more so than there castings , they do allot more for you than just make readily available nutes for your plant such as 

aerating soil , in saying that worms in my new soil mix at the start won't make that much of a diff now but long term are fantastic , keep in mind i reuse soil & pots

chop the top off one & replant right beside it straight away , keep it alive cos the longer you do the better it gets to the point there will be no need for anything else

other than water only 

 

You know in the last emerald cup the top 17 or 18 entries ( not sure on exact numbers ) No 1 down all used this biodynamic compost in soil mixes http://malibucompost.com/

 

if i had access to biodynamic compost i would def use that in a soil mix & castings for top dressing 

most amendments are here already , unless you want a sub-cool million amendments soil , good luck with that !

but you just don't need all that , hardest to get in my soil mix was crab shell which i used in place of oyster shell

still limes the soil but adds chitin 

 

many ways to skin a cat / make a soil & you don't have to base your soil on poo , base it on max life , microbes grow plants , humans get in the way 

 

Thanks for your input!!! I think I'm going to get creative with the oyster shell flour by going to the local seafood wholesalers and see if I can get shells and wash/crush them myself (living in a mining area i'm pretty sure I can find a crusher).

 

Also crabs the local mudcrabs are think in this area. I love this idea and will definitely try that in a mixture one day!!!

 

 

If there's a Sugar Mill nearby (maybe Proserpine), they probably sell you as much mill-mud as you wanted. Not renowned for bulking out soil so much, but it is loaded with nitrogen, potash and other goodies. I've used it as a top dressing on the lawn the last couple of years and within that time, it's gone from bare dirt to the thickest turf I've ever cared for. I've also seen mullies grow in that alone and do very well (averaging 20-30oz a plant).

 

EDIT: Funnily enough, one comment in another forum suggests that a few worm farmers rate mill mud as the best thing they can get their hands on.

 

Google it, if you're interested.

 

Thanks Indy! I have friends who work in the sugar mills around these parts so I will give it a run for sure!!! 

 

I'm trying to stay organic so I will have to find out there extraction methods. Off the top of my head I think they use some sort of sulphur to extract the sugar so I will have to figure out if there is any heavy metals ect in the mill mud.

 

Wow, Ozstoners, I can't believe I didn't find this community earlier!

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To be honest, itchy. After hearing how heavily self-regulated a few mills are around here. I'd highly doubt they'd be doing any dodgy stuff like what happened pre-80's. They have their own labs on site where they test/monitor the in's and out's of a duck's arse, probably a little too fastidious at times. In fact, there's one mill here that is probably carbon neutral because of the excess power they generate gets fed back into the local grid. It seems any issue that arises, they tackle it with a bunch of engineers/technicians/etc, and a open cheque book.

 

Most of the mill mud gets spread back over the the freshly harvested canefields, so it'd have to be fairly clean of any nasties one would think.

Edited by Indycar
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